Plextor PX-716A DVD Writer


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Plextor PX-716A


OEM:
Plextor
Chipset:Sanyo
48xCDR CAV
24xCDRW PCAV
16xDVD-R CAV
4xDVD-RW CLV
6xDVD-RDL CLV
16xDVD+R CAV
8xDVD+RW PCAV
6xDVD+RDL CLV
DVD-RAM
BD-R
BD-RE
BD-R DL
BD-RE DL
HDDVD-R
HDDVD-RW
HDDVD-RDL
HDDVD-RWDL
HDDVD-RAM
48xCD
16xDVD
BDROM
HDDVD
EIDE, 8MB
BitSetting
More info
$125 7.1/10
38 votes
Read 39
comments

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DVD Media comments for this DVD Writer (click on the link to read the comments):
1 ActiveJet 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Arita 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 BeAll 4xDVD-R (BeAll G40001) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 BenQ 8xDVD+R (DAXON...AZ2) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 BenQ 16xDVD-R (DAXON016S...) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 BestMedia Platinum 8xDVD+R (RITEK...R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 BestMedia Platinum 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Commax 4xDVD-R (VDSPMSAB 01.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Commodore 4xDVD-R (VDSPMSAB 01.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 CompUSA 4xDVD-R (AML.........) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 CompUSA 4xDVD+R (AML.....001) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
2 CompUSA 4xDVD+R (INFOME..R20) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 CompUSA 2.4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOP1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Dataware 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Datawrite (Printable) 2.4xDVD+R (CMC MAG.D01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Datawrite Classic Grey 8xDVD-R (ProdiscF01..) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Datawrite Red (V3) 4xDVD-R (INFOSMART01.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Datawrite Titanium 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Dotcom 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Dynex 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Egital 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 EMTEC 2.4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOP2) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Esa 8xDVD+R (CMC MAG.E01) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 ESN 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Extreme 4xDVD-R (MCC 01RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Fujifilm 16xDVD+R (PRODISC.R05) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Fujifilm 8xDVD-R (ProdiscF01..) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Fujifilm 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Fujifilm 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Generic/Unbranded 4xDVD-R (SKC Co.,Ltd.) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Generic/Unbranded 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Generic/Unbranded 4xDVD-R (VDSPMSAB 01.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Gigatain 8xDVD+R (Plasmon1C01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 2.4xDVD+R (MKM.....001) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 8xDVD+R (PRODISC.R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 2.4xDVD+R (RICOHJPND00) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Infiniti 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Infiniti 16xDVD+R (MCC.....004) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Infiniti 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Intenso 4xDVD-R (MBI 01RG20) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 JVC 16xDVD-R (MJC M005....) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 KHypermedia 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
2 LG 8xDVD+R (PRODISC.R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Linkyo 16xDVD+R (CMC MAG.M01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Maxell 8xDVD+R (MAXELL..002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 4xDVD-R (MXL RG02....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 8xDVD+R (RITEK...R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Maxell 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Memorex 16xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AM3) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 4xDVD+R (CMC MAG.F01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 16xDVD+R (RICOHJPNR03) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
3 Memorex 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Miracle 2xDVD-R (LEADDATA01..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Miracle 4xDVD-R (OPTODISCR004) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Mitsubishi 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Mitsubishi 2.4xDVD+R (MKM.....001) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Mydata 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Nashua 2.4xDVD+RW (SENTINELW01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Nexxtech 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Octron 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Office Max 8xDVD-R (FUJIFILM03..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Optodisc 4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOR4) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Philips 8xDVD-R (FUJIFILM03..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Playo 8xDVD-R (UME01.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Princo 4xDVD-R (PRINCO......) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 ProMedia 8xDVD+R (SONY....D11) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Ricoh 8xDVD+R (RICOHJPNR02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 RiData 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 RiData 8xDVD+R (RITEK...R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 RiData 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 RiDisc 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 RiDisc (Xtreme) 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
3 Ritek 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Samsung (Pleomax) 8xDVD+R (OPTODISCOR8) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Samsung (Pleomax) 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 4xDVD+RW (SONY....S11) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 8xDVD-R (SONY08D1....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 16xDVD-R (SONY16D1....) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Taiyo Yuden 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Taiyo Yuden 16xDVD-R (TYG03.......) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Taiyo Yuden 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 TDK 8xDVD+R (CMC MAG.E01) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 TDK 16xDVD+R (CMC MAG.M01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 TDK 8xDVD+R (MBIPG101R04) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 4xDVD+R (RICOHJPNR01) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 4xDVD-RW (TDK601saku..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 8xDVD-R (TTG02.......) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 16xDVD-R (TTH02.......) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Traxdata 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TX (Think Xtra) 4xDVD+R (NANYA...CHX) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Vakoss 16xDVD+R (PRODISC.R04) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
5 Verbatim 16xDVD+R (MCC.....004) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 2 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLife) 2xDVD-RW (RITEKW01....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2xDVD-RW (MCC 01RW11n9) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 4xDVD+R (MCC.....002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD+R (MCC.....003) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
5 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2.4xDVD+R (MKM.....001) comments, 5 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) / Pastel Disc 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (Pearl White) 8xDVD+R (CMC MAG.E01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
Post your DVD Media comments here
Comments
39 comments, Showing 1 to 25 comments
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Does not work for Blaupunkt DX.


