Plextor PX-750A DVD Burner Review

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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…………

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Test machine:

For this
review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

⋅        
Motherboard: ASUSTeK
A8N-SLI DELUXE (nForce 4 SLI chipset)
⋅        
Processor: AMD Athlon 64
3500+ (Venice) 1000 MHz Hyper Transport
⋅        
RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX
2CL DDR
⋅        
GFX: Leadtek
Winfast 6600 TD (PCI Express nVidia)
⋅        
Sound: SoundBlaster
Audigy 2
⋅        
Hard disk: 1X 200GB
Seagate Barracuda (SATA): 1X 120GB Maxtor (SATA).

System
set-up:

The Plextor PX-750A was connected as Secondary Master and
identified itself as PLEXTOR DVDR PX750A. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

NOTE: This motherboard has 8 IDE
channels; although the screenshot states the Plextor PX-750A is connected to a
Primary IDE channel. It is in fact connected as Secondary
Master

And another
screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the
screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Plextor PX-750A supports
Mount Rainier, and DVD-RAM read/write. The drive came shipped with firmware
version 1.00.

Firmware
Update:

We checked
Plextor's website and found a later firmware version. (1.01) so we proceeded to
update the firmware.

Below we can
see the firmware update process in action.

Reviewers
note
Firmware version 1.02 was
released the day after this review was completed. From the information from the
Plextor website, firmware version 1.02 was said to improve the DVD reading
quality of the drive. We therefore rerun the reading tests with firmware version
1.02 before this review was published.

Out review PC
was once again restarted after the firmware update process had
completed.

Installed
Software:

Windows XP
Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows
XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero Burning ROM version
  6.6.1.3
  
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
  V4.10
  
• Nero InfoTool
  v4.00
  
• Slysoft CloneCD
  v5.2.5.1
  
• Exact Audio Copy
  v0.95 beta 2
  
• K-Probe
  v2.5.1

Features and techniques:

Buffer underrun
proof

The buffer underrun proof
technologies offer a solution to prevent writing failures during the burning
process for CD and DVD by pausing the burn if the data to the drive write buffer
is slowed or stopped. The drive resumes the burn process after the drive write
buffer is refilled.

PlexTools
Professional

This software tool offers
a complete suite of recording applications and supports your drive's advanced
quality check functions. Audio extraction, various recording modes, and copying
of files or disc images can be selected. Read/Write speed testing allows you to
select the best media for your drive and examine the quality of your recordings.
(www.PlexTools.com)

PlexTools Professional
XL

Based on the existing
solid code of PlexTools Professional, PlexTools Professional XL offers more
features and extra options. The new layout with resizable windows and improved
graphs, enhanced audio functions and project options, as well as the unique
update check system, is designed and tuned for the demanding user. (www.PlexTools.com)

Disc Writing
Technology:

In the
following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the
Plextor PX-750A.

For these
tests we simply burned a disc with Nero CD-Speed's 'create data disc"
function.

CD-Recordable:

The Plextor
PX-750A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at
its maximum speed of 40x. This gives an average write speed of 30.23x, and as we
can see, it took the PX-750A 3 minutes 14 seconds to write the disc.

Below we have 3 other
drives for comparison.

The Samsung
SE-W164C uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at
its maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of
37.22x.

The Samsung TS-E552U uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 40x. This gives an average speed of 34.39x.

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. The drive wrote the last
zone at 40.41X and this gives an average speed of 31.70x.

 For comparison we have
made the following table: 

As we can see
from the table, the Plextor PX-750A is about average when it comes to writing
CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Plextor
PX-750A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-RW
at its maximum speed of 24x, with an average write speed of 17.81x and a total
write time of 5 minutes and 13 seconds.

Below are some
other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of
24.90x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds

The Samsung
SE-W164C uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of
28.32x and a total writing time of 3 minutes 35 seconds.

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) writing
technology to write at 32X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 29.75x.

For a better
overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see
from the table, the Plextor PX-750A was the slowest drive when writing
CD-RW's.

16X DVD+R
Writing speed:

The Plextor
PX-750A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R
at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of
11.84x and a writing time of 6 minutes and 13 seconds.

16X DVD-R
Writing speed:

The Plextor
PX-750A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R
at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of
11.83x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 58 seconds.

Below are some
write graphs from some other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R
at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of
11.59x and a writing time of 6 minutes and 1 second.

