Plextor PX-760A 18x DVD±RW

Model: Plextor PX-760A 18x DVD±RW
Manufacturer: Plextor
Provided By: Plextor America

When it comes to optical storage, the name Plextor should definitely sound familiar. A favorite among computer enthusiasts for as long as I can remember, their drives are known the world over for the performance, quality and features they offer. To keep ahead of the competition, Plextor has continued to lead the way, bringing cutting edge technologies to market. Today, their product lineup includes a number of high performance CD and DVD writers, many with features found nowhere else.

Last October, Plextor sent shockwaves through the industry when they unveiled their new "Premium" DVD writer, the PX-760A. The world's first 18x DVD±RW drive, the PX-760A is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 10x DVD+R DL and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. As usual, Plextor hasn't stopped there. Their new drive boasts an impressive list of features. Along with old favorites like VariRec and PoweRec, the PX-760A supports a number of more advanced technologies like GigaRec, Q-Check and AUTOSTRATEGY.

After months of development delays, the PX-760A is finally here. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it stacks up against some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Are 18x DVD±R writing speeds enough to put the PX-760A on top? More importantly, is it the drive for you? We'll answer these questions and more in our review of the Plextor PX-760A.

What's in the box?:

• Plextor PX-760A 16x DVD±RW Drive
• Quick Installation Guide
• Plextor DVD Writing Software - Revision 10.4
• Verbatim 16x DVD+R Disc
• IDE Cable
• Beige Replacement Bezel
• Bag of screws and emergency eject tool

Physical Features:

The drive Plextor sent us for this review was manufactured in Marchof 2006 and had firmware version 1.01. It was also manufactured in China and had a TLA# of "0001".For this review we updated the firmware to version 1.02.

From the front, the PX-760A looks very similar to Plextor's previous 16x DVD±RW, the PX-716A. While there are a few cosmetic differences, both drives share the same basic design including the black stripe along the front of the tray. Like its predecessor, the PX-760A also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Plextor" logo, you can see a few showing off its support for DVD+R DL, High Speed DVD+RW, DVD-R/RW and Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

The PX-760SA also has a single LED, which does double duty for both reading and writing activities.This LED lights up yellow when reading, ejecting or initializing a disc, green when its Buffer Under Run Proof is working, and amber when writing. Like with Plextor's other drives, you can determine the PX-760A's writing speed by monitoring the blink rate of the LED.

The rear of the PX-760A is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default it comes set as master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Plextor's website and the manual that came with the drive.

The PX-760A has many of the features found on Plextor's other drives. Along with old favorites like BURN-Proof, PoweRec and VariRec, it supports a number advanced technologies like GigaRec, SecuRec, Q-Check and AUTOSTRATEGY.

While Plextor works hard to add support for as much media as they can, they can't possibly test all of it and include it in the firmware. For this unsupported, or unknown, media there is AUTOSTRATEGY technology. Developed by Taiyo Yuden, AUTOSTRATEGY automatically tests and catalogs unknown media, developing a writing strategy on the fly.

The way AUTOSTRATEGY works is fairly straight forward. When you insert an unknown DVD+R or DVD-R disc (rated at 4x or faster) into the PX-760A, it will read the manufacturer ID and perform an OPC, or Optical Power Calibration, test to determine the correct laser power. AUTOSTRATEGY then checks to see if the disc's information is already stored in the drive's memory. If not, it will do a trial write and start calculating a writing strategy. From here, the PX-760A will start writing the data to disc. During this time, AUTOSTRATEGY continually monitors the process via ROPC and PoweRec and will modify the writing strategy if need be. Once done, it will save this writing strategy to memory.

With the PX-760A, Plextor has expanded the number of AUTOSTRATEGY settings. By default, the drive will automatically select the best writing strategy, no matter if it is located in memory or the firmware. Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that AUTOSTRATEGY can also be turned on (forced), on or off. When forced on, AUTOSTRATEGY will create a new writing strategy every time, even if one already exists in memory.

While the PX-760A holds a maximum of 31 writing strategies, you don't have to worry about filling up the drive's memory. AUTOSTRATEGY automatically erases little used entries to make room for new ones. Otherwise you can view, deactivate or delete the writing strategies manually using PlexTools.

