Plextor PX-740A DVD Recorder

[Hemispasm1442169066]

Reviewer: Hemispasm

Provided By: PCTechnolοgy

Production Date: May 2005

Firmware: 1.01 (updated from v1.00)

Suggested Price: ~ 70€

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: INTRODUCTION

The time has come to make another optical disk drive review, after the Teac DV-W516D review, the Lite-on SOHW-1673s review and the SOHW1673s@1693smini presentation. This time we have one of the latest Plextor drives in our hands, the PX-740A. As it is a drive that incorporates all latest technologies, writing to both recordable + and – media at 16x, as well as double layer media, this review should be of great interest to those that want to buy such a drive. Will this drive live up to their expectations?

What people need to know though right from the start is that this drive is not a “home made” Plextor drive. It is actually based on BenQ’s 1640 DVD recorder drive – Plextor has of course made changes to it that should mostly concern the front bezel, the tray loading mechanism and firmware used.

PLEXTOR CORP. INFORMATION

Plextor is one of the most well known companies in the field of optical disk drives, infamous for the quality of the drives it produces and its excellent after sales service. In particular, Plextor acquired initially its very good reputation with its SCSI line of drives. Let’s see some more info about the company, as it is presented in its official website.

Plextor is a leading international manufacturer of extremely reliable, high quality recording equipment and is also one of the pioneers in the field of CD technology. From its parent company, Shinano Kenshi Co. Japan, Plextor has a built up tradition in the development and manufacture of advanced hardware and electronic precision equipment going back to 1918. With head offices in Japan, Europe and the United States the company mainly sells its products through a network of specialised computer dealers. Plextor Europe, established in Brussels, takes responsibility for sales, marketing and technical support in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since opening its Brussels office in 1994, Plextor has introduced a number of award winning products, including CD/DVD-ROM drives, CD/DVD recordable drives, CD/DVD media and USB Flash Memory Drives (PlexFlash) and digital video converters.

Corporate Highlights

1985

Founded TEXEL Corporation in Tokyo, as a subsidiary of Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., started with export business of background music equipment.

1986

Small offset printing press machines are introduced in domestic and overseas market.

1988

Osaka Branchisopened.

1989

Extended time recorders for phone conversation are introduced. CD-I audio and encording systems are introduced. CD-BackgroundMusicPlayersareintroduced.

1990

CD-ROM drives are introduced. TEXEL America is established in Sunny Vale, California, USA.

1992

TEXEL America is relocated in Santa Clara.

1993

Printing Press Division is established. Plextor S.A. is established in Brussels, Belgium.

1994

TEXEL Co., Ltd. is renamed as Plextor Co., Ltd. TEXEL America is renamed as Plextor Corporation.

1997

Plextor Co., Ltd. office is relocated from Ueno to Yaesuguchi, Tokyo Station.

1998

CD Talking Book for people with visual impairments is introduced.

HARDWARE SETUP

The PC we will be using for this review is configured as shown below:

• Processor : Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.00GHz
  
• Mainboard : MICRO-STAR INC. MS-6728
  
• Total Memory : 1GB DDR-SDRAM
  
• VGA Adapter : RADEON 9600 XT
  
• Hard Disk 1 : ST3160023AS (149GB)
  
• Hard Disk 2 : WD1200JB (112GB)
  
• ODDs : SOHW-1693S, PX-740A, TEAC DV-W516D

All these are running under MS Windows XP Professional SP2. A screenshot from Nero Info Tool will show the corresponding configuration:

As you can see, DMA (Direct Memory Access) and Autorun is enabled for all devices. A 3rd party ASPI layer by Adaptec version 4.6 is installed and functional.

If you are not familiar with the above mentioned term, you can read the corresponding FAQ in the forum (sorry currently only in Greek)

FAQ: Optical Disk Drive Terminology

The TEAC-516D and SOHW-1693s drives will be used for reading back the burned media, while the SOHW-1693s will also be used for scanning purposes along side with KProbe. As a stand-alone DVD player for testing the media and particularly double layer +R media is the SONY DVP-M50.

