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How good is the Plextor 482448A?

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:50 am
by minimax
Hello all this is my first post. I'm interested to get the drive mentioned in the title. I just want your opinions before I make my decision. What are it's strong points, weaknesses? I'll be using the drive for data and music in about equal portions. Money isn't much of a consideration, it's price is ok, and with a rebate currently. Those with experiences with this particular drive, could you share your opinions? Thanks.

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 8:23 am
by Noua
Well, a post where I can actually talk about something that I really know... :D:D:D

So this is the issue... My first burner was a HP 8100+... I will only say that after that experience, no more HP products for me...

I bought my Plextor drive last December, kind of Christmas gift to myself... Imagine the boost on time and speed when you improve a drive that supposedly burns at 4x (she is only recording at 2x) to a 48x drive.

I can tell you when it comes to spend money, specially on the computer world, I’m that kind of people that must know all the details about the products and that has plenty alternatives. Sometimes instead of clearing the subject i just get more confused and take a little more time to decide.

When i decided to buy the drive I already knew that it had to be a Plextor. When it comes to quality I must say that Plextor is the top (Yamaha are pretty good but they stopped the burner production). So far I have never had a failure and I burn audio/data/mixed CD quite often. It takes around 3-3.3 minutes to burn a 700mb CD (including lead in and out). I’m not talking about the time to read the source cd, just the burn. It has 4mb of buffer witch is more than enough. The burn proof technology has saved some CD to me, but my PC wasn’t working that good by then…
The over burning capacity is amazing, once I was able to put 730 MB on a 700 cd and it worked perfectly on other readers…

I don’t use Plextools although I have it installed but I’d rather go with Nero. Nevertheless I’ve played around with plextools and it’s a very powerful tool.
A curious thing… The last plextor burners have the powerec function that allows you to force a burning speed on a CD when deactivated. I must tell you that I’ve never deactivated mine and I’ve been able to record CD’s at 48x that are not labeled 48x. Some of them where labeled 32x…
To me the negative, if you can call it that, thing on this, and it’s not Plextor fault, is the lack of 24x rw media (tried the 24x Memorex... forget them, they're no good)… I haven’t used any rw media that is faster than 4x so I can’t say much about it. What I can say is that when it comes to rw media the plextor drive doesn’t recognize some very old media that I have (BTC). I mean, it doesn’t erase the media but it records on it… Amazing…

Well has you can see my experience with this drive is very positive and if you don’t have money issues on it then don’t think twice. Go for it.. It’s worth it…But, and in these things there’s always a but, Plextor itself has other faster burners… They have the 52x24x52x and the 52x32x52x (premium) on the market. They are newer so they are more expensive… But they burn faster and have other technologies…
Think about it…

One last thing… It’s important to keep the firmware updated because you get several improvements.

Any other question just ask that I’ll help in whatever I can…

Godd Luck!


AMD and Plextor Rule!!!!!!!!
:D:D :P

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 12:57 pm
by tlotz
Avoid the 48/24/48A at all costs! It is terrible. I had numerous problems with this drive, and for a single drive upgrade, I went through 3 drives trying to get one that worked to my satisfaction. The first drive had the vibration/excessive noise problem, and the last two had serious issues with the Verbatim Ultra Speed CD-RW media they were *designed* to work with. This is not to mention other problems, i.e. the drive locking up in strange places for no apparent reason. As for performance, this drive should really be called a 48/24/40 because the 48X read speed, when activated by enabling SpeedRead, only works on Mode 1 pressed CDs/CD-Rs. Then when the 48X read speed does work (only on those Mode 1 discs), it only achieves 48X with a CD that has 80 minutes/700 MB (or more) of data. In other words, this drive is *slow* for a 48X reader. Also, SpeedRead is annoying--but dealing with SpeedRead is the least annoying aspect of owning this drive. The drive is also slow writing CD-Rs when compared to other 48X writers. Another weakness this drive has, along with the new Plextor 52/24/52A is the fact that it only has 3 rewrite (CD-RW)speeds--24X, 10X, and 4X. This is quite annoying, because of the abandance of 12X CD-RW media that will write at 10X on this drive. The other important CD-RW rewrite speed it doesn't have is 16X. I have heard about numerous people having trouble with the 48/24/48A--other problems consisted of motherboard compatibility and poor quality audio (with crackling noises). I can post links to those threads where I read about those problems. If you *have* to have a Plextor drive, buy a Plextor Premium. It has many unique features and appears to have decent quality. If you don't want to buy the Plextor Premium, then just buy a Lite-On drive! I bought a Lite-On drive, and have been happy ever since. If you go the Lite-On route, I'd wait until the Lite-On LTR-52327S becomes available so you get the latest and greatest from Lite-On. There are many people in this forum who dream about the Lite-On LTR-52327S at night when they go to bed. :-)

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 2:23 pm
by Noua
I must say that i find the last post very strange... I haven't had any kind of problems with my drive, and when i mean any i mean any... The 48x is known has not being the fastest 48x drive but one with the most quality... It's a balance of quality over speed i think.. It's true, if you want speed go with Lite On or Lg, if you want quality... well you know where to go... But this just my opion...

