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."

Comments

I'd never buy one of these!

[Eric Smith]

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.]

Re:I'd never buy one of these!

[croddy]

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

The good old days

[LordoftheFrings]

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.

Re:The good old days

[PacoTaco]

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.

Re:The good old days

[York the Mysterious]

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

If only ...

[TheGavster]

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.

Re:If only ...

[James_G]

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)

Re:If only ...

[sunspot42]

>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.

Re:If only ...

[TravisWatkins]

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.

Eh, no big

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Eh, no big

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

please explain.

[j3ll0]

Black CD tray minimizes jitter

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

Re:please explain.

[Planky]

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

Re:please explain.

[Planky]

*Changes Windows appearance to black*

Re:please explain.

[Ignorant Aardvark]

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.

A friendlier link

[Spad]

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!

Speedy.

[Anonymous Coward]

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)

Sweet

[SavedLinuXgeeK]

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.

Psshht!

[AssProphet]

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

Re:Does it run on GNU/Linux?

[niko9]

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

Dead Technology!

[Lord Apathy]

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.

I'll take it

[Tmurder]

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.

Re:Hmm...

[cynical kane]

Because R=2, clearly.

Yeah but no double Layer support

[ArcticCelt]

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.

Nice, but

[dbretton]

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.

Re:Nice, but

[403Forbidden]

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

SATA version too

[stubear]

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?

Re:SATA version too

[sharkey]

It's super fast and easy to hook up drives, what more coudl you want?

A pony.

My G4 burns 4xDVD-R at 1x - ouch

[Basehart]

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!

Re:The drive might be fast, but the media...

[bendsley]

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.