Plextor PX-716A review

If your hard disk is filling up, or you're getting concerned that you've only one copy of some important files, it's probably time to plump for a DVD writer.

Standard discs can store up to 4.7GB of data, and cost less than a pound. The recent arrival of DVD+R9 'dual-layer' discs means you can now store a whopping 8.5GB of files on to a single disc. Other uses include making home movies to pass on to friends or family. You can even dump all your digital pictures onto a single disc and pass these round - all modern DVD players can display photos and cycle through them using the remote.

Plextor has been making CD and DVD writers for years, and has developed special software, PlexTools Professional, to help you make the most of your drive. This allows you to tweak performance, automatically upgrade firmware (to boost speed, features and reliability), and check the integrity of discs.

For burning and copying discs, there's Pinnacle CD/DVD 8.3LE. This is quite a limited package, which offers nothing over the more common Nero Burning ROM, and is rather disappointing considering the price. Promises on the box of CyberLink PowerProducer, Sonic MyDVD and Ulead Video Studio 8 are dashed as they're all trial versions. With a drive this pricey, we'd expect the software bundle to be impeccable.

On paper, the PX-716A looks like it should write both DVD+R and DVD-R formats at 16-speed, as well as writing DVD+RW and DVD-RW at 8-speed. In our tests, it wrote our 4.35GB of test files to a 16x Verbatim DVD+R disc in five minutes and 15 seconds - half a minute slower than LG's drive. We couldn't test its 8xDVD+RW or 16xDVD-R speed ratings, because at the time of writing, discs that work at these speeds aren't yet available - though the fact they're supported extends this drive's working life. Both DVD+RW and DVD-RW rewritable discs were tested using 4x-rated discs and completed in just under 13 and a half minutes - a bit faster than LG's drive. Using an 8x-rated disc the DVD-R test took just over seven minutes.

Although 4x DVD+R9 dual-layer discs don't exist yet, high-quality discs from manufacturers such as Verbatim can be written at 4x. Our 7.89GB of test files took 24 minutes 22 seconds - again, a bit faster than with LG.

The one thing the Plextor doesn't offer is support for DVD-RAM discs. While there are few who will ever need it, the fact that the LG offers it helps to distinguish the drive in a saturated market. Plextor's drive is good, but it's also double the price of LG's drive. For the difference, you could purchase some excellent burning and video editing software, and still have enough change for a pub lunch!