The NEC 3540A uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.81x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 58
seconds.

The Philips
DVDR16LS uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.33x and total writing time is 6 minutes
and 8 seconds. The average speed is lower and the writing time is higher than it
could have been due to the Walking OPC generation 2 using some time to
constantly adjust the writing quality, we could see this as constant dips in the
speed curve.

The LG
GSA-4163B uses P-CAV, (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. The average speed is 12.90x and total
writing time is 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

Below, we made
a comparison table:

*1 '“ Actual
writing speed was max 14x due to USB-Bridge limitations.
*2 '“ Actual writing
speed was max 13x due to USB-Bridge limitations.

From the table
above, we can see that the Plextor PX-650A is about average when it comes to
burning DVD±R
media.

8X DVD+RW
writing speed:

The Plextor
PX-750A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.69x and total writing time is 7
minutes and 38 seconds.

Below are
three drives for comparison.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.74x and total
writing time is 7 minutes and 35 seconds.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.81x and total writing time is 8
minutes and 43 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.98x and total writing time is 7
minutes and 15 seconds.

We made the
table below for easy comparison.

The Plextor
PX-750A was above average when it came to writing DVD+RW at 8x.

6X DVD-RW
writing speed:

The Plextor
PX-750A uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.92x and the total writing time is 10
minutes and 37 seconds.

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.83x and total
writing time is 10 minutes and 55 seconds.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 6.01x and the total writing time is 9 minutes
and 53 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.80x and total
writing time is 11 minutes 6 seconds.

We present the
table below for easy comparison.

The Plextor
PX-750A was above average when writing DVD-RW media

8X DVD+R DL
writing speed:

The Plextor
PX-750A supports 8x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.

The Plextor
PX-750A used Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write the Verbatim DVD+R DL disc at 8x. The average speed was 6.80x and the
total writing time was 17 minutes and 51 seconds.

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 7.00x and total writing time is
18:06 minutes.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+R DL media at 8x which gives an average write speed of 6.55x and a
total write time of 18 minutes and 40 seconds.

The BenQ
DW1640 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an
average write speed of 7.32x and a total write time of 15 minutes and 36
seconds.

4X DVD-R DL
writing speed:

The Plextor
PX-750A used CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write the
Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 3.93x and the total writing
time was 27 minutes and 58 seconds.

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S used CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write the
Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 4.02x and the total writing
time was 27 minutes and 32 seconds.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD-R DL at 8x. This gives an average writing speed of 7.06x and a
total write time of 17 minutes and 55 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD-R DL media at 6x which gives an average write speed of 5.67x and a
total write time of 20 minutes and 41 seconds.

We present the
table below for easy comparison.

The Plextor
PX-750A was around average when writing DVD±R DL media

5x DVD-RAM
writing speed:

According to
the specifications of the Plextor PX-750A it should be able to write DVD-RAM
media at 5x.
For this test we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc.
To test the drives maximum write speed, we turned off 'write with
Verify"

The Plextor PX-750A uses
CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its
maximum speed of 5x. This resulted in an average write speed of 4.98x and a
total write time of 11 minutes and 8 seconds

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x. This resulted in an average write speed of
4.83x and a total write time of 11 minutes 28 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x. This gives an average write speed of 4.87x
and a total write time of 11 minutes 28 seconds.

The LG
GSA-4167B uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum write speed of 5x. This gives
an average write speed of 4.57x and a total write time of 12 minutes 28
seconds.

We included
the table below for easy comparison.

As we can see
from the table above, the Plextor PX-750A was the fastest drive at writing our
DVD-RAM media.

Book type
(Bitsetting):

The Plextor
PX-750A supports auto Bitsetting, and supports DVD+R/RW/DL media with DVD-ROM
book type.

Here is how
you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book
type:

Start Nero
CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get the following
screen:

DVD+R DL with book type
DVD-ROM.

Another quick
test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

This should say
DVD-ROM.

Now let us
take a look at the reading performance of the Plextor PX-750A on the nest
page….

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Reading
performance:

For these
tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD's, including
audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive
supports:

• DVD-ROM :
  16x
  
• CD-ROM :
  40x 

Pressed
discs:

For this test
we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD
that is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced
result:

The Plextor
PX-750A reached 39.23x, and will reach faster speeds on a full disc. Let's
compare the result in the table below:

The Plextor
PX-750A was around average reading a pressed CD-ROM.