For the PX-760A, Plextor has brought back their PoweRec technology. PoweRec stands for Plextor Optimized Writing Error Reduction Control. This technology checks the quality of the media and automatically selects the optimum writing speed. When you insert a disc into the drive, PoweRec identifies the media and compares it to a large database of supportedmedia stored in the firmware. This database includes information about the media, including its maximum recording speed.If not supported, the drive will run OPC tests to check the characteristics and current conditions. From this it can choose the best laser power and speed for the media being used.

PoweRec also monitors the media on the fly by checking the writing quality at set intervals. If it detects that the drive is creating too many write errors, it will modify the writing strategy and laser power, keeping the writing quality at an optimum level.

Plextor's new DVD writer also features their VariRec, or Variable Recording, technology. This technology not only improves the quality of recorded audio and data by minimizing jitter and reducing error rates, it also allows the user to manually adjust the drive's laser power.

Basically a setting of 0 is what VariRec believes the laser power should be for the CD media currently being used. Of course, you can fine tune this even further by manually adjusting the laser power. By doing this, as well as running comparison tests, you can find the setting that delivers the best results for your CD player.

The PX-760A also offers a number of expanded VariRec features, including an 8x recording speed for CD-R discs. With PlexTools, you can also adjust the laser power up to 4 degrees in either direction and choose a custom recording strategy depending on media being used. Just keep in mind that VariRec only supports write once media and writes in either Track-at-Once (TAO) or Disc-at-Once (DAO) mode.

To put it simply, Plextor's GigaRec technology can increase the capacity of your CD-R media by up to 40%. For example, if you're using a standard 80 minute disc that is 700MB in size, GigaRec will let you squeeze almost 1GB of data, or 111 minutes of audio, onto it.

While this technology has been around for a number of years, Plextor has been pretty tight lipped about how this works. According to some of the documentation Plextor has provided, GigaRec ignores the information encoded onto the CD (manufacturer, maximum write capacity, etc) and compresses the size of the pits and lands on the disc. By doing this, it can "extend" the capacity of the media.

GigaRec also lets you burn a disc at a lower than rated capacity. For example, it can take a disc image that would normally be only 490MB in size and "stretch" it so that it will take up an entire 700MB disc. This changes the length of the pits and lands, which can increase accuracy and data response. According to Plextor, this can result in a truer burn.

While GigaRec has its advantages, it also has a few limitations. When activated, the maximum writing speed is limited to 8x and the only recording mode available is DAO (Disc At Once). On top of that, the drive's buffer underrun protection is turned off. GigaRec's biggest limitation, though, is compatibility. While discs recorded with GigaRec are playable in most of Plextor's newer CD-RW and DVD±RW drives, they might not work in drives from other manufacturers. From past experiences, we found that the higher the GigaRec rate, the lesser the chance the disc was readable by other drives.

Plextor's SecuRec technology lets you protect the data on a CD-R disc with a password. To view the contents of the CD, the user must enter the correct password first. This password can be entered through PlexTools Professional or the SecuViewer client.

SecuRec only supports data CD-R discs written using the Disc At Once recording mode. You will not be able to protect DVD discs, audio CD's or data discs written using Track At Once.

New on the PX-760A is Plextor's new PlexEraser technology. This data destruction utility makes a recorded CD-R or DVD±R disc unreadable. To do this, the drive "re-records" over the lead-in and data sectors, rendering the disc data unusable. Currently, PlexEraser only supports DVD±R and CD-R media. However, according to Plextor, support for DVD±R DL discs will be added in a future firmware update.

While Plextor's new DVD writer is normally pretty quiet, the sound coming from the drive can be reduced even further using Silent Mode. By enabling this feature through PlexTools Professional, you can modify the drive's tray load/unload speed, spin up/down speed and write/read speeds.

Silent Mode CD

Silent Mode DVD

The various options are self explanatory. The top two drop-down menus let you set the PX-760A's maximum reading and writing speeds. Just remember that with the Silent Mode on, the fastest CD read speed available is 40x, even with SpeedRead enabled. The drop-down menu for the access time gives you three options: Fast (60ms), Middle (80ms) and Slow (120ms), with the quietest setting being Slow. Last but not least, the two slider bars along the bottom can be used to adjust the drive's loading and eject speeds.

