I'm a little confused to why my PX-755SA is limited to 12x read rather than 16x on DVDR. Even when I try to select 16x under plextools, it goes back to 12x. Reviews say its 16x but I can't seem to enable it. I've got my old NEC to read so its not a major issue but its something thats bugging me.

No proper Plextor drive reads burned media any faster than 12x.

EDIT: By the way I would also like 16x reading very, very much!

Which review says that? The only DVD media that the PX-755A can read at 16X are Single Layer pressed DVD-ROM discs.

I was actually thinking of CDrinfo's review. Btw, when you gonna finish your review? :P

Thanks for the answers. It's a big shame that it doesn't read them at 16x. I don't understand why it reads them slower tho. There is no technical reason!

I could live with 12x for recordables but what is annoying is 8x only for Dual-/Double-Layer! It takes ages to transfer 8GB @3-8x speed. The older 712 reads those with 5-12x!

I'm positive i've seen graphs of it reading Dual layer at 12x!

pressed dvd-rom-9, but not recorded dl media

Its so stupid why does Plextor impose this restriction?

How many drives read SL burns at 16x and DL burns at 12x? Not many from what I've seen.

True, however it seems utterly silly that todays drives generally allow us to write faster than to read. (with the 755 that has also become true for DL!). This severely hinders on the fily copying, for example (reading 5-12x and writing 6-16x causes lots of buffer underruns, other example: 12x writing is done in 6-12x P-CAV but reading in a 5-12x CAV strategy). IMHO writing is far more delicate an operation than reading so i don't really undestand why reading is slower. Of course if reading to fast causes errors and the drive constantly has to slow down and spin up again, then a constant slower reading speed might be faster overall. But that doesn't explain why they don't offer the choice.

My NEC 3500 reads at 16x just fine!

Yes it reads DL (pressed and ±DL) 12x! One of my favorite DL ripper.

And once again I have to say thanks to Aopen 1648 AAP/PRO. The drive is about 25€ and reads +R/RW and -R/RW at 16x and now comes the cool thing +R-DL at 5,5 - 14x CAV.

*cough* 14x only? *cough*
15.66x
Dare! Fastest DVD DL rip speed

What I wanted to say is that it is no "high cost - high tech" effort to make drives read that fast. So I actually see no reason why Plextor should not make their drives read as fast as they write!