Plextor’s PX-750UF external DVD Drive Photo Back of Drive drive not only supports all + and – DVD formats including dual layer but also supports DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM discs hold the same amount of information that a single layer DVD disc does however of all of the DVD formats it is the most durable format and like the RW format it allows you to read and write to it over and over, however unlike the RW format the disc doesn’t wear out anywhere close to as quickly as the RW discs do (RW discs generally can be written to 200 times (in the same spot) before it wears out, basically the dye breaks down and that spot on the disc goes bad.) DVD-RAM doesn’t have that problem.

The PX-750UF supports the following media types and speeds:

• 8X DVD-R DL
• 8X DVD+R DL
• 16X DVD-R
• 16X DVD+R
• 8X DVD-R
• 8X DVD+R
• 5X DVD-RAM
• 8X DVD+RW
• 6X DVD-RW
• 16X DVD-ROM
• 40X CD-R
• 24X CD-RW
• 40X CD-ROM

You can create audio, video, photo and data discs with this drive and the included Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 DVD Basic Edition software that is included with the drive. The software is easy to use and offers most of the features that the average user will want and need. If you want something more powerful and advanced Nero Burning Rom supports this drive and all of its features as well.

I have had this drive for several months and have burned several hundred CD, DVD, DL DVD and DVD RAM discs with it and have not had any problems with it. Those that I had test the burned discs reported no troubles reading the discs on a good range of brand name drives including both computer drives and home theater DVD players and recorders. The only DVD player that I could find that wouldn’t read the discs is a Mintek which wasn’t sold with the ability to read any form of consumer burned discs so I can’t really blame the Plextor or the Mintek unit. If your DVD player supports consumer burned DVDs then you should have no trouble with any of the discs that you burn with the Plextor.

I have also used a wide range of name brands discs including TDK, Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim and others as well as no name discs with this drive and have not found a disc it won’t use. I personally prefer Nero Burning ROM for my CD and DVD burning and so I used that software exclusively and had no problems on that end either.

This is an external drive and is very easy to setup and use. Simple choose the method of connection to your computer. You can use IEEE 1394 or USB 2.0 and Windows XP and Windows Vista both support it right out of the box with no special drivers.

I am a big fan of Plextor drives. I have never had a bad one and I have never had one that was media brand picky and I have never had one that produced burned discs that couldn’t be read by other players and burners. I have total trust in the quality, compatibility and dependability of Plextor’s DVD drives and the PX-750UF is no exception. I would buy another one in a heartbeat.

• Double layer allows you to record up to 4 hours of high-quality MPEG-2/DVD video on a 8.5 GB disc.
• Buffer Underrun Proof Technology prevents buffer underrun errors.
• Buffer Memory - 2MB.
• Support DVD+RW background format.
• Support DVD±VR format for direct disc recording.
• Horizontal or vertical mounting orientation.
• IEEE 1394 or USB connection.
• One-year full warranty (parts and labor).