Plextor PX-B320SA Editorial Reviews. Headphones Monitors Sound Cards Home Cinema Systems Mice Wireless Speakers Routers Child Car Seats.

The Plextor ConvertX PX-AV200U Digital Video Converter makes it fun and easy for users to connect a camcorder, VCR, TV, or DVD to a PC and work with video. The ConvertX captures full quality, full screen video, perfect for making DVDs, Video CDs, or converting video files to tranfer to your favorite mobile video device. Latest downloads from REALTEK in Sound Card. Sort by: last update. Gigabyte B450M GAMING (rev. 1.x) Realtek Audio Driver 6.0.1.8454 for Windows 7 145. Plextor will release its new flagship M9Pe NVMe SSD in early 2018 to get ahead of the coming wave of SSDs powered by 64-layer NAND. These are the fastest SSDs Plextor has ever released, but they. Plextor is the leading manufacturer of DVD/CD Recorders. However, in an attempt to provide more complete solutions covering from DVD creation to DVD recording, Plextor has introduced the ConvertX series for real time video encoding. Their latest product in this series is the PX-M402U. The PX-M402U follows on the footsteps of the M401U, but has real-time, hardware based MPEG-4 encoding, along with real-time Dolby Digital audio encoding.

1. Introduction

Review Pages

Plextor Sound Cards For Mp3 Players

Several months ago, Plextor released the PX-716A drive, an internal 16X DVD recorder with many features and capabilities. Today we will be reviewing its twin, the PX-716SA, same burner but with different connection interface, Serial ATA instead of IDE. The PX-716SA supports up to 16X burning speed with DVD±R media and 8X/6X with DVD±RW media. The PX-716SA also supports up to 6X burning speed with both DL formats (DVD±R DL media).

Note here that the drive will not be posted with the full CDRinfo test suite, since several tests reported same results as the 716A drive. We only present the writing quality for the PX-716SA with the most recent firmware revision, that of 1.08. For further investigation of the drives capabilities, you can take a look at the full review of the PX-716A which can be found here.

- Features

The Plextor 716SA supports the same set of features as the 716A IDE burner...

supported for recording at high-quality and optimum speed.

is a self-learning writing technology that determines the standard deviation of any blank disc and automatically optimizes the write strategy for unknown media, enabling high-quality disc recording. AUTOSTRATEGY technology is the culmination of five years of research and development by Taiyo Yuden, a leading Japanese supplier of quality CD and DVD recording media.

controls the laser in three dimensions, to ensure high quality writing and reading if the disc surface has imperfections. Below is a graph, which according to Plextor shows the Jitter improvement with the IntelligentTilt technology:

The VariRec feature can be applied not only to Audio CD-R discs but also DVD±RW media. The user can select some settings during recording preparation in order to obtain a more personalized sound tone. The feature is fully controlled from within the PlexTools software, available in the Plextor retail package, and works for CD at 4X and 8X and for DVD at 2X and 4X writing speeds. Nero and other programs support this feature as well.

The PoweRec technology ensures the quality of CD and DVD recordings. Low quality media is often the source of disc errors during high speed recording. PoweRec checks the quality of the inserted CD/DVD media and automatically selects the optimum (maximum) writing speed, giving the highest quality results.

- GigaREC allows high capacity storage of up to 900 MB on a 700 MB CD-R disc. With this advanced feature, you can increase the maximum writing capacity by up to 30%.

- SecureREC offers password protection for your disc and other valuable data

- Q-Check checks and reports written disc quality - C1/C2 for CD, PI/POF and TA for DVD (Time Analyzer checks T3-T11 and T14), track and focus errors, beta and jitter.

- Silent Mode which enables users to vary tray load/unload speed, spin up/down speed and write/read speeds

- Specifications

Data Transfer Rate
Burst	66MB/s
Write	DVD+R	DVD-R	CD-R
	16x: 22.160KB/s (CAV) 12x: 16.620KB/s (PCAV) 6-8x: 8.310-11.080KB/s (PCAV) 6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV) 4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV) 2.4x: 3.324KB/s (CLV) DVD+R DL 6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV) 4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV) 2.4x: 3.324KB/s (CLV)	16x: 22.160KB/s (CAV) 12x: 16.620KB/s (PCAV) 6-8x: 8.310-11.080KB/s (PCAV) 6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV) 4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV) 2x: 2.770KB/s (CLV) DVD-R DL 6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV) 4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV) 2x: 2.770KB/s	48x: 7.200KB/s (CAV) 32x: 4.800KB/s (PCAV) 16x: 2.400KB/s (CLV) 8x: 1.200KB/s (CLV) 4x: 600KB/s (CLV)
ReWrite	DVD+RW	DVD-RW	CD-RW
	6-8x: 8.310-11.080KB/s (PCAV) 6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV) 4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV) 2.4x: 3.324KB/s (CLV)	4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV) 2x: 2.770KB/s (CLV) 1x: 1.385KB/s (CLV)	24x: 3.600KB/s (PCAV) 10x: 1.500KB/s (CLV) 4x: 600KB/s (CLV)
Read	DVD-ROM		CD-ROM
	6-16x CAV 5-12x CAV 3-8x CAV 2-5x CAV 2x CLV		20-48x CAV 17-40x CAV 14-32x CAV 10-24x CAV 8x CLV 4x CLV
Access Time	<150ms (DVD) <100ms (CD)
Data Buffer	8MB
Error Rate	Mode1: less than 10-12bits Mode2: less than 10-9bits
Eject	Auto Eject / Manual Emergency
Disc Loading	Slot Loading mechanism (caddy)
Power Supply	DC +5V and DC +12V
Audio Connector	Rear: Analog output Rear: Digital SPDIF output
Dimensions	146 x 41,3 x 178,7 mm
Weight	1 kg
MTBF	60.000 POH
Disc Loading Eject	20.000 times
Warranty	2 year Fast Warranty Service (in EU, Norway and Switzerland: Collect & Return); 1 year in other countries