Comments posted by etem from France, February 09, 2016. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





I don’t know who came up with this idea “The Leader in blablabla” but the piece of junk I got is useless.
It is a PX – 716A which is good for trash. It is unbelievable, an optical drive who can burn the DVD’s and been unable to read them back. I am using only Verbatim 16X +-R, I have the latest Firmware the latest PlexTool, I have tried burning the DVD’s with Nero, Roxio and others and still, it is unable to read the DVD’s after is burning them. But, I also have an DRU – 700A(Sony) which amazing… is reading the DVD’s Plexshit burned.
As for myself I will make sure none of my friends or people I know will ever buy Plexshit.


Comments posted by Ormus from United States, March 03, 2007. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





Another comment 1.5 years later on this great drive. I've been using the following -R media for awhile. Ridata 16x Sony 8x & 16x, Tayio Yuden 8x & 16x all burned just fine at both speeds. It even burns these media's wery well at 4x. It likes Verbatim +R DL media but doesn't seem to like Ridata +R DL at all. The drive doesn't seem to burn Princo or CMC media that well & gives both poor quality burns. Currently using 1.10 of the firmware with no problems however 1.09 wouldn't read some discs. 1.08, 1.07 & 1.05 is also good firmware. I skipped over 1.06 so can't review it.

Recently built a new PC & put my trusty 716-A in it. !00% successful burns as expected. I'm going to use this burner until it finally wears out then get another Plextor, never another brand name & yes I've used other burner brands on other computers with fair to good success. Over 400 CDR's & around 250 DVD-R's burned & still going. Wow!!


Comments posted by Robertb from United States, February 16, 2007. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





My 716a has been a faithful workhorse for two years now, I got it for christmas two years ago. It has written thousands of discs both dvd and cd. This drive has written everything I have ever put in it and I have never had a coaster that was the drives fault. Plenty through my own fault though. In the very begining I was skeptical of the high price but when I look back it was more than justified. This drive has written circles around my NEC and memorex drives. I did have one tech support issue where my 3 year old son pulled the platter out when it was trying to go in and it jumped a few teath and wouldn't eject. A quick call to plextor and I had an advance rma on it's way that very day. I was very pleased when two days after my initial phone call I recieved the drive and was able to send the one my son ruined back. I did tell the gentleman that I spoke to that my son broke the tray and he said no problem at all we'll get you taken care of. Now that's customer service. I can't believe the ratings for this drive aren't higher because it is a gem.


Comments posted by Eric from United States, January 05, 2007. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





I've had this drive for just over a year (out of warranty). It worked great until recently, now it can't maintain burning speed on a DVD+R, and won't burn a CD at all. It says the media is defective, but the same media will burn fine in by ancient HP burner in another PC. I've updated the firmware and the Plextor tools, but it didn't help. This drive was too expensive to fail so soon.


Comments posted by Bob from United States, September 29, 2006. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





After 4 Plextors, I am done with them. The second (the first got RMA'd-DOA) 716A I had just died. I made 2 coasters on DL, and it takes over 15 mins to burn 8X Single layer. Nero shows that the hardware buffer is flaky. It was good while it lasted, but the Plextor reliability is gone.

