- Writing Quality

In order to test the Plextor 740A DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL writing quality, we used the LiteOn SOHD-167T and the Plextor PX-716A drives.

• Maxell DVD+R DL @ 8X

• Philips DVD+R DL @ 2.4X

• Ridisc DVD+R DL @ 2.4X

• Traxdata DVD+R DL @ 2.4X

• Verbatim DVD-R DL @ 4X

The Plextor 740A has a problem when using DVD-R DL, which limits the unused space as one can see from the above graph which was made with the PX716 and Plextools. This issue was supposed to have been looked into and fixed with the latest firmware release for the 740A, v1.01. As we can clearly see, this is not the case. We did not notice any quality problems though, meaning this is just a bug which will not affect writing quality.

As expected, the 8X burned Maxell +R DL disc did not report the best quality, as the 8X DL burning speed is quite fast, although we can say that we had an average to good burn. For the rest of the +R DL media, as one can see, the burning quality is good, at 2.4X effective speed.

With -R DL media, the Plextor drive managed to produce a very good quality burn at 4X effective speed, with a smooth graph and very low PI values.