So, the PX-716 used to be a dud but now is a peach???

[X-Nemesis]

From what I've read in posts...the revisions of 02 and beyond for this drive are the ones to look for...BUT...my question is, will this drive burn the cheapo discs I have such as princo (bleah) and Velocity 8x +R?

I can pick up this drive for $123 Can after rebate and am considering.

[steelly]

With PlexTools, the Plextor 716A is a bargain for $97.00
after MIR at futurePowerPC.Com.
http://www.futurepowerpc.com/scripts/de ... W&REFID=PG
I bought both the Plextor 708A and the 712A (single Layer)
from their online store and both drives are still burning
strong. I especially like the Plextor 712A; its a
great drive and comes with PlexTools.
You can't go wrong with Plextor quality, but do you
really need a Double Layer burner since the media
is so expensive and unproven? I personally am
going to wait a year for the DL media to catch-up
with all the DL drives, and price competion for DL
media accelerates.

[Ian]

This might be old news for some, but I stopped at Best Buy last night and saw a PX-716A with a sticker on the box advertising 6x DVD+R DL and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds. Was surprised me even more was the TLA.. it was 0304. Yet another hardware revision?

[RJW]

Yeah that hardware revision was allready reported by some other folks.

[themenace]

How do you determinr the TLA? Is it on the box or the drive? Just exactly what is a TLA?

[Justin42]

Wasn't there some thought that the 0304 may just be for the DVD-R DL logo on the faceplate? Since no one knows exactly what Plextor TLA's mean it could be just about anything (and they'd probably need to define a new faceplate).

The TLA and serial numbers are on the box and the drive.

I'm still trying to get used to my 716UF. It's not as good of an overall writer on DVD-R media as I expected but does have enough unique capabilities (good testing especially) that I'll probably keep it around. In my experience it's the pickiest drive I own (Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, LG). Bad media seems to yield HORRIBLE results. I don't know if it's worth having as your ONLY burner, especially if you have stockpiles of older media around. (for example, it bugs me I can't burn slower than 4X except on REAAAAAALY old media... like TYG01 it forces me to burn at 4X and nothing else, and the scans don't come out as good as TYG01 burned at 2X on my Sony DRU500A).

[Ian]

Yeah, the TLA is right on the box:

[hoxlund]

6x DL +/- this drive sounds damn good now

i swear my NEC or PIO will be on ebay yet

BTW just ordered the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500MCE:
http://www.hauppauge.com/Pages/products ... 00mce.html

dual tuner tv card with fm tuner, reason i did was i put up the HP media center computer we got in at staples today

i love the media center controls, plan on recording south park

[tlotz]

Yeah, the TLA is right on the box:

Hey, Ian. Got a question for you. I have a new Plextor PX-716SA that is TLA #0304. I am getting odd CD-R quality with this drive. With Taiyo Yuden 48X CD-Rs (whether they are Fuji branded or Maxell CD-R Pro), the write quality for 48X burns seems to be questionable. My Kprobe scan (scanned on Liteon LTR-52327S) has C1 Max = 28, C1 Avg = 2.74, no C2. The scan starts out well and gets high towards the end of the disc. With some of these discs, I've seen Kprobe C1 averages in the 3-4 range (with C1 Max of about 38). Is this unusual??

[RJW]

averages of 2 are not unussual for my Lite On 52327S if I burn at full speed. If I go back at 16x the error rates drop back as lower then 0.1 average !
If I use FUJI (made by FUJI ) media increasing the speed hardly seems to do influence the error levels they still stay low.

So I think's it's just the Taiyo Yuden disc's.
Keep in mind that 2-3 still is not bad.
Taiyo Yuden media I currenlty use is Plextor, Verbatim or Maxell and in rare occasions older EMTEC stuff. EMTEC only when it's important because of the ceramatic coating.