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Plextor First With A 12x DVD+R Drive

Tesko writes "It seems the first 12x DVD+R drive has been released by none other than Plextor, with their Model PX-712A (Product link here). The drive's write speed includes, 48X CD-R, 24X CD-RW, 12X DVD+R, 8X DVD-R, 4X DVD+RW, 4X DVD-RW. And it's read speed comes in at 48X CD-ROM/CD-R, and 16X DVD-ROM. Also noteworthy, the drive apparently has a 8MB buffer."

67 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. I'd never buy one of these! by Eric+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny
    If they can't keep their web page from blinking, I'm not going to trust the product. That's incredibly obnoxious!

    [I've used other Plextor products and been happy with them.]

    1. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by radoni · · Score: 2, Funny

      class="blink"

      with drives so fast, you might miss the burn process if you blink

      --
      SIGERR: laziness exceeds quota
    2. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by Bill_Royle · · Score: 2, Funny

      They may be good at making burners, but their web developer needs to be thrown a good beating.

      Perhaps though, that's the problem. Maybe they locked him in a closet 5-6 years ago, and are too cheap to buy him new training materials?

    3. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by nazh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      After a quick look at the standards, one can tell that the browsers are not required to support blink

      quote w3c.org:
      Text blinks (alternates between visible and invisible). Conforming user agents are not required to support this value. http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/text.html#lining-strikin g-props

      looks like its being maintained like this in css3 http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/CR-css3-text-20030514/#t ext-blink

    4. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by croddy · · Score: 5, Informative

      open the URL 'about:config'
      filter for 'blink'
      browser.blink_allowed : set to "false"

    5. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by AsmordeanX · · Score: 2, Informative

      Holy goddamn. I thought I had seen the last of the blink tag when 1997 left us. Seriously it has been 5+ years since I've ever found a page with a blink tag on it.

      Mental note - don't buy Plextor until they learn that 'cool' HTML tricks from 1995 are not a good idea.

    6. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by Bilestoad · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not the drive that kills you, it's the media. Without 12x media (+R) or 8x media (-R) it's no better than drives at half the price. I thought I was lucky having a 4x drive until I saw the price of the media compared to 1x - for that much money, I'm happy to wait.

    7. Re:I'd never buy one of these! by Doomrat · · Score: 2

      You don't know what bastardize means. That's pretty funny.

  2. The good old days by LordoftheFrings · · Score: 5, Funny

    Remember the good old days when you could list your optical drive specs with only 3 numbers? For example, "I just got a new CD Burner! It's 32x16x8" Now, it's what? 48x12x8x8x8x32x32x48. Just freaking perfect. This is what multiple standards do to us.

    1. Re:The good old days by PacoTaco · · Score: 4, Funny
      I just got a new CD Burner! It's 32x16x8

      That's the "old days?" I've got a 1x CD burner in my closet. We're talking 1x read and 1x write with a sweet proprietary controller. 150 KB/s is all you really need anyway.

    2. Re:The good old days by York+the+Mysterious · · Score: 4, Funny

      Let me guess $1500 too right? Damn those old burners burned more than just coasters. They burned a sweet hole in your wallet.

      --

      Tim Smith - Ramblings from Nerd Land
    3. Re:The good old days by rspress · · Score: 2, Funny

      You guys are all too young! In 1978 I was saving my programs to cassette tape! Speedy read times ran from 5 minutes for a small program to 30 minutes or more for larger ones. Write times were longer of course.

      Now I get pissed when it takes more than 5 seconds for a program to launch.

    4. Re:The good old days by IdleTime · · Score: 2, Funny

      Cassette tape? Hah! Noob!
      I used paper tape and punch cards, I even knew how to read the paper tape we used on a teletype terminal connected via an acoustic coupler to the computer.
      Cassette tape... That's so 80's!

      --
      If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
  3. If only ... by TheGavster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now if only I had 4GB of something to burn to disc that fast ... For critical files, I'm going to run at low speeds for safety, for less critical stuff I'll probably be on a CD, if for no reason other than media costs.

    --
    "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
    1. Re:If only ... by James_G · · Score: 4, Informative
      less critical stuff I'll probably be on a CD, if for no reason other than media costs.

      Media costs? Well let's see..

      25 4X DVD+R for $31
      100 52X CD-R for $31

      So that's.. 25*4700MB[*] / 31 = 3.7GB/$ for DVDs

      And.. 100*700MB / 31 = 2.2GB/$ for CDs.

