Plextor PX-608CU 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Plextor PX-608CU 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Plextor
Provided By: Plextor LLC

Plextor has been a leader in the storage industry for more than a decade. Over the years, they've produced some of the best drives the industry has seen. The quality, performance and features these drives offer have made them favorites among consumers and professionals alike. To keep ahead of the competition, Plextor has continued to lead the way, introducing drives with faster writing speeds and cutting edge technologies found nowhere else.

This February, Plextor introduced its second-generation ultra-portable DVD writer, the PX-608CU. Based loosely on the Pioneer DVR-K16, this stylish and compact drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 4x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. Plextor has also given the PX-608CU a number of enhancements including the ability to power itself off of a computer's USB bus. By eliminating the need for an AC power source, you can burn CD's and DVD's wherever you go.

To give you an idea of what to expect from the PX-608CU we'll take a look at some of the drive's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is Plextor's portable DVD writer the best choice for the person on the go? Keep reading to find out.

What's in the box?:

• Plextor PX-608CU 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Drive Installation Guide
• Plextor DVD Writing Software - Revision 15.01
• USB 2.0 Cable
• USB Power Cable
• AC Power Adapter

Physical Features:

The drive we received from Plextor came with firmware version 1.44.At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the PX-608CU.

The Plextor PX-608CU is one of the smallest DVD writers we've tested. Measuring 5.43 in x 6.38 in x 0.87 in (137.1 mm x 143.1 mm x 15.9 mm), it's not much bigger than a couple of CD cases stacked on top of each other. Made of a silver colored plastic, the PX-608CU is also very lightweight. According to Plextor, the drive weighs in at only 0.55lb (250g).

Aside from the large "Plextor" logo, the top of the PX-608CU is fairly plain. In the upper right hand corner you can see the drive's LED and eject button. This LED lights up an amber color when both reading and writing. To keep the PX-608CU from sliding around, the bottom of the drive has five small rubber feet. If you look carefully you can also see a manual eject switch. This is a nice feature to have, especially if you're somewhere without power and you need to get the disc out of the drive.

The rear of the PX-608CU is pretty straight forward. Starting from the left, you can see its USB 2.0 interface and power jack. As Plextor is quick to point out, the PX-608CU can be powered off the USB bus. To do so, you must use a special USB cable that plugs into the drive's power jack.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Plextor's website and the manual that came with the drive.

More Features:

I must admit that I was a little surprised to see that Plextor's portable DVD writer was identified as a "PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K16". While this isn't the first time Plextor has used a drive design from another company, they usually change the ID string.

The Nero screenshot also shows that the PX-608CU has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2000KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the drive can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that it was able to overburn up to 94:27with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the PX-608CU is a "two sheep" burner. This means that the PX-608CU is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the PX-608CU's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the PX-608CU is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for the PX-608CU.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the PX-608CU's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that Plextor's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media.

The PX-608CU doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, the drive automatically sets the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.

Plextor has once again turned to Roxio for their software bundle. The DVD that comes with the PX-608CU contains Roxio's Easy Media Creator 8 suite.

With Easy Media Creator 8, users can quickly and easily do a number of tasks. From the main menu, they have the ability to create their own CD's and DVD's, make copies of existing discs, backup their computer or even organize their photos, videos and music. The menu below shows the various applications that make up the suite.

Easy Media Creator 8 includes what Roxio calls "Creator Classic" and "Music Disc Creator". While not as robust as disc mastering applications like Nero, these two programs will have you creating your own custom data and audio discs in no time.

Roxio also includes their packet writing software, Drag-to-Disc, with Easy Media Creator 8. Drag-to-Disc lets a person write to CD or DVD media the same way they would a floppy disk or hard drive. It also supports most CD and DVD media, including write once formats like CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R.

Video editing duties are handled by VideoWave. This easy to use software lets you trim your video clips and spruce them up by adding things like transitions, titles, music, and special effects. When you're done, simply save your movie to your hard drive or burn it to disc using MyDVD.

