Plextor PA-708A NOT up to par

[Telexen]

My new Plextor PA-708-A is having a few problems. I've been playing around with different methods of copying my "The Others" DVD with it, and had noticed it forever to decrypt with anything I tried (inc. DVD Decrypter, DVD-cloner, and DVDShrink).

I happened to look the last time I was decrypting with DVD Decrypter and saw it was reading at 2x. I wondered if it was just these programs so I opened Nero's CD/DVD Speed benchmark and ran it. It ran at a consistent 2.00x throughout the entire test, never going more, never going less.

This angered me a little so I grabbed the closest DVD I could find, which is a short video DVD I got with the new Pennywise album, and benchmarked with it in the drive...it started at around 3.5x and continued up to around 7x near the end, where it plummeted to below 3x where it never bothered to come back above 3x. I grabbed another movie, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", and benched a consistent 2.00x throughout the test.

I ran a series of tests with other media, including: burned data DVD, pressed data DVD, burned audio CD, burned data CD, pressed audio CD, and lastly pressed data CD. They all came out pretty far below the specs of the drive. I of course can't expect it to be perfect, so I compared each of my findings with benchmarks found in reviews of the drive on Tomeshardware and Anandtech...all my tests were far below the tests in both reviews. Grrr

So I have a few questions. First, why would movie DVDs (they're both DVD9 btw) read at only 2x? I tested both in my father's system with his Sony DVD-ROM, and they both started around 3.5x and worked their way up to nearly 11x by the end of the test. Secondly, if I do return the drive (to newegg), can I be sure I won't just get another dud? I know Plextor has a great track record, but my only other experience with them, a CD-RW, was even worse than this DVD+/-RW.

Thanks for any input.

P.S.
Happy new year

[budz]

The Plextor 708A is a great burner. I would suggest you use a dvd-rom to rip your dvd movies and use the Plextor only to burn. There is a trick to getting the Plextor to rip faster by holding down the eject button. If you read your Plextor manual it tells you how to do it. I don't use my Plextor for ripping. I purposely kept my Toshiba dvdrom to rip dvd movies. You may want to read some Plextor forums before you decide to RMA to newegg.com. Here are some links to look at:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=43

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=1d23d4c7a789ea24c42467f842d6dea3

What firmware is on your Plextor 708A?

What I've found is there are so many variables to authoring and burning dvd's. It depends how your burner is set up on your pc, type and brand of dvd media you use and what type of burning software is being used.
Read through those links and you maybe able to get some other tips about the Plextor 708A. As for it ripping slow that is just how the drive is. Hope this was helpful to you. Good Luck!

I love my Plextor 708A!
__________________________________________________ __
PENT 4 2.4 GHZ CHIP 400 BUS, ANTEC TRUE POWER 430 PS
SHUTTLE MOTHERBOARD AV49N, 1 GB DDRAM
PLEXTOR 708A DUAL DVD BURNER
PLEXTOR 40X12X40 CD BURNER
PLEXTOR 48X24X48 CD BURNER
(2) TOSHIBA 1612 DVD-ROM
(1) TOSHIBA 1712 DVD-ROM
MAXTOR (2) 60 GB HD 7200RPM , SOON TO BE (1) 120 MAXTOR HD
MAXTOR ATA133 CONTROLLER CARD
ATI 64 MB VIDEO CARD

[Telexen]

Thanks for a the quick response. There's obviously a few things I forgot to mention

I have tried both the 1.03 and 1.04 firmware versions...neither seem to make a difference in performance. Also, I have the drive on my secondary IDE channel alone, using an ATA133 capable ribbon.

I don't think I should have to do anything to get it to read a dual layered DVD above 2x though. I would appreciate any tests anyone with the same burner could do with either Nero's or some other utility to test the transfer rate of a DVD9 pressed disc. I checked the [short] manual for any information on this trick, but can't find anything.

Thanks for the links also, I will read up more before I send it back...it just seems odd that so many people are in love with theirs and I seem to discover more problems everytime I play with mine.

Also I'm wondering if PlexTools Pro is supposed to be included with this drive? I know I've read it is...but I can't find it anywhere on the utility CD that came along with it - and of course I can't get an upgrade from Plextor's site without installing it previously.

[budz]

Telexen wrote:

I don't think I should have to do anything to get it to read a dual layered DVD above 2x though.

Dvd-roms and dvd-burners have speed limits in the drive. There are lots of firmware hacks to make the dvd-roms and dvd-burners rip at faster speeds. Not all dvd burners have firmware hacks to break the ripping speed on the drives.

Is your Plextor connected on secondary master? Plex tools are only included if you purchased your drive in Europe. As for increasing the ripping speed in Plextor check the regular manual that came with the drive.

Here is what page 39 says tells you how to increase the speedread.

Switching Between SpeedRead and Silent
Operation
When you are playing a DVD-Video disc that has CSS (copy protection
via the Content Scrambling System), the PX-708A normally plays at a
slow speed (silent operation) to reduce drive noise. You can speed up
DVD playback by using the eject button to enable SpeedRead.
To manually enable SpeedRead and speed up DVD playback:
1. Ensure the PX-708A disc tray is closed and empty.
2. Press and hold the PX-708A’s eject button for at least 3 seconds. The
LED indicator blinks green three times to indicate SpeedRead will
be active for DVD-Video discs with CSS copy protection.
3. Release the eject button. The disc tray opens.
4. Insert a DVD-Video disc that is equipped with CSS copy protection.
5. Begin playing the disc

Hope you understand what I'm trying to say!

[Telexen]

Thanks, I was looking at the quick reference guide and forgot I had the manual buried under a pile of bland DVD Rs

It's reading much faster now. I'll see what I end up with after a few days of average usage.