Plextor 716A Review

CD WRITING TESTS

The Plextor 716A is also a CD Writer offering the capabilities of a 48/24/48 CD writer.

The following CD media were used in our CD-R tests:

• Verbatim 52x CDR
• Ritek Co. 40x CDR

Plextor CD-R Media Writing Test

The Plextor PX-716A offers very similar CD-Rs write speeds to the 708A the only difference is that the top speed is now 48x and as you can see below you can choose to write a CD-R disk at: 48x, 32x, 16x, 8x and 4X.

Manufacturer : Verbatim (52x)
Code : 97m34s23f
Disc Type : CD-R
Usage : General
Recording Layer : Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)

The above was our first test and we used a Verbatim 52X CD-R which was run under the CREATE DATA DISK test of CD-Speed. The drive returned a disappointing result and only saw fit to write it at 32 speed. It took 3 mins and 12secs.

We ran the test again with a RITEK 40x disk. A much better result using the RITEK CD-R disk it only took 2 mins 57 seconds and hit the magical 48x speed towards the end.

CD-RW Media Writing Test

We next tested the drive's ability to erase CD-Rewriteable media in both, full erase and quick erase mode. We also ran a CDRW full write test.

Quick Erase

In the quick erase test, the drive took 40 seconds.

Full Erase

The drive took 4 mins and 2 seconds to erase an 80 min CD-RW at 24 speed.

CD-RW DATA Write Test @ 24 SPEED

We used CDSpeeds' built in "create data disk" function to fill the disk. It started writing at 21.21x speed and jumps to 24x speed and continues towards the end. Our test took 3 mins and 39 secs to write a full 80min CD.

99MIN CD-RECORDING

For our 99min CD overburning test we used CD speed's overburn function. This test demands two things: approved media and a drive that's capable of overburning in DAO mode. The disk approved for 99min burning we used was an Infiniti 99min 32 X speed disk.

As you can see above the Plextor 716A supports 99min CD-Rs writing and during the overburning simulation test, it managed to write up to 99mins and 57 secs in simulation . Unlike other DVD writers the simulation stated that it didn't need to slow down.

Writing

We wrote the data using Nero:

Surprisingly it failed to write the data and would fail 83% of the way through. After multiple attempts and even slowing it down to 4x it didn't like our disk (the 708A passed this test at x16 speed with the same media).

CloneCD

It is reporting that the drive can not write DAO-RAW but this is not true (with firmware 1.03).

Reading

We checked the read performance with some popular Safedisk 2 protected games: MaxPayne & Serious Sam: 2nd Encounter. Intelligent Bad Sector scanner was turned off and Fast Error Skip was turned on so as to compare it with the other drives.

With I.B.S. on and fast error skip on and the drive took 21 mins:

Safedisk 2 Read Speed

I 00:16:07 Starting copy from PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A to C:\DVDWriting\ssam.ccd
I 00:16:07 Read Speed for Data Tracks: Maximum
I 00:16:07 Read Speed for Audio Tracks: 16x
I 00:16:07 Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks: Yes
I 00:16:07 Read SubChannel Data from Audio Tracks: Yes
I 00:16:07 Fast Error Skip: Yes
I 00:16:07 Don't report read errors: No
I 00:16:07 Intelligent Bad Sector Scanner: Yes
I 00:16:07 CD contains CD-Text: No
I 00:16:07 Reading Track 1... (Blocks 0-335411)
I 00:21:07 Duration of operation: 00:05:00
I 00:21:07 Average Speed: 2623 kBytes/s (14.91)
I 00:21:07 Reading finished!

Pioneer A05: Average Speed: 251 kBytes/s (1.43)

Plextor 708A: Average Speed: 3038 kBytes/s (17.27)

Plextor 716A Average Speed: 2623 kBytes/s (14.91)

The Plextor 716A's Safedisk 2 read performance was very good but not as fast as the older 708A.

SAFEDISK 2 Writing

We tested if the drive can handle correct EFM encoding with CloneCD by writing Serious Sam 2nd Encounter (which is protected with Safedisk 2.51):

AWS OFF: Copy works!

The disk worked in our DVD-ROM and we didn't need to enable the Amplify Weak Sectors option of CloneCD. The 716A DVD burner is 100% compatible with CloneCD and is very good for backing up protected game CDs.

LaserLok Read Test

We tested the drive's ability to read a Laserlok protected CD using an Original Desperados:

I 13:35:44 Starting copy from PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A to C:\DVDWriting\laserlok.ccd
I 13:35:44 Read Speed for Data Tracks: Maximum
I 13:35:44 Read Speed for Audio Tracks: 16x
I 13:35:44 Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks: Yes
I 13:35:44 Read SubChannel Data from Audio Tracks: Yes
I 13:35:44 Fast Error Skip: Yes
I 13:35:44 Don't report read errors: No
I 13:35:44 Intelligent Bad Sector Scanner: Yes
I 13:35:44 CD contains CD-Text: No
I 13:35:44 Reading Track 1... (Blocks 0-340206)

.....

I 14:37:27 Scanning bad sectors...
W 14:42:20 Writing Dummy Sectors 7204 to 7281
I 14:47:44 Duration of operation: 01:11:59
I 14:47:44 Average Speed: 184 kBytes/s (1.05)
I 14:47:44 Reading finished!

The 716A took 1h 12mins to read our Laserlok disk.

Region Protection

As part of their licensing deal most new DVD-ROM drives are region protected and will only playback a DVD movie title from a certain region. We checked to see if the 716A had region protection:

The Plextor 716A is RPC-II region protected (RPC-2 devices allow you to change the drive's region a certain number of times before the drive becomes permanently locked).

Page 4 - Last Updated: 6 January 2005