PlexTools Professional also includes a number of tests that can be used to measure and display the characteristics of the drive and media being used. Along with reading and writing transfer rate tests, it includes a system to check the writing quality of your CD's and DVD's. Called Q-Check, this system can be used to measure a number of different things, including C1/C2 errors, focus and tracking errors, beta/jitter rates and PI/POF errors.

The first function of Q-Check is to measure the number of C1/C2 errors on a CD. After clicking the Start button, the test will begin. The graph you see represents the C1 error measurement (BLER or BLock Error Rate) and C2 error measurement (E22).

Q-Check C1/C2 Test

If your discs have C1 errors, don't worry. They are normal and in most cases are easily correctable. What you don't want to see are C2 errors. While these errors can be caused by things like scratches and finger prints, they can also be an indication of poor, or low quality, media. If you see CU errors after running this test, you might as well toss the disc in the trash. These are the errors still present after C2 level correction has done its job.

Secondly, you have the focus and tracking error test, or FE/TE test. While the other Q-Check tests can measure the writing quality, this one reports on the mechanical characteristics of the blank media you're trying to use. Keep in mind that this test only works with CD-R, DVD+R and DVD-R discs. Rewritable and double layer media is not supported.

Q-Check FE/TE Test

The Focus Error represents how accurately the laser can stay focused on the disc. With a good disc, the number of focus errors will stay very low across the entire disc. The Tracking Error indicates how well the laser can follow the groove manufactured into the disc. For the best results, this line on the graph should remain relatively flat.

Q-Check can also be used to measure jitter and beta rates. When you record a CD or DVD, the drive burns a series of small "pits" into the dye on the bottom of the disc. The unburned areas between the pits are known as the "lands." The length of the pits and lands is set in the Red Book Standard. Any variation between what has been set in the standard and what has been written to the disc is called "Jitter". To put it simply, the lower the jitter rate the better.

Q-Check Beta/Jitter Test

The Beta rate represents the transitions between the pits and lands. If the laser power is too high, the drive will create pits that are too large. If the laser power is too low, the pits and lands can become blurred. In both cases, the result is the same: a disc that might not be readable in all drives. A Beta rate represented by a horizontal line would indicate a disc in perfect balance.

The PX-760A also supports PI/PO testing. Where the C1/C2 tests reported the writing quality of CD's, this Q-Check test does the same for DVD's. With PlexTools Professional you can perform four separate tests: SUM8, SUM1, Basic and Burst.

Q-Check PI/PO SUM8 Test

Along with the number of POF (Parity Outer Fail) errors, the SUM8 test will report the number of PI (Parity Inner) errors per 8 consecutive blocks. These are the number of errors before correction and are normal. As long as they stay within acceptable limits, they can usually be corrected by the drive. POF errors are a different story altogether. You don't want to see these uncorrectable errors at all since they can cause data loss.

Q-Check PI/PO SUM1 Test

Where the SUM8 test reported the number of PI errors before correction, the SUM1 test measures the number of errors after correction, or PIF (Parity Inner Fail). While not as bad as POF errors, they can decrease the playability of a disc.

Q-Check PI/PO Basic Test

Q-Check also includes a Basic PI/PO test. Like the Sum1 test, the ECC sum is set to 1. However, instead of measuring the number of PIF errors, the Basic test counts the number of bytes corrected during the PI stage.

Q-Check PI/PO Burst Test

Last but not least, the Burst Test checks for consecutive errors that can influence the error correction. As you can see, it not only reports the number of PIE and POF errors per 8 consecutive blocks, it also gives you the number of POE, or Parity Outer Errors.

The PX-760A can also perform a TA, or Time Analysis, test. According to Plextor, this test "measures the quality of the written DVD media by checking the pits and lands for compliance with the DVD specifications." It compares the time intervals between two successive pit/land transitions on the disc to those listed in the standard. The test does this for all lengths between 3T and 11T, and 14T.

Before you run the TA test you have to choose the area of the disc you want tested (inner, middle, outer) and the layer if you're using DVD±R DL media. Once the test is run, you'll see a graph like the one below.