SOFTWARE SETUP

The software we are going to use for conducting this review is the following:

• Ahead Nero Burning Rom
  
• Ahead Nero CD DVD Speed
  
• Kris Schoofs' DVD Identifier (for acquiring media MIDs)
  
• Kprobe2

In the next page we will see pictures of the drive and package and present the features of the drive …

Features & Package

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Features & Package

In this part of the review we will present you with pictures of the package and the drive itself, as well as elaborate on the drive’s technical characteristics as they are laid out by the manufacturer.

The Package

The drive was provided in a carton box as you can see below. The TLA number for this drive is TLA#0000 which means it is in the first hardware revision. Serial numbers have been erased for obvious reasons.

Although the package did mention “No Software” on the outside, in the box we did find more than just the drive, meaning:

• A product support software CD
  
• A brief installation manual
  
• Some screws, jumper and manual eject pin

Now we can move on and present you with some pictures of the drive itself.

The Drive

The PX740A has the typical look all Plextor drives have, as you can see from the pictures below. What one can find on the front is the typical one-color lead, the eject button and manual eject slot. Plextor logo and model number is also displayed alongside with the DVD and CD format logos.

On the back, one can find the typical inputs for the power, IDE and audio cables plus the jumper settings for master/slave/cable selection.

Nothing peculiar also in the upper and lower surfaces

The drive I got was manufactured in China in May 2005

Now let’s have a look at the drive’s “insides”

Now let’s see the drive’s characteristics as they are presented by the manufacturer

DRIVE FEATURES

DRIVE FEATURES

First let’s see what Nero InfoTool reports with this drive.

According to InfoTool the drive does not report reading of DVD-Ram media, plus it doesn’t support reporting C2 errors which I find a bit odd, it’s not always the case though so one should check this further with EAC for example. The buffer size is 2Mb which I personally find a bit insufficient, but it is usually the case with most recorders that are currently out in the market. Of course 8Mb would have been preferred.

The PX-740A technical characteristics are the following, as they are presented at the official Plextor website. As you can see below the drive can write on both + and – R media @16x, on –R DL media @4x while on + R DL media it can write at the whooping speed of 8x!

The drive uses WOPC technology to write on all media, a technology used by most drives currently to ensure write quality. For those not familiar with this feature here is a short explanation:

Walking OPC (Optimum Power Control/Calibration) is an algorithm that is used to adjust the laser power of the unit according to the properties of the media that are being burned every time. The drive conducts several write tests not only in the OPC (Optimum Power Calibration) area but expand to the whole recording session. Thus the drive thought WOPC evaluates constantly the write quality and adjusts the laser power accordingly. This feature is common in BenQ drives.

The drive though has both SolidBurn and OverSpeed features disabled, features that are found in the corresponding BenQ drive. One will have to buy the BenQ drive or crossflash the Plextor drive into the corresponding BenQ drive to make use of the above mentioned features. For those not familiar with the terms:

SolidBurn as described by Philips is a technology that enables the drive to do a series of tests in the OPC area when a disc of unknown manufacturer is used, hence when no known write strategy is available in the firmware. The drive will write a small area at 16x first and check quality, and if certain criteria are not met it will continue with the testing procedure at lower speeds until the write quality is acceptable.

OverSpeed theoretically will allow the drive to write to all media at 16x regardless of their certified speed at the expense of write quality sometimes. That’s all in theory though because by using OverSpeed automatically SolidBurn is also enabled by default, which essentially limits the burning speed accordingly.

On the next page we will test the reading performance of the PX-740A with CD and DVD media…

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Reading Performance

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Reading Performance

In this part of the review we will present you with information about how this Plextor drive performs while reading different media. Again for this we will use Nero CD DVD Speed and its Data Transfer Test feature. We will start with the CD media (including a Direct Audio Extraction test) and continue with DVD media.

CD-Rom

For this we used an audio CD-R and did a quick DAE test since we were at it. Although this is not the best way to test the drive’s audio extraction capabilities it still provides some information. The drive got a 10 in DAE quality which is the maximum score.

DVD-Rom (DVD9)

DVD-Rom (DVD5)

This time we used the product support DVD-Rom that came with the drive.

