Plextor 708... sucks?

[jcclow]

Okay, I own the drive, first of all.

I updated the firmware to 1.03. Uninstalled the drive like Plextor service told me I should, so it recognizes the new firmware. The thing is still dog slow ripping DVD's with Decrypter. I hold the eject button in with no disc in the drive, the light blinks three times, the tray ejects, I put the disc in, start Decrypter and I'm lucky if I hit 4x.

Why would Plextor have the drive default to 3x. That is just plain stupid to me. Are there really people out there that can't stand the slight hum of a drive while it's playing a DVD?

Is anyone else having this problem?

[tommyoz]

jcclow,

In my opinion, I wouldn't use my DVD recorder to rip DVD's. I would get another DVD rom drive to do the ripping. Look around and see which DVD drives rip at fast speeds.

The PX-708A is a great recorder. Use it for what it's intended for.

[budz]

I agree with tommyoz to use your plextor 708A for just burning dvds. I use my Toshiba dvd-roms to rip and Plextor to burn. Get another dvd-rom that can do the ripping for you. If you're lucky you can get a Toshiba 1712 or a 1612 from ebay. I've purchased two 1612's off of ebay and they both work fine after I upgraded the firmware. The firmware for those models can be upgraded so it can rip faster with no speed limit. Unfortunately Toshiba's new model is out and there is no firmware upgrade yet. Take a look at Hijackers site for the older models of Toshiba dvd-roms.

http://hijacker.rpc1.org/toshiba_nolimit/

Check this site for dvd-rom firmware upgrades. It may help you choose a dvd-rom. I used that site to do research on what dvd-rom to purchase. Read their forum site for dvd-roms.

http://forum.firmware-flash.com/portal.php

[fmctm1sw]

Okay, I own the drive, first of all.

I updated the firmware to 1.03. Uninstalled the drive like Plextor service told me I should, so it recognizes the new firmware. The thing is still dog slow ripping DVD's with Decrypter. I hold the eject button in with no disc in the drive, the light blinks three times, the tray ejects, I put the disc in, start Decrypter and I'm lucky if I hit 4x.

Why would Plextor have the drive default to 3x. That is just plain stupid to me. Are there really people out there that can't stand the slight hum of a drive while it's playing a DVD?

Is anyone else having this problem?

Mine only burned at 1X too. Then I found out that it defaults to
"PIO" mode instead of "DMA" when I installed it. Make sure it's not that...

[RabidDog]

mine only hit 4x ...

thats not too bad ... what do you expect ? its a dvd-writer first and foremost .. all other considerations secondary.. and yes there are many people who want silent Pc's.

[jcclow]

Ya know, I knew I'd have to do that. I bought a killer Plextor CD burner and then bought a SCSI Plextor ripper and the SCSI ripper was the best $54 I ever spent. It's blazingly fast. Any ideas for a SCSI DVD-ROM.

Thanks for the input!

[jgandara]

same here, plextor is slow, liteonDVD is twice as faster!. I sually use both at the same time