Q-Check TA Test

A disc with good writing quality will produce graphs with narrow peaks and little peak shift. As the writing quality gets poorer, the peaks will get wider and eventually run together. In case you're not sure where your results fall, Q-Check automatically scores the jitter and peak shift, giving an overall quality indicator ranging from Bad to Excellent.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Plextor's new DVD writer is identified as a "PLEXTOR DVDR PX-760A".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the PX-760A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sanyo's BURN-Proof buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the drive can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the PX-760A is a "no sheep" burner. This means that the drive is not a very good choice if you plan to back up titles protected by SafeDisc 2 or later.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the PX-760A's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the PX-760A is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. A patched RPC-1 firmware can be downloaded here. Just keep in mind that it is not supported by Plextor nor by CDRLabs. Use it at your own risk.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the PX-760A's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Plextor's new drive can read and write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The PX-760A also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using programs like CD Speed or PlexTools Professional, you can set the book type of both DVD+R and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM". For whatever reason though, the drive does not let you set the book type of DVD+RW discs.

Plextor has included a DVD full of software with the PX-760A. Along with Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7 suite, this disc contains Sonic CinePlayer 2.1 and Dantz Retrospect 7.

Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 Basic DVD Edition - Easy Media Creator 7 is the main CD/DVD mastering program included with the PX-760A. With this software, users can create their own CD's and DVD'sor make backups of existing discs.

Along with a long list of tasks, the menu above shows a list of components that make up the Easy Media Creator 7 suite. The first component you see is the Disc Copier. This software lets you make copies of your non protected CD's and DVD's quickly and easily. Disc Copier's advanced mode will even display the video, audio and extras on your DVD-Videos, so that you can remove the unwanted parts.

DVD Builder is Roxio's DVD authoring application. With this program you can easily capture, edit and then burn your favorite videos to CD or DVD.DVD Builder will also allow users to add transitions and background music, create animated menus, and organize clips and photos into custom slide shows.

Easy Media Creator 7 also includes what Roxio calls "Creator Classic." While not as robust as disc mastering software like Nero Burning ROM, Creator Classic will have you creating your own custom CD's and DVD's in no time.

Roxio also includes their packet writing software, Drag-to-Disc, with Easy Media Creator 7. Drag-to-Disc lets a person write to CD or DVD media the same way they would a floppy disk or their hard drive. It also supports most CD and DVD media, including write once formats like CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R.

Video editing duties are handled by VideoWave SE. This easy to use software lets you trim your video clips and spruce them up by adding things like transitions, titles, music, and special effects. When you're done, simply burn your movie to disc.

Last but not least you have PhotoSuite 7. This software gives you the ability to repair, enhance and share your digital photos. It also includes a number of automated and advanced photo editing tools that will let you easily crop and rotate your pictures, remove things like red-eye and wrinkles and add text and special effects.

Sonic CinePlayer 2.1 - Plextor's new drive also comes with Sonic's DVD playback software, CinePlayer. Along with DVD movies, CinePlayer can be used to play back your VCD's, SVCD's or whatever video files you might have on your hard drive.

CinePlayer also lets you take screen shots of your favorite scenes and tweak your video settings using the built in picture controls. Sonic's DVD playback software also supports OpenDVD. With this feature, you can open your OpenDVD project in MyDVD directly from CinePlayer for further editing.

Dantz Retrospect Backup Professional 7.0 - Plextor has also included a trial version of Retrospect Backup 7.0. This program lets you backup any of the drives or volumes in your computer to a number of storage devices, including CD and DVD writers.

Backup jobs can be scheduled to run at regular intervals so the data is always protected. Retrospect also supports compression, encryption and disaster recovery features.Believe it or not, Retrospect will even backup other computers on your home or office network. While all of this sounds great, Plextor has only included a 30 day trial, and not the full version of this program.

With the PX-760A, Plextor has delivered one of their most feature packed drives to date. Along with support for most CD and DVD formats, it sports some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available. The PX-760A is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it can write to DVD+R DL media at 10x. Of course, Plextor's new drive isn't just about speed. It also supports many of the features we've come to expect from Plextor, along with a number of more advanced ones like GigaRec, AUTOSTRATEGY and the Q-Check testing system. With all this, it's easy to see why the Plextor PX-760A gets the full 10 points for its features.