CD-Recordable
Discs:

For this test
we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD. The disc we
used was a Ricoh 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Moser Baer
India. 

As we can see
from the above screenshot, the Plextor PX-750A reached 39.12x when reading CD-R.
This gives an average read speed of 29.65x.

Now let us
compare with the drives below.

Once again the
Plextor PX-750A was around average for reading CD-R media, but the seek times
were quite slow.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made
a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD; this time we used a
Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation.

As we can see
above, the Plextor PX-750A is not speed locked when reading CD-RW; now let us
compare it to other drives below.

The Plextor
PX-750A was one of the fastest drives at reading CD-RW's.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the
digital audio extraction performance of the Plextor PX-750A, again we used Nero
CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly
larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it's nearly 79
minutes in length (78:53:31).

The Plextor
PX-750A reached 39.98x when reading our Audio-CD, let us compare the result with
other drives:

The Plextor
PX-750A performed below average reading the Audio-CD.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

For this test we used EAC
(Exact Audio Copy) to test the drives Audio extraction performance. As we can
see from the screenshot below, the drive supports accurate stream and C2 Error
Info.

Below is the
results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive
didn't perform very well in burst mode, and was slower in secure
mode.

Advanced
audio '“ DAE quality test:

Before we move
on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we
used the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used
a CD-R media from RICOH (Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this
media).

The extracting
quality is excellent, and the drive performed flawlessly with this test, a good
result.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use
Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of
DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at
16X.

DVD '“
DVD-Video:

For our DVD
reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered
DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it's
useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you're going to extract
(rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD-Video Single Layer

 
DVD-Video Double Layer

The Plextor
PX-750A is not RIPLOCKED and reads a pressed DVD-Video at up to 16x for a Single
Layer disc, and at 8x for a Double Layer disc.

Now let us
test a pressed DVD-ROM disc. For this test we used the 'Plextor PX-716A" install
DVD, which is around 4.37 Gigabyte in size.

As we can see
from the above screenshot, the Plextor PX-750A reads a DVD-ROM at
16x.

The Plextor
PX-750A performed well with our SL DVD-Video test. It was one of the fastest
drives at reading a pressed SL DVD-Video disc. With the Double Layer DVD-Video
it performed around average.

DVD '“ DVD+R/RW:

For this test
we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a Verbatim 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data.
Below are the results:

DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

The read speed
is locked at 10x when reading DVD+R media and 8x when reading DVD+RW media. The
Plextor PX-750A performed around average when reading DVD+R/RW media.

DVD '“
DVD-R/RW:

For this test
we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with
about 4.4Gb of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

The Plextor
PX-750A once again performed averagely when reading DVD-R/RW media.

Overall
thoughts:

Overall
reading performance is average, we would have liked faster DVD+R and DVD-R read
speeds. During our tests, the Plextor PX-750A proved to be a reliable
reader.

But now
it's time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW
discs…

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The
specifications of the Plextor PX-750A state that the drive is able to write CD-R
discs at 40x and CD-RW at 24x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in
speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

For our data
writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703Mb using Nero Burning
ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once),
and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled.
The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest
speed. (40x):

The drive took
3 minutes and 16 seconds to write the disc at 40x. Let us see how this compares
to other drives in the table below:

Write
Quality:

We will test
CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write
speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were
written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we
used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under
Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives
and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the
discs. We used a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 and scanned the
discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R
disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the
drive's error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2
errors could also be corrected by most drive's error correction capabilities;
they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any
C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the
best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2
errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the
obtained results:

 

Brand:	Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.11
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by
Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of
0.11 it goes into the group 'best quality disc" category.
Highly recommended!

 

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India Limited
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	1x-52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.12
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

RICOH media '“
manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 2.12 it goes in
the 'good
quality disc" category. 

The result on
this Verbatim Super AZO+Cystal DL disc is very good. With a C1 error average of
1.88, this disc goes into our 'best quality disc" category. Highly recommended!

Another excellent result
from the Emgeton branded CD-R media manufactured by Fornet International. With
its C1 average of 1.33, it places this disc in our 'best quality disc" category.
Recommended!

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.55
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The Traxdata CD-R
manufactured by RITEK, with its C1 average of 0.55 places this disc in our 'best
quality disc" category. Highly recommended!

