Plextor 8x DVD Writer at newegg

[VEFF]

I agree that DLP 4X is most likely MCC.

Mine (DL 4X) will be Ricoh, or if I am unlucky CMC Magnetics.

[aviationwiz]

I picked up a 10 pack of Memorex 4x Media today. I will see how they do at 8x tomorrow when I get my drive in.

[VEFF]

We are looking forward to your comments aviationwiz.
Mine is on schedule for a Friday delivery.

[aviationwiz]

tazdevl,

what day are you on par for getting your drive?

[aviationwiz]

newegg has now raised the price to $290, with free saver shipping.

I thought it was bad that xpcgear raised it to $275, now newegg has it for $290, wow.

[tazdevl]

Friday/Monday, but I'm waiting on a Abit Max3 and a new PSU, so won't be able to play around until Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

I think I got in on it for $265 ($259 + $6 shipping).

Kind of surprised that Ritek 4X +R isn't on there. Best media I've come across so far. Haven't seen any TY 4X anywhere yet either.

[aviationwiz]

Ritek 4x +R is on there. Ritek disks are made by Ricoh, so, it should work. How about you let us know, as I also might get these disks if they work at 8x. I don't have any in-stock at the moment, just Memorex 4x +R (Ricoh)

[aviationwiz]

My drive has arrived, going to go install it now

[dodecahedron]

My drive has arrived, going to go install it now

Congrats!
enjoy your new toy!

[VEFF]

My drive has arrived, going to go install it now

Congrats!
enjoy your new toy!

Yes, congrats and good luck aviationwiz!
I am sure you're in the middle of setting it up or testing it right now.

According to the tracking, mine has been in the same place for 28 hours, but I guess that is because it is close to my area.
In any case, it says it is still on schedule for delivery tomorrow - just in time for the weekend!!!

[MadBurner]

I can't seem to find the black version in stock anywhere. Anybody have any idea where I can order one?

[MadBurner]

Just ordered mine from LiveWarehouse for $259 plus $11 UPS Ground shipping!!

[VEFF]

Please let us know how you make out.
Two people on another forum complained recently about problems with LiveWarehouse orders.
Their recent resellerratings.com comments are mostly 'Very Satisfied' though, so it could just be bad luck for those two people.

[tazdevl]

Ritek 4x +R is on there. Ritek disks are made by Ricoh, so, it should work. How about you let us know, as I also might get these disks if they work at 8x. I don't have any in-stock at the moment, just Memorex 4x +R (Ricoh)

I don't think that's correct. I'm pretty sure Ritek manuf their own discs. Die color itself is different.

Mine's showing up tomorrow. Getting back from vaca and have to wait until Monday when my new PSU and Abit Max3 show up before I can play. At least it gives me time to go buy some DLP.

Anyone notice allmediaoutlet.com is gone? Not sure if someone hijacked their DNS address or they went out of business.

[VEFF]

Ritek 4x +R is on there. Ritek disks are made by Ricoh, so, it should work. How about you let us know, as I also might get these disks if they work at 8x. I don't have any in-stock at the moment, just Memorex 4x +R (Ricoh)

I don't think that's correct. I'm pretty sure Ritek manuf their own discs. Die color itself is different.

Mine's showing up tomorrow. Getting back from vaca and have to wait until Monday when my new PSU and Abit Max3 show up before I can play. At least it gives me time to go buy some DLP.

Anyone notice allmediaoutlet.com is gone? Not sure if someone hijacked their DNS address or they went out of business.

Worked fine for me moments after you posted this.
I was automatically directed to allmediaoutlet.net

[tazdevl]

Yup... they must have changed ISPs... had to flush my DNS cache.

[aviationwiz]

Ritek 4x +R is on there. Ritek disks are made by Ricoh, so, it should work. How about you let us know, as I also might get these disks if they work at 8x. I don't have any in-stock at the moment, just Memorex 4x +R (Ricoh)

I don't think that's correct. I'm pretty sure Ritek manuf their own discs. Die color itself is different.

Mine's showing up tomorrow. Getting back from vaca and have to wait until Monday when my new PSU and Abit Max3 show up before I can play. At least it gives me time to go buy some DLP.

Anyone notice allmediaoutlet.com is gone? Not sure if someone hijacked their DNS address or they went out of business.

Ritek DVD Minus is manufactured by themselves. Ritek DVD Plus is manufactured by Ricoh.

[MadBurner]

Please let us know how you make out.
Two people on another forum complained recently about problems with LiveWarehouse orders.
Their recent resellerratings.com comments are mostly 'Very Satisfied' though, so it could just be bad luck for those two people.

I'm not sure if my order even went through now because they couldn't except a PO Box as a billing address and so I will have to wait until tomorrow to figure out what's going on.

Are there coupons still floating around for free shipping from LiveWarehouse?

[cfitz]

I can't seem to find the black version in stock anywhere. Anybody have any idea where I can order one?

I guess it is too late for you now, but NewEgg has it in stock in black:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.a ... 311&DEPA=1

($290, but shipping is free)

cfitz

[MadBurner]

I guess it is too late for you now, but NewEgg has it in stock in black:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.a ... 311&DEPA=1

($290, but shipping is free)

cfitz

Thanks for the update! We'll see if the order goes through with LiveWarehouse as their price after shipping was $270!

