Plextor PX-716A - First Impressions

[Ian]

Yeah, I know. There are already topics on the PX-716A here in this forum and others but I wanted to give my two cents on this new drive. Plextor sent out samples to reviewers late last week and I finally had some time to run some tests last night. After a few BSOD's (damn DLA) I finally got the drive up and running.

The drive Plextor sent us was manufactured in October 2004 and had TLA #0101 and firmware v1.01.



InfoTool screenshot... Note that the drive does NOT support for Mt. Rainier... at least according to InfoTool.



And DVDINFOpro... here too it shows that the drive doesn't support Mt. Rainier. I'll need to check this with InCD later.

[Ian]

One of the first things I did was burn a disc with CD Speed. I chose some TY manufactured Fuji discs. This media works well with other drives and Plextor drives have always supported TY media pretty well.

Needless to say, I started getting flashbacks of the PX-708A. Yes, there are slow downs at the end.



The drive took 6:29 to complete the test which isn't too bad. However, it should be better.

Next I tested the writing quality using Plextools v2.18. This is high accuracy at 2x CLV.



Avg Max Total
PIE 12.31 766 1765652
POF - - 0

Not a pretty picture IMO.

I also tested with KProbe using a Lite-On 811S. The disc was read at 4x



Not very pretty either.

[Ian]

Before I went to bed, I also tested some TY 8x DVD-R media. Here too the drive slowed near the end.



Plextools again... same settings as before.



Avg Max Total
PIE 32.17 1241 4620972
POF - - 175

KProbe again..



Sorry.. no "stress tests" for now. I was using the 166S to test some discs burned by the ND-3500A.

[Ian]

All I have to say is that I'm less than impressed by the PX-716A right now. If its giving results like this with TY media, I can't imagine what it will do with lower quality discs.

I'm guessing we'll be seeing "exclusive" reviews of the drive from places like Anandtech in the next week or so. It will be interesting to see what they have to say about the drive... especially the reviewers that don't usually look at writing quality, and just at speed. I'm sure there will be a few that say "It's a Plextor! Here's a 10!"

[VEFF]

Thanks for giving us your honest first take on this drive.
Too bad it didn't do better.

[dolphinius_rex]

I can't say I'm surprised

[hoxlund]

thats kinda funny, cause i use that same TY 8x dvd-r media on my pioneer 108

now i just need cdspeed and dvdinfopro to come out with that new version with scanning ability on my drive

[dolphinius_rex]

thats kinda funny, cause i use that same TY 8x dvd-r media on my pioneer 108

now i just need cdspeed and dvdinfopro to come out with that new version with scanning ability on my drive

I think the new DVDInfoPro already supports it (wasn't the beta released?)

[pchilson]

Your results are just another verification of what we have known for a month about the 716.
Plextor can't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

[dolphinius_rex]

Your results are just another verification of what we have known for a month about the 716.
Plextor can't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

I'm uncertain as to what that analogy is supposed to mean... I understand the jist of what you're saying, but your analogy fails me

[Noua]

pchilson wrote:
Your results are just another verification of what we have known for a month about the 716.
Plextor can't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

I'm uncertain as to what that analogy is supposed to mean... I understand the jist of what you're saying, but your analogy fails me

I don't understand it either... but then again, i'm potuguese...

[tazdevl]

Your results are just another verification of what we have known for a month about the 716.
Plextor can't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

I'm uncertain as to what that analogy is supposed to mean... I understand the jist of what you're saying, but your analogy fails me

substitute "find" for "blow" and it should make sense. Someone needs help with their euphemisms.

[Ian]

Aviationwiz was giving me some crap about using Plextools to test the discs. Here they are again, this time with CD Speed and the BenQ DW1620:

[ItalianJob]

Ok, Plextor, you better concentrate on your divx thing and stop to sell crappy DVD burners with a six months/on year unjustified delay...

[pchilson]

Your results are just another verification of what we have known for a month about the 716.
Plextor can't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

I'm uncertain as to what that analogy is supposed to mean... I understand the jist of what you're saying, but your analogy fails me

Ahh ok, sorry. Didn't mean to make you all think on this day before Thanksgiving...

