Plextor PX-716A 16x DVD±RW

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v3.61 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v3.61 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

Editors Note: On 4/19/05 this review was updated to include some DVD-R DL writing tests.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Plextor's new DVD writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. While the PX-716A's overall score wasn't as high as the Sony's, it had a low access time and some very good transfer rates. It started reading at 20.9x (3140 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.4x (6360 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v3.61 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

While Plextor's new DVD writer reads pressed discs at 40x, its maximum read speed can be bumped up to 48x by enabling SpeedRead. As you can see, the PX-716A came up a little short of this number in our tests. However, it had the best seek times out of the four drives here.

CD Speed v3.61 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The PX-716A was a little faster when reading CD-R media. While this wasn't enough to top the drive from Sony, it had no problems reaching a maximum read speed of 48x in our tests. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were again quite good.

Plextor's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. With SpeedRead enabled, the PX-716A read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48.44x.

The PX-716A slowed down considerably when reading discs recorded with GigaRec. As you can see, the drive had a maximum read speed of only 8x when reading these discs.

CD Speed v3.61 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

The PX-716A's CD-RW read speeds were limited to only 40x, even with SpeedRead enabled. Nevertheless, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in CD Speed's transfer rate tests and its seek times were again very good.

CD DAE and CD Speed v3.61 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that the Plextor PX-716A supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

The PX-716A performed pretty well in our DAE tests. While it wasn't able to take the top spot in our tests, it had no problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 41x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While Plextor's new writer started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v3.61 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same NEC Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The PX-716A was slightly faster when ripping audio CD-R discs. Unfortunately, even with this increase in speed, it wasn't nearly as fast as the Sony DRU-710A. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Plextor's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.89x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. In the advanced tests, the PX-716A was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data as well as the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well Plextor's new drive can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The PX-716A handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 68.95% of the CD to be "damaged". More importantly, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The PX-716A gave some mixed results in this test. While the scratches on the disc didn't slow the drive down very much, the number of errors was a little higher than what we'd like to see.