Plextor 708A: First exclusive look at 8X DVD+R
by Kristopher Kubicki on September 12, 2003 11:11 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Thoughts
Plextor deserved every ounce of hype and praise for this drive. Not only did Plextor dethrone long time DVD burning champions Pioneer and NEC, they also outpaced them. Pioneer and NEC are both expected to produce 8X capable DVD+R and DVD-R capable drives in November (DVR-A07 and ND-2300A, respectively), but Plextor has the upper hand with market saturation and aggressive pricing. Consider that the Plextor 708A costs around $280 for its fall debut, we can only assume it will cost less when the yet to be announced A07 and ND-2300A actually hit store shelves. NEC should also release their 8X DVD+R ND-1500A (which is not capable of DVD-R) early November as well.As far as performance is concerned, the drive out-performs the ASUS DRW-0402P/D and the Pioneer A06 in virtually every way. Media recognition, compatibility and just raw burn times were all better on the 708A. The new Gigabyte W0404A (40X CD-R, 4X DVD+R, 4X DVD-R) is a close competitor, but unfortunately, it cannot compete with 8X DVD+R. Next week, we have some interesting optical storage solutions from Gigabyte and ASUS, but the Plextor 708A certainly raises the bar.
One other topic we might want to touch on is DVD+R in general. The DVD+R forum was slow to announce 4X DVD+R a year ago, but pulled ahead with DVD+R 8X products hitting the shelf at least 2 months before DVD-R 8X. Considering drives like the 708A don’t even need 8X verified media to obtain 8-minute DVD burn times, DVD+R will surely gain even more favor in the eyes of consumers. While the DVD format wars are far from over, Philips, HP and the other members of the DVD+R forum clearly won the battle today.
Special thanks to CompuHQ for letting us know about their Plextor 708A special. By using the coupon code "ANANDTECH10" you can save an additional $10 on the 708A.
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Moonbeam - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
In the sentence:" As far as performance is concerned, the drive out-performs the ASUS DRW-0402P/D and the Pioneer A06 in virtually every way. Media recognition, compatibility and just raw burn times were all better on the A06."
I got the impression the author meant, instead of that last AO6 to put 7o8A.
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
#6 - Correct I didnt mention Sony, but thats because Sony doesnt make their own drives =). I have an upcoming review to deal with that.Kristopher
tazdevl - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Couple things... I have a Sony 510A, 510UL and the Plex 708A. Buffer size is pointless. Those comments regarding the buffer size that folks are making and are mentioned in the review don't mean squat. Buffer underrun prevents coasters from happening and based on the review it's obvious it's doing its job. A 8MB buffer is just a way to differentiate a drive from its competitors for ignorant consumers that have "bigger is better" Best Buy logic.-R has greater compatbility at this point with all DVD players. +R has compatibility issues with some older players. That's the nice thing about having a dual format drive. One format doesn't work, try the other.
Lastly the reviewer forgot to comment on Sony as being one of the DVD burning elite. They set the standatd for the industry when they released the Sony 500A/X which was the first dual format burner on the market for months. Also, with firmware 2.0F that enabled 4X burning for both formats (nice free bump for consumers), they started the speed wars in the DVD burning market.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Anyone who buys a dual format drive is foolish. DVD+R only drives allow booktype settings to be set to dvd-rom, increasing compatibility SIGNIFICANTLY. Once the drive becomes dual format however, the feature gets scrapped.Mday - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
2.4x DVD burning is over 3MB ps. obviously 6x or 8x is 2-3 times that, or roughly 6MB to 9MB per second. with a 2 MB buffer, that's less than 1/3 of a second time. in computing terms, 1/3 of a second is a lot of time. however, since when do programs that access disc space only last 1/3 of a second...sony has an 8MB buffer. while burning at 4x, and with certain programs running, it hardly dips below 90%. of course i do implement a hefty disk cache and memory cache for nero as i burn. i would like to see nero have more than just 80 MB max dedicated for buffering in system memory.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
I'm waiting for 8X DVD-R burners to come out. DVD+R discs do not work on any of the IBM T20-22 Laptops we use at my office. All of them play DVD-R fine so I consider that a negative towards +R. My friends DVD player from Sony works great with -R but not +R as well.Budman - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
My 2X burner's getting slower. :(AgaBooga - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Its good to see 8x burners. I want to see how this affects the current 4x burner prices...ekrandegisimi - Thursday, August 1, 2019 - link
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