With the deals out there today on quality drives, it's not worth RMA'ing this. Overall, it's not worth twice the amount of money as other drives.


Comments posted by Orion940 from United States, March 24, 2006. Rated this writer 3 of 10.





Bought mine a year ago from Best Buy for $69.00 after rebates. This drive rocks.. I've burned all kinds of dvd's and CD's, and no coasters. I never have to verify or test the burns I make on this unit. I can't say that about my NEC3530, or my Pioneer a07, though both of those are also fairly good units.


Comments posted by Rob from United States, February 17, 2006. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





For the first six months this drive was a stellar performer. With only a few coasters during that time, it wrote Verbatim 8x DVD+Rs [MCC-003-000] at 12x and CompUSA generic 4x DVD+Rs [RICOHJPN R01 (002)] at 8x. It would not write to Verbatim 16x DVD+Rs [MCC-004-000] reliably. Also, for some reason the drive's speed would plummet and recover partially through a full disc write for no apparent reason (I later discovered this was a known issue. It was never fixed by formware update.)

Somewhere in the seventh month the drive started having problems. There were several write failures. Then the drive would intermittantly fail to recognize a disc was loaded; or, it would claim a blank disc was empty. I've seen similar complaints like this in many forums around the web.

I contacted Plextor "support" in July 2005. Despite the drive's label clearly showing a manufacture date of November 2004, Plextor's "customer service" refused to issue an RMA because I couldn't provide a copy of the receipt. Apparently, it doesn't matter to Plextor that a model hasn't been on the market for less than 12 months. If you don't have the receipt, you don't have a 1-year warranty.

People pay a premium for Plextor drives because of their reputation. Drives like the Plexwriter 12/10/32A and PX-708 series are almost legendary; so was their customer service.

But it is no longer the case. Beware.


Comments posted by Bruce from United States, January 01, 2006. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





I purchased this drive about like may 2005. Since then I had to replace it twice. The first time it couldn't read anything (dvdr, dvdrw, cds) after like a month. After recieving my first replacement in June of 2005, it work fine. Then somewhere in september 2005, I began to notice that certain mediums (old cdrs that I wrote onto) didn't work. I thought that it might have been incompatibile. But what really ticked me off was that it started to have some problems reading regular dvd movies. and i couldn't figure out why some dvd movies run perfectly and some others crashed like crazy. i also had problem readings mem. dvdrw after burning them. It was absolutely bizzard. I performed the self diagonsis test it appears that it had some burn/write error according to its single blinks. So now its november 2005 and Plextor is going to replace my replacement. btw, my second replacement was manufactured in February 2005.


Comments posted by KSIU from United States, November 22, 2005. Rated this writer 2 of 10.





Well, I liked Plextor before, in the CD-ROMs era. Now, PX-716A is not very impressive, maybe just for those of you pre-owning cheap "bombs". It's just decent.
DVD writing quality: 8 out of 10. There are better writers, NEC, Pioneer and LiteOn just to name a few.
DVD reading quality: 6 out of 10. Here a short comment: I have a special problem. My DVR-7000 records sometimes bad, especially on new DVD-RW discs (or simply having higher speeds, today one cannot find 1x anymore). The information is still there, but some parameters are out of spec. So far, LG 5163 was superior. Other (simple) DVD-ROMs like Pioneer DVD-103 are performing equally bad.
Conection: yes, it works but it seems to be very picky. Therefore some (good) producers have a special firmware for their external boxes to enable them to work with it. I'm using it through IEEE1394 and USB2.0 to my laptop and I can access also the diagnostic routines, however, Windows XP has some troubles.
That's 8/10.


Comments posted by Marian Popa from Germany, September 06, 2005. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





My first DVD burner & it's Great!!! Tayio Yuden generic 8x all white top burned perfectly as does 8x silver/matte Ritek G05 & & 4x MMC Maxell yellowtops. All this is -R media. The 16x +R Verbatim also burned perfect at rated speed. Flawless datadisc burns with any of the above media. SVCD's (converted to DVD format with Nero) do a great job in my DVD player whether burned at 4 or 8x. No skips or freezing problems at all. Looks like I made the right choice in a DVD burner. Will I buy a Plextor DVD burner again? You betcha!!!