      Add in the fact that, to burn 4.7GB in CDs takes 7x700MB CDs, so you're doing a lot more disc swapping.. I can't see any reason to use CDs. Especially not for media cost reasons. Yeah, you can get cheaper media than that, but if you want good quality stuff, this is the range you're looking at.

      [*] DVDs are 4700MB, not 4.7GB (4812MB)

    2. Re:If only ... by Noehre · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're actually 4.3GB/4400MB.

      They use the lovely base-10 gigabyte.

    3. Re:If only ... by James_G · · Score: 2, Informative
      Ah, good point. I took this into account for the GB calculation, but not MB and KB.. so it's actually..

      4700000000 bytes = 4589843KB = 4482MB = 4.37GB.

      Going back to my original calculation..

      25*4.37GB / 31 = 3.5GB/$ for DVDs

      So, still considerably cheaper.

    4. Re:If only ... by sunspot42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >DVD drives are not yet as ubiquitous as CD drives.
      >For a backup of critical data, I'd want to be able
      >to read it at as many places as possible.

      Huh?? How on earth did this post get modded "insightful"? I've had a DVD drive in my PC since 1999. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a home PC that *didn't* have a DVD drive. Personally, I haven't seen one in several years now.

      Corporate PC's might be another matter, but then, you've got the network and LOTS of PC's to choose from in that environment. I'm sure one of the hundreds of machines at the typical corporate site will have a DVD drive.

      And since vanilla DVD-ROM drives can be had for around $30 or so, it's not like they're some exotic technology nobody could afford to add to a machine, in the unlikely event they're somehow stuck with DVD backup discs they can't read because some PC dinosaur doesn't have a DVD-ROM drive.

      If you're so worried about being compatible with "as many places as possible", backup to 3.5" floppies. They're ubiquitous. At 1.44MB a pop though, be prepared to deal with 1,000+ discs to backup today's average PC hard drive.

    5. Re:If only ... by TravisWatkins · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually your more likely to be able to use a CD than a floppy. New systems from Dell don't have have floppy drives in the default config.

      --

      "But I'm still right here, giving blood and keeping faith. And I'm still right here."
  4. Eh, no big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An 8x burner is pretty fast, so 12x isn't really that big of a deal. This like the 48x burners vs. the 32x burners. We're talking only a couple minutes difference. The next big leap is the dual layer drivers.

    1. Re:Eh, no big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More importantly when and are you going to find reasonably priced 12X media? 8X media isn't even common everywhere. This drive doesn' have much going for it over current 8X burners or the new DL burners that are just coming out.

  5. Re:Hmm... by atlantis191 · · Score: 3, Informative

    No its not. Thats almost always the case. Several burners already on the market burn slower to a DVD-R than a DVD+R. TDK and Sony both sell burners that burn at 8x for DVD+R but only 4x for DVD-R. I fail to see your point.

  6. please explain. by j3ll0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Black CD tray minimizes jitter

    Can anyone with a bit of know-how explain why the colour of the tray would minimse Jitter?

    1. Re:please explain. by Planky · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just like Red makes cars go faster, black must stablize it. ----- Your everyday 4x2

    2. Re:please explain. by Planky · · Score: 5, Funny

      *Changes Windows appearance to black*

    3. Re:please explain. by Ignorant+Aardvark · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because black is darker and absorbs more light there are less reflections of the 650nm blue laser which writes the data to the disc. therefor the beam is more exact and the data's more secure.

      I hate to break it to you, but 650nm is RED, not blue. Blue is 450nm. And anyways, current DVD technology doesn't use blue lasers anyway ... they use red lasers. Blue lasers are coming with that "Blu-Ray" technology.

  7. A friendlier link by Spad · · Score: 5, Informative

    European Page sans-flashing.

    You'll also note that us lucky non-US customers get a 2-year On-Site collect and return warranty. Woo!

  8. Speedy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1385KB/s * 12 = 16620KB/s, or in other words: the buffer will empty in half a second if the stream dries up. Good thing we have linking.

    (I assume it's zoned so the real numbers will probably be slightly less)

    1. Re:Speedy. by sexecutioner · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unfortunately it's not just the memory that would need to be increased, all the controller systems need to be lengthened to handle the larger address space.

