detail information

As we already mentioned the Plextor PX-708A is the world's first drive to support 8x DVD+R recording. This means that, in theory, the drive should be able to write a complete DVD in less than 10 minutes. One problem is that 8x DVD+R media is currently not available. To solve this problem the Plextor PX-708A drive is able to write certain 4x DVD+R media at 8x. You can find a list of supported 4x/8x media at the Plextor website. For our review we're using 4x media that can be written at 8x. On this page of our review we'll of course also check out the drive's CD-R recording performance with which we're going to start.

Writing Data CD-R:

For our data writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 700MB using the Nero Burning Rom software. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully:

As you can see from the screenshot, the burn process was completed in just under 3 minutes (2m:58s). This is a very good result for a DVD recorder since most DVD recorders usually don't have very high CD-R recording speeds. A recording time of three minutes means that the drive performs very close to current CD-RW recorders. As a side note the Plextor PX-708A drive is actually around 20 seconds faster when burning 700MB when we compare the drive to older Plextor 40x recorders, like the PX-W4012S (SCSI). This is because the PX-708A drive uses the P-CAV writing method which we already showed you on page two of our review.

CD-R Write Quality:

For our CD-Recordable write quality tests we normally use Lite-On's WSES (Write Strategy Evaluation System) program to measure the amount of errors but for this review we're going to use the PlexTools Professional software. We did this for the simple reason that PlexTools works under Windows while WSES requires DOS to operate.

In the graphs below you can see an overview of errors occurring during the read process. Please note that every burned disc will always have C1 errors. These are errors that are corrected by the drive and they will not effect the disc in a bad way as long as their amount is limited. C2 errors are however very bad for a disc and are harder to read and correct. When there are CU errors present on the disc it means you have bad burned disc and it can't be read in the test drive you're using as a reader.

Also keep in mind that the number of C1/C2/CU errors depends on a number of different factors. The combination of software, hardware and read speed have an effect on the results. Since we're using different software in this review and a different drive for reading the disc, the results may be (a little) different than when using the traditional WSES software. Nevertheless all programs will give you a good idea of the quality of the written disc.

Maxell - 48x certified - 40x write

The Maxell discs had a low amount of C1 errors (2.8 average) and there were no C2/CU errors on the disc. A well recorded disc but this was no surprise since the Plextor drives are known to work well with Maxell media.

MAM-E - 48x certified - 32x write

The MAM-E discs, manufactured by Mitsui, had more C1 errors than the Maxell discs but an average of 5.3 is not the worst result we've seen with these discs. One thing that did worry us were the two C2 errors. They're not fatal for a disc but they're never wanted.

MMORE - 32x certified - 32x write

The MMORE media had the highest amount of C1 errors and once again we see a small amount of CU errors. It seems like the Plextor PX-708A drive only likes recording to high quality media brands like Maxell and, of course, Taiyo Yuden:

Taiyo Yuden - 24x certified - 32x write

With an average C1 error count of 1.1 the Taiyo Yuden disc was recorded very well by the Plextor PX-708A drive.

During the writing of this review a new firmware version was released for the Plextor PX-708A drive. As a test we upgraded the firmware of the Plextor drive and re-wrote a MAM-E disc and measured the amount of errors on the disc to see if this made a difference. Unfortunately it didn't since the recorded disc again had C2 errors (28) just as the first disc we recorded.

Note that as a result of the firmware upgrade all tests from here on were performed with firmware 1.01 installed!

Writing Audio CD-R:

Some older Plextor recorders were limited when it came to audio recording speed. To test if this was also the case with the Plextor PX-708A drive we simply set up a new audio compilation using the Plextools Professional software:

As you can see the Plextor PX-708A drive had no problems recording the audio disc at full speed. From the screenshot you can see that the recording process took 5 minutes. This is because PlexTools first makes an image of the audio tracks you want to record before starting the actual recording process.

VariRec:

For our VariRec recording test we simply rewrote the same audio files we used in our previous test only this time the VariRec setting for the Plextor drive was enabled via the PlexTools software. We used the default setting for VariRec and our disc was recorded at 8x. As an extra test we then tested both audio discs (the one recorded at 40x and the one at 8x using VariRec) in the Premium drive and used the PlexTools software to do a Beta/Jitter test. We did this because VariRec is supposed the decrease the amount of jitter on a disc.

VariRec Enabled

Normal 40x Recording

When we compare both graphs to each other we can indeed see that the VariRec disc has less jitter than the disc we recorded at 40x. So, does this makes a difference when playing both discs in a standard hi-fi system? Well, we couldn't tell the difference... Both discs played fine in our stereo.

Writing Data DVD±R:

To test the Plextor's performance when writing DVD media we set up a new UDF/ISO compilation of roughly 4400MB in Nero Burning ROM and started the recording process. For the 8x DVD+R recording test I used a Philips 4x DVD+R disc with the following ADIP information:

The only word that comes to mind when seeing the above screenshot is 'wow'.. The complete DVD was written in only 8 minutes which is of course the fastest recording time we've ever seen. When you compare the recording time of the Plextor PX-708A drive to the recording time of a 4x DVD recorder, it's about 6 minutes shorter. The reason why the 8x PX-708A drive isn't twice as fast as a 4x drive is because the PX-708A starts the recording process at 6x recording and after a certain point it increases the recording speed to 8x.

For our next DVD recording test we recorded a 4x (Princo brand) DVD-R disc and as you can see from the screenshot above, the recording process was completed successfully in just under 15 minutes. So, when compared to the Plextor PX-708A's DVD+R performance the difference between 4x writing and 8x writing is no less than 7 minutes.

DVD±R Write Quality:

Unfortunately the only method of testing the write quality of a DVDR disc is by using the Kprobe software. The problem however is that Kprobe requires a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive to measure the errors on the DVD disc and I unfortunately don't own a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive. So, in order to somewhat test the write quality of the recorded DVD disc I simply watched them on a few standalone DVD players. I also played the DVDs in my very picky Xbox console and all discs played perfectly. This of course also depends on the quality of the used media but it does also indicate that the Plextor's 8x write performance to 4x media is working well.