DVD-Recordable

DVD+R DL

The results from the tests done above clearly indicate that the Plextor PX-740A is an excellent reader for both CD and DVD media. It reaches the maximum read speed set by the manufacturer in the case of CD and DVD media (SL) while it performs pretty well when reading DL DVD media too. Finally we will present you with a screenshot of the maximum speed that the drive reached while ripping a DVD-Rom with DVD Decrypter.

The drive reached a maximum of 14,5x which is pretty impressive for a DVD recorder drive!

On the next page we will check the performance of the PX740A while writing on CD and DVD media…

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Writing Performance

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Writing Performance

In this part of the review we will present you with information about how this Plextor drive performs while writing different media, what writing method it uses and how quick it is. The write quality will be assessed in a different part of this review. Again for this we will use Nero CD DVD Speed and its Data Transfer Test feature. Now let’s start first with a CD-Recordable.

CD-Recordable

For this test we used a Taiyo Yuden CD-R 48x certified

DVD-R

For this test we used a DVD-R Philips (MCC03RG20) 16x certified

DVD+R

For this test we used a DVD+R Verbatim (MCC004) 16x certified

In this case one can more clearly see the WOPC in action (by the continuous drops in speed).

DVD+R DL

No picture here since most double layer media we had available did not qualify for burning at more than 2,4x so there was no real point in demonstrating it here – it would have been just a straight line (CLV) at the 2,4x marker. We will update this part when certified 8x DL media hit the Greek market (maybe never – hopefully not).

In the following table we will compare the writing speeds and corresponding times needed between the drives we have reviewed already. Since we only tried 2,4x DVD+R9 media we will not include these in this table.

<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td bgcolor="navy" width="168">RECORDER</td> <td bgcolor="navy" width="116">

CD-R

</td> <td bgcolor="navy" width="136">

DVD-R 16x

</td> <td bgcolor="navy" width="141">

DVD+R 16x

</td> </tr><tr><td width="168">Teac DV-W516D</td> <td width="116">

3:35*

</td> <td width="136">

7:11**

</td> <td width="141">

7:15

</td></tr> <tr> <td width="168">LiteOn SHOW-1673s</td> <td width="116">

2:33

</td> <td width="136">

5:41

</td> <td width="141">

N/A

</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="168">Plextor PX740A</td> <td width="116">

2:51

</td> <td width="136">

5:47

</td> <td width="141">

5:54

</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

* Done at 32x

** Done at 12x

In the next review page we will present how well the drive performs while writing CD media…

CD Writing Tests

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: CD Writing Tests

In this part of the review we will present you with the results we got from scanning several CD media we actually burned with the PX-740A drive. Before presenting the scans, let’s first mention a few words about these tests and how one should interpret them. A good source for reading more info is here plus this article written in Greek:

C1 C2 Errors, PI PO errors and Media Quality Scans

The method we are going to use and is widespread over the net is scanning the burned media for PI/PO (PIF) errors with KProbe and LiteOn SHOW-1693s as the reader. KProbe was initially written by a former LiteOn employee and can only be used with LiteOn drives. One can also use Nero CD DVD Speed in combination with other drives to do the scanning procedure; you can read more info on this here (Greek):

GUIDE: Media Quality Scans with KProbe and Nero CD Speed

This method is by no means a scientific foolproof objective way of measuring the writing quality of burned media . The results one can get by scanning the same medium with a different drive or the same drive but different firmware or even the same drive/firmware but different settings will most probably never be the same.

There are several parameters that affect the scanning process and these factors are essentially the ones that are being examined each time with each scan. These are:

• The drive & firmware used for burning the medium
  
• The drive & firmware used for scanning
  
• The media used
  
• The recording speed
  
• The scanning speed

By fixating some of the above like the reading speed and the drive/firmware used for scanning we can examine how the rest factors influence the writing quality. Essentially, media scanning with programs like KProbe can only give one hints on how well does a certain combination of specific media/drive/firmware work in order to make the best choice for one’s system.

There’s no real point in comparing scans that have been done with different drives and/or different settings. On the contrary, comparing scans done with the same drive/firmware can give useful information on the quality of the corresponding medium and recorder but always when compared to each other and not as absolute values.

