Plextor 708A

[steelly]

I have heard a lot of discussion about the 8X Dual drives that are hitting the market sequentially. Plextor was first, and it seems to be the best as per the testing and anaylization that was completed by Ian at the CDR Lab site. I happen to have purchased the Plextor after reading the reviews and subsequent postings on this site, and I must say the unit works beautifully. Burning CD's or DVD's with Memorex media has been a fantastic success. I do appreciate the knowledgeable opinions on this site, so I am perplexed as to why anybody would consider buying a DVD drive other than the Plextor 708A. I only paid $189.00 at futurepowerpc.com with free shipping and no sales tax. I just can't fathom saving a few dollars when you can purchase the best at a reasonable price! Any comments to clarify this issue would be appreciated.

[wicked1]

I will give you a few reasons why I dont have my 708.
1.DVD-R media compatibility sucks
2.It is slower than the newer drives when it comes to dvd-r as the new ones will burn the 8x minus disks whereas the plex wont.
3.Not fully compatible with IDE standards aka doesnt play well with firewire conversion kits.
4.See #1

Thats why I sold mine. I never burn +R media.

[aviationwiz]

steelly,

Glad to hear you like your PX-708A, you most certaintly am not alone when it comes to loving this drive

[tazdevl]

I will give you a few reasons why I dont have my 708.
1.DVD-R media compatibility sucks
2.It is slower than the newer drives when it comes to dvd-r as the new ones will burn the 8x minus disks whereas the plex wont.
3.Not fully compatible with IDE standards aka doesnt play well with firewire conversion kits.
4.See #1

Thats why I sold mine. I never burn +R media.

I only use A grade media. Never had an issue with -R. As of yet, there isn't 8X -R media or a drive that will write 8X to 4X -R media. Never had an issue wtih mine and my external enclosure.

[aviationwiz]

I will give you a few reasons why I dont have my 708.
1.DVD-R media compatibility sucks
2.It is slower than the newer drives when it comes to dvd-r as the new ones will burn the 8x minus disks whereas the plex wont.
3.Not fully compatible with IDE standards aka doesnt play well with firewire conversion kits.
4.See #1

Thats why I sold mine. I never burn +R media.

I only use A grade media. Never had an issue with -R. As of yet, there isn't 8X -R media or a drive that will write 8X to 4X -R media. Never had an issue wtih mine and my external enclosure.

The ND-2500A will write to TYG01 4x DVD-R media at 8x from what I have heard, but that's it. As far as using only A grade media, I too only use the best.

[tazdevl]

I will give you a few reasons why I dont have my 708.
1.DVD-R media compatibility sucks
2.It is slower than the newer drives when it comes to dvd-r as the new ones will burn the 8x minus disks whereas the plex wont.
3.Not fully compatible with IDE standards aka doesnt play well with firewire conversion kits.
4.See #1

Thats why I sold mine. I never burn +R media.

I only use A grade media. Never had an issue with -R. As of yet, there isn't 8X -R media or a drive that will write 8X to 4X -R media. Never had an issue wtih mine and my external enclosure.

The ND-2500A will write to TYG01 4x DVD-R media at 8x from what I have heard, but that's it. As far as using only A grade media, I too only use the best.

Thanks for that. I could've sworn that 8X -R with 4X media was in the works with a firmware update for that drive, but I guess I was wrong... per OC Freak http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/134/7

[steelly]

Can anybody tell me if Memorex DVD+R or DVD-R is grade A recordable media. Amazon has spindles of 100 on sale for $99.99 each, so I picked up a spindle of both because I have had 100% results using their media.
Did I make a bad decision in buying such a large quantity?

[tazdevl]

Can anybody tell me if Memorex DVD+R or DVD-R is grade A recordable media. Amazon has spindles of 100 on sale for $99.99 each, so I picked up a spindle of both because I have had 100% results using their media.
Did I make a bad decision in buying such a large quantity?

I don't generally buy more than a 25 pack at a time because prices are always dropping and there are always deals out there.

I've had great luck with Ritek/RiData brand media. I would prefer Taiyo Yuden, but it isn't readily available in the States.

- Memorex -R media is ProDisc and CMC which are B grade.
- Memorex +R media is Ricoh and CMC. Ricoh is solid and CMC is as I mentioned above.

Problem is you won't know what you're getting until you receive the media.

Before you buy... either head to www.cdfreaks.com and look in the Media forum or go to www.dvdhelp.com and read the media reports there.