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	97m22s67f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.36
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another excellent burn,
with a C1 average of 0.36, this places this disc in our 'best quality disc"
category. Highly recommended!

Brand:	HP '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:16s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.85
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Once again we have a very
good result, with a C1 average of 0.85, this places the HP CD-R manufactured by
CMC Magnetics in our 'best quality disc" category. Highly
recommended!

Brand:	Infiniti Printable '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SKC
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.09 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:17s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.16
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another very good result,
with a C1 average of only 1.16, this places this disc in our 'best quality disc"
category. Highly recommended!

Brand:	Infiniti Samurai Lava Red '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SKC
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.09 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:16s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.09
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The Infiniti CD-R
manufactured by SKC Co Ltd, has burned with good quality. With its C1 average of
3.09, this places this disc in our 'good quality disc" category.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable
discs:

Due to requests from
our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media.
Settings and testing procedures are the same as used earlier in this review, so
you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for
these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than
5 times.

CD-ReWritable
media:

Brand:	Daxon Ultra Speed '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	97m22s60f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:13s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.14
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

With a C1 average of
1.14, this places this Daxon media in our 'best quality disc" category. An
excellent result, highly recommended!

 

The Memorex CD-RW
manufactured by Infodisc Technology, has performed extremely well. With a C1
average of 1.47, this places this disc in our 'best quality disc" category; an
excellent result. Highly recommended!

Summary:

The CD-R/RW writing quality on
the Plextor PX-750A is excellent.

So let us
head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance…

---

 

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 16x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

 

DVD-Writing performance:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD±R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4480MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Look below for the results.

The results are about average when compared to other
drives.

 

Write quality:

You should first notice that this is not a scientific and
professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent
months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality
reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different
devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors.
K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers, so we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In this test we use a Lite-On SHW-1635S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can't be compared with the results obtained
with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in
K-Probe will affect the result, we use these
settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures) set to summarize 1
ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting
the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the
standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don't
think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some
players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a
comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan shows the
results from a pressed DVD-Video disc (GoldenEye).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk
(The Green Mile). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the
error level actually drops from the end of the first layer to the beginning of
the second layer).

If you read below, you will see that both the pressed
DVD-discs are well within the standards.

Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is
some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random errors:

A row of an
ECC Block that has at least 1
byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before
correction shall not exceed 280.

Here we see that a PI error is defined as a row in an
ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors and that the
sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI
errors.

But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything, but if
you're interested, look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes
contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the
PO (Parity Outer)
information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per
block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher,
giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc
with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280
for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems
reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have
problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity Inner
Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how
is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:

'If a row of
an ECC Block as defined in 13.3
contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be 'PI-uncorrectable"."

In theory, an
ECC block may in the worst case
have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the
ECMA 337 standard goes further
and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good
disc:

'In any ECC Block the number of PI - uncorrectable rows should not exceed 4."  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1, the maximum error value should not exceed
4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will
make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF's.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc
reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the
readability of a DVD disc '“ but for this we do not have measuring equipment
available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X
CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some
discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount
of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a
NEC ND-3540A DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed the reader is that some
companies disliked that we used a modified firmware to obtain 16x reading speed.
So to please them, we are now using a drive that reads DVD+R/-R media at 16x as default. A small speed reduction near the end
is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading
failures is a bad sign.

An easier explanation on how to read the
results: 

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to
look for in KProbe reports?

Use this as a guideline for
good discs:

• PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8
  errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed
  280.
  
• PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1
  errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed
  4.

And as always; lower is better

And look at the reading curve; if it looks clean with no
dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

 

DVD+R media compatibility and write
quality:

In these
tests we will be using a Lite-On SHW-1635S drive with firmware YS0N. Mid way
through the review the SHW-1635S became unavailable; we continued the tests with
a Lite-On SHW-16H5S with firmware LS0T along with K-Probe to measure the disc
quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-3540A with firmware 1.03 along with
CD-Speed for our read-back tests. 

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.86
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

An excellent
burn to start our tests. Highly Recommended!

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:13s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.43
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

An excellent
result from the Verbatim 16x media manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals. Highly
recommended!

Brand:	Datawrite '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics Corporation
Code:	CMC MAG M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.60
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

A very good
result from this difficult to handle media.

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RICOH
Code:	JPNR02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.23
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is excellent. Recommended!