Like the other Plextor drives we've reviewed, the PX-760A was very easy to install. From start to finish, the entire process took only a few minutes. After taking the drive out of the box, I left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain of our test computer by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 66. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the PX-760A comes with a DVD full of software from Roxio, Sonic and Dantz. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. From here you can access the manual, register your drive or install the bundled software. Simply click the name of the application you want to install, and its setup program will start up automatically.

If you have installed Roxio's Easy Media Creator before, you're probably already familiar with the installation process. All you need to do is choose what language you want and select your installation options.By default the setup program will install the entire suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose just the components you want.

Installing the rest of the bundled software is pretty straightforward. In most cases, it's as simple as choosing the location where you want to install the program, clicking next a few times and waiting for the setup program to copy the files over. After rebooting you'll be able to do things like play DVD's, control your drive's functions and backup the data on your computer.

Documentation:

The bulk of the PX-760A's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. Similar to the ones included with Plextor's other DVD writers, the manual starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new DVD writer. The first section goes over the PX-760A's capabilities, features and system requirements. Plextor has also provided some pretty good diagrams showing all of the different buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are easy to understand.

The next section of the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the PX-760A. It starts out by going over how to open up your computer and determine your existing IDE configuration. If you're not sure about how to configure your computer, Plextor has provided a few examples along with the corresponding jumper settings. For more experienced users, there are also a few recommended configurations that will get you up and running quickly. The rest of the installation section walks you through the process of mounting the drive in your computer and hooking up the cables.

The manual finishes up by going over the basic operation of the PX-760A. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, there is a short list of frequently asked questions. The manual also has a few sections on firmware updates and the drive's self test diagnostics. You can use these diagnostics to see if the problem you are having is with the drive or somewhere else. Last but not least, Plextor has provided a comprehensive list of specifications as well as a list of recommended media. Unfortunately, Plextor has included very little information on the PX-760A's more advanced technologies. This was a bit surprising as they've done a great job of this in the past.

The PX-760A also comes with a "Quick Installation Guide." This small, printed guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. It covers all the basics including how to set the jumpers, hook up the cables and physically install the drive in your computer. For most people, this guide is all they'll need to get the PX-760A up and running.

In the end, installing the PX-760A and the bundled software was pretty easy. If for some reason you do run into trouble, the documentation that comes with the drive is quite good. However, I would have liked to have seen a little more information on the drive's more advanced features. Even then, the PX-760A scores a 9 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.

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 v4.51 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 v4.51 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.

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 very well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer rate tests, the PX-760A started reading at 23.7x (3400 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 46.4x (6960 / 150) on the outside. This resulted in a very good overall CD Winbench score.

CD Speed v4.51 - 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.

SpeedRead On

SpeedRead Off

	Plextor PX-760A	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.76x 21.27x 48.63x	36.68x 21.95x 48.50x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x	35.63x 20.45x 47.28x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	96ms 113ms 172ms	103ms 116ms 168ms	137ms 145ms 219ms	114ms 126ms 183ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 4%	2% 4% 7% 12%	17% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 36%

Plextor's new DVD writer performed better in our CD Speed tests. With SpeedRead enabled, the PX-760A flew past the drives from the competition, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48.63x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that its seek times and CPU usage were also quite good.

CD Speed v4.51 - 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-760A was a little slower when reading CD-R media. While it still had no problems reaching its rated speed, it wasn't as fast as the SHM-165H6S this time around. Nevertheless, its 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-760A read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48.47x.

The PX-760A 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 v4.51 - 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-760A'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 v4.51 - 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-760A supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

CD Speed	Plextor PX-760A	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	31.35x 17.97x 41.48x 10 Yes	37.03x 21.26x 48.93x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes	30.81x 17.50x 40.79x 10 Yes

The PX-760A did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from Lite-On, it hadno 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 DVD 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 v4.51 - CD-R Media:

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

The PX-760A was slightly faster when ripping audio CD-R discs. Unfortunately, even with this increase in speed, it wasn't nearly as fast as the Lite-On SHM-165H6S. 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 30.09x. 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-760A 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-760A handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 67.5% 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-760A 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.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 and DLA 4.95:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

 

The PX-760A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.54x and reached a maximum speed of 48.54x at the end of the session. This gave Plextor's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 36.76x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

The PX-760A did pretty well in our CD writing tests. While not as fast as the drive from Lite-On, it was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:39.