For those that are not familiar with this, as far as CD media are concerned, the 2 parameters involved in the scan measurements are C1 and C2 error counts. For C2 error counts things are quite simple; we don’t want any if we like our data to be safe. C2 errors are critical and if they occur they can render the corresponding CD useless. C1 errors on the other hand are correctable errors and there’s no real threshold that one needs not to surpass; people should just follow the rule ‘the less you get the better it is’. Empirically what one should usually aim for is having a maximum C1 error count of less than 20.

Having said the above, let’s continue now with the error scans we got from the CD media we recorder with the PX740A. We used media from 4 different manufacturers of different quality.

TY 48x Printable

SKC 52x (Unknown 96m40s05f)

Intenso 52x (Moser Baer India)

EMTEC Black Carbon 48x (MPO 97m25s07f)

For the screenshots above we can clearly see that the PX740A did generally speaking pretty well. No C2 errors in all scans which very important. It is clear that the drive liked more the TY and EMTEC media which are known to be of better quality especially the TY media.

On the next page we will examine the writing quality on DVD+R media…

DVD+R Writing Tests

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: DVD+R Writing Tests

In this part of the review we will examine the writing quality of the Plextor PX740A as far as DVD+R media are concerned. For the measurements again we will use KProbe and a LiteOn SOHW-1693s as a reader. For the scans we used no less than 11 different DVD+R media, trying out most of the corresponding media that are currently out in the Greek market. Sorry no 16x TY media still. For those scans that didn’t turn out perfect we also did a data transfer test with Nero CD DVD Speed to accompany the KProbe error scan.

Now for those of you that are not familiar with the theory, the philosophy behind the error scanning procedure here is again the same as with the CD media we previously described. Just as an indication, for DVD media the threshold that should not be passed is 280 PI errors for 8 consecutive EC blocks and 4 PO (PIF) errors for each ECC block (allowed maximum). Some readers scan in more than 1 ECC intervals so the maximum error threshold will in that case change accordingly. In addition one should not take under consideration any spikes that might probably arise during the scanning process. The read speed was set to 4x, as it is customary for making result comparison easier. Again, for more information one can also read the following article (Greek):

Guide: Media Quality Scans with KProbe and Nero CD DVD Speed

8x Certified DVD+R Media

Now we can continue with the results of the scanning process with the media tested. We will start with the 8x certified media and move down to the 16x certified media. Altogether we tested media from 11 different manufacturers, 3 DVD+R 16x certified and 8 DVD+R 8x certified media.

8x datawrite+R (MCC003)

An excellent scan, not unexpected since MCC media are known for their good quality.

8x eProformance+R prodiscR03

This is a very good scan again.

8x Hyundai+R YUDEN000T02

The scan is well within the set thresholds.

8x Liteon+R RicohJPNR02

In this case there is an unexpected rise in both PI and PIF errors at the end of the disc, with the PIF errors getting a lot higher than they should. This is of course a disc of bad quality, unfortunately we did not perform a data transfer test here to get additional information on its readability. We did though retry burning the disc and rescanning, the results will follow.

8x Maxell+R MAXELL002

A very good scan again.

8x Philips+R RicohJPNR02

After our first disappointing test with Ricoh media, we reburned another one with the same MID but of different brand – now being a Philips DVD+R. The results of the scan here were very good.

8x TDK+R TDK002

This result showed a larger amount of total PIF errors than we would wish for, but all maximum values were below the desired threshold. We therefore did a data transfer test that didn’t show any problems.

8x TY+R Yuden000T02

Again; an excellent result, the best all around which is somewhat expected on Taiyo Yuden media. This particular TY DVD+R was carrying the Disk Impex logo.

That concludes our 8x certified media testing.

16x Certified DVD+R Media

These media are not very easy to find yet. We were not able to find any 16x certified TY media since they are still unavailable in the Greek market. We did though some testing with media from 3 other different manufacturers.

16x Maxell+R maxell003

A good scan considering the disc was written at 16x, the drive definitely likes Maxell media.

16x TDK +R TDK003

Again a very good scan.

16x Verbatim +R MCC004

In this case the PI and most importantly PIF errors get very high at the end of the scan, rendering the disc theoretically a coaster. We did a data transfer test which showed no problem but it is not uncommon for a disc with such a scan result to go bad in a relatively short period of time. Not what we would expect with an MCC made disc indeed.