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 2:55 pm
by tlotz
Noua wrote:I must say that i find the last post very strange... I haven't had any kind of problems with my drive, and when i mean any i mean any... The 48x is known has not being the fastest 48x drive but one with the most quality... It's a balance of quality over speed i think.. It's true, if you want speed go with Lite On or Lg, if you want quality... well you know where to go... But this just my opion...

Noua, I didn't say anything about your post (until now), but since you mentioned mine, I'll say something about your opinion. Let's just ignore the performance issues of the 48/24/48A, and examine quality. A drive that has had numerous defects--defects that affect different people depending on what system they have and what version of the drive they have is not a quality drive. It may work well for you, because you haven't had any problems with it, but many people have. From what I've read, this drive has had far more than its share of problems. I have a Computer Science degree and I troubleshooted the problems I had with my 48/24/48A drives, and the problems I had were confirmed by other people, including the Director of Engineering at Plextor America. As for quality of support, in the USA, Plextor's support is terrible. I was told by multiple Plextor techs that my second defective drive was not defective, but it was. One other aspect of quality is write quality. This drive's write quality is no different on CD-Rs than my Lite-On, so what's the advantage of a Plextor? Right now, I really don't feel like posting URLs to other threads containing people who got burned by this drive's lack of quality (this is because I have limited time). I know for a fact from what you said that you have never used the drive with Verbatim Ultra Speed CD-RW discs, and therefore cannot say anything about my experiences with the drive with these discs. As for reliability, I don't know whether a Plextor would last longer than a Lite-On or not. But, why buy a drive known to have numerous problems when you can buy one that is problem free? Don't you dare call my post strange! Keep in mind, that I did not say anything about your opinion initially because I respected your right to have that opinion!

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 3:05 pm
by Scour
Hello!

Some friends of mine have the Plextor 4824A. The only "problem" from this writer is, that it only burns some media at 48x.

But all other things like writing-quality, noise and so on is great

Buy it, it´s real good :)

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 6:10 pm
by Noua
tlotz,

Ok, maybe my previous post sounded like I was saying that your post is strange, I mean I wrote that... This wasn't suppose to sound like that and I apologize for it. What I meant was that (I hope I can put it in a good way, remember I'm from Portugal and English isn't my natural language) I've had quite some friends that bought this drive, I own one of those and none of us has had any problems. I also have a friend (well more like someone that I know than what we can call a friend) that has the drive for 4 moths now and every week he burns more than 200 cd's (don't ask me why cause I cannot answer) and the drive works perfectly. With all this I'm not saying that your post is strange. I hope you can understand that for someone that had no problems with the drive and the same goes to 3/4 friends I wasn't expecting to read what you wrote and I find it strange or curious. I'm not doubting you, not by all means, I just never thought the drive could give so much trouble... Maybe, in Europe, we've been lucky, maybe the plants where the drives are built are different... I really don't know... Once again I apologize for my bad English and I must tell you that I respect your opinion and experiences, for me that was never an issue or problem...

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2003 9:08 pm
by tlotz
Noua wrote:tlotz,

Ok, maybe my previous post sounded like I was saying that your post is strange, I mean I wrote that... This wasn't suppose to sound like that and I apologize for it. What I meant was that (I hope I can put it in a good way, remember I'm from Portugal and English isn't my natural language) I've had quite some friends that bought this drive, I own one of those and none of us has had any problems. I also have a friend (well more like someone that I know than what we can call a friend) that has the drive for 4 moths now and every week he burns more than 200 cd's (don't ask me why cause I cannot answer) and the drive works perfectly. With all this I'm not saying that your post is strange. I hope you can understand that for someone that had no problems with the drive and the same goes to 3/4 friends I wasn't expecting to read what you wrote and I find it strange or curious. I'm not doubting you, not by all means, I just never thought the drive could give so much trouble... Maybe, in Europe, we've been lucky, maybe the plants where the drives are built are different... I really don't know... Once again I apologize for my bad English and I must tell you that I respect your opinion and experiences, for me that was never an issue or problem...


