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In this part of our Plextor PX-708A review we'll test how fast the drive can read various media, including audio CDs and DVD media. As we already mentioned before, the Plextor drive can read CD media at 40x while DVD media can be read at 12x. Let's first take a look at what kind of speeds the PX-708A drive supports according to the PlexTools software:

PlexTools reports us that the Plextor PX-708A can read all CD media at full speed. The drive can only read DVD-ROM media at 12x though and reading DVD-Video is limited to 2x. Last but not least PlexTools reports that the drive can read DVD±R(W) media at 8x. Let's see if this is indeed the case.

Pressed Discs:

For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing the PlexTools software (v1.05) which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced Nero CD-DVD Speed graph:

From the three DVD recorders I have reviewed, all claiming to support 40x read speeds, the Plextor PX-708A is the first drive to actually reach its rated read speed. The drive had no problems going a little faster than 40x and besides that its seek times were pretty good. Let's compare our results to two other drives we've previously reviewed:

CD-Recordable Discs:

For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we used a back-up (CD-R) of the PlexTools software disc. The used disc was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. Here are the results:

The graph shows us that the Plextor drive again had no problems reaching its rated read speed of 40x. Its seek times were better than we saw with the pressed media and when we compare them to other drives we've reviewed we can see that the Plextor PX-708A drive has both the best (read: highest) read speeds and best (read: lowest) seek times:

CD-ReWriteable Discs:

To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we once again used the "PlexTools v1.05" disc only this time we read from a CD-ReWriteable disc. The used disc was a 'Plextor High Speed CD-RW' disc. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD-DVD Speed again:

When it comes to reading CD-RW media the Plextor again performed well. It had no problems reaching 40x reading and in fact its top read speed was (a little) faster when compared to the drive's pressed and CD-R media top read speed. The drive's seek times were pretty close to the other drives we've reviewed:

Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the Plextor's digital audio extraction performance we again used Nero CD-DVD Speed to do a transfer rate test. The audio disc we used was of a slightly larger size than in our previous tests (77 minutes). In the graph below you can see the performance of the DVD-recorder:

And once again the Plextor drive showed good performance as the drive had no problems reaching 40x and going faster than that. The Plextor PX-708A's seek times were very close to the Plextor PX-504A drive:

As a final test we used PlexTools to extract the audio disc to our hard disk. As an extra test we also tested the drive's performance using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) in Secure Mode. According to EAC the PX-708A drive caches audio, has an accurate stream but it cannot report C2 error information. This is strange since both Nero InfoTool and PlexTools Professional reported that the drive is able to detect and report C2 error information.

PlexTools Professional

Exact Audio Copy - Secure Mode

The Plextor PX-708A drive performed very well when using the PlexTools software as it had no problems reaching 40x while extracting the audio tracks. When using the drive with the EAC software we also had a good result but we must mention that the drive's read speeds were higher than what you can see on the screenshot. At the end of each track the software (or the drive?) had the tendency to slow down the read speed. The actual read speed for most tracks was around 12x. Not bad at all for a DVD recorder.

Audio - Advanced DAE Quality Test:

As always, to conclude our CD media read tests we did an 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with Nero CD-DVD Speed. You can see the produced results below:

Well what can we say.. Once again an excellent result. The Plextor PX-708A drive passed all tests successfully and produced a quality score of 100% (something that the Plextor PX-504A drive had problems with). With an average read speed of 30.10x the drive was quite a lot faster than the Plextor PX-504A (24.38x average) and the Sanyo CRD-BPDV2 (28.64x average). Last but not least the Plextor PX-708A drive had no problems reading the SubChannel Data and CD-Text from the disc.

DVD - DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading tests we're going to start with a DVD-Video read test of a single-layered and double-layered DVD disc. Keep in mind that a low read speed has no effect on the drive's performance when playing a DVD. The drive's read speed is only important when you, for example, want to rip a DVD disc to your hard disk.

There isn't much to tell about the Plextor PX-708A's DVD read performance as it's limited to 2x reading. As you could already read in the PlexTools screenshots at the beginning of this page Plextor has done this to keep the noise the drive produces while reading the disc to a minimum. Because the Plextor PX-708A drive has a limited read speed it of course comes in last when we compare to the drive to other drives we've reviewed:

Update: some clever forum members noticed that the Plextor PX-708A drive can be 'unlocked' so that it will read DVD-Video discs a lot faster. You can do this by making sure the drive is empty and closed. Then press and hold the drive's eject button for about three second until the drive's LED flashes green three times. Release the eject button so that the drive's tray will open. Now insert a DVD-Video disc and voila the drive reads faster. When you eject the disc or when you cut the drive's power, the PX-708A will be reset to 2x reading again. Here are the new results:

These results look a lot more impressive of course! Sorry for the mistake, hope you can forgive me ;)

DVD - DVD+R(W):

To test the Plextor's read performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media we simply copied 4.4GB to an empty DVD+R and DVD+RW disc. Below you can see the results:

When it came to reading DVD+R(W) media the Plextor PX-708A drive performed a lot better. This time the drive reached an average read speed of 6x with both types of media. When we compare the achieved results to the results of other drives we've reviewed, the Plextor PX-708A is clearly the fastest drive. The seek times of the Plextor drive were also good and well within specifications (<150ms random stroke):

DVD - DVD-R(W):

To test the Plextor's read performance with DVD-R and DVD-RW media we again copied roughly 4.4GB to an empty DVD-R and DVD-RW disc. Below you can see the results again:

The Plextor's performance with DVD-R(W) media was almost exactly the same as with the DVD+R(W) media. Both discs were read at an average speed of 6x. Notice that there was a small problem with the DVD-R disc as the read speed dropped at the end of the disc. This hardly affected the drive's overall performance though.