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Plextor PX-B320SA Combo Drive

Katherine Stevenson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:00:46 -0600

Burn DVDs and watch Blu-ray movies

Blu-ray has yet to prove itself as a sensible storage medium—there are just too many less-costly solutions for backing up data. But just because you’re satisfied with a standard DVD drive for your burning chores, doesn’t mean you should be denied the enjoyment of watching Blu-ray movies on your PC—especially now that large 1920x1080 monitors are so affordable.

Enter Plextor’s PX-B320SA DVD burner/BD-ROM combo. We can’t say it offers the best of both worlds, but it strikes a nice balance. The drive’s DVD speeds aren’t up to the likes of, say, Samung’s SH-S223 performance DVD drive. For example, the Plextor is rated at 16x for DVD+R writes compared with the Samsung’s 22x. In our tests, that amounted to a 5:20 (min:sec) time to fill a single-layer disc vs. 4:46—not such a big deal. With double-layer media, the Plextor took 16:58 vs. the Samsung’s 13:16—yes, over time those minutes can add up.

Plextor adds a bit of splash to its PX-B320SA with a glossy front bezel.

Of course, Samsung’s drive won’t play your Blu-ray movies. In the realm of combo drives, Plextor’s PX-B320SA trumps LG’s GCC-H20L, the combo drive in our Lab test beds. Single-layer DVD+R write times for the two drives were virtually the same, but Plextor’s drive was more than 50 percent faster at writing to dual-layer discs, where the LG drive took 27:27. The Plextor drive also surpassed the LG drive in our DVD ripping test by nearly 50 percent, taking just 10:47 to copy a dual-layer movie disc to our hard drive, versus the LG’s 15:17.

Now, LG has since replaced the GCC-H20L with the GBC-H20L, which lacks the former’s support for also reading HD DVD discs (for obvious reasons) but otherwise boasts the same specs. We can’t say for certain that that drive performs the same as its GCC predecessor, but even so, we’re inclined to favor the Plextor PX-B320SA. After all, at $230, the LG GBC-H20L is a mere $20 less than our favorite full-fledged BD burner (Pioneer’s BDR-2203).

Even if you don’t have any interest in that functionality, it would be tough to turn down the added value for such a measly savings. At $180, Plextor’s drive at least saves you $70—money you could actually do something with.

Plextor Announces PX-320SA Internal Blu-Ray Drive

Paul Lilly — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:05:08 -0500

For a long while, it seemed as though Plextor was content to fade from memory after ruling the optical market, that is until the company announced a bunch of optical drives last November and a spattering of releases since then. Plextor's back again, this time with a new internal 8X Blu-ray reader and DVD/CD writer combo, the PX-B320SA.

"We're pleased to be able to offer consumers a versatile, multi-feature drive that offers faster Blu-ray read speeds as well as a way to burn data to CD or DVD," said Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at Plextor. "Additionally, having Cyberlink's BD Suite software included will make it easy for consumers to enhance existing DVD content using the same drive."

Tech specs include reading Blu-ray discs at 8X, DVD±R at 16X, DVD±R DL and DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RW at 6X, and DVD-RAM at 12X. And in addition to CyberLink software, the drive also comes with Plextor's PlexUTILITIES app.

Plextor says the drive is available now for $179 MSRP.

Image Credit: Plextor

Plextor PX-850SA

Katherine Stevenson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:31:50 -0500

Last month we reviewed our first 22x DVD burner, Samsung’s SH-S223; this month, Plextor presents us with a challenger in the form of the PX-850SA—a similarly spec’d drive that rises to the occasion in some respects, but falls short in others.

Like Samsung’s new burner, the PX-850SA boasts an industry-leading 22x speed rating for DVD+/-R media. It lacks, however, the Samsung’s over-speed feature, which helped that drive eke out a 4:46 (min:sec) Lab record when writing 4.38GB of data to a single-layer DVD+R disc. By comparison, the Plextor took 5:36, never breaching the 16x speed limit imposed by our Verbatim media.

The difference between the two drives’ performance with double-layer media was more expected. After all, Plextor’s PX-850SA is rated at just 8x when writing to DVD+/- DL, compared to the Samsung drive’s rating of 16x. In practical terms, this means Plextor’s drive took 16:33 to fill an 8GB disc versus the Samsung drive’s time of 13:13.

But the Plextor PX-850SA did have its triumphs. As a new addition to our optical drive benchmarks, we test a drive’s ability to rip the contents of a double-layer DVD to a hard drive. The PX-850SA had an average rip time of 10:43, while Samsung’s drive was about 50 percent slower, with an average rip time of 15:26. We must note that Samsung’s drive redeemed its ripping reputation—and then some—with a firmware hack, but Plextor’s PX-850SA gets props for being the faster drive out of the box and for being competitive at rips against a host of other drives.