DVD+R Tests Conclusion

The drive had excellent results with almost all media tested, apart from the last MCC 16x scan that is. It seemed to like almost everything that we threw at it, and considering that these media are the ones most commonly found in the Greek market one can realise how important this is.

Of course no burn was done in a speed higher than the one certified, as this was not supported firmware wise. The overspeed feature is not enabled in this drive. People expecting this drive to write to good media that are 8x certified at higher speeds like TY media (TYT02) will be disappointed, at least with this firmware version.

Now let’s continue with our DVD-R media testing …

DVD-R Writing Tests

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: DVD-R Writing Tests

In this part of the review we will examine the writing quality of the Plextor PX740A as far as DVD-R media are concerned. For the measurements again we will use KProbe and a LiteOn SOHW-1693s as a reader. For the scans we used no less than 10 different DVD-R media, trying out most of the corresponding media that are currently out in the Greek market. Sorry no 16x TY media still. For those scans that didn’t turn out perfect for one reason or another we also did a data transfer test with Nero CD DVD Speed to accompany the KProbe error scan.

Now for those of you that are not familiar with the theory, the philosophy behind the error scanning procedure here is again the same as with the CD/DVD+R media we previously described. Just as an indication, for DVD media the threshold that should not be passed is 280 PI errors for 8 consecutive EC blocks and 4 PO (PIF) errors for each ECC block (allowed maximum). Some readers scan in more than 1 ECC intervals so the maximum error threshold will in that case change accordingly. In addition one should not take under consideration any spikes that might probably arise during the scanning process. The read speed was set to 4x, as it is customary for making result comparison easier. Again, for more information one can also read the following article (Greek):

Guide: Media Quality Scans with KProbe and Nero CD DVD Speed

Now let’s continue with the scan results. First we will check out the 8x certified media.

8x Datawrite -R Fujifilm03

The scan is well within specs but since the total amount of PIF errors was a bit high we performed a data transfer test which turned out just fine.

8x Datawrite -R RitekG05

A very good result.

8x Ridisc -R RitekG05

An excellent result.

8x@4x Ridisc -R RitekG05

Performing a 2nd test on a disc of the same bunch as the previous one, we found out that the drive would only write that at 4x. The scan was again very good but the disc was burned at 4x.

8x TDK -R TTG02

The scan is good and within the set thresholds but due to the elevated PIF total we did a transfer test which is ok.

8x TY Disk Impex -R TYG02

One of the best scans I have ever seen.

8x@4x eProformance ProdiscS04

Again the drive in this case would only write these media at 4x. The result is good.

16x Maxell -R MXLRG04

An excellent scan. The reference to the 8 PIF max should be considered as a spike (which lowers the PIF max at 2)

16x Philips -R MCC03RG20

A very good scan. Again the 8 PIF max is a spike.

16x TDK -R TTH02

A good scan indeed – the 9 PIF max should also be considered as a spike again. But in this case we should also mention that by repeating the burning process media from the same bunch we found out that again the drive did not perform in a consistent manner. As with the RitekG05 media some TDKs were not recognised by the drive and were only written at 4x. Of course this probably is media related but it should nevertheless be mentioned.

DVD-R Media Tests Conclusion

Overall the PX740A performed pretty well with DVD-R media. All scans were well within the set thresholds, Again we were not able to burn any media at a speed higher than the one they were certified for, which is essentially firmware related. Although BenQ1640 has the Overspeed featured already described, the rebadged PX740A doesn’t have it.

The fact that the drive showed changing behaviour towards Ricoh and TDK media (writing them at lower speeds at times) seems to be media related, but one can not know for sure.

Now let’s continue with our (double layer) DVD+R9 media tests…

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: DVD+R9 Writing Tests

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: DVD+R9 Writing Tests

In this part of the review we will examine the writing quality of the Plextor PX740A as far as double layer (DVD+R9) media are concerned. For the measurements again we will use KProbe and a LiteOn SOHW-1693s as a reader. For the scans we used media from 2 different manufacturers, unfortunately both rated for 2.4x writing, which was the speed they were burned at also. We will update the review with more scans when we get our hands on more media certified for higher speeds.

The philosophy behind the error scanning procedure here is again the same as with the other DVD recordable media we previously described.