MyDVD is Roxio's DVD authoring application. With this program you can easily edit and then burn your favorite videos to CD or DVD.MyDVD will also allow users to add video effects, transitions and background music, create animated menus, and organize clips and photos into custom slide shows.

Roxio's PhotoSuite software gives you the ability to repair, enhance and share your digital photos. It also includes a number of automated and advanced photo editing tools that will let you easily crop and rotate your pictures, remove things like red-eye and wrinkles and add text and special effects.

Easy Media Creator 8 also includes Roxio's backup software, BackUp MyPC. This easy to use program lets you backup files, folders or entire drives to a number of storage devices, including CD and DVD writers.Backup jobs can be launched manually or scheduled to run at regular intervals so the data is always protected.

Last but not least, you have Sonic's DVD playback software, CinePlayer. Along with DVD movies, CinePlayer can be used to play back your VCD's, SVCD's or whatever video files you might have on your hard drive.

While small in size, Plextor's new DVD writer isn't short on features. The PX-608CU supports most CD and DVD formats and offers some of the fastest and writing speeds available on a portable DVD writer. The drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 4x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. The PX-608CU also includes features like a USB 2.0 interface and a software bundle from Roxio, but lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the PX-608CU scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Like the other Plextor drives I've reviewed, the PX-608CU was very easy to install. Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes. With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB and power cables. With the test computer already powered on, it took plug and play only a few seconds to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the PX-608CU was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the PX-608CU comes with a DVD full of software from Roxio. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc.

From here you can access the manual, register your drive or install the bundled software. Simply click the name of the application you want to install, and its setup program will start up automatically.

If you have installed Roxio's Easy Media Creator before, you're probably already familiar with the installation process. All you need to do is choose what language you want and select your installation options.By default the setup program will install the entire suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose just the components you want.

Documentation:

Most of the PX-608CU's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. Similar to the ones included with Plextor's other DVD writers, the manual starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new drive. The first section goes over the drive's capabilities, features and system requirements. Plextor has also provided some pretty good diagrams showing the various buttons and connectors located on the top, bottom and back of the drive. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are easy to understand.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the PX-608CU. The instructions are pretty brief since there really isn't much to do other than plug in a few cables and turn the computer on. The manual continues on by going over the basic operation of the PX-608CU. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, there is a short list of frequently asked questions. Last but not least, you have a list of specifications and recommended media. Unfortunately, the manual contains very little information on the PX-608CU's more advanced technologies. For this, you'll want to look at the manual for PlexTools Professional.

The PX-608CU also comes with a "Drive Installation Guide." While a little short on words, this small, printed guide contains a number of diagrams showing how the drive should be hooked up as well as how the emergency eject button works. For most people, this guide will be all they'll need to get the PX-608CU up and running.

For ease of installation, the PX-608CU is hard to beat. Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a few cables. Nevertheless, if you do run into trouble, the documentation Plextor has provided is quite good, even though it is in electronic format. Overall, I give the installation a solid 9 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.5 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.5 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

The PX-608U gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests.In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 9.9x (1480 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 22.9x (3440 / 150) on the outside. While this is pretty good for a drive with a maximum read speed of 24x, its access time and overall CD Winbench score were not as good as some of the other portable DVD writers we've looked at.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

Plextor's new DVD writer performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The PX-608CU started reading at 10.94x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 24.98x. Unfortunately, its seek times were higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The PX-608CU was a little faster when reading CD-R media.Thanks to this small speed boost, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 25x in our tests.

Plextor's new DVD writer had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. While the PX-608CU was able to recognize the disc correctly, it would not read beyond the 94 minute mark.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

The PX-608CU also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while Plextor's new DVD writer supports accurate stream and has the ability to cache audio data, it does not have the ability to retrieve C2 error information. This is different than what we saw with InfoTool. If you remember back, it showed that the PX-608CU could return C2 errors.

