Introduction:::...

It doesn't seem all that long ago we were getting excited to see CD-R speeds hitting 8x and wondering where it would all end. Now we have more or less reached the limits of CD-R technology with drives peaking at 52x and unlikely to push beyond this any time soon. The good news though is that this doesn't sound the death knell for the optical drive market because following hot on the heels of the CD-RW drive comes the next generation of optical storage, the DVD-RW.

DVD-RW, like their CD-RW brethren, have quickly moved from being an incredibly expensive niche technology to an affordable mainstream solution that not only offers all the benefits and convenience of the CD-RW but also comes with significantly more storage space.

Although the vast majority of DVD-RW drives are currently specified to run at 4x, this summer saw new 8x drives announced from Plextor, Samsung and Toshiba. As we often saw with the developing CD-R market the media is lagging behind somewhat but we hear that regular 4x media from Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi Chemicals and Ricoh can handle 8x recording speeds.

So why is it that we can burn a CD at 52x but we're still only just hitting 8x for a DVD? What we tend not to realise is that 8X DVD±R is roughly equal to burning a regular CD at 72x which for the record would involve spinning your blank CD media at a rather scary 12000 RPM!! So does this mean you can theoretically use your new 8X DVD±R to burn CDs at 72x then? Well unfortunately no. There's more to burning a CD than just spinning it faster otherwise we'd be seeing 72x CD-RWs on the shelves right now, the motors are certainly up to the task, it's the media and the pickups that are letting the side down. And the pickup in your DVD burner has an even bigger disadvantage than the one in your CD-RW because its primary function is to write DVDs which means it must focus its lazer to deal with 0.6mm of substrate. Throw in a CD and suddenly it has to adjust itself to focus through 1.2mm of substrate.

These difficulties with the pickup have tended to peg CD writing speeds at a fairly pedestrian 24x though Plextor's PX-708 drives have already pushed on and hit the 40X mark for CD-R and 24X for CD-RW. Achieving high CD and DVD write speeds within a single drive was a challenging achievement and it's perhaps not surprising to find Plextor once again setting the standards pretty much as they did with their CD-RW drives.

With great quality, impressive warranties, regular firmware updates. a superb website and a reputation that comes only with hard work and great products today's drive already has a strong pedigree, time now see if it's a mongrel!

• Writing DVD+R: 8x
•           DVD-R: 4x
•           CD-R: 40x
• Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x
•              DVD-RW: 2x
•              CD-RW: 24x
• Reading DVD-ROM: 12x
•            CD-ROM: 40x
• Buffer Underrun Proof Technology: Stops buffer underrun errors
• VariRec Technology
• PoweRec Technology (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control)
• Supports Lossless Linking (DVD+R/RW)
• Zero Link (DVD-R/RW)
• Supports Background Formatting
• Access Time <100 ms for CD; 150 ms for DVD
• 2MB Buffer
• E-IDE (ATAPI) interface
• PC Compatibility:
  • Pentium III 700Mhz or higher
  • 128MB Memory
  • 800MB-1GB of free disk space
• Compatible with:
  • Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP
• MultiRead Compatible
• Supports SPDIF (Digital Audio Output)
• High Quality Digital Audio Extraction
• A black tray, to reduce the jitter and to increase the quality of the burned CD
• Two year* full-warranty (parts, labor and replacement) with On-Site Collect & Return** service
• Compatible formats:

  CD (Read/Write) CD-DA, CD-Extra, CD-ROM Mode-1, CD-ROM Mode-2, CD-ROM XA, Photo-CD, Video-CD, Multisession, CD TEXT, CD-I, CD+G, UDF CD-R/RW (Write) Track at Once, Disc at Once, Packet Write (variable and fixed), Multisession, Session at Once, CD-MRW (Mt. Rainier)

  DVD (Read/Write) DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, Multiborder, Multisession, DVD+VR, DVD-VR (Read only) DVD+R/RW (Write) Sequential Write, Multisession, Random Access Write DVD+MRW (Physical formatting in background) DVD-R/RW (Write) Disc at Once, Incremental recording, Multiborder recording, Restricted Overwriting

• Wide CD-R and CD-RW media compatibility
• Wide range DVD+R/RW media compatibility
• Includes PlexTools Professional