Noua:

I accept your apology. I am glad you feel that way, because I wanted my opinion on this thread to be read and respected like everyone else's. You did understand the message I had for you: just because someone's opinion contradicts yours, doesn't mean it's strange. Now that we are not being critical of one another, I would like to say one more thing. I'm sure that you and your friends have had success with this drive. When I bought the drive, I thought I would love it too, because I was a previous Plextor SCSI customer and I thought Plextor was the greatest. My advice is based on the following:

It is unknown which drives (TLA # and manufacture date and place) have which problems *except* that Plextor admitted publically that the vibration problem affected *some* 48/24/48A drives made before October 2002. *If* you want more reading on these problems, go to:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=4

There are a few threads there that discuss problems with the 48/24/48A--the biggest two being the, "Plextor 48/24/48A and loud vibration problem" thread and the "Static crakl noise audio cd 48/24/48a Plextor" thread. After reading these threads, and other complaints about the 48/24/48A posted elsewhere, I came to the conclusion when you read the problems I had with this drive, and the problems many others have had it, that there must be a larger than normal defect/problem rate with this drive. I don't know this for sure--only Plextor knows for sure if the 48/24/48A is more problematic than average. I feel that who has a problem with this drive and who doesn't is based on many factors:

1) What one does with the drive (i.e. you haven't used it with the Verbatim Ultra Speed CD-RW discs which were the *only* discs to give me trouble)
2) Where the drive is made, when the drive was made, and what TLA # the drive has
3) What computer the drive is put in--the drive appears to have problems with some motherboard chipsets
4) Luck--not all drives made at a certain factory (Japan or China are the only two I know of) have a certain problem

Anyway, this post is long enough. My basic point is this: why get a 48/24/48A drive when you can buy another drive (i.e. Plextor Premium or Lite-On) that is much less likely to cause you trouble? I know for sure if I read such informative posts in online forums before i bought my 48/24/48A drives, I would *not* have bought them at all. Your 48/24/48A drive *may* have the Verbatim Ultra Speed CD-RW problem--you can't say it doesn't because you haven't tried it yet, and there are many drives, regardless of there manufacture date, place, and TLA #, that don't have the vibration problem. Like I said above, the 48/24/48A appears to cause problems with certain motherboard chipsets, which could have caused one of my problems with the drive and would indicate a quality/defect problem on the part of Plextor.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:18 am
by minimax
Thank you for the very interesting exchange. Wow you 2 guys really covered a lot of points that I'm sure will be helpful for members here. Anyway, tlotz you got your drive before the October revision right? Do you think the drives made after then has improved?

Thanks for the suggestion on the Premium and the Lite-on, I will consider both, but are they priced more than the 4824a? Would really like to get the plextor at this time (I can get the 4824a for 41usd after rebate, free ship). Thanks again for the responses given.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2003 4:39 am
by Noua
I don't know if this is relevant but I bought my drive in December and the rest of "us" bought it in January and February...
Has for the CD-Rw media, one thing I'm sure, Memorex 24x cd-rw media in my drive and my friends drives are not readable... As for the Verbatin, We haven’t found it hear and I'm very anxious to find it...

I’m glad that we were able to talk about my reply cause I was reading it again this morning and indeed sounded in a different way that I intended and once again I really assume my fault on that matter…

I hope we can keep exchanging experiences especially about the plextor… Is your drive working properly now? Cause this is a matter that I have particular interest so I can be prepared for future problems…

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 11:59 am
by dodecahedron
there are some reports of problems running Plextor drives (40x and up) on motherboards based on SIS chipsets.

here's two:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6621
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7104

you can search these forums, search for "Plextor + SIS"

if you have a SIS chipset based motherboard, i would strongly advise you against using a plextor drive.

(btw, if it makes any difference, i like plextor drives and own 2 of them).

PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2003 2:42 pm
by Scour
Hello!

I don´t know all the manufacturers, but Plextor is not the only drives who have problems with some chipsets from SiS and Via, NEC has it, too

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 1:54 pm
by dodecahedron
Scour wrote:I don´t know all the manufacturers, but Plextor is not the only drives who have problems with some chipsets from SiS and Via, NEC has it, too

i didin't say it was the only one. however as far as SIS, there were quite a few issues with Plextor that were reported on this forum, more so than other drives as far as i recall, so i thought it worthwhile mentioning this.

i haven't read here any posts about problems with NEC and SIS !

as i said in my own post, i like plextors!

