Plextor INT DVD+R/RW 4X/2X/12X ( PX-708A/SW )

by Plextor

Product Details

Data Sheet [169kb PDF]

• Item Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000AZJXV
• Item model number: PX-708A/SW
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,598 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 17, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Plextor PX-708A delivers the fastest performance in dual formats: 8X DVD+R write, 4X DVD-R write, 4X DVD+RW rewrite, 2X DVD-RW rewrite, and 12X DVD-ROM read. In addition to recording, rewriting and reading DVD discs in dual formats, the PX-708A supports 40X CD-R write, 24X CD-RW rewrite and 40X CD-ROM read speeds. All in one drive. Create a 4.7 GB disc on DVD media in about 8 minutes.

You won't find a better DVD recordable drive to create, edit and share customized DVDs and CDs with friends and family using video, photo, audio and data. Capture, archive, organize and personalize your home movies and photos on DVD, VCD, mini DVD and SVCD. Create photo slide shows, complete with transitions and music. Burn your photos to Video CD to play on most DVD players. You can also back up and archive 4.7 GB on a single-sided recordable DVD disc or create photo albums for viewing with DVD players and much more.

Total Solution Features

• 8-in-1 Combo drive: 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
• Lossless linking technology enables users to perform basic editing tasks directly on the DVD disc
• Buffer Under Run Proof technology prevents buffer under run errors
• PoweRec technology is a sophisticated write strategy providing superior quality recording at maximum speed for your chosen media
• Support DVD+RW background format
• Support DVD+VR format
• Horizontal or vertical mounting orientation
• Black CD tray minimizes jitter
• OS Support -- Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, XP
• One-year full warranty (parts and labor)
• Unlimited toll-free tech support

Minimum Systems Requirements

• CPU: Pentium III 700MHz or above
• HDD 800 MB - 1 GB free space for copying CD to CD image
• 6 GB free space for DVD authoring RAM 128 MB
• Monitor Display Resoution 1024 X 768 at 16-bit color
• OS Support -- Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, XP

Product Description

This Plextor PX-708A is a versatile, multi-format drive that lets you save and share your videos, photos, music and data! This drive is capable of burning DVD+R at 8x, 4x for DVD-R DVD+RW, and 2x for DVD-RW discs. With Buffer Underrun Proof technology, this PX-708A drive ensures fast, reliable writing every time. The Power of Plextor - Buy yours today!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The drive is great - included software not good, October 23, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Plextor INT DVD+R/RW 4X/2X/12X ( PX-708A/SW ) (Personal Computers)

This is the DVD/R/RW drive I have been holding out for. It reads & writs all DVD recordable formats except DVD-RAM. And at the fastest speeds possible today. It will even write to DVD+R 4x media at 6-8x! But it will not write to DVD+RW 2.4x at 4x. You have to use DVD+RW 4x media to get 4x RW speeds-and right now those are hard to find! But 2.4x is not half bad for RW.

As for burning CDR/RW, it does the trick and is even faster than my old 24x burner. But be careful! I found out the hard way that burning to SOME media at higher speeds is not ideal for playback in most CD-Audio players. You might begin to hear artifacts such as skipping and clicking on SOME players. But if you play it back on the computer it sounds just fine. Best to keep audio recordings at or below 24x. Note, however, that this drive is limited to 4, 8, 16, 32, or 40x CDR recordings.

The 4-8x recording speeds allow you use VariREC to experiment with the intensity of the write laser to make your recordings more compatible with older, more fussy CD palyers & drives, though I found that using CDR manufactured by Taiyo-Yuden solves this problem most of the time (Taiyo-Yuden CDR are known to often read back with less errors than today's pressed CD's).

PoweREC monitors the recording quality throughout the burning process and will adjust the recording speed to maintain a consistent write quality throughout the disc. But keep in mind, the drive is very good at reading poor discs (more so than most audio players and other CD/DVD rom drives), so that doesn't guarantee that other drives won't experience some problems. You can disable this feature if you wish (but why would you want to do that?)

