Conclusion
The Plextor branded version of the Taiyo Yuden dye T02 dye which is used on this media is renowned as the best version around with only the best discs used for their product. This means that you should get excellent quality recordings every time at the rated speed of 8x.
During our tests we found that not only could it record exceedingly well at its rated speed with all the review drives, but it could also be recorded at twice its rated recording speed on all but our Liteon-IT 1633 S drive which we hope is improved in future Liteon-IT firmware updates for this drive. The NEC 3500 and BenQ 1620 recorded to the media most impressively at 16x in times of around 6 minutes on our review system regardless of wether we used the booktype setting or not.
CD Speed gave similar scan results in the region of +/- 5% on all 5 pieces tested in each of the review drives, showing to this reviewer that the Verbatim 16x DVD+R was of a very consistent quality and no C2 failures (displayed as 'POFS' in CD Speeds Disc Quality test) where reported.
Note on Verification tests:
We will only show sector scanning and verification results if the recorded media had problems resulting in errors being found. If you dont see a verification test in our new style of media reviews then the you can safely assume none where found during our tests.
All the tested software and hardware DVD Players played the DVD without the Booktype being change without error. As always, the one exception was the Cyberhome 512 standalone DVD Player, which we find to be consistent with other similar tests on DVD+R media of high quality and the Cyberhome device. Changing the Booktype to that of DVD-ROM with both the BenQ 1620A and Liteon-IT 1633S review drives resulted in the Cyberhome being able to read the disc without any skipping or pixelation being apparent.
Although not many modern day standalone and console devices have issues with DVD+R media without the Booktype change, it is in CDR-Zone.com's opinion, nice to have the ability to change this setting for the older players that are still around.
The disc itself retains the now familiar Plextor Gold design with the Plextor logo and rated recording speed clearly marked on the disc, with 3 clear lines for writing your information about the stored information on the disc. Packaging comes in either Jewel case or Spindle form to best suit your storage needs.
Judging by the results of our extensive tests, 16x seems a good optimised recording speed for this media with the BenQ 1620Q, Pioneer DVR 108 and NEC 3500 under present firmwares. The Liteon-IT should capable of even better recording in the future as it was the only drive not to show how good the Plextor 8x+R media was. All the other drives used during this review showed nothing but very good results for this media during our tests assuring us that Plextors now famous quality control does not seem to suffer at high recording speeds as a whole.
Plextor branded 8x+R media - The King of quality? - We liked it very much and even though it is expensive compared to other brands, what price reliable backups that stand the test of time?
Tested on:
AMD XP 3400+ 64 bit
EPOX 8KDA3+
512 DDR 500 RAM
Windows XP Pro
BenQ 1620A
Liteon-IT1633S
Pioneer DVR 1016
NEC 3500AG
VSO Inspector
Nero CD Speed
CopyToDVD
About Plextor:
Plextor is one of the leading global manufacturers of high reliability, high performance personal storage devices in the market. It is also one of the original pioneers of CD technology and through its parent company, Shinano Kenshi Co. of Japan, has a history stretching back to 1918 of developing and manufacturing advanced technology hardware and precision electronic equipment.
With headquarters in Japan, Europe and USA, Plextor's products are mainly sold through a network of specialised computer distributors. Plextor Europe, based in Brussels Belgium, handles sales, marketing and technical support for the European, Middle East and African markets. Since opening its Brussels office in 1994, Plextor has introduced a number of award winning products, including:
CD/DVD-ROM Drives
CD/DVD Recordable drives
CD/DVD media
USB Flash Memory Drives (PlexFlash)
|