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 2:19 pm
by Scour
dodecahedron wrote:
Scour wrote:I don´t know all the manufacturers, but Plextor is not the only drives who have problems with some chipsets from SiS and Via, NEC has it, too

i didin't say it was the only one. however as far as SIS, there were quite a few issues with Plextor that were reported on this forum, more so than other drives as far as i recall, so i thought it worthwhile mentioning this.

i haven't read here any posts about problems with NEC and SIS !

as i said in my own post, i like plextors!


I didn´t read the problems with NEC here, but in german magazine´s and forum

http://www.brennmeister.com/forum/viewt ... =486410#13

http://www.brennmeister.com/forum/viewt ... t=498717#4

http://www.brennmeister.com/forum/viewt ... t=265650#9

http://www.brennmeister.com/forum/viewt ... t=204189#4

http://www.brennmeister.com/forum/viewt ... ht=52676#3


You see, problems with Sis have: Toshiba, Teac, Liteon, LG...

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 6:42 pm
by dodecahedron
Scour wrote:You see, problems with Sis have: Toshiba, Teac, Liteon, LG...
OK man, i believe you! :)

PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2003 6:58 pm
by Scour
dodecahedron wrote:
Scour wrote:You see, problems with Sis have: Toshiba, Teac, Liteon, LG...
OK man, i believe you! :)


I see :)

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 12:28 am
by CDRecorder
I personally think that the Plextor is not a bad drive, but I think it's overpriced unless you are intending to burn very large numbers of CDs.

IMHO, it would probably be better to buy a less expensive drive, but that's up to you.

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 5:04 am
by Scour
LiteOnGuy wrote:I personally think that the Plextor is not a bad drive, but I think it's overpriced unless you are intending to burn very large numbers of CDs.



Plextor isn´t cheap, but very reliable. Some friends have old Plextor CD-Writers, 4x and 8x and these writers work and work without problems.

When i think of my older Liteon and Philips-drives, these drives didn´t work for one year :-?

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 8:32 am
by CDRecorder
I'm sorry to hear that your drives haven't worked for very long, Scour. I have had a Lite-On LTR-12101B for nearly two years and a Philips PCRW1208 for more than 1.5 years, and both drives still work fine.

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 8:35 am
by CDRecorder
By the way, I'm not anti-Plextor. I think that Plextor makes good drives, but I also think that they are overpriced, causing other options to be better for most people. This is just my opinion, and I do respect the opinions of those who feel differently.

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 9:00 am
by Scour
LiteOnGuy wrote:By the way, I'm not anti-Plextor. I think that Plextor makes good drives, but I also think that they are overpriced, causing other options to be better for most people. This is just my opinion, and I do respect the opinions of those who feel differently.


I never said that you are a Anti-Plextor :)

But I had bad experience´s with some other guys who have a brand/manufacturer as their nickname :-?

A friend had a 12101b, too. It works for 6 weeks only. And in german forums were after the 12101b was begun to sale extreme many threads about problems with it. Seems to be you are a lucky one ;)

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 10:02 am
by CDRecorder
Scour wrote:I never said that you are a Anti-Plextor :)

But I had bad experience´s with some other guys who have a brand/manufacturer as their nickname :-?

A friend had a 12101b, too. It works for 6 weeks only. And in german forums were after the 12101b was begun to sale extreme many threads about problems with it. Seems to be you are a lucky one ;)


I realize that no one has said that I am Anti-Plextor; I just wanted to clarify my position (especially since I have a manufacturer's name in my nickname).

I am sorry to hear that your friend's LTR-12101B was so bad; I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I'm thankful for that; I paid a lot for that drive (back in 2001).

PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 10:31 am
by Scour
Hello!

@LiteOnGuy:

I understand, i don´t think we have problems because we are have different opinions :)

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 11:40 pm
by CDRecorder
Scour wrote:Hello!

@LiteOnGuy:

I understand, i don´t think we have problems because we are have different opinions :)


That's good. :D

PostPosted: Wed Jul 02, 2003 6:44 pm
by Noua
I don’t know why I’m posting this hear but, I’ve already spoken about Memorex 24x CD-Rw. So far I haven’t used any cd-rw with speeds faster than 4x.
Today, I was cruising around on “worten”, an electronic store that belongs to a national supermarket company and I saw a box of 10 Sony cd-rw at 10x. I said to myself: “This is it. You’ve already tried unsuccessfully the 24x Memorex, now you’re goanna go with the Sony”.

Anyway I bought them not only they were offering a 10 CD-case or whatever it’s called like I paid less than what it was labeled. Let’s see if my plextor works with this one…