Missing from the features list is Plextor's GigaREC and Q-Check - available only in the Plextor Premium line of CDR drives. But it can play back discs recorded using the GigaREC feature. I would have liked to have seen those features here, but certainly the drive packs quite a punch anyway.

The only other drawback is the included software. Roxio Easy CD Creator 6.0 Standard. I found this software to be very quirky, especially the Classic interface. It has a habit of locking up the computer, and mine is not the only one, after having read the message boards on the Roxio website. The disc-to-disc copy software worked well, is feature-packed, and had a very nice graphic display during copy. At the time I chucked this software in favor of Nero, there were no updates available to fix the lock up problems. I never tried the DVD authoring portion of the software.

Additionally, Plextor did not include PlexTools - an awesome piece of software that is included with their PlexWriter Premium drives. That is probably because the PlexTools hadn't been updated with DVD capabilities yet, and due to the fact that the drive doesn't support Q-Check--the ability to run a qualitative analysis of the recordings it makes and display the error rates to the user, which is particularly useful in determining whather the brand of CDR you are using is good or bad.

All-in-all, I would be doing a disservice to give this drive anything less than 5 stars-it is clearly the best DVD and CD buring drive on the market. And with the introduction of the 708UF external models (in more than a rainbow of colors to match your computer's case!), there's no reason to consider another drive for all of your DVD or CD burning needs.

Note: Plextor recommends using Verbatim DVD media. For CDRs, they highly recommend Verbatim Datalife+ (not standard Datalife) or Taiyo-Yuden. These will give the best results, with error rates close to that of quality pressed media, especially when burned at 4-8x. Of course, most media will work just fine. I have burned Memorex and TDK 4x DVD+R at 8x speeds.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Drive Out There, October 23, 2003

By 

"impulse411" (Cedar Falls, IA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plextor INT DVD+R/RW 4X/2X/12X ( PX-708A/SW ) (Personal Computers)

This is my first DVD burner, but I have done a great deal of research and this Plextor burner is the best DVD burner available today. It is due mostly to the fact that it can burn at 8x for DVD+Rs, but the 40x CD-R burning is a first for DVD burners as well. It has the best burning speeds available for every format so you can't go wrong with this burner.

One thing you will want to do immediately upon installing this drive: update the firmware. Until you update the firmware, you won't be able to burn any DVD-Rs or DVD+Rs unless you are using high quality media. The latest firmware, 1.03, fixes a lot of these issues and it will make sure you burn the least amount of coasters. :) It's a great drive and Plextor is working many of the kinks out as they come up (as all first generation products have) and that is commendable.

So far I have had no problems with this drive that weren't fixed with the latest firmware. I've been using Nero exclusively though, since it's what I prefer. I've heard that some people are having trouble using Nero 6, so you might want to stick with 5.5. If you are looking for the best DVD burner out there, look no further than the Plextor PX-708a.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great product, October 22, 2003

By 

samooer "samooer" (Urbana, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plextor INT DVD+R/RW 4X/2X/12X ( PX-708A/SW ) (Personal Computers)

I did not own previous DVD Burners prior to buying this drive, so I do not have any real life comparisons. However, I did consult websites, such as www.dvdrhelp.com, which had a bunch of reviews. Based on remarks there, I decided to buy this drive to back up my photographs. (Canon 10D RAW files are 6-9MB each).

Installation was simple, but I have prior computer repair experience. However, should be no problem for most. This drive is really remarkable. Not only 8X DVD burning, (works on most 4X media), but also 40X CD-R burning which most other all-in-one drives do not have. The highest I have usually seen while comparison shopping was only 16X.

Burning a full 4.7GB DVD+R disc averages around 7 min 30 sec to 8 min 45 sec.

The included software, I did not really like. Roxio 6 software was not my taste--too user friendly, with too many start-up programs that appear on your taskbar by the clock. I am using Nero 6.0.19 with no problems.