The 1st disc we tried was a Philips (MID PhilipsCD2)

The scan is very good, showing no rise in errors at the point of the layer break, which is somewhat common for DVD-R9 media.

The 2nd disc we tried was a printable DVD+R9 made by Ritek (MID RitekD01)

As you can easily see from the scan above, the PX740A did not like this disc at all. It shows a big rise in both PI and PIF errors just a bit after the layer break point. The 200 value in the PIF max area is probably a spike; nevertheless it does show a max of at least 17 while the PI error max value is a bit more than 600. Not really nice indeed. The data transfer test clearly shows a drop in transfer speed at the area where the errors are occurring.

We tested both written DVD+R9 media on the Sony DVP-M50 standalone DVD player and both were read and reproduced with no problems whatsoever.

Unfortunately the above media scans are not enough for one to conclude on this drive’s behaviour towards double layer media. Of course one can at least check on the performance at least with these 2 specific media. In addition no DVD-R9 media can be found anywhere. More tests will be done and this part of the review will be updated as soon as possible.

On the next page we will make a summary on what we have done so far and mention the pros and cons…

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Conclusions

PLEXTOR PX-740A REVIEW: Conclusions

It is time to conclude on our Plextor PX740A DVD recorder review. Let’s start by pointing out a list of the positive and negative characteristics of this drive, as they have been demonstrated throughout this review.

POSITIVE

• Writes DVD recordable media at 16x, DVD+R9 at 8x, DVD+RW at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x
  
• Fast reader for both CD and DVD media
  
• Good audio extraction
  
• Fast writer for both CD and DVD media
  
• Very good CD-R writing quality
  
• Excellent DVD+R writing quality
  
• Excellent DVD-R writing quality
  
• Very good writing quality on PhilipsCD2 DVD+R9 media
  
• 2 years fast warranty service (for EU, Norway, Switzerland) by Plextor

NEGATIVE

• It doesn’t support Mount Rainier format
  
• It didn’t write any media at a speed higher than the one they were specified for
  
• Poor writing quality on RitekD01 DVD+R9 media
  
• Pricey (one can get the BenQ1640 cheaper)

Let’s try and summarize the positive characteristics of the PX740A DVD recorder. The drive has the latest features in ODD technology, it is compatible with all formats apart from DVD-Ram that is while it can write all media formats (apart from DVD-Ram again) at top speed. Actually it has been demonstrated that it writes 80min CDs in 2:51 min, DVD-R in 5:47 min and DVD+R media in 5:54 min.

The drive is also a very fast reader, as it reaches or surpasses the specified maximum reading speed in almost all media (49.11x for CDs, 11.77x for DL DVD-Rom, 15.89x for SL DVD-Rom and 11.29 x for DVD+R9). It has also scored 10 in the DAE test, showing it has good audio extraction capabilities.

The writing quality was excellent on CD, DVD-R and DVD+R media, generally showing low counts for PI and PIF errors. It is my impression that it has shown the best overall writing quality compared to the other 2 DVD recorder drives we have reviewed so far, the Teac DV-W516D and LiteOn SHOW-1673s. The double layer media tests were not enough to conclude for the writing quality on these kind of media. More tests will be done in due time.

Finally the 2 year guarantee that Plextor offers is always a big plus; people that have experienced Plextor’s after sales service really know how important this is.

On the other hand, there are of course some negative points that have to be mentioned. The fact that the drive doesn’t support the Mount Rainier format is one of them, but I guess since few people use it anymore it is not a feature that many will miss. What many will find a bit disappointing is the fact that no media were written at a speed higher than the one specified, not even good quality media like TY. Actually all TY media we tried (T01, T02, G01 and G02 - although T01/G01 tests were not presented in the review) were written at specified speed. In addition ProdiscS04 specified at 8x were written at 4x, while it showed inconsistent behavior speedwise on RitekG05 and TTH02 media (probably a media related issue).

Finally and more importantly comes the price of the PX740A; it is 20% more expensive than the drive it originates from (BenQ1640) and as some will claim with less features (Overspeed, SolidBurn).There are indeed some extras like the black tray and the 2 year Plextor guarantee but some might prefer to go for the BenQ instead after all.

.