Specifications as reported with the aid of various tools...

As we can see with Nero Info Tool and DVDInfo Pro, the drive uses the RPC II Region control which allows up to five region changes. We changed the region on our drive to 'Region 2' for the purposes of this review.

The drive uses the standard front loading tray mechanism. The sample we received from Plextor was black. The eject button is located on the left side while in the middle, there is an emergency eject hole A green led is also present and lights up depending on drive activity.

The only difference with the PX-716A is the rear panel, where the SATA interface and power connectors are located.

The drive is Sanyo based, using the following chipset.

- Installation

The drive was installed under WindowsXP and was recognized as 'PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A'. It arrived with the most recent firmware revision, v1.08. Below is a screenshot from Nero Burning Rom's specs for the drive.

Review Pages

Pages

• 1
• …

1. Installation - Retail Package

Review Pages

Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U - Page 1

Plextor is the leading manufacturer of DVD/CD Recorders. However, in an attempt to provide more complete solutions covering from DVD creation to DVD recording, Plextor has introduced the ConvertX series for real time video encoding. Their latest product in this series is the PX-M402U.

The PX-M402U follows on the footsteps of the M401U, but has real-time, hardware based MPEG-4 encoding, along with real-time Dolby Digital audio encoding. This external device is also suitable for laptop users, making encoding as easy as possible. It can capture DVD quality video from multiple sources, such as TVs, VCRs or camcorders.

- Features

The device uses the Hi-Speed USB2.0 interface, making it compatible with all computers running Microsoft Windows XP. Of course, it can be connected to a slower USB1.1 port, but this is not recommended, since the transfer rate on such ports will not allow for real time video encoding. On the other hand, USB2.0 connectivity allows high bitrate video capture using MPEG-2 compression, maximizing data throughput to the host computer.

Most available encoders will encode audio in normal stereo or wide stereo 2-channel format. Dolby Digital is a key feature of the M402U. It converts the audio input to Dobly Digital channels, muxing them with the produced video stream. However, this is not hardware based real time encoding, but instead, the software handles the audio signals in such a way that produces Dolby Digital audio.

The PX-M402U is the first capture device to be officially DivX certified. This is a very interesting feature, since users can benefit from this popular format for sharing videos easily over the internet.

- Specifications

The device is compatible with both PAL and NTSC transmission formats, ensuring compatibility for all users around the world. The following table shows the main specifications of the ConvertX.

Video Standards	PAL/SECAM (720 x 576, 352 x 576, 352 x 288)
	NTSC (720 x 480, 352 x 480, 352 x 240)
Video Input	S-Video or Composite (RCA connector)
Audio Input	Stereo audio (2 x RCA connectors)
PC Interface	USB 2.0
Power Supply	100 - 240 V, 50/60 Hz
Dimensions (WxHxD)	184 x 32,4 x155 mm
Weight	0,5 kg

It should be noted that the video record time may vary based on the selected bitrate, frame size, disc capacity and video source.

Compression Bit Rate		Video Record Times
Video Encoder/Decoder	Video (Kbps)	Audio (Kbps)	CD-R/RW	DVD±R/RW
MPEG-1 (VCD)	1150	224	80	-
MPEG-2 (DVD-Video)	6000 - 2000	224	12 - 27	79 -169
MPEG-4	4000 - 700	224 - 128	22 - 115	141-721
DivX®	4000 - 768	224 - 128	22 - 107	141 - 666

Unfortunately, the M402U will not work with operating systems prior to Microsoft Windows 2000, and it is not compatible with the Mac OS.

CPU	Pentium III 800 MHz or higher (minimum configuration)
	Pentium IV 1.6 GHz or higher (recommended configuration)
Hard Disk Drive	10 GB free disk space
RAM	256 MB
Monitor Resolution	1024 x 768,24-bit color
Graphics Card	Video card with 24-bit resolution capability and DirectX support
Sound	Windows compatible sound card that supports 48 KHz playback (PCI recommended)
DirectX	DirectX 9.0b (included in the WinDVD Creator application)
Interface	USB 2.0
CD-ROM	A CD-ROM drive for installation (CD installation)
CD-RW	To burn CDs, Video CD or mini DVD (DVD format on CD)
DVD±RW	To burn DVDs
OS Support	Windows 2000/XP

Users can select from a wide range of available video formats that the device will use to convert video. MPEG stands for Moving Pictures Experts Group. MPEG-1 is used for VideoCD creation and was the first format introduced by the group. The MPEG-2 format is used for DVD creation and offers advanced video encoding producing better quality. MPEG-4 is the latest format created by the group, providing high compression levels, making video sharing popular. The DivX codec is the most popular MPEG-4 based codec, created by DivX Networks.