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.59
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

No surprises here, an excellent result from the Verbatim 8x
media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. Highly recommended!

Once again
the result is excellent. Highly recommended!

Brand:	Emgeton '“ Thanks to Bell Technology (CZ) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Infomedia Inc.
Code:	INFOME R20
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	15m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.13
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.32

PI and PIF
errors are all well within specification, the read-back test is perfect and the
result is good, although the disc was only burned at 4x.

Brand:	Plextor '“ Thanks to Plextor for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.09
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.11

PI errors are quite high throughout the burn, but well
within specification and the read-back test is perfect. The result is
good.

Brand:	Verbatim Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Verbatim
Code:	MCC003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.33
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The PI errors are extremely low. We have another excellent
result. Highly recommended!

Brand:	RiDisc '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN R01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	15m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.70
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

PI errors are very low as are PIF levels. However, a
cluster of PIF errors at the end of the disc has resulted in a slowdown in our
read-back test. The result is ok, but could be better.

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon Taiwan for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	Daxon AZ2
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	15m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.04
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is very good, but the disc was only written at
4x.

PI levels are low and a perfect read-back curve; we have
another very good result. Recommended!

DVD+ReWritable media:

We used the
same test procedures as in our DVD+R tests.
Below are
our obtained results

PI errors are high and out of specification at the start of
the disc. PIF errors are fairly low and our read-back test is perfect. The
result could be better.

PI errors are extremely high and out of specification
throughout the disc, PIF errors are reasonable and our read-back test is
perfect. The result could be better.

To sum it up: So far the
Plextor PX-750A writes DVD+R with good quality. However, DVD+RW write quality
requires improvement. Now let us see how the PX-750A performs with DVD-R/RW
media.

On the next
page you will find the DVD-R/RW writing results...

---

 

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On SHW-1635S drive with firmware YS0N. Mid way through the review the SHW-1635S became unavailable; we continued the tests with a Lite-On SHW-16H5S with firmware LS0T along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-3540A with firmware 1.03 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests. 

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	11.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.18

PI errors are quite high throughout the disc but well within specification, and the read-back test is perfect. The result is ok.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.39
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Low levels of PI and PIF errors on this disc, make this a very good result. Recommended!

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:09s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.12
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The PIF errors are astonishingly low, and the read-back curve is perfect. An excellent result. Highly recommended!

Brand:	HP '“ Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAGAE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:08s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.26
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

PI levels are high near the end of the disc but are well within specification. PIF error levels are low and our read-back test is perfect; a very good result. Recommended!

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK F1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	15m:22s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	46.23
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.27

The PI error levels are quite high throughout the burn and PIF levels are fairly constant throughout the burn, but all well within specification. The read-back test shows some problems and the disc was only burned at 4x. A poor result.

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	DAXON 016S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	84.10
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.73

PI and PIF errors are out of specification and our read-back test shows many problems with this disc. A firmware update can probably fix this problem. A poor result.

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY 08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.54
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

PI errors are low throughout the disc, and PIF levels are also fairly low. A very good result.

Brand:	RiVision '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Prodisc Technology
Code:	Prodisc S03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	15m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.41
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

PI errors are low throughout the disc as are PIF error levels. However, a cluster of PIF errors at the end of the disc causes a slowdown in our read-back test at the end of the disc. The result is ok but could be improved.

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon Taiwan for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON008S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.05
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

PI errors are low throughout the disc, and PIF errors are well within specification, and a perfect read-back curve; the result very good.

Brand:	Emgeton '“ Thanks to Bell Technology (CZ) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Infomedia Inc.
Code:	INFOMEDIAR20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	15m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.74
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.19

PI error levels are reasonably low and PIF errors are fairly constant but well within specification, and we have a perfect read-back curve. The result is good, but our disc was only written at 4x.

DVD-ReWritable media:

We used the same testing procedures as we did for DVD-R media.
Our obtained results can bee seen below. 

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK W06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x (CLV)
Write Time:	10m:37s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.03
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.28

The Plextor PX-750A has handled the Traxdata DVD-RW media well. A very good result.

Brand:	Infiniti - Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMCW02
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	2x
Write Speed:	2x (CLV)
Write Time:	30m:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.93
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.18

PI errors are overall very low, PIF errors remain fairly constant throughout the disc but are well within specification, and we have a perfect read-back curve; the result is good.

