Let’s now try to increase the burn speed to 8x.

Plextor PX-716A burning/reading a 8x DVD-R disc
 

There are no errors during the reading and burning processes – the graphs are clear, without slumps of speed. The maximum specified speed is achieved when reading the burned disc. Let’s now check out the quality of the resulting DVD-R.

Once again the new model puts on an excellent performance! The total number of PI errors has diminished by 98% (from the Plextor PX-712A’s 124,857 to the PX-716A’s 9,490), and the total number of PI failures by 99% (the Plextor 716A’s 77 against the PX-712A’s 9,408). This is, again, just excellent. Moreover, the average of PI failure blocks is 1 with the new drive, and the maximum of PI failures equals 2, while 4 is allowable by the industry standard. As for PI errors, the average error rate doesn’t exceed four whereas it was almost 20 with the previous model.

Beta/Jitter and TA Test (Inner, Middle, Outer)
for the disc burned by Plextor PX-716A
 
 

The asymmetry is almost ideal. The fluctuations are so small that it’s almost like we’ve got a zero beta value here. The jitter rate is uniform along the entire disc and is acceptable, too. TA Test also produces good jitter showings – they are not ideal, though, because the neighboring zones do overlap in the diagram.

So, the Plextor PX-716A performs outstandingly with DVD-R media. Having surpassed the good results of the earlier model, the new Plextor delivers almost perfect quality.