Especially for Plextor PX-716A owners: is ASUS better!?
Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:26 am
Hello. This is my first post here and I salute all of you with my deepest respect. This post is mainly targeted at people that own Plextor PX-716A. I used PlexTools to discover a problem with my first drive but even after changing it, it still seems I got an issue. I appreciate any bit of help and information anybody has in this matter.
PLEXTOR
Plextor PX-716A is (as far as I know) one of the top Plextor models, armed with a Sanyo chipset, 8 MB buffer and pretty much anything Plextor could throw in. Of course, they do have some better models now-a-days, but this is still a top product. So I bought it.
Was I stupid? Don't know. First unit was broken. Partially. The Beta value in all tests performed was very strange, with weird "jumps" in its grafic (if you know, Beta has to be as straight as possible). However, the written DVDs were readable and behave fine. But in the TA tests the quality was only good and sometimes not good or even bad!
1. Not because of my computer, I also tried it on another system.
2. Not because of the media, I wrote at least 10 different media types.
Wrote to Plextor, they said to go to the store and change it. I did. They tested it. They changed it. I got a another PX-716A. First was TLA #0309, this one is #0308. First produced in November 2005, this one in September. So it's basically the same drive.
Wrote DVDs again, the TA tests came a bit better: Very Good / Good and rarely (and almost only on DVD RW - imagine that!) Excellent. However my graphics show still a problem in the Beta !! The jitter isn't too beautiful either. When the beta jumps, the jitter also shows weird.
ASUS
A friend of mine has an ASUS. Two times cheaper than this Plextor. Up until now, I burned everything with that drive. So of course I tested some of those DVDs. Guess what. The TA levels are almost ALWAYS above good. Usually very good / excellent!!! The Beta does NOT have jumps. The jitter is more ok.
The only area the Plextor wins is PIE errors where it has a bit lower. But EVEN there it's not good all the time, and currently, my DVD with the lowest PIE is still one burned with that ASUS.
But the TA is really fantastic. ASUS-written DVDs have an excellent TA. They are almost always on EXCELLENT. Whereas Plextor barely reaches EXCELLENT and usual slops with GOOD and VERY GOOD (the new one) and GOOD, NOT GOOD AND BAD (!!) (the old one).
PROOF
I uploaded screenshot and you can see what I mean.
Take a close look at the Plextor pictures. You can see that the Beta value has a lot of jumps... more like stairs! But the ASUS burns without those things and the TA in ASUS is almost always EXCELLENT whereas Plextor is rarely more than VERY GOOD. I didn't upload TA tests but they are what I say.
CONCLUSION
Is ANYBODY out there which has THIS PX-716A drive in his/her computer??? Can you use PlexTools to make some tests on DVDs burned by you with THAT drive and upload them here? I have a feeling this drive is broken too!
What's this? This is how Plextor writes? I never saw tests performed with Plextools and it seems such tests escaped professional testing. Or were all the tests rigged to favor Plextor!? Because really I don't see perfect quality in this drive. It's good quality but ASUS beats it. Why? Is my second drive broken too?
Please help me as I really think I'm going nuts seeing a 50$ ASUS beating a 120$ Plextor. It's NOT that I don't LIKE ASUS. I DO! But I find it annoying that such a good drive (and it's a good drive in all aspects) does that weird Beta things and the TA is so bad in comparison with ASUS.
So... please if you can... make some Beta/Jitter tests with PlexTools and tell me what you find. Also try to tell what TLA your Plextor drive has (it's written on the box and on the drive).
This is very important... 'cause I might take the drive back for replacement again depending on what you advice me to do.
Thanks a LOT in anticipation!!
PLEXTOR
Plextor PX-716A is (as far as I know) one of the top Plextor models, armed with a Sanyo chipset, 8 MB buffer and pretty much anything Plextor could throw in. Of course, they do have some better models now-a-days, but this is still a top product. So I bought it.
Was I stupid? Don't know. First unit was broken. Partially. The Beta value in all tests performed was very strange, with weird "jumps" in its grafic (if you know, Beta has to be as straight as possible). However, the written DVDs were readable and behave fine. But in the TA tests the quality was only good and sometimes not good or even bad!
1. Not because of my computer, I also tried it on another system.
2. Not because of the media, I wrote at least 10 different media types.
Wrote to Plextor, they said to go to the store and change it. I did. They tested it. They changed it. I got a another PX-716A. First was TLA #0309, this one is #0308. First produced in November 2005, this one in September. So it's basically the same drive.
Wrote DVDs again, the TA tests came a bit better: Very Good / Good and rarely (and almost only on DVD RW - imagine that!) Excellent. However my graphics show still a problem in the Beta !! The jitter isn't too beautiful either. When the beta jumps, the jitter also shows weird.
ASUS
A friend of mine has an ASUS. Two times cheaper than this Plextor. Up until now, I burned everything with that drive. So of course I tested some of those DVDs. Guess what. The TA levels are almost ALWAYS above good. Usually very good / excellent!!! The Beta does NOT have jumps. The jitter is more ok.
The only area the Plextor wins is PIE errors where it has a bit lower. But EVEN there it's not good all the time, and currently, my DVD with the lowest PIE is still one burned with that ASUS.
But the TA is really fantastic. ASUS-written DVDs have an excellent TA. They are almost always on EXCELLENT. Whereas Plextor barely reaches EXCELLENT and usual slops with GOOD and VERY GOOD (the new one) and GOOD, NOT GOOD AND BAD (!!) (the old one).
PROOF
I uploaded screenshot and you can see what I mean.
Take a close look at the Plextor pictures. You can see that the Beta value has a lot of jumps... more like stairs! But the ASUS burns without those things and the TA in ASUS is almost always EXCELLENT whereas Plextor is rarely more than VERY GOOD. I didn't upload TA tests but they are what I say.
CONCLUSION
Is ANYBODY out there which has THIS PX-716A drive in his/her computer??? Can you use PlexTools to make some tests on DVDs burned by you with THAT drive and upload them here? I have a feeling this drive is broken too!
What's this? This is how Plextor writes? I never saw tests performed with Plextools and it seems such tests escaped professional testing. Or were all the tests rigged to favor Plextor!? Because really I don't see perfect quality in this drive. It's good quality but ASUS beats it. Why? Is my second drive broken too?
Please help me as I really think I'm going nuts seeing a 50$ ASUS beating a 120$ Plextor. It's NOT that I don't LIKE ASUS. I DO! But I find it annoying that such a good drive (and it's a good drive in all aspects) does that weird Beta things and the TA is so bad in comparison with ASUS.
So... please if you can... make some Beta/Jitter tests with PlexTools and tell me what you find. Also try to tell what TLA your Plextor drive has (it's written on the box and on the drive).
This is very important... 'cause I might take the drive back for replacement again depending on what you advice me to do.
Thanks a LOT in anticipation!!