To sum it up: Overall, the write quality is generally good on DVD-R and DVD-RW media, but some improvements are needed on some 8x and 16x DVD-R media.

Head on to next page and read about DVD+R DL compatibility and write quality...

---

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing
speed and compatibility:

The Plextor
PX-750A supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer
discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 8x for DVD+R DL, and 4x
for DVD-R DL. Let us first take a look at the media we will use:

Let's find the
manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed
version 4.10:

Verbatim 8x '“
Manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to Verbatim
for sending us this media.

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this
media.

Ricoh JPN D00,
manufactured by Ricoh. Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this
media.

Infiniti reference series
- Manufactured by CMC Magnetics. Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us
this media.

Testing
procedure:
We created an ISO Image from
a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of 8146
MB. We then wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 6. Below are the
results:

Verbatim 8x media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Verbatim 8x media in 18 minutes and 2 seconds. (write
speed 8x)

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	18m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.84
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

PI errors are quite high
on the 1^st layer but well within specification, PI errors on the
2^nd layer are much lower. PIF errors are low throughout the burn. The
single PIF spike at the layer break should not cause concern. The result is very
good.

Verbatim 2.4x Media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Verbatim 2.4x media in 27 minutes 50 seconds. (write
speed 4x)

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	27m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	43.46
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.53

There are
clearly problems with the 2^nd layer of the disc. The PI and PIF
errors are out if specification. A poor result.

Ricoh Media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Ricoh 2.4x media in 27 minutes 50 seconds. (write
speed 4x)

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RICOH
Code:	JPN D00
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	27m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	81.52
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.56

PI errors are high
throughout the disc but within specification, there are also many PIF errors on
the 2^nd layer. The result is ok but could be improved.

Infiniti 2.4x Media

Nero reported a
successful burn with the Infiniti 2.4x media in 45 minutes and 27 seconds.
(write speed 2.4x)

Now let us take a look at
the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Infiniti '“ Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAD D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x (CLV)
Write Time:	45m:27s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.87
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.21

PI errors are well within
specification, there is however some PIF spikes which are out of specification,
but they should not cause too much concern.

Now let us try
and read the Double Layer media back, first on the Plextor PX-750A and then the
BenQ DW1640.

Plextor PX-750A read-back test (MKM003)

BenQ
DW1640 read-back test (MKM003)

Plextor PX-750A read-back test (MKM 001)

BenQ DW1640 read-back test (MKM 001)

Plextor PX-750A
read-back test (RICOH JPN D00)

BenQ DW1640 read-back test (RICOH JPN D00)

Plextor PX-750A read-back test (CMC MAG D01)

Benq DW1640 read-back test (CMC MAG D01)

As we can see from our
results, both drives were able to read all our test discs with very few
problems. There are the usual slowdowns at the layer breaks. This should not
cause too much concern.

Let's compare
the Plextor PX-750A with some other DL capable drives.

*1 Verbatim DVD+R DL
(MKM001)
*2 Traxdata DVD+R DL (RITEK D01)
*3 Ricoh DVD+R DL (RICOH JPN
D00)
*4 Datawrite DVD+R DL (CMC MAG D01)
*5 Verbatim DVD-+R DL (MKM
003)

DVD-R
DL

As mentioned
at the top of this page, the Plextor PX-750A supports the DVD-R DL standard at
4x. Let us first take a look at the media we will use:

Let's find the
manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use CD-Speed
4.10:

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this
media.

Again, we used
Nero Burning Rom 6 to write the DVD Image:

The Plextor
PX-750A took 28 minutes and 3 seconds to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL media at
4x.

To check the
disc quality we used the Lite-On SHW-16H5S along with K-Probe.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	28m:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	25.81
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.29

As we can see
from the K-Probe scan, PI errors are high on the 2^nd layer, but
within specification

We will now
check the read-back curves on two different drives.

Plextor PX-750A read-back test

BenQ DW1640 read-back test

As we can see
from the above read-back tests; both drives were able to read the Verbatim DVD-R
DL media, both drives show a slight slowdown on the 2^nd layer of the
disc. The result is ok but could be improved.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

We only have 3 standalone
DVD-Players available and 1 standalone DVD-RAM DVD-R recorder to test the DVD+R
DL medias (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type:
DVD-R):

• Panasonic
  DVD-RV32
  
• Panasonic
  SA-HT520
  
• Proline DVDP350

• Panasonic DMR-E50
  recorder

Compatibility
results: 

All DVD Standalone
devices played the Plextor PX-750A burned DVD+R DL media. But only one DVD
Standalone device would play the Plextor PX-750A burned DVD-R DL media without
any problems.

