Some improvements are noticeable in the reading of the disc. The medium is read without errors and slowdowns. The previous model was rather unconfident at reading the disc (the Plextor PX-712A couldn’t burn dual-layer media, so I’m talking only about reading a molded DVD+R DL).

Like I said before, the Plextor PX-716A can read DVD9 media at 6x speed starting from firmware revision 1.03. Dual-layer recordable discs rated for 2.4x support such burn speed, too. So we’ve got an opportunity to check out the burn quality at a speed which is almost thrice higher than specified.

The Plextor PX-716A did the burning of the blank at 4x speed successfully, save for the minor fall of speed which didn’t affect the total burn time. At 6x speed the drive produced a clear and smooth graph. The difference between 4x and 6x is quite conspicuous, amounting to almost 9 minutes. So, it makes sense to use the higher speed, if the quality is acceptable. The burned discs were read without errors, and we can now examine them from the standpoint of quality.

The quality of the disc written at 4x speed is not ideal, especially on the first layer. But the PI error rate is acceptable and even goes down on the second layer. This is a good result overall, but can be improved upon. It’s generally the same at 6x speed: the rate of PI errors and failures is higher on the first layer than on the second one. But the total number of errors is quite naturally higher at the higher speed. The blank is rated for 2.4x after all.