[tazdevl]

Thought you guys might find this interesting. Exchanging emails with Plex tech support. I'm not sure if the guy is telling me that there will be no 8X -R based on policy (not hardware) or since 8X is the max speed, 8X -R might be possible.

If this is their policy, pretty bad one especially considering the precedent set by Sony with 2.0F firmware upgrade and how popular the drive became. Plex needs all the help they can get since they're so late to market, regardless of the specs.

Ian, I think after this email we'll all be interested in hearing what your pal @ Plextor has to say.

You asked if a firmware update might provide faster write speeds. As with all our drives, the write speeds are set at the time of manufacture, firmware updates will not change that.

Plextor America Support Team -- Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Brett Enlow [mailto:XXX@comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 7:58 AM
To: 'Plextor Support'
Subject: RE: 708A Question


So then there's a chipset limitation for -R.
-----Original Message-----
From: Plextor Support [mailto:support@plextor.com]
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 7:56 AM
To: Brett Enlow
Subject: RE: 708A Question


Typically, firmware updates for our drives do not include the ability to write at faster speeds.

Plextor America Support Team -- Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: Brett Enlow [mailto:XXX@comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 7:44 AM
To: 'Plextor Support Team'
Subject: RE: 708A Question


That's rather surprising since there will be media available @ the IFA. I find it difficult to believe that Plex hasn't received an engineering sample. Then again I'm sure you're under an NDA.

How about this, is the drive capable of faster write speeds via a firmware upgrade?
-----Original Message-----
From: Plextor Support Team [mailto:support@plextor.com]
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 1:12 AM
To: 'Brett Enlow'
Subject: RE: 708A Question


We cannot give projections as to what we plan to do in the future, or what we "may" be able to do in the future. Currently, the fastest write speed today on DVD-R is 4X, and there is 4X DVD-R media available to support this. There is currently no 8x DVD-R media, so there is no way to test it in any case.



Plextor America Support Team - Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Brett Enlow [mailto:XXX@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 8:12 PM
To: support@plextor.com
Subject: 708A Question


Hi,

Have a 708A en route from Newegg and had a question. Since the drive is capable of writing 8X to +R media, what's the chance that we will see it writing @ 8X to -R media?

Given the fact that Verbatim should have some 8X -R media on the market in a month or two, even though there's hasn't been a spec formalized yet, seems to me that being able to write to both formats @ 8X is a worthwhile feather to have in your cap. Is there the potential for the drive to be able to do this via a firmware upgrade?

Thanks,

[VEFF]

Thanks for sharing that taz.

I doubt it is their policy. If so, I agree that it is not in their best interest to have such a policy.
I think Plextor simply wanted to get their 8X +R-capable burner out to market first, and couldn't wait to build their drive in such a way that a future firmware upgrade would enable 8X -R writing, since the spec hasn't even been created/finalized yet.

I am not sure how Sony was able to build their 500A in such a manner that they were able to increase +R write speed via firmware to 4X from 2.4X in the DRU-500A.
I haven't heard of any other manufacturers offering similar upgrades, especially for free.

I personally have been burning almost exclusively +R (as oppsed to -R) for a while now, since quality 4X +R is cheaper (thanks to frequent deals at BestBuy etc.) and more readily available than 4X -R.

+R plays in 3 of my 4 home DVD players (-R in all 4), including the two that are progressive scan - the only two players I use now - so +R compatibility is not an issue for me.

In addition, the fact that good 4X +R discs can be burned at 8X, means that I wouldn't be spending extra for 8X -R to be able to write at the same speed.

It is, however, a good sign I guess for -R that they will go to 8X; I thought 4X would be it, and that +R would basically take over the DVD recordable market gradually.

[tazdevl]

You'd be amazed @ some of the policies floating around out there that exist solely to force an upgrade path.

I was thinking along the lines of that regardless whether or not a spec has been finalized, if drive is able to write @ 8X for +R, I can't believe that a clever FW engineer can't make it happen for -R.

With the Sony, the drive was already physically capable of burning @ 4X, so the write routines were modified to enable 4X burning in both formats. We're not talking about making a drive with a 4X max speed capable of writing @ 8X.

This is essentially the same situation with the Plex.

[Ian]

I sent Plextor's PR rep an email this morning. I totally forgot about the 8x DVD-R question. I just sent another email now.

[VEFF]

You'd be amazed @ some of the policies floating around out there that exist solely to force an upgrade path.

I was thinking along the lines of that regardless whether or not a spec has been finalized, if drive is able to write @ 8X for +R, I can't believe that a clever FW engineer can't make it happen for -R.

With the Sony, the drive was already physically capable of burning @ 4X, so the write routines were modified to enable 4X burning in both formats. We're not talking about making a drive with a 4X max speed capable of writing @ 8X.

This is essentially the same situation with the Plex.

Right, I was aware that the Sony was already 4X capable. Not being an expert in the field, I don't know how similar or different 4X +R and 4X -R standards are, and the same for 8X. I also don't know anything about writing code for a burner's firmware.

I agree that there are many ridiculous policies out there, that cost companies a lot due to lost sales.

Well, only time will tell.
I can only say that if it turns out to be a policy (not that they would necessarily admit to it if that were the case), I will be much more inclined to buy a Sony burner down the road:
They not only offered the free fw upgrade for 4X +R burning, but also allowed the drive to burn at 2X to certain (tested) 1X -R media.
That is what owners want...