To test the PX-760A's writing quality I used the Q-Check C1/C2 Test built into PlexTools Professional. This test can be used to give us the average, maximum and total number of C1, C2 and CU (uncorrectable) errors on a disc. For these tests, the drive's read speed has been set to 24x. For comparison, I've also included test results from Lite-On IT's KProbe2.

The PX-760A's writing quality was very good. By looking at the screenshots, you can see that the number of C1 errors stayed relatively low. More importantly, there were no C2 or CU errors on any of the discs I tested.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the PX-760A uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 20x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 7 minute mark..

While the drives from NEC and LG can rewrite at 32x, the PX-760A has a maximum rewriting speed of only 24x. As you can see, this put Plextor's new DVD writer at a disadvantage in our tests.

The PX-760A also erases at 24x. While this didn't have much of an effect on the drive's quick erase times, it took more than four minutes to do a full erase.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The PX-760A performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.63x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.13x.Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times and CPU usage were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Plextor's new drive wasn't nearly as fast when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In both cases, the PX-760A reached a maximum transfer speed of about 12.1x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The PX-760A had no problems reading Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. In our tests it started reading at 3.35x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 8.08x.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The PX-760A's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.Here too the drive reached a maximum read speed of about 12.1x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the PX-760A either. While not as fast as the GSA-4167B, it reached a respectable 8.07x in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The PX-760A has two different modes when reading DVD videos. To reduce noise, the drive reads these discs at 2x by default. While this isn't very fast, you can increase the drive's maximum transfer speed by enabling SpeedRead. With SpeedRead enabled, the PX-760A was able to read single layer DVD videos at 16x and dual layer discs at 12x.

To see how well the PX-760A worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. Plextor's new drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was very quiet when SpeedRead was disabled.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 and DLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Plextor's new drive I used Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero. All tests have been performed with AutoStrategy and PoweRec enabled.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the PX-760A uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Plextor's new drive starts writing at about 7.2x and accelerates, reaching a maximum speed of 18x at the end of the disc.

The PX-760A also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses P-CAV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

If you were expecting the PX-760A to take the top spot in our DVD±R writing tests, you might be a little surprised. While its 18x writing speed gave it the advantage over the drives from Lite-On and NEC, it was still no match for the GSA-4167B and its P-CAV writing method.

While Plextor has a list of recommended media on their website, I wanted to see for myself how well the PX-760A worked with some of the DVD+R and DVD-R media currently available.

The PX-760A's media compatibility was a mixed bag. While the drive wrote to a good portion of our test media at its rated speed, only three types worked at 18x. As you can see, there were also a number of cases where Plextor's PoweRec technology prevented the drive from reaching the maximum available writing speed.

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. Fortunately, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PO (Parity Outer) rates using the PI/PO tests built into PlexTools Professional. For this review, we're going to use the Burst test run at 3-8x using "Middle Accuracy". This willgive us the number of PI Errors (before correction), PO Errors and the number of uncorrectable blocks (POF).

For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640 and Lite-On SOHW-1673S. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8. With the SOHW-1673S, we used KProbe and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. 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-760A's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. In most cases, the error rates stayed well within acceptable limits. The only exception being RiDATA's 16x DVD+R media. The PI and PIE rates were not only high, there were a small number of PIF and POF errors. As you can see, this caused some readability issues.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

To test the PX-760A's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

Plextor' new DVD±RW performed very well in our packet writing tests. The PX-760A turned in some very good times when reading and writing to DVD-RW and DVD+RW media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the PX-760A, 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.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 10x was not an easy task. The only media we found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. With Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media, the writing speed was limited to 6x and Memorex's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 4x.

The PX-760A did very well in this test. Thanks to its 10x 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 two minutes faster than the SHM-176H6S and more than three minutes faster than the drives from NEC and LG. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media. Even at 10x, their 8x rated discs yielded some commendable results with PlexTooks, 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 discs, the PI/PIF rates remained for the most part within acceptable limits.

