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| Posted by | Dennis |
| Posted on | 04/06/03 18:45 |
| Number of views | 10846 |
Positive:
- Good looking drive supporting 52x read/write speeds and 32x re-writing
- Good software package (Nero Burning Rom, PlexTools Professional)
- Two year warranty
- 'BURN-Proof' technology plus 8 MB buffer
- Digital Audio Extraction can be done at full speed
- Good read speeds and seek times
- Excellent performance with copy-protected data and audio
- Excellent and innovative features (GigaRec, SecuRec, etc.)
- Supports overburning up to 99 minutes (and more with GigaRec)
- Supports Mount Rainier (CD-MRW) format
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports reading and writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text information
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Could back-up all SafeDisc 2 versions without weak sectors amplification
Negative:
- Had some read problems with certain media when SpeedRead was enabled
Conclusion:
Well what can we say... Plextor has really put a lot of work into their Premium drive and we truly loved it. Not only does the drive support unique and innovative technologies such as SecuRec and GigaRec, it comes with a number of excellent features such as BURN-Proof (and an 8 MB buffer), PoweRec and VariRec to ensure the best possible quality when burning a disc.
When it came to read performance the Premium drive showed a bit of a mixed result. Sometimes the drive would slow down considerably with certain CD-R and audio discs. On the other hand though, the Premium showed an excellent performance when reading CD-RW media.
Although the drive wasn't the fastest recorder we've reviewed and it couldn't write all our media at maximum speed, it had good write quality with every disc. Besides that the drive was also very quiet and the PlexTools Silent Mode can even decrease noise even more, something that will appeal to a lot of users.
It's unfortunate we couldn't test the Premium's re-write performance at maximum speed (32x). When using the drive at 24x it performed well as it had no problems keeping up with most of the other recorders we've reviewed.
In our advanced tests we were again pleasantly surprised by the Premium drive as it had no problems with any of our data and audio copy-protections. The Premium drive is a so-called 'two-sheep' recorder, again something that many people will appreciate. 99 minute media and 8 cm media were, of course, also no problems for the Premium drive.
The price of the Plextor Premium drive is about $ 105.00 (checked at the time of writing this review). With features such as the Premium drive supports this certainly is not a price that is too high.
Normally we don't give out awards but this is a good time to start. We give the PlexWriter Premium drive our 'Editors Choice Award'.
Wow, [i]"Editor's Choice Award"[/i] !!!!! Thats new!
Since yesterday I have one best 'Two-sheep' recorder - PlexWriter Premium!
Howg!Way to go Plextor!
/me waites for the Plextor Premium 52x DVD writer :D
BTW this is an awsome drive, but it will be good if Plextor join the DVD-RW maker group
> WAY TOO expensive.
Come on! They can be had for a little over $100 U.S. That's chump change for a top-quality CD-R/W drive. I remember when CD-ROM drives cost over $200 and people bought them.
It's that kind of cheap attitude that drove Yamaha from the CD-R/W market. Do you want to do the same thing to Plextor? A premium product deserves to sell at a premium price. I don't want to be left to choose between various cheap, low-quality drives like Aopen, Benq, and Memorex.
So go buy a Plextor and support a company that makes top-quality drives that are fast, reliable, and can read "copy-protected" discs with ease.
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