In full:
If DVD writers were dynamite, Plextor couldn't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

[Scour]

Hello!

Maybe Plextor increases with a new FW the quality of the 716 and make it to burn high quality.

Plextor´s 712 had blown away the competitors with fantastic performance in reading and writing, maybe Plextor do it again soon with the 716

[dolphinius_rex]

Your results are just another verification of what we have known for a month about the 716.
Plextor can't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

I'm uncertain as to what that analogy is supposed to mean... I understand the jist of what you're saying, but your analogy fails me

Ahh ok, sorry. Didn't mean to make you all think on this day before Thanksgiving...

In full:
If DVD writers were dynamite, Plextor couldn't blow their way out of a wet paper bag...

Thank you!!! that makes MUCH more sense now

[Gen-An]

Hello!

Maybe Plextor increases with a new FW the quality of the 716 and make it to burn high quality.

Plextor´s 712 had blown away the competitors with fantastic performance in reading and writing, maybe Plextor do it again soon with the 716

My PX-712A certainly doesn't have any fantastic writing performance...

[RJW]

Well what did you expect if part of companny(plextor europe ) doesn't want to put it on the market because at this time it ins't up to the standards and they did release quite some bad 708's then I wouldn't have expected something really good.
Still they are working on most media issues.
So maybe they can fix it a long with some other promises and have a good drive on the market at the time that Philips/BEnq have a 8x Dual Layer both formats writer on the market.

[KenW]

Ian

my TLA:0000 716 I got back in Oct. now replaced with TLA:0101 SN 1336xx came with 1.00 fw this 1.00 fw on Oct drive had mt raineir but after the 1.01 update it was gone. The TLA:0101 Nov. drive I got from the RMA i did had 1.01 on it and it too does not show mt rainier.

PS
TLA:0101 drive is the same or worse then TLA:0000 I RMA'ed in burn tests. I see no correction to burning problems at all.

[alexnoe]

Plextor´s 712 had blown away the competitors with fantastic performance in reading and writing

The Plextor 712's write quality is nothing to boast with either, though not far as bad as the Plextor 716's...

I have so far only found one disc type working at 12x properly, and that is MCC-004-00. All others result in lower quality burns than in the Pioneer A08 or lG 4120B. And 8x DVD-R is just as b0rked in that Plextor 712, with the only exception being TYG01 (!!), which is written well at 8x, even though it is 4x media only.

See here: http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/Plextor/all_scans/ and here: http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/ptp/ (note that the MCC discs are older in that 2nd link; that are discs bought before Mitsubishi started to produce b0rked 8x media!)

[Gen-An]

I have so far only found one disc type working at 12x properly, and that is MCC-004-00. All others result in lower quality burns than in the Pioneer A08 or lG 4120B. And 8x DVD-R is just as b0rked in that Plextor 712, with the only exception being TYG01 (!!), which is written well at 8x, even though it is 4x media only.

See here: http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/Plextor/all_scans/ and here: http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/ptp/ (note that the MCC discs are older in that 2nd link; that are discs bought before Mitsubishi started to produce b0rked 8x media!)

I must say, my PX-712A seems to do better with DVD-R (with the exception of Verbatim 8x -R) than +R. I get superb results with SONY08D1 and pretty good ones with MXLRG03. I haven't gotten a chance to try any TY -R media on it. It doesn't do so hot burning MCC003 or YUDEN000T02 (Fujifilm-branded) at 12x.

[alexnoe]

All my YUDEN000-T02-00 are Plextor branded, so they were probably of better quality than your fuji discs.

[DVD_ADDICT]

All my YUDEN000-T02-00 are Plextor branded, so they were probably of better quality than your fuji discs

Just because yours is branded by Plextor does not matter. The Fuji and Plextor YUDEN000-T02-00 are made by the same manufacturer which is TAIYO YUDEN.

[alexnoe]

No. I seriously hope that you do not dream that Ritek were the only manufacturer who produces discs of different quality, and sells those different qualities under different names and different prices