For a portable drive, the PX-608CU did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 11x and reached a maximum speed of 24.46x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While the PX-608CU started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were a little slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The PX-608CU was slightly faster when ripping audio CD-R discs. Thanks to this small speed boost, it reached a maximum DAE speed of only 24.51x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Plextor's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 17.58x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests.If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the PX-608CU was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well Plextor's DVD writer can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The PX-608CU didn't handle scratched discs as well as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at. While there weren't any unreadable sectors on the disc, the drive considered nearly 87% of the CD to be "damaged."

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

Plextor's new DVD writer did much better this time around. The scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 5.20:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep.

The PX-608CU has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x. To reach this speed, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive uses a total of four "zones" to reach its maximum speed. It starts writing at 10x and jumps to 24x at about the 19 minute mark.When the PX-608CU reaches the 42 minute mark, it changes to 20x and then to 24x at the 69 minute mark.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

The PX-608CU took about six and a half minutes to write an entire 701MB CD. While most of the internal writers we've looked at lately can do this in half the time, this is pretty good for a portable drive.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

The PX-608CU's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The PX-608CU also uses Z-CLV when rewriting at 24x. As with CD-R media, it starts writing at 10x and jumps to 24x at about the 19 minute mark.When the drive reaches the 42 minute mark, it changes to 20x and then to 24x at the 69 minute mark.

Plextor's new DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:17 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:04 to do the same with DLA. Erasing wasn't a problem for the PX-608CU either. In our tests, it took 41 seconds to do a quick erase and 5:23 to fully erase the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The DVD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The PX-608CU performed relatively well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.37x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.12x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's seek times were pretty high.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disk using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.09x	3.38x	8.14x	177ms	214ms	371ms	10%	15%	36%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.10x	3.38x	8.14x	264ms	318ms	503ms	11%	16%	37%

 

Verbatim DVD-R DL

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	4.56x	2.54x	6.07x	185ms	222ms	380ms	9%	n/a	n/a

The PX-608CU had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to read DVD-R and DVD-RW media at 8x, but slowed to 6x when reading DVD-R DL discs.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	4.15x	2.98x	5.01x	284ms	292ms	457ms	47%	72%	n/a

Plextor's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at about 3x and then jumps up to 5x at the 1.8GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disk using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.08x	3.37x	8.12x	177ms	209ms	385ms	9%	15%	34%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.09x	3.38x	8.16x	192ms	231ms	411ms	10%	15%	34%

The PX-608CU's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.In both cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for Plextor's new drive either. In our tests, the PX-608CU started reading at 2.54x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 6.09x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
Plextor PX-608CU	6.02x	3.34x	8.04x	167ms	196ms	332ms	12%	14%	31%

The PX-608CU didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 3.34x and reached a maximum read speed of 8.04x. Plextor's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 6x.

To see how well the PX-608CU worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of Plextor's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 4x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R media at 8x, the PX-608CU uses Z-CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that Plextor's new drive starts writing at 2x or 2.4x and jumps to 4x at the 0.2GB mark. When it reaches the 1.7GB mark, the drive changes to 6x. The PX-608CU writes at this speed until about the 3.7GB minute mark. At this point, the writing speed increases to 7.4x and stays there until the very end of the session.

According to Plextor, the PX-608CU is capable of 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In our tests, the drive had no problems writing to DVD-RW media at 6x. Unfortunately, it would not write to the 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim and RiDATA at its rated speeds.

While not nearly as fast as some of the internal writers we've looked at, the PX-608CU performed as expected when writing to DVD±R and DVD-RW media. Unfortunately, with its writing speed limited to only 4x, the PX-608CU took longer than it should have when writing to DVD+RW discs.

To check the media compatibility of the PX-608CU, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1620. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1620 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back with a Lite-On XJ-HD166S. By default, this DVD-ROM drive reads recordable media at only 8x. However, thanks to a firmware patched by The Dangerous Brothers, I was able to boost the drive's read speed to 12x. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

When tested with KProbe, the PX-608CU's writing quality appears to be pretty good. With the exception of RiDATA's 8x DVD+R media, the error rates remained fairly low. Unfortunately, the results weren't nearly as good when scanned with the BenQ DW1620. Looking at the CD Speed screenshots, you can see that the PI/PIF rates were considerably higher on the discs recorded at 8x.