We would like to mention,
that the compatibility issue with standalone DVD Players/Recorders and the DVD-R
DL media format is caused by incompatibilities with the standalone devices used
in this review, and not the Plextor PX-750A or media format used.

Summary: Although all the discs
were readable in our scanning and read-back test drives, we would like to see
some improvement in write quality.

To round of
this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Plextor PX-750A on the next
page….

---

 

DVD-RAM:

The Plextor PX-750A is a so-called Multi drive, meaning it also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also supports the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it has differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

 

We can see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots, supposedly these spots are used for calibration while writing and reading.

A DVD-RAM's disc can be formatted in the following formats:

• FAT32
• UDF 1.02
• UDF 1.50
• UDF 2.00
• UDF 2.01
• UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done as 'background processes". Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish, you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any 'hangs" or CPU slowdowns.

Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests:

Maxell branded 5x media manufactured by Maxell

Emgeton 3x media manufactured by Optodisc

As we can see, the Maxell media is rated at 5x and the Emgeton media is rated at 3x.

Now let's see how DVD-RAM media is written and read by the Plextor PX-750A drive.

Maxell 5x without verification

Maxell 5x with verification

Emgeton 3x write without verification

For those of you who are not familiar with DVD-RAM, you may probably think that something went wrong during the write process with the verification turned on, since the 5x media was written at 2x. But not to worry, that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM discs, the reason for the 'low" speed is, the drive constantly reads back the data after writing it to verify that it's written correctly. We can also call it a 'bullet proof" writing/verify technique, with no data loss/errors.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100.000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors. Let's try to read back the 2 discs that we wrote:

Maxell DVD-RAM

Emgeton DVD-RAM

As we can see, the Plextor PX-750A also reads DVD-RAM at 5x and had no problems in reading our two test discs.

At the present time we have no other method of testing DVD-RAM media, this should not cause too much concern as the media is verified as its being written.

The 'Sheep Test":

To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Plextor PX-750A. These tests are: 'Sheep Test", protected audio discs and some special disc tests.

 For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That's because the logo of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer's ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns".

• No sheep: Can't backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
• 1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
• 2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
• 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators Womble, has written a guide concerning the 'Sheep Test" that can be found here.

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Plextor PX-750A supports most features but not all.

The Plextor PX-750A supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

 

As we can see from the table the Plextor PX-750A is a 'Two Sheep Burner", although it was not able to complete our Safedisc 2.90 test.

Copy protected Audio:

For our protected audio test, we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test: 

Celine Dion: A New Day Has Come; protected with key2audio version 3.

 

Herbert Gé¶nemeyer: Mensch - This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4 .3(build 12b)

And Michelle: Leben!; protected with Cactus Datashield 200.5.1.91 '“ 5.10.090.

Results:

From our 'copy protected audio disc" tests, we would have to conclude the Plextor PX-750A had no problems in ripping our protected audio CD's.

Overburning:

900MB (99 minute) over-burn test:

For this test we used an Infiniti Professional Compax 99min/900mb CD-R. (Thanks to Medea International (UK) for providing the disc).

From the screenshot above, it was clear the Plextor PX-750A should be able to write the 99 minute media at its full length. We then set up a test over-burn with Nero CD-Speed. We set the test at 99:52.74 to be exact, and then attempted to write a test disc.

The Plextor PX-750A successfully created our test disc. We then tested to see if the Plextor PX-750A could read our created disc. As you can see from the screenshot below, the PX-750A could not recognise our created disc.

We then tried to read our created disc in the Lite-On SOHR-5238S CD-RW drive. As we can see from the screenshot below the Lite-On CD-RW drive had no problems in reading the created disc.

We can conclude that the Plextor PX-750A can overburn CD-R media at up to 99 minutes and 52 seconds but had problems in recognising 99 minute media.

Mini DVD-RW discs:

In this section we are going to test if the Plextor PX-750A is capable of writing and reading mini DVD-R/RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

The Memorex media is made by CMC Magnetics.  Thanks to Memorex Europe for sending us this media.

As we can see, the Plextor PX-750A had no problems in writing to our MINI DVD-RW disc.