  9. Sweet by SavedLinuXgeeK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That definately will decrease backup time, I mean with dual layer coming out, and if the speeds keep increasing for drives, this could become a viable realtime backup solution, especially using a disc changer. Im not saying it will be blazing, but for smaller companies, it could definately help cut costs. Just seems very cool.

    --
    je suis parce que j'aime
  10. 8Mb buffer? by reality-bytes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Knowing the data-rates that can be involved with DVDs I would have thought that 8Mb is only maybe a seconds worth of 'incident' time during a write.

    As it is, I've already reached a happy medium where I only burn at 12x on my CDR because I know that no matter how shoddy the media I use in the drive is, i've got a 99% chance of a sucessful burn.

    I imagine, that if I was to buy a DVD writer I'd end up in the same 'middle-ground' - I don't even know if I can find a use for all this 'speed' when writing sessions are usually relegated to coffee breaks and lunchtimes anyway.

    --
    Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
    1. Re:8Mb buffer? by NerveGas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      12X to get a 99% chance? Wow.

      I use a Sony 40x burner with buffer underrun, and choose the "optimal" setting. If I'm burning a large ISO, by the end of the disk, it'll be sustaining 34x to 38x, and out of many hundreds of disks, I've got a *100%* success rate.

      steve

      --
      Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
  11. Ooo... by daishin · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is great, now the bootleggers over here will be able to produce more dvds!

    --
    (\_/)
    (O.o) This is Bunny. Add Bunny to your signature
    (> <) to help him achieve world domination.
  12. Re:DVD-++-+-RRWR- by dastrike · · Score: 3, Informative
    --
    while true; do eject; eject -t; done
  13. Re:Hmm... by DaHat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think the underlying question is 'why'?

    Saying that others already do similar things does not answer the Q.

  14. Psshht! by AssProphet · · Score: 5, Funny

    Optical storage is for wimps.
    Real nerds memorize their data!

    1. Re:Psshht! by Quasar1999 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Optical storage is for wimps.
      Real nerds memorize their data!


      Hmm... so since I store my passwords on a post-it note on my monitor, I use must be using optical storage then?

      --

      ---
      Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
  15. So... by JessLeah · · Score: 2, Funny

    How many DVD burners is that the "equivalent" of? ;)

  16. Re:Does it run on GNU/Linux? by niko9 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Are these devices standard? Can i just put it in my box and use it?

    yes. And with the 2.6 kernels, you don't even need SCSI emulation any longer.

    enjoy

  17. Dead Technology! by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 5, Informative

    12x speed is very nice but this is still a single layer dvd writer. The first of the dual layers will be out in a few weeks. Sony is sceduled to be out the 16th. You can already preorder it. The specs this beast are nice but its dead on the floor. Wait till the dual layer is here then they will be giving them away.

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    1. Re:Dead Technology! by Quarters · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not really. Dual Layer is nice, but, from what I've heard, it's slow. A fast 4.7GB single layer DVD burner can be useful to a large number of people who aren't, "It's new therefore I must have it and deride everything else and the people that buy those lesser devices" geeks.

    2. Re:Dead Technology! by doormat · · Score: 2, Informative

      A recent article showed that the DL write speeds at 2.4x. So you can spend 45mins burning 1 DL DVD, or 2x 15min burning two DVDs at 8x.

      --
      The Doormat

      If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
    3. Re:Dead Technology! by Trejkaz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or alternatively, they might upgrade the firmware to support dual layer so you can burn some disks at high speed and dual layer disks at a lower speed.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    4. Re:Dead Technology! by dbretton · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A recent article [anandtech.com] showed that the DL write speeds at 2.4x. So you can spend 45mins burning 1 DL DVD, or 2x 15min burning two DVDs at 8x.

      Yup, but, if I am backing up a DL DVD, then here are my options:
      1) Dual Layer option:
      backup + burn (~ 1 hr)
      2) Single Layer option 1: (shrink)
      strip + requantize + burn (~2hrs)
      3) Single Layer option 2: (shrink)
      strip + reencode + burn (~12-20 hrs)
      4) Single Layer option 3: (2 DVD-R's)
      backup, separate, edit IFO files + reauthor + burn + burn (~2 - 3 hrs, most of it interactive)

      I'll take the slow DL burn over the fast SL burn.

