detail information

Plextor SA/NV (B) was kind enough to send us their latest DVD Multi Burner, the PX-750A for review. In this review we will be testing how the PX-750A performs with different media types. We will also be running some advanced tests in this review.

The Plextor PX-750A supports 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 8x/4x DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5GB to be written. A future firmware upgrade will allow 6x/8x writing speeds for DVD-R DL media. The Plextor PX-750A also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing technology, at up to 5x read/write speeds.

Company information: 

Let us take a look at some of the company information found at Plextor Europe's website

Corporate Profile:

Corporate Highlights:

There are three Plextor companies in the world. Mission of each company is marketing and sales of:

1. Plextor Co., Ltd. (Plextor Japan)
   • Business Audio Equipment, including Professional CD Players for background
     music, etc.
   • Digital talking book for people with visual impairments
   • Computer Peripherals, including CD-ROM, CD-RW drives, and CD-Tower Systems
   • Printing Press Equipment, including IC Card Offset Printing Systems
2. Plextor Corporation (Plextor USA):
   Computer Peripherals, including CD-ROM, CD-RW drives, and CD-Tower Systems
3. Plextor S.A. (Plextor Europe):
   Computer Peripherals, including CD-ROM, CD-RW drives

SHINANO KENSHI is a global leader in providing integrated motion control solutions, multi-media solutions, printing solution and textile solutions. The company is organized into four divisions, each dedicated to a specific market. They are:

• Electrical Division - Small precision motors.
• Electronic Equipment Division - CD-ROM, and CD-R/RW optical disk drives, and Professional Audio Equipment.
• Printing Equipment Division - Offset printing presses.
• Textile Division - Spun silk yarn.

SHINANO KENSHI was founded in 1918 to manufacture Spun Silk Yarn, which at the time, was one of the most "High-Tech" industries in the world. As the years passed, SHINANO KENSHI embarked on other industrial markets that would grow more progressively, while maintaining its proud history in the Silk Industry. These ventures insights led to the successful expansion into technology-driven, knowledge-intensive fields, such as Electrical Division, Electronic Equipment Division, and Printing Equipment Division. While maintaining and strengthening its core competencies, Shinano Kenshi has continued its global expansion by establishing subsidiary companies and promoting its products on a worldwide basis. These subsidiaries are chartered with the continual growth of Resellers and OEM's in their respective territories, who have come to rely upon Shinano Kenshi for performance, quality oriented and technically superior optical peripheral products. Marketing base toward abroad.

PLEXTOR is the worldwide brand for all products manufactured by the Electronic Equipment Division and Printing Equipment Division of SHINANO KENSHI.

The Electronic Equipment Division introduced its first CD-ROM optical disk drive under the TEXEL brand name in 1989. Faced with the prospects of a healthy and ever-increasing demand for its products, Shinano Kenshi identified the importance of this segment with the Professional and IT markets demanding performance-oriented products. Through every generation of optical disk drive, Plextor has continually sought ways in which its CD-ROM's and CD-RW's could stimulate market demand by offering higher speed and higher reliability devices, while winning numerous awards worldwide.

PLEXTOR CD-R/RW drives were introduced in 1998 with technologies developed by the corporation in support of the market growing demand for CD-ROM's. High performance drives enable our users to write and re-write data on a stable platform that has evolved throughout the years. Plextor has also invested heavily on the certification of CD-RW media to give our users a wide range of compatibility between the various manufacturers.

Plextor's CD-R & CD-RW optical disk drives have been tested worldwide and evaluated as the "Professional Choice" to satisfy even the most discerning customers. Plextor products have been adopted by financial institutions and government agencies, which require highly reliable data storage technology. Recording studios have come to regard the Plextor products as the "drive of choice", which they can rely upon for the accurate extraction and creation of Digital Audio.

PLEXTOR background music systems have achieved the number 1 position in the worldwide market. Unique data compression technologies help to achieve long playback times, while maintaining high quality sound in professional background music systems for restaurants and stores. Technology leadership has been maintained based on high performance, superior electro-mechanical technology of Plextor's in-house motor technology, robust structure and audio orientation are the distinct signs of a market leader. PLEXTALK is a CD-ROM based talking book developed by Plextor for users that are visually impaired. Over fifty hours of audio information can be recorded on a single CD by Plextor's DAISY operating system. PLEXTALK offers a bookmark function that allows the user to search for the spot where a reader wants to begin.
Plextor's Printing Equipment Division manufactures compact offset printing machines with a combination of sophisticated mechanical and electronic technology. It enables the user to achieve the same quality of printing that was formally available only with the craftsmanship of highly skilled workers. CARD PLEX printing systems provide IC card and single card printing solutions, while maintaining only the highest quality possible.

Plextor's subsidiary companies are responsible for maintaining the customer database, while simultaneously adding more value-add products than ever before.

* DAISY: Digital Audio-based Information System. A set of hardware and software to record, store, transfer and read digital audio books.

If you are interested in reading more company information, please visit: Plextor

Drive specifications:

The specifications of the Plextor PX-750A were found at Plextor Europe's website.

Write & Read speed

Technical Specifications

System Requirements

What's inside the box?

On this page we will take a look at what the retail drive came shipped with and take a look at the drive and its technology.

The drive supplied was the retail version, and as we can see, we were supplied with the Plextor PX-750A drive, black and beige bezels, 2 DVD-ROM discs, IDE cable, fixing screws, and instruction booklet.

Box front

Box rear

 
Box left and right

Box top

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

Beige bezel

Black bezel

The bezel of the Plextor PX-750A is plainly styled. On the tray we can see the 'Plextor" logo, and we can also see an emergency eject hole, a single green coloured LED for read and write (we prefer a different LED colour though for writing) and an eject button.

Top

Label

On the top of the drive we found one label, and we can see that the drive was made in China, dated November 2005. We can also read the drive is TLA#0000

On the rear of the drive starting from the left, we can see a digital audio connector, analogue audio connector, jumpers for cable select, slave, and master; IDE connector, and finally the power connector.

Software Suite

Now it's time to take a look at the bundled software suite and comment if needed. Please note: we may not use the supplied software in this review.

The main support disc

Support disc splash screen

As we can see from the above screenshot, the main support disc contains:

⋅        PlexTools Professional (full version)
⋅        PlexTools Professional XL (trial version)
⋅        Pinnacle systems suite version 8.3 LE (full version)

Reviewers note:
Although PlexTools Professional can be installed and used with the PX-750A. Most CD-R and DVD media diagnostic functions, such as PI/PIF scanning will not work with the PX-750A

In the above screenshot we can see some of the additional software included. Applications include:

⋅        Nero Express 6 SE (full version)
⋅        CyberLink (trial version)
⋅        Sonic (trial version)

In the screenshot above we have a full list of the software included, and this also lists which applications are full versions, and which are trial versions.

On our Bonus disc we find applications (full and trial versions) from the following.

⋅         Ashampoo
⋅         Genie Soft
⋅         interVideo.

But let us continue this review and see how the PX-750A really performs.

There are many applications to install and try out, although Plextor wisely suggests you should not install them all at once.

On the next page we will take a look at the test machine, the software, and the drive features…………