Comments posted by Robert from United States, August 05, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





I've been through Pioneer and I've been through Sony. None of these companies have made drives that overly impressed me. Compared to the Plextor PX-7xx line, the Pioneer A line and Sony DRU lines are complete garbage. I should have bought a Plextor a LONG LONG time ago. So reliable, so fast, so good. I mean really, I can burn a 12 speed DVDR on this thing and it doesn't skip at all. On my Sony DRU-510, it claims it can burn reliably above single speed, but I've never seen that and it's single speed burn is less than reliable. Too good to be true, but it is - this drive is AWESOME.


Comments posted by Jeremy Morrow from Canada, June 17, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





a perfect 10
realy
as good as the best writer
it burn as fast as it can
8.5x with a 8x dvd-r
verry good for all user
expesive, but it worth the price


Comments posted by baloo from Canada, June 13, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





To "George": Unless you use PlexTools to enable high-speed reads, the reading of pressed disks that are CSS-encrypted is limited to 2x speeds, ostensibly to minimize drive noise.

This is the finest DVD burner I've used, the extra features including the "AutoSense" technology that lets the drive learn to make reliable burns with media not directly supported by the firmware really sets the drive apart from the competition.

There may be a few drives that are slightly faster or consistently burn at speeds way beyond the ones that specific media is rated at, but I'd rather wait an extra minute and get a good burn, which is what the 716A delivers.

Anyone who has this drive should get the RPC1 version of the V1.04 firmware from RPC1.ORG.


Comments posted by THoff from United States, June 09, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





I've had this drive for a week now, and wish that I had bought it sooner. I have owned several name-brand DVD burners before, but this one blows everything else away in terms of features and performance (the latter being no surprise, since it is a much more recent drive).

The most impressive feature to me is the AutoStrategy feature that lets it learn to burn on media that isn't directly supported in the firmware -- what a great idea. I burned some ProdiscF02 media immediately after getting the drive, and this feature allowed it to burn flawless disks using this media. Then the final V1.04 firmware came out (as well as an RPC1 hack from the Dangerous Brothers), and now the media appears to be supported directly. I've burned two other brands of -R disks and one +RW disk while testing, not one problem.

I've seen comments indicating that certain other drives may be faster at burning, especially when attempting to burn at speeds beyond those for which the media is rated, but to me, a good burn that can be read years from now is more important than saving 15 seconds today. The included PlexTools software is a great utility for checking the drive and media, and for configuring the advanced features of the drive, such as >2x CSS-encrypted media reads.

Another great feature that couldn't have cost Plextor more than a few cents was the inclusion of a second front bezel for the drive -- replacing the factory-installed white bezel with the black one took about two minutes, and allows the drive to match my black case perfectly.


Comments posted by THoff from United States, June 09, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





Decided to update one of my earlier reviews. My lower grade can be summed up to that I didn't use a newer firmware. My fault. I upgraded last week to newest firmware, and fixes every problem I had with not accepting cheapy media.

I am now extremely satisfied, coulpe this drive with my new 9th dvd writer drive hpdvd640 I get super reliable burns from my plextor drive and can use the lightscribing function from my HP lol. At least my HP is useful for something, because aside from the lightscribe (which I expect to break anyday now like every other hp drive or printer I've bought) it's essentially useless!

Read the comments judge for yourself, but damn, the 716a is a steal even for the price.


Comments posted by JC from Canada, May 13, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





Installed the Plextor 716a v1.04 last night. Tried to burn 20 pictures using the Roxio program onto the Verbatum disk DVD-R supplied. It crapped out windows during step 2 of 7. Lockup was tight, no c-a-d key functions.
I upgraded firmware to v1.06. Tried again with FUJI DVD-R media. Same thing, except now it crapped out during step 2 of 6.
Read Plextors FAQ's, they claim it may have been because I moved the mouse (?). So I tried again, locked the room and let it try all night. Nothing.
I suppose that I will try different media. But it is disappointing that it did not work out of the box with the supplied Verbatum media.
Are you people using the supplied Roxio program for DVD's or is there something better I should get?