Plextor's new drive did a little better this time around. Aside from a few PI and PIF spikes, the results stayed within acceptable limits with both KProbe and CD Speed. Even then,if you look at the transfer rate graphs you can see that there were still readability issues with most of the discs.

Something to point out is that while the PX-608CU had no problems erasing DVD+RW discs at its rated speeds, it erased DVD-RW media at only 2x.

To test the PX-608CU's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 6x DVD-RW, Verbatim 4x DVD+RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The PX-608CU's packet writing performance was pretty mixed. The drive turned in some pretty good times with DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media. However, it took longer than expected when reading and writing to DVD+RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the PX-608CU, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, RiDATA and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Depending on the media used, the PX-608CU took anywhere from 31 to 33 minutes to write 8001MB of data with Nero. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was very good with Verbatim's DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't nearly as good with the discs from Memorex and RiDATA. The jitter and error rates were very high throughout some sections of the discs. When testing RiDATA's DVD-R DL media, we also saw a large number of PO Failures at the layer change which caused some major readability issues.

Performance Revisited:

For a portable drive, the PX-608CU performed pretty well in our tests. When writing DVD's, it turned in some relatively good times with DVD±R, DVD-RAM and DVD-RW media, but took longer than expected when writing to DVD+RW discs. The PX-608CU was also fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, the drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R/RW media at 8x and DVD±R DL discs at 6x.

The PX-608CU also did fairly well in our CD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the PX-608CU either. The drive turned in some good writing times and the writing quality was quite good. With all of these things considered, I gave the Plextor PX-608CU a solid 7 out of 10 for its performance.

The PX-608CU is a great choice for anyone looking for a compact and versatile DVD writer. While small in size, it offers some the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable drive. The PX-608CU can also be powered off a computer's USB bus, making it the ideal solution for users on the go.

Like the Pioneer drive it's based on, the PX-608CU can write to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x. At this speed, it took the drive less than 14 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. Plextor's new drive also performed relatively well when writing to DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media, but would not write to any of the 8x DVD+RW media I tried at its rated speed. Fortunately, writing to DVD±R DL media wasn't a problem for the PX-608CU. Thanks to its 4x writing speed, it took the drive about 33 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

Finding compatible media really wasn't an issue with the PX-608CU. The drive wrote to all of the DVD±R media I tried at 8x and was even able to write to Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 4x. The PX-608CU's writing quality was also pretty good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially with Ritek manufactured DVD±R DL discs.

The PX-608CU also performed fairly well in our DVD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Video at 8x. The PX-608CU also read DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 8x but slowed to 6x when reading DVD±R DL discs.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the PX-608CU either. While its seek times were again a little high, the drive had no problems reading all types of CD media at 24x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 24x. As a writer, the PX-608CU performed as expected. Thanks to its 24x writing speed, it was fairly quick with both CD-R and CD-RW media. More importantly, its writing quality was quite good.

Plextor's new DVD writer also has its share of features. A truly portable drive, the PX-608CU can be powered off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can burn CD's and DVD's wherever you go. The PX-608CU also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL discs. Last but not least, Plextor tops all of this off with a great software bundle containing Roxio's Easy Media Creator suite.

The PX-608CU is available now and can be purchased through some of the online vendors listed on Pricegrabber. Prices vary depending on the seller, but Plextor's new portable DVD writer can be picked up for around $150.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD±R DL media at 4x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 8x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 6x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and CD-RW writing speeds
• Good transfer speeds with all types of CD media
• Better than average DVD±R and CD-R writing quality
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• Automatically sets book type to DVD-ROM for DVD+R DL media
• Includes Roxio Easy Media Creator 8
• Easy to install thanks to USB 2.0 interface
• Very compact and lightweight design
• Can be powered off the USB bus
• Good documentation

Lows:

• Does not support 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim or Ritek
• Questionable writing quality with Ritek manufactured DVD±R DL media
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
• Erases DVD-RW media at only 2x
• Has a 2000KB buffer
• Overburns to only 94:27
• Expensive