Several of us here have Plextor 708A dirves. I like the drive, but it is sensitive to media quality. There is a forum on CD-Freaks dedicated to Plextors.
DVDA will not burn DVD-R's in the Plextor currently, it will burn +R's and +RW's. I work around it by creating the directories with DVDA and burning them with Nero. The files DVDA generates do cause Nero to give an error when it reads them, but the resulting burn seem fine.
Search this forum for prior posts on the 708A, and chech out the Plextor Hardware forum at:
I have the Sony. There have been alot of slams on it on newsgroups by the Pioneer lovers.
I personally have burned well over 1000 DVDs (+ & -) with mine using DVD Architect, and have not had a single coaster, no reports of discs not playing in any player.
Buddy, I have both and can assure you the other posters are giving you sound advice recommending the Sony over the Plextor. DVD-A with Plextor really does not see DVD-Rs and my Plextor is flaky at times. There is a reason Plextor is significantly cheaper than Sony. Sony is as solid as the Pioneer line, with the added benfit of being able to write to just about anything. Only downside (really trivial) is DVD-Complete doesn't see the Sony drive. Great piece of gear.