The DivX codec has several coding profiles to ensure compatibility with most stand-alone DivX players. For example, the 'DivX Home Theater' profile can be used to encode files that are meant to be played in stand-alone DivX players. On the other hand, the 'DivX Portable' profile is used for creating video streams compatible with all portable devices, like palmtops. The following table is provided by Plextor, showing different recording formats.

Mode(click to view sample video)	Video Size		Approx. File Size
	Aspect Ratio	Average (Mbit/s)
MPEG-1	VCD	0.9157 NTSC 1.0950 PAL	1.15
MPEG-2	HQ (High Quality)	4:3	6.0
	GQ (Good Quality)	F- D1	9.8	35.4
	SP (Standard Play)	4:3	3.0
	LP (Long Play)	1/2 D1	6	16.7
	EP (Extend Play)	4:3	2.0
MPEG-4	HQ (High Quality)	4:3	4.0
	GQ (Good Quality)	F-D1	6	24.2
	SP (Standard Play)	4:3	2.0
	LP (Long Play)	SIF	4	12.2
	EP (Extend Play)	4:3	0.7
DivX®	Home Theater	4:3	4.0
	Home Theater (Long Play)	F-D1	6	16.7
	Portable	4:3	0.768

The following table shows the audio specifications of the device. The following table is provided by Plextor. Althouth the converter can encode mp3 audio, Plextor's web site does not provide any information regarding this. You will see a more detailed table about audio conversion later on in this review.

Streaming	Bit rate
VCD	44.1KHz
MPEG-2	MP2	224
	MP2	224
	MP2	224
	MP2	224
	MP2	224
HQ (High Quality)	48KHz
GQ (Good Quality)	48KHz
SP (Standard Play)	48KHz
LP (Long Play)	48KHz
EP (Extend Play)	48KHz
DivX®	MP2	224
	MP2	224
	MP2	128

- Retail Package

The retail package includes the PX-M402U, audio and video cables, s-video cable, USB2.0 certified cable, power cable with AC adapter and scart adapter. The audio and video cables provided are not high quality cables, but standard low quality cables, 1 meter long. These cables may produce extra noise in the video files created by the device, but this is something that only advanced users should consider. Most end users will not have any problems with the provided cables.

The device comes with 2 years On-Site Collect&Return Warranty for all EU countries, Norway and Switzerland. For the U.S.A., the device is covered by a 1 year warranty.

The User's Manual in 4 language and a quick installation guide in 16 languages are also included. An additional applications CD is provided by Plextor with Intervideo WinDVD creator 2.0 and WinDVD player 4.0, along with the device drivers. You can read comments on this software by Intervideo in the following pages.

Video and audio connections are located on the front panel of the converter. The above picture shows a simple description of every connector shown. The device has two operation leds. The power led lights blue when the device is connected to a computer and is powered on. The recording led lights red when the device is converting/recording video and audio from any external source.

On the rear panel, we can see the power connector and the USB connector. You might notice that there is no control panel available. The device's control is handled through the bundled software included in the package.

- Installation

Plextor Sound Cards & Media Devices Driver Download For Windows 7

Video converter installation was never as easy as it was with the PX-M402U. The only thing you have to do is insert the disc provided by Plextor containing the device drivers and you are ready to go.

The following screen was shown, which helped us install the device drivers without the need to use Window's device manager. The whole procedure was like installing any ordinary software package.

Remember not to connect the device before installing the device drivers. The software checks to see if the device is connected and it warns you of every error found.

When the installation is complete, you can connect the device and it will be recognized automatically by the operating system. All you have to do from this point on is connect the appropriate cables and you are ready to go.

- Testing software/procedure

It should be noted that throughout this review, and especially on zoomed images, by clicking on images, a full sized high resolution picture will be shown for comparison reasons. In general, we were interested in capturing still images, moving pictures and test screens. These test screens are used mostly to investigate the clarity of the external converter. Of course, we used not only light images and scenes, but also darker ones. In any case, the created image files/snapshots are compared with the images included in the 'Plasma TV Demo DVD' provided by Pioneer, without any kind of conversion or compression.

We tested the device on several computers, to ensure that the minimum requirments are correct. The device produced audio/video synchronization problems with CPUs lower than 800MHz. We also tested the device with several Pentium IV systems, but the results were the same, regardless of CPU speed. We decided to use the recommended configuration that Plextor suggested, i.e a Pentium IV at 1.6GHz.

In order to perform our tests we used:

Review Pages

Plextor Sound Cards App

Pages

Plextor Sound Cards & Media Devices Driver Download For Windows 8

• 1
• …