Plextor Px-880sa Does Not Read All Blue Ray

"Plextor approaches the bleeding edge of DVD-called-for operation, but that pocketknife cuts both ways."

Pros

• Very attractive bezel; relatively placidity; include PlexUtilities

Cons

• Lousy toll/performance ratio; slower read and write speeds than Samsung's 22x SH-S223

Summary

If you're the blazon of shopper who insists on buying the absolute fastest components for your computer, yous'll be interested to know that Plextor's PX-880SA DVD burner boasts a 24x DVD+/-R burn speed. That means it's capable of writing data to DVD+R and DVD-R media at a blistering rate of 31.68 MB/sec (24 times faster than the very first DVD burners).

But if you're the type of shopper who insists on getting the best value for your coin, you'll exist interested to know that the virtually widely available bare DVD+R media is rated for write speeds of simply 21.12 MB/sec (xvi times faster than outset-generation burners). What'due south even more intriguing is that when nosotros compared Plextor'due south new drive to a competitor's 22x drive, we institute the supposedly slower product to be faster at called-for to 16x media.

Characteristic Set

Performance isn't the only mensurate of a DVD burner'due south value; it's also of import to consider the drive'due south feature set, and the PX-880SA has plenty to offer on that front end. In improver to burning single-layer DVD media at 24x speeds, this drive can also tape information to dual-layer DVD and DVD-RAM media at upwards to 12x speeds. (Dual-layer DVDs offer about twice the chapters of unmarried-layer discs, viii.5GB versus iv.7GB, while DVD-RAM is a rewritable format.) If you like to create your ain mix CDs, the Plextor can burn CD-R media at rates as high every bit 48x (48 10 150KB/sec or 7,200KB/sec).

The PX-880SA features a SATA (Serial ATA) interface, so it won't be compatible with older PCs that are outfitted with PATA (Parallel ATA) interfaces. The PX-880SA too uses a SATA power connector, just y'all tin can purchase an adapter if your PC'south power supply has just the older Molex-fashion power connectors. (Note: Plextor's model PX-870A comes with a PATA interface, but that drive is limited to 22x speeds.)

One of the primary means by which optical drives achieve college read and write speeds is past spinning the disc faster – unfortunately, this process comes with the unpleasant side consequence of noise. The Plextor's chassis is designed with a blueprint that regulates air menses in order to reduce its acoustic signature. Nosotros found the PX-880SA to be slightly quieter than the slower drive nosotros used for comparing, but non remarkably and so.

Plextor's drive comes with LightScribe technology, which allows you to burn a grayscale image direct onto the contrary side of the disc. You lot must buy LightScribe media, which is outfitted with a special coating, and flip the disc over later on you've burned your data to it to create the label.

Plextor bundles a copy of Roxio Creator 10 CE, an abbreviated version of Roxio Creator 2010. The software suite includes programs for ripping and burning CDs and DVDs, among other things, merely its usefulness is severely limited past its reliance on an former version of Microsoft'due south .NET Framework. When we installed the program on our 32-bit Vista machine, we were greeted with the error bulletin "Installation of Roxio Creater x CE is interrupted and can't be completed." When nosotros went to Plextor's website for technical assistance, we were advised that the solution was to "uninstall Microsoft .Internet Framework 3.v SP1," and then reinstall the Roxio software. Even if that works, what happens to software that depends on having the latest version of .NET installed?

The inclusion of Plextor's ain PlexUtilities is far more than useful. This collection of programs allows y'all to benchmark the bulldoze'south performance, run a series of diagnostic routines, and automatically download and install new versions of the drive's firmware. It also includes PlexErase, a software program that can permanently remove all content from a disc for secure disposal; then again, nosotros've establish breaking the disc in half to exist a pretty secure means of disposal, too.

Criterion Performance

Nosotros used the benchmarking utility Opti Drive Control one.3 to measure the Plextor PX-880SA's reading and writing performance. For the sake of comparison, we also benchmarked a highly regarded 22x DVD burner, Samsung'due south SH-S223.

Nosotros used a pristine, manufactory-pressed DVD of the Criterion Drove edition of Richard III to measure both drives' read performance. Both drives delivered remarkably similar performances with this dual-layer (7.51GB) disc, delivering average transfer rates of 8.58x. The Plextor boasted a slightly faster 1/3-stroke admission time (a measurement of how fast the bulldoze tin can locate and read from the disc'southward first sector to the sector at i/3 of the disc'southward capacity). The PX-880SA required 145 milliseconds, compared to the Samsung's 157ms, but the older bulldoze bested the challenger in both random admission time (113- to 116ms) and full-stroke admission fourth dimension (83- to 95ms… full-stroke access is measured from the disc's outset sector to its last.) The Samsung likewise offered a faster burst rate, 77.3MB per second compared to 67.5MB/sec (burst rate measures the highest speed at which the drive can transfer data).

Only the Plextor really cruel down when information technology came to burning to 16x media, the fastest readily available blank DVD media on the market (for the record, we used TDK media). Where Samsung's SH-S223 started burning at seven.68x and finished at eighteen.27x, delivering an boilerplate write speed of 12.7x, the PX-880SA started its burn at six.84x and finished at just 16.23x, with an boilerplate write speed of just xi.09x. Creating a test disc with 4.5GB of data using Opti Drive Control on the Plextor drive took five minutes and 35 seconds, a full 27 seconds longer than the Samsung.

Conclusion

It's hard to recommend the Plextor PX-880SA given the yawning gap in price/performance ratios between it and Samsung'south SH-S223. When we wrote this review, the Samsung was street-priced at $28.99 and the Plextor PX-880SA was selling for $44.99 (we compared OEM versions, which typically don't include any software). The Plextor is prettier and slightly quieter, simply the Samsung performs so much amend with the media yous're most likely to use with information technology.

Pros:

• Very attractive bezel
• Relatively placidity
• Include PlexUtilities

Cons:

• Lousy toll/performance ratio
• Slower read and write speeds than Samsung'due south 22x SH-S223

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Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gadget-reviews/plextor-px-880sa-review/

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