    5. Re:Dead Technology! by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 3, Informative

      From what I've read its not quite that bad. The first layer is burned at 8x. It's the second layer that is burned at 2.4x. That I can live with. Most of us are going to use this to back up movies that we have bought that are dual layered. Most dual layered dvds are between 5 and 7 GB long. So basiclly you will be writing between 1 and 3 GB to the second layer at 2.4x. Not bad, not good, but not bad.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  18. I'll take it by Tmurder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This will inevitably drive the price of the other plextor dvd burners(708a, 504a, etc) and subsequently other 8x burners down, i'll take that. Can't beat plextor quality especially when the price will drop a bit. I'll be perfectly happy with a 8x burner.

  19. Re:Hmm... by cynical+kane · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because R=2, clearly.

  20. Stupid comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    " It seems to me that DVD burners this fast would only be used for DVD piracy."

    How dumb is this statement?

    I have a 250GB HD, and I need to back about 200G of it up.

    Each DVD+/-R holds, for the sake of this argument, 5G. That's 40 DVD's to back things up completely. Now then, each DVD at 2.4x takes 1/2 hour, so this is 20 hours to back things up. That means it takes me about 3-4 days since I don't spend every waking hour backing up.

    If I can go to a 12 speed drive, then my time drops to a fraction, and I don't have to spend days backing up.

    Is this clear now? Will you stop being a fucking shill of the MPAA and imagine other people do things *LEGALLY* that you aren't familiar with?

    Seriously.

    1. Re:Stupid comment by Spad · · Score: 2, Funny

      Exactly, how are we supposed to back up our hundreds of gigs of warez quickly and efficiently without faster DVD burners?

      Blah, blah, source code, blah, blah, Linux images, blah, blah, porn, and soforth :)

    2. Re:Stupid comment by silentbozo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I work in MR imaging. We recently bought a set of 160gb drives to upgrade our workstations (they shipped with 80gb drives.) Within a week we had filled all of the new drives about 60% full with new in-process data from our MR scanners (we do research, and pull data from multiple scanners on campus.)

      Aside from driving the local network admin nuts ("We need to buy ANOTHER multi-terabyte raid to do local backups?!?"), the data we pull needs to be backed up. We used to burn CDs, and only recently have we started burning DVDs. It make a big difference when you can burn one single data set to one disc, instead of splitting it into pieces, or having to zip them. My only worry is that DVDs may not be able to last - we lost a bunch of data that were stored on 1gb Jaz cartridges when the carts went bad, and unfortunately, they hadn't made backup copies.

      Although we do research in my group, the SOP for the MR/CT scanners for clinical patients is to burn CDs for archiving patient data. Keep that in mind if the MPAA/RIAA manages to put through ANOTHER tax on recordable media. If your insurance costs go up, you'll know who to blame.

  21. Yeah but no double Layer support by ArcticCelt · · Score: 4, Informative

    Double layer support (8.5 GB) is the hot thing to come for DVD's and without this, there is no way this thing will be a success.

    --

    Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
  22. Nice, but by dbretton · · Score: 4, Funny


    If it's not Dual Layer, then it's just not cutting edge for the "/." crowd.

    Now, if the drive was DL AND 12x DVD+R AND could perform a 34 priority crawl of the internet for Natalie Portman pics AND burn them to media automatically, then, AND ONLY THEN, would it be a "/."-worty article.

    1. Re:Nice, but by 403Forbidden · · Score: 4, Funny

      Error! The comment you have submitted is too packed with stereotypical superlatives. Please hang yourself and try again later.

  23. SATA version too by stubear · · Score: 4, Informative

    They have a Serial ATA version as well. I'm looking at getting this one now that I'm addicted to SATA. It's super fast and easy to hook up drives, what more coudl you want?

    1. Re:SATA version too by sharkey · · Score: 4, Funny
      It's super fast and easy to hook up drives, what more coudl you want?

      A pony.

      --

      --
      "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  24. My G4 burns 4xDVD-R at 1x - ouch by Basehart · · Score: 5, Informative

    My G4 is writing 2 minute videos to 4xDVD-R's as I write this and it turns out the recent firmware "update" to the Pioneer superdrive means that 4x disks now write at 1x, which makes me realize yet again that I MUST READ THE READ ME's before buying a 50 pack of 4x blank DVD-R media.

    Hopefully Apple will start making faster DVD burners standard in their G5's very soon now!