Now it was time to test if the Plextor PX-750A could read our disc.

The Plextor PX-750A had no problems in reading the created MINI DVD-RW disc.

The Verbatim MINI DVD-R was manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation. Thanks to SVP UK for providing this media.

Now it was time to see if the Plextor PX-750A could write our MINI DVD-R disc.

The Plextor PX-750A had no problems writing our MINI DVD-R disc. Now let's see if the drive can read back the disc.

The Plextor PX-750A successfully read back our MINI DVD-R disc.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the Plextor PX-750A would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 6, and used NERO CD-DVD Speed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The Plextor PX-750A is not locked and read our test VCD at full speed without problems.

This concludes our Plextor PX-750A review, let's head on to the last page to read our conclusion…

Positive:

• Excellent write quality with CD-R/RW media
• Good write quality with most DVD+R media
• Supports DVD-RAM read/write at 5x
• Supports DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x
• Supports DVD+R DL/-R DL at 8x/4x writing speed
• Good DVD-RW write quality
• Can write DVD+R DL certified media at higher speed
• Good CD-R reading performance
• Good DAE quality
• Can over-burning CD-R media
• Supports auto Bitsetting for DVD+R/RW/+R DL (BookType to DVD-ROM)
• Can read Pressed DVD-ROM/DVD-Video SL/DL at 16x/8x
• 'Two Sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Supports Mini DVD-R/RW discs
• Supports Mt. Rainier
• Good software package
• Extra 'black" bezel included in the package
• Excellent 2 year warranty

Negative:

• Read speed is locked at 10x for DVD±R media
• Single colored LED for read/write
• Write quality on some DVD-R media could be improved
• Write quality on DVD+RW media could be improved
• Only supports 24x write speed on CD-RW
• Media compatibility with DVD±R media could be improved
• Does not over-speed DVD±R media
• Write quality on some DVD+R DL media needs to be improved
• Small buffer size
• Does not support PI/PIF disc quality scanning

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points: The Plextor PX-750A can write most DVD+R with very good quality. The PX-750A was able to handle some media that is known to be troublesome; the PX-750 handled those media with ease.

CD-R write quality was also excellent, again handling some troublesome media with ease. CD-R media compatibility was also very good.

DVD-RAM was also very well implemented, the drive is the fastest drive so far tested, when writing DVD-RAM media at 5x. DVD-RAM reading is also very good, with all rated media speeds read at 5x CLV.

The supplied software is also of very good quality, with PlexTools Professional supplied with the drive, although some of the media diagnostic features are not supported by the drive. Also included is the ever popular Nero suite, and Pinnacle suite 8.3 LE.  This should provide enough software for the beginner and the more advanced user. There are also trial versions of many other software packages, which will allow the end user a chance to try out software before they buy it.

The Plextor PX-750A also runs quiet and cool. This could be important if the drive was used in the main living area or bedroom, and running cool could become important if the drive was to be used in a hot climate or cramped PC case.

Last but by no means least. The 2 year collect and return warranty (within the EU) is the best around.

The main negative points:  Every drive has its weak points, and the Plextor PX-750A is no exception.

DVD-R write quality and media compatibility could be better. From our test results, we are sure that this could be overcome by means of a firmware update. Media compatibility on DVD+R could also be improved, again this is something we are sure could be improved with a firmware update.

DVD+RW write quality is also something that needs improving. Our 8x DVD+RW did not perform well with the PX-750A.

Some work is also required to improve DVD+R DL write quality with certain DL media.

We would also like to see the read speed of DVD±R media being increased. 10x is a bit slow by today's standards.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'The Plextor PX-750A is an interesting and good performing drive". Some areas need attention, but overall the drive works well.

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we were unable to locate a listed price for the Plextor PX-750A, however getprice has the retail drive listed for 75.97 Euro (January 2006). 

You may comment on this review below or in this forum thread

Thanks to:

Bell Technology spol s.r.o. '“ Czech Republic for providing the media used in this review.

SVP Communications '“ The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe '“ The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.

Medea International '“ United Kingdom for providing the Infiniti and HP media used in this review

Plextor SA/NV (B) for providing the Plextor media used in this review.

Ricoh Europe '“ For providing the media used in this review.

E-Net Distribution '“ United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

 

Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

For providing the Memorex media used in this review. Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

Daxon (Taiwan) for providing the Daxon media used in this review.