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My rule of thumb on DVD burning was that I would start thinking about it when (a) the price of a drive came down to around $200 and (b) Plextor made one. OK, it's time. Plextor's Plextor PX-708 series was launched in the fall, and I have been testing the
$234 PX-708A internal IDE model for several weeks now. So many weeks, in fact, that I got a call from a Plextor spokesperson the other day asking what happened to my review. The hack of our mailing list server was a factor, of course. But mainly I had to apologize for the fact that the delays were all about my taking a crash course in learning DVD video software. (This will be the subject of a future article.) The drive itself worked terrifically right out of the box and had a learning curve of zero. You install the drive in a bay, start up Windows XP, which recognizes the drive without difficulty. And you are in business. Plextor's reputation for ease of use and bulletproof reliability in CD burners has carried over to DVD. It did its job so well, as it happened, that much to the relief of the spokespeople for Plextor and for Verbatim media, I was able to burn movies on rewritable disks and be able to view them on regular home DVD players. The PX-708A is a "+/-" drive, which means it deals with DVD burning format wars by supporting both -- increasingly the preferred solution to the problem. Competing alliances of electronic conglomerates devised two incompatible DVD formats: DVD-R and DVD+R. (Four formats, actually, as in addition to the write-once "R" there is also is rewritable DVD-RW and DVD+RW.) Personally, I have made a point out of not learning the technical differences. The way I see it as a practical matter the difference between the two is which conglomerate gets the royalties. According to some sources, "+" is better for PC use while "-" has an edge for standalone DVD video recorders. But I tested all the formats and didn't really see an major differences. (see sidebar) The DVD form factor is, of course, the same as CDs, so multiple other formats can be handled by a burner. The Plextor supports 8X DVD+R, 4X DVD-R, 4X DVD+RW, 2X DVD-RW, 12X DVD-ROM, 40X CD-R, 24X CD-RW AND 40X CD-ROM, which pretty much has you covered. The unit has "Buffer Under Run Proof" and "PoweRec" technology -- the former keeps hiccups on your PC from ruining a burn while the latter optimizes recording speeds. Both result in more reliable recording. The drive also has the ability to write 8x on 4x DVD media -- this was done because the higher speed media had not been certified when the PX-708A. The ubiquitous Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6 software is bundled with the drive. I tested with Ahead Nero 6, and that combination worked without problem. While one tends to think about DVDs as being for videos, they also are a digital storage medium that will hold 4.7 GB of data -- or roughly six CDs. At current media prices, DVDs now
The company also has an external model the PX-708UF. It has both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces (if you have both on your PC, go with FireWire), and in a new wrinkle the external comes in a range of colors. This is unproven in the U.S. market where consumers typically complain about how PC boxes are boring, then insist on basic beige or black. A Plextor spokesperson said the company sees a demand for bright colors from consumers who buy high-end gaming oriented PCs, which typically have offbeat color schemes. With format compatibility resolved and the price point at a sensible level, DVD burning is now destined to become standard equipment on PCs and the Plextor PX-708 series is a great way to add it to yours. (c) 2004 Al Gordon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can reach Al Gordon at: |
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are more cost-effective for storage.
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