  25. Ubiquity and space waste to be considered by Roman_(ajvvs) · · Score: 3, Interesting
    In my eyes you never had credibility in the first place (being AC and all), but then I'm replying so something you wrote must've made sense.

    I can go down to my local supermarket and pick up a DVD-R AND a DVD+R in either single of 5-packs. Standard supermarket "people who buy this really have no clue about tech prices" markup applies, but still... I can get one until 12am if I really need to.

    I have to agree with my parent though; There's no point buying more space at a lower cost per MB if you're not going to use it.
    There are ways to maximize storage, though. Incremental backups on a single CD, until it fills up, for example. I don't personally like that approach since it puts too many eggs in one basket. It also increases the potential for faulty reads on other DVD readers. heck, I still have trouble getting my multi-session CD-R's to read on all of my CD-ROMS!

    --
    click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
  26. Re:Why no SATA support? by Spad · · Score: 2, Informative

    SATA Version here.

    Due out slightly after the IDE version. Mind you, there's no performance reason to go with SATA, which is probably why the uptake of SATA optical drives is so slow.

  27. Re:The drive might be fast, but the media... by Spad · · Score: 3, Informative

    Plextor claims that the drive will write at 12x on its branded 8x media and it's quite possible that it'll do so on other media too if you're lucky.

  28. Re:SCSI is dead. by base_chakra · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is supposedly bridgable to SATA, I'm hoping that SAS marks a resurgance in SCSI popularity among home users.

  29. Re:Hmm... by The+Vulture · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'd say most likely because 8x hasn't been officially approved as a DVD-R format (last I heard, anyway). Last time I tried to check out the DVD-R forum website (I'm pretty sure it was the official one), I couldn't get any information without a username/password, which cost money.

    It's that main point that has had me waiting for 8x to be approved until I buy a new DVD-R drive (my current drive is a Pioneer DVR-A04). When I checked out the media list for the Pioneer DVR-A07, I noticed that they're playing the same tricks as they did for 2x on the A03 and A04 - certain firmwares, certain media brands, must go through Pioneer certification, blah, blah, blah. Although there's a bunch of drives that are claimed to be 8x compatible, I believe that many of them (not all) are OEM Pioneer drives.

    Now, if they could ratify 8x -R as a standard and get a good dual-layer drive out, I'd pay a good chunk of change for it.

    -- Joe

  30. Re:The drive might be fast, but the media... by bendsley · · Score: 4, Informative

    Much of the media out there as DVD+R that says it is 4x media will also burn at 8x. I have the Plextor 708A drive, 8x DVD+R burner, and I buy 4x Memorex media and burn at 8x with no problems. You may want to look at DVDRhelp.com and see what media burns at what. The list covers 25 different media brands and tells exactly how fast they will burn at with what burners, etc.

    --
    Alcohol & calculus don't mix. Never drink & derive.
  31. Re:SCSI is dead. by StillAnonymous · · Score: 2, Insightful

    SCSI has never been "popular" with home users, except when it was the only choice available, like with early Macs and Amigas.

    The minor performance increase a home user might realise with SCSI is far outweighed by the exhorbitant price premium they charge.

  32. Woohoo by lewko · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I can produce drink coasters even faster!

    --
    Do you or your partner snore? - Visit www.snoring.com.au
  33. Plextor drives are good by Doug+Neal · · Score: 3, Informative

    Plextor have always had a pretty good reputation for CD and DVD drives.. my dad bought their 8x drive recently and I was extremely impressed with it. Absolutely rock solid performance, extremely fast for reading (best digital audio extraction I've seen, ever) - and the bundled software is cool too. None of the usual buggy useless bloatware crap you get with most hardware, it's a neat unobtrusive tool that sits in the systray, but lets you tweak all aspects of the drive's performance, and lets you burn audio and data CDs/DVDs, even with Ogg Vorbis support for ripping and burning! (that really suprised me)

    So yeah, well done Plextor :)

  34. Marketing by Bugmaster · · Score: 2, Funny
    Haha I love their marketing. One of the features is,
    Black CD tray minimizes jitter
    How does it do that, exactly ?
    --
    >|<*:=
  35. SATA version by jabuzz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Apart from it not being dual layer capable, so more or less dead in the water, there is also a 712SA version which has a Serial ATA interface. Finally a
    computer that does not need parallel ATA is a reality.