The Plexy also gets props for its good looks. The drive’s stylish, shiny faceplate stands out against the generic facades of its peers. The PX-850SA further differentiates itself by coming bundled with Roxio Creator 10 CE as opposed to Nero’s package of DVD playing and burning apps, although the two suites are pretty comparable.

In the end, we’re talking about a solid-performing drive, but the PX-850SA still takes a backseat to Samsung’s SH-S223.

Plextor Awakens from Slumber, Announces New Optical Drives

Paul Lilly — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:29:50 -0600

If you're new to the DIY scene, you might not even recognize the name Plextor, a company who carved out a following by offering best-in-class optical drives. But as prices for CD/DVD burners have hit rock bottom in recent years, the high end optical maker has, for the most part, slinked into the shadows. Now the company is making a comeback.

"Plextor continues to strengthen its position in the optical storage market with the addition of these new drives to its already robust line of products," said Bob Gronski, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. “Now more than ever, people are going out less and taking advantage of home entertainment more, so it’s a perfect time for us to introduce such an extensive line of products."

Plextor gets back into the optical game with several new drives covering a variety of connection options, including USB, SATA, and even PATA. Models include the PX-610U 8X Slim External USB Super Multi Drive, PX-B310SA (6X internal SATA), PX-B310Q (6x external USB), PX-850SA (22x internal SATA), and PX-850A (22x internal PATA).

Minus the Mac version of the PX-610U, each of the new drives ships with Plextor's PlexUTILITIES, which gives end users the ability to control specific drive functions, view drive information, and includes a utility to destroy data on CD and DVD media.

Image Credit: Plextor

Plextor PX-810SA

Katherine Stevenson — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:36:02 -0500

Ever since Plextor stopped manufacturing the PX-755SA DVD burner, we’ve been on the hunt for a worthy replacement. We loved the Plexy’s SATA interface, so we’re not settling for anything less going forward. (It’s just plain foolish to opt for a drive with an oversized, outdated parallel connector when SATA models are available.) Since SATA drives from Lite-On and Asus failed to win us over in the August issue, we corralled a couple new contenders, including Plextor's new PX-810SA.

We were a little perturbed to find that the PX-810SA doesn’t come with a SATA cable; it’s a negligible expense, but seeing as this is one of the more expensive DVD burners we’ve tested of late, the cable really should be included (as it has been with other drives). The PX-810SA boasts a DVD+R write rating of 18x, so it’s not surprising that it took almost a full minute longer than Samung’s drive to write 4.38GB of data to a single-layer disc (5:57). But Plextor’s drive also fell behind the 18x Asus drive we reviewed in August in both read and write speeds (see chart below).

The PX-810SA regained its composure somewhat when burning to double-layer media. It took 15:37 to fill a DVD+R DL disc, which is faster than the Lite-On and Asus drives we reviewed in August but not up to the speed of Samsung’s burner. The drive also fell within the middle of the pack with DVD+RW burn times of 15:12.

The bundled EasyMediaCreator 9 is a nice addition, but it’s not enough to bridge the gap between this drive’s average burn speeds and its premium price.

Plextor PX-B900A

Gordon Mah Ung — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:54:26 -0600

When is a Plextor drive a Plextor drive? Certainly not when it’s a Panasonic.

To get onboard the Blu-ray train in a hurry, Plextor rebadged a Panasonic SW-5582 Blu-ray drive as its own. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Invaluable firmware updates will come from Plextor and not some Pac Rim outfit. And to be fair, the Panasonic’s far better than the first-gen Pioneer Blu-ray drive we reviewed in October, which couldn’t even read CDs.

The Plextor BX-B900A writes to CD-R at an acceptable 24x speed. That’s far shy of today’s top-of-the-line 48x burners, but that’s the trade-off with the latest round of Blu-ray drives—they burn everything, just not that fast. The BX-B900A burns single-layer DVDs at 8x (with speeds dropping to 4x for double-layer DVDs).

The BX-B900A also trumps Pioneer’s first-gen hardware by burning not just single-layer Blu-ray media, but double-layer media as well, for up to 50GB per disc. Again, write speeds are weak: It took 1:34 (hour:min) to fill a 22.6GB write-once disc.

We were able to play a Blu-ray movie using the included WinDVD BD player, but without an HDCP card in our test rig, the player downsampled the content so badly that it looked worse than DVD resolution.

While we applaud the latest improvements to Blu-ray hardware, the PX-B900A’s price tag still stings, as does the $20 a pop it costs for write-once Blu-ray media.

Month Reviewed: December 2006
+ SOUTH PARK: Famed Plextor firmware support.
- NORTHERN EXPOSURE: An hour and a half to burn 23GB?!
Verdict: 6
URL: www.plextor.com