Plextor PX-740A 16x DVD±RW

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 and DLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Plextor's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 4x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the PX-740A uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Plextor's new drive starts writing at about 5.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The PX-740A also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

The PX-740A performed pretty well here. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD-R discs at 16x, it turned in some very good times with DVD+R and DVD-RW media.

While Plextor has a list of recommended media on their website, I wanted to see for myself how well the PX-740A worked with some of the DVD+R and DVD-R media currently available.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1620. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1620 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back with a Lite-On XJ-HD166S. By default, this DVD-ROM drive reads recordable media at only 8x. However, thanks to a firmware patched by The Dangerous Brothers, I was able to boost the drive's read speed to 12x. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The PX-740A's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. In most cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. The only exception being Optodisc's 16x DVD+R media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1620, the PI/PIF rates were fairly high near the end and there were a considerable number of PO Failures.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. The PI/PIF rates were pretty good for the most part. However, if you look at the transfer rate graphs you can see that there were still slow downs with a few of the discs.

To test the PX-740A's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 4x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

Plextor's new DVD±RW performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing our test data to disc, the PX-740A took about 6 minutes to read back all 4GB of files and directories.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the PX-740A, I used Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

According to Plextor, the PX-740A writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x. Using CD Speed, we can see that the drive uses P-CAV to reach this speed. It starts rewriting at about 6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at about the 0.5GB mark. It writes at this speed until it reaches the 7.5GB mark. At this point, the PX-740A slows back down to about 6x.

Plextor's new drive had no problems writing to Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 8x. Unfortunately, Memorex's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

The PX-740A had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 8x DVD+R DL writing speed, the drive took a little more than 15 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good three minutes faster than both the ND-3540A and PX-716A. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was quite good with Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media. Even at 8x, their 2.4x rated discs yielded some pretty good results with both KProbe and CD Speed. The results with Memorex's Ritek manufactured media were also better than I expected. While higher than what we saw with the Verbatim media, the PI/PIF rates remained for the most part within acceptable limits.

The PX-740A also features 4x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, Verbatim's new 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

Plextor's new drive had no problems writing to Verbatim's DVD-R DL media at 4x. Using CD Speed we can see that aside from the small dips caused by the drive's OPC technology, the PX-740A writes at this speed from start to finish.

With its 4x writing speed, the PX-740A was no match for the ND-3540A and PX-716A. As you can see, it took the drive 29:28 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The PX-740A's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed.

Performance Revisited:

For the most part, the PX-740A performed as expected. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD-R DL discs, it turned in very good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD+R DL media. The PX-740A was also very fast when reading DVD's. In our tests, the drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at an impressive 12x.

The PX-740A also did very well in our CD reading and writing tests. The drive had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds and had some very good seek times. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the PX-740A either. The drive turned in some impressive times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the Plextor PX-740A gets a 9 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.