Comments posted by greg_joh from United States, May 05, 2005. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





No problem at all


Comments posted by cucubau from Romania, April 30, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





the 716a...
read quit a lot of trouble reports for this drive and i have to say after many tests:

1. use it as a master without a slave and on ata/66 (like recommend!) - otherwise you might getting problems.
this is very important!
2. use at least firmware 1.04, best the newest 1.06

- and you never will expierence any problems or slow speeds or anything.

with the great firmware-options, burnings everything is getting a standard for you.
you will never having the problem, not being able to burn writeprotected stuff (including the newest navigation-cd´s e.g. VW), read any protected stuff or very damaged cd´s and dvd´s as well.
for example i just burned a music-cd protected by the new sony-protection..the drive tooked it as it would be a normal cd! i didn´t even have to use cloneCD or similar.

and at the end, the read-speed is completly perfect.
max 40x for audio-ripping! for example.
you might get better write-speed´s with other drives. but dont forget about the quality. for this i think its better to burn with the automatic set 32x(CD) or 8x(DVD) for example. ..after a year you forgot about 2min more or less but you will be lucky for still having a readable and fast dvd.

for the compatibility: everthing
only expirienced having slightly lower speeds on long-duration media like Verbatim DataLifePlus - but with great quality.


Comments posted by bud from Germany, April 25, 2005. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





Good drive, dissapointment for a plextor though. I burn a ton of DVD's. In total I have 8 DVD writer drives, as I'm a media nut. I have one Pioneer A05, 6 LG's of various models, and this plextor. The only reason I gave it an 8 is the price and it's compatibility.

Not good with cheapy discs but then again, this is a quality drive so use quality media. This is however the only DVD writer I have that doesn't crap out under K3B (Linux guy). The 8 meg cache is great. Good drive if your going to use it for quality media. If your looking to use cheapy media, get a pioneer A05. Also don't rate a writer bad if your mobo sucks. I rate drives bad because my ram disks failed on my LG drive, or on all my LG's the CD writing died after 10 writes.

If you want a top notch drive for quality writes on quality media, great drive. If you want cheap discs and a quality drive buy an A05, and write at 4X.

Peace


Comments posted by JC from Canada, April 25, 2005. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





I have not fully tested this writer. had to upgrade firmware from 1.04 to 1.06 to record faster than 8x DVD the first burn took 1 hr to burn a 2.8g DVD with the free dvd it came with and burnt a princo cd-r first time @ 12x after new firmware i got it to record @ 48x.


Comments posted by Andrew HILL from Canada, April 04, 2005. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





This drive does not work with Ricoh DVD+RW media. After inserting disc, the drive infinitely spins up and down, locking up the computer in the process. Tried several discs, same result every time. No problems reading or writing the same discs with my NEC-1300A.


Comments posted by NECisbetter from United States, March 30, 2005. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





I promised an update to follow my comment below (posted 2/16/05). I finally received my replacement 716A drive from Plextor two days ago--3/21/05--more than a month after posting my woes here, and trying to get Plextor to respond.

Before anyone thinks I'm just out to bash Plextor, know that I've been a die-hard Plextor fan over the years, and have used many of their devices w/out issue. But my experience w/their customer "service" has completely soured me on their products. Unlike the lucky reviewer below, I did *not* get my defective drive picked up by Plextor/DHL; I had to pay shipping to them, even tho the drive went bad the first week I had it. My ongoing pleas to them to respond via email, went unanswered, or I simply received boilerplate text stating their RMA policy--one paragraph of which is that the user pays shipping to Plextor, "No Exceptions" (their words).

Tech support never did answer all of my questions, they only answered less-controversial (read: admit no guilt on their part). They would not help me directly w/the RMA group--which is a different dept., and the RMA group never responded personally to my emails.

I got the replacement drive installed today, and you can bet that I will put it thru its paces immediately. Even tho the serial # is several thousand increments newer than the drive I sent back, it still concerns me that it was manufactured the same month as the bad drive--Dec. 2004.

