The installation splash screen of the CD provided with the drive lets you choose which software you want to install. I installed Roxio’s DVD Creator however I did not like it as much as Nero. PowerDVD is always nice to have and does a great job playing movies on your computer which I also did and had no problems doing. The only thing about playing movies is that the drive is a little loud so you will have to turn the volume up on your computer so you don’t hear it.
I also installed Nero Burning ROM 5.5.10.15 and on first boot I was able to select the 504A from the list. After that I did some testing with the drive such as erasing, burning, and rewriting. It was able to burn a full DVD+R in about 13 minutes and a full DVD+RW in about 24 minutes. The drive was also able to quick erase a DVD+RW in 9 seconds and do a full erase of the media in 25 minutes. I have to say that I am very impressed with the amount of time it takes to burn 4.7GB of data..
Conclusion
I am very impressed with the quality and features that this drive offers. Plextor has always been one of the best brand names when it comes to optical drives and I still continue to believe that after finishing this review. There are so many uses for this DVD+RW today with backup being so important and the fact that file sizes are increasing. Not only can this drive write and rewrite DVD+RW it it able to act as a CDRW too. I think the only real downside to this drive is that it will not write DVD-RW and does not support Mount Rainier. Overall I’m very happy with this product and am going to give it a 9/10 and award it the OCmodshop Seal of Approval. I would like to thank Plextor for sending this drive over for review.
Pros
- Writes DVD+R at 4x and DVD+RW at 2.4x
- Reads DVD-ROMs at 12x
- Burns CDs at 16x
- Great software package
- Media included
- Burn Proof
- Uses a black CD tray to reduce jitter
Cons
- Mount Rainier not supported
- Will not write DVD-R/RW
- Drive is loud at full speed