The PX-760A also features 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim was used.

The PX-760A had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 6x DVD-R DL writing speed, it took the drive only 18:44 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The PX-760A's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits and there were no readability problems. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with RiDATA's new DVD-R DL media. The error rates were not only very high on the second layer, there were a number of PO Failures. As you can see, this caused readability problems with both drives.

Performance Revisited:

It's hard not to be impressed by the performance of Plextor's new DVD writer. The PX-760A did very well in our DVD writing tests, turning in some very good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. It was also fairly quick when reading DVD's. The PX-760A had no problems reading single layer data and video DVD's at 16x and read both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x.

Plextor's new DVD writer also did very well in our CD read tests. With SpeedRead enabled, it was able to read 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-760A either. The drive turned in some respectable writing times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the Plextor PX-760A gets a solid 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

As the world's first 18x DVD±RW, the PX-760A has been the topic of many discussions here at CDRLabs. While some people have questioned the need for 18x writing speeds, others have welcomed the idea, hoping that it will save them time when burning DVD's. No matter what side of the debate you're on, its hard to ignore the fact that the PX-760A is an impressive drive. Offering great all around performance and an almost overwhelming number of features, it's a good example of why Plextor is considered to be one of the top names in the industry.

Without a doubt, what the PX-760A does best is write DVD's. When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 18x, it took the drive less than 6 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. While an impressive feat, this wasn't enough to top the LG GSA-4167B and its P-CAV writing method. Plextor's new drive also did pretty well in our rewriting tests, turning in some very good times with both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. Even more impressive was the PX-760A's DVD+R DL writing performance. Thanks to its 10x writing speed, the drive took a little more than 15 minutes to burn an entire 8.5GB DVD.

If you want to write at 18x on the PX-760A, be aware that the list of supported media is very short. Out of all the media we tried, only three types were capable of this speed. The drive faired much better when writing at 16x. However, there were a few cases where PoweRec kicked in, preventing it from reaching this speed. The PX-760A's writing quality was also pretty good for the most part. With most of our test media, the error rates stayed well within acceptable limits, even when writing at 18x. There is still room for improvement though, especially with Ritek manufactured media.

Plextor's new drive did pretty well in our DVD read tests. It was able to read both single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some relatively good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the PX-760A either. In our tests, it read both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x and DVD±R DL discs at a respectable 8x.

The PX-760A was also fairly quick when reading CD's. With SpeedRead enabled, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at 48x and CD-RW discs at an impressive 41x. The drive also did pretty well in our DAE tests, reaching a maximum speed of 41x. As a writer, the PX-760A performed as expected. The drive turned in some impressive times when writing to CD-R media. However, its 24x CD-RW writing speed put it at a slight disadvantage in some of our rewriting tests.

When it comes to features, the PX-760A has few equals. Along with features like PoweRec, VariRec and BURN-Proof, it supports a number of more advanced technologies including SecuRec, GigaRec and Q-Check. Most notable, though, is AUTOSTRATEGY. When a DVD±R disc is inserted, AUTOSTRATEGY automatically selects the best writing strategy. If the media is unknown, it will create a new writing strategy on the fly. The PX-760A also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, Plextor has included a great software bundle containing Roxio's Easy Media Creator suite and PlexTools Professional.

As usual, performance and features like this don't come cheap. With prices on Pricegrabber starting at about $100, the PX-760A is one of the more expensive DVD±RW drives currently available. Of course, there are more affordable alternatives, but if you go that route you won't have nearly as many features or a company like Plextor backing you up. As usual, I'll leave the decision up to you.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 18x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 10x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Features 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Very good transfer speeds with all types of CD media
• Good DAE speeds
• Low seek times
• Good CD and DVD writing quality
• Supports GigaRec, SecuRec, PoweRec, VariRec, Silent Mode, AUTOSTRATEGY and Q-Check technologies
• Includes Easy Media Creator 7 and PlexTools Professional
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Supports 99 minute media
• Good documentation

Lows:

• High media requirements when writing at 18x
• Tendency to slow down when writing to some DVD±R media
• Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
• Writes to CD-RW media at only 24x
• Reads GigaRec recorded discs at only 8x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• Has a 2048KB buffer
• Expensive