So I still give this drive a 1, because of Plextor's poor handling of the situation. If a company makes great products that rarely fail, terrific. But a true measure of a company is how they respond when things do go wrong, and Plextor failed me here. I erroneously assumed that paying a premium price for such an item would entitle me to premium service. Because of this tremendously negative experience (nearly 2 months from the first email sent, to receipt of the new drive), I seriously doubt I will purchase another Plextor product.

I'm heartened by the glowing reviews others have given this drive, and hope that I finally did get a good one, but you can bet that I will view its performance from now on w/a jaundiced eye.


Comments posted by Dave from United States, March 23, 2005. Rated this writer 1 of 10.





Great drive. Burns TDK, Fuji 8x at 16x. Had a few install bugs though. Make sure system if fully UDMA capable(80pin cable, latest IDE/ATA drivers). Had compatibility problems with latest VIA IDE/ATA accelerator. Had to use Windows XP default driver. Also forget about drive working with older non-UDMA CDROM/DVD drives as slave. My Toshiba 4X DVDROM which only supports multiword DMA started having read errors. Only worked if I disabled Plextor's UDMA mode(which also slows drive down to 8X max). Works fine with new 16x DVDROM.


Comments posted by bhong from United States, March 12, 2005. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





I have just added this drive to a system whre I had a never fail write Sony DWU10A.

This drive is superb, fast reads ;) (RIP) great quality burns and fast, supports all but the DVD ram formats which really not a great loss, since the tools incluided with this drive exced all possible need to support just another format....

Maybe next time plextor will stick to the trayless drive, since that seems to last much longer...

Is it the first drive on the market to support the - DL format and the only reason I jumped into the DL bandwagon.

All we need now is MORE media from the likes of RITEK and TAYO YUDEN to get the production of DL media to give us cheaper and more easely available DL media....

There is no faulting this drive even if I tried...

Mind get the proper IDE drivers for your mobo and away it flies....


Comments posted by Floppy from United Kingdom, March 05, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.




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Column Explanation:

Click on this for more technical information.

New comments= New comments since your last visit.
New Writer = New DVD Writer since your last vist.

OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer.


Chipset

The manufacturer of the main chipset the DVD writer/recorder is based on.


Write support / Read support
DVD-R
= Works
DVD-R = Is not supported
DVD-R? = Not tested


Single Layer(4.7GB) write speeds
1x (CLV) = about 58 minutes
2x (CLV) = about 29 minutes
2.4x (CLV) = about 24 minutes
4x (CLV) = about 14.5 minutes
6x (CLV/ZCLV) = about 10-12 minutes
8x (PCAV/ZCLV) = about 8-10 minutes
12x (PCAV/ZCLV) = about 6.5-7.5 minutes
16x (CAV/ZCLV) = about 6-7 minutes

Dual/Double Layer(8.5GB) write speeds
1x CLV = about 105 minutes
2.4x CLV = about 44 minutes
4x CLV = about 27 minutes

Single Layer (4.7GB) read speeds
1x read speed is 1.321MB/s = ~56 minutes
6x CAV (avg. ~4x) read speed is max 7.93MB/s = ~14 minutes
8x CAV (avg. ~6x) read speed is max 10.57MB/s = ~10 minutes
12x CAV (avg. ~8x) read speed is max 15.85MB/s = ~7 minutes
16x CAV (avg. ~12x) read speed is max 21.13MB/s = ~5 minutes


DVD Write types
CAV = Constant Angular Velocity, the DVD is written at a constantly increasing speed.
CLV = Constant Linear Velocity, the DVD is written at a constant speed.
ZCLV = Zone Constant Linear Velocity, the DVD is divided into zones. After each zone the write speed is increased.
PCAV = Partial Constant Angular Velocity, the DVD is being written at an increasing speed until a certain speed. After this speed it will not increase anymore.


Connection
Desktop = Standalone desktop DVD Recorder
EIDE = Computer DVD Writer with EIDE/IDE connection
SCSI = Computer DVD Writer with SCSI connection
USB = Computer desktop DVD Writer with USB 2.0 or/and 1.1 connection
FireWire = Computer desktop DVD Writer with IEEE 1394/FireWire/i.Link connection (some standalone desktop dvd recorder supports this also but then it is usually to connect your DV camera to the recorder)


Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.


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