Plextor PX-716SA SATA DL DVD burner

[brystmar]

I've been really wanting to get one of these for awhile now...does anyone know if there's a more specific release date than "December 2004"?

 

[n7]

Back in the CD-RW days, Plextor was king.

Nowadays, the only thing they rule is the price tags.


I would grab a Pioneer or NEC or BenQ, & not worry about SATA or Plextor unless you have a legitimate reason to.

 

[ed21x]

Originally posted by: n7
Back in the CD-RW days, Plextor was king.

Nowadays, the only thing they rule is the price tags.


I would grab a Pioneer or NEC or BenQ, & not worry about SATA or Plextor unless you have a legitimate reason to.

ummm... no. Plextor is still king. They were never the fastest or the most feature rich, but the quality of their drives- in terms of build, lifespan, abilit to read cheap media, and produce high quality burns is still supreme.

 

[brystmar]

i have a Plex PX-708A right now and love it. i've never bought anything but Plextor drives and am more than happy to continue the trend.

i need an SATA solution because all my IDE channels are full (and so is the ATA/133 PCI IDE controller card i added), whereas i still have 3 free SATA channels on my mobo. i want a 16X dual format (and dual layer) DVD burner that is SATA, and the Plex looks like the only option right now.

 

[overclock]

Plextor is king alright, king of crap.

They were always the first with the fastest CD-RW drives. That continued with the DVD drives up to the PX-708a. I had a 708a and it was an awesome drive. So I bought the new 716a. It didn't even recognize a disc, burnt, blank, pressed, CD, DVD, nothing. Worhtless. So I took it back and bought a Pioneer A08. Awesome drive. Not one problem. Just buy a Pioneer. You'll avoid a lot of hassle with returning junk. If you REALLY want a Plextor buy it locally so you can take it back the next day and get a real drive.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: overclock
Plextor is king alright, king of crap.

They were always the first with the fastest CD-RW drives. That continued with the DVD drives up to the PX-708a. I had a 708a and it was an awesome drive. So I bought the new 716a. It didn't even recognize a disc, burnt, blank, pressed, CD, DVD, nothing. Worhtless. So I took it back and bought a Pioneer A08. Awesome drive. Not one problem. Just buy a Pioneer. You'll avoid a lot of hassle with returning junk. If you REALLY want a Plextor buy it locally so you can take it back the next day and get a real drive.

Ok so what do you think the probability of purchasing a drive from any brand name manufacturer and getting it DOA is? Anyone can go out and buy NEC, LITEON, PIONEER, etc. and get a bad drive like you did. You cant base opinion of the whole sample size based on 1 experience or outcome. It's like sand on the beach. You can have thousands of users who had problems with every company out there. Besides drives have warranties.

I do agree with you that other great companies like Pioneer make excellent drives at fraction of the cost.

 

[CraigRT]

Agree with RussianSensation.... but I will also say I have been more pleased with my Pioneer drives in my lifetime than my Plextor....

IMO Pioneer is king of optical drives, hands down. But that's just my opinion.

 

[overclock]

I'm not the only one having this problem. Check out cdfreaks' Plextor forum.

 

[Zepper]

Yes, the first batch of the 716 was buggy and apparently BestBuy had the fix in as they were the only one to get the 716 in time for the holiday buying season. So Plextor rushes a batch of them to satisfy their deal with BB and they are bad - serves them both right. I'm sure that the second batch will be up to our expectations. I really like my 712. So just be patient...

.bh.

:moon:

 

[brystmar]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Yes, the first batch of the 716 was buggy and apparently BestBuy had the fix in as they were the only one to get the 716 in time for the holiday buying season. So Plextor rushes a batch of them to satisfy their deal with BB and they are bad - serves them both right. I'm sure that the second batch will be up to our expectations. I really like my 712. So just be patient...

.bh.

:moon:

exactly. bad batches happen...Plextor has a really damn good track record which can't be denied. i'm sure when the fixed 716's are shipped out they will be top of the line.

 

[Zepper]

PX-716A finally at Newegg - $100. shipped AR ($30.). You can get for $70. AR + shipping at PC Connection, but they are ON ORDER.?. Can also get a pack of media free there AR + sh.
. Still no SATA version...
.bh.

:moon:

 

[EHSguru]

Can you tell me any more about the Plextor 716a and Best Buy deal? Does Plextor have a fix? We bought one of the 716a's and it does not want to read anything!😕

 

[Pariah]

Originally posted by: ed21x

Originally posted by: n7
Back in the CD-RW days, Plextor was king.

Nowadays, the only thing they rule is the price tags.


I would grab a Pioneer or NEC or BenQ, & not worry about SATA or Plextor unless you have a legitimate reason to.

ummm... no. Plextor is still king. They were never the fastest or the most feature rich, but the quality of their drives- in terms of build, lifespan, abilit to read cheap media, and produce high quality burns is still supreme.

Plextor was always fastest back in their glory days of SCSI. They were the first to market for every speed grade of drive from 2x through 40x with the lone exception of 3x which only NEC ever used and Plextor skipped right over and was first to 4x. Not only were they first to market but they were always the fastest anyways, usually performing even better than their rating, which was rare with anyone else. They were also the first to release a CAV drive. Combined with the fact their drives were built like tanks and were easily the best at reading poor and scratched media, along with being able to rip audio bit perfect LONG before that was a standard feature and at better speeds than the competition's poor rips to boot and there was no equal even close. They also had a very nice set of utilities that came bundled with their drives that among other things allowed you to make perfect direct copies (before all the copy protection schemes were around) of CD's from a Plextor drive to a Plextor writer again long before that was a standard feature. Then the company moved to ATA and fell under new ownership and they've never been the same or released the same high quality drives. Now Plextor is just another above average optical drive company except with inflated prices that live off nothing but their past reputation. Plextor still makes good drives, but they longer innovate or are better than everyone else and aren't worth the price premium.

 

[Zepper]

Plextor optical drives are about the only ones that I've seen get 10 ratings on some of the better review sites recently. They are still tops in my book. I really like my 712A.
. There have been two or three firmware updates for the 716A in quick succession. And Plextor claims the issues are resolved. If you update to the latest firmware and still have problems, be sure your ASPI layer has been updated! - download from http://www.adaptec.com (who provides this software to M$) . And tell your friends to do likewise.
.bh.

:moon: