CD Freaks presents Plextor PX-712A review

I have finished the review, check it out here. What do you think? Any comments or questions?

PI/PO in plextools VS k-probe.

After checking out the review I think I got it right

Plextools doesn't report Parity Inner errors like K-Probe does!!!!
PIF in plextools is the same as PO in K-Probe.
POF is not reported by K-Probe, but is reported by plextools. Only POF errors will make a disc unreadable.

This means when using plextools:

Use SUM1!!!!

PIF should not exceed a maximum value of 4.
POF should be 0.

You sure? Quite complicated. I've used the basic mode for the other test. This gives you the PIE and POF errors. The POF should be 0 since they are uncorrectable errors. I will change my text a little!

• PIE (Parity Inner Errors): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors.
• PIF (Parity Inner Fail): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PO-1 (actually PI uncorrectable) errors.
• POF (Parity Outer Fail): Should be 0 since they indicate uncorrectable errors.

Thanks for the great review. One question: Do you also have tested SD2.9+?

Nope, since I don't have any SD2.9+ discs to test with. If someone else who owns a PX-712A and a SD2.9+ protected game can test it I can add it to the review. Or maybe I can add it myself but I'll have to pick up a game first. I also haven't tested the SecuRom new performance yet but since the Premium drive supported the latest SecuRom protections (using BlindWrite) because of its GigaRec technology I think this PX-712A will support it too.

I will do some comparison scans when I get my PX-712A. (Still on order - and yes it's too expensive for my taste )

Then we will hopefully see some scans that could be compared to scans from my earlier reviews.

+In my opinion it's a bit negative that it doesn't support bitsetting as most new drives nowadays supports it in a way or another.

Hmmmm....this seems to be a very good drive,BUT I think I´ll wait with my order until I see the SD 2.9+ review(?) of the 712.I still think you have done a very great review though,and I was THAT close to order a Tosh sd-r 5272.You are a very hard working man GF! /gs.

are you sure of securom support like the premium???
lapinou said in this forum that the px-712a will not work like the premium

@GF,

excellent review!

Thanks,

ET

Nope it unfortunately wont work as the Premium does, as imbecile already pointed out.

Seems like the 712A has improved as far as the writequality and media compatability is concerned, compared to its predecessor.

Review was a great read lets hope the PX-712SA is as good.

excellent review,only two things missing:"PI/PO in plextools VS k-probe" and "SD2.9+ discs test",but nothing can be perfect.

Truly another great CDF review!!!

However, what about EAC performance? Do we have another device capable of "perfect extraction" (per EAC)? Does it read the lead-in/lead-out like its CD-R predecessors?

Yee-Haw ... Plextor did it again ...

If the drive's reliability is what we should expect from Plextor, this can be the perfect all-in-one solution for users with less space in their pc casings ... at least, until plextor releases a predecessor with 16x and DL ...

And I like the way Q-Check works ... Jitter, Beta (as low-level errors), PI-Sum 8, PIF and PO (as casula errors) reporting on a rather "picky" reader like the 712A will make DVD quality assessment far more accurate.

Over at CDR-Info, the PX712A has already been compared to CATS devices ... the results were always similar in trends (not in pure numbers, though what isn't a big surprise since CATS analyzers use calibrated industry drives) ...

Good review thus far but personally, I'd like to have seen Q-Checks with more different low-price media like CMC ... but availability is always an issue, I guess

As for Lead-In and Lead-Out, take a look at the Nero DAE Quality screenshot ... overread has never been a problem for "real" Plextor drives. And with Plextool's DAE mode, you always have an alternative to EAC in terms of accuracy.

shame it doesnt support premium style securom, if that goes for sd3+ where it has been deliberatly messed aswell then theyve really shot themselves as its not the all in 1 solution for those who like to backup kidz games properly. Nice drive and I did have high hopes for it but looks like at least 1 of those is dashed. If it cant perform with protection it wont enter many households

This was written at 8x using Verbatim DataLife Plus 8x DVD+R's Media Code MMC003 (This disk will also do 12x) It also played fine in my Pioneer 563A





K-Probe Comparison




Same movie written in the Pioneer A07 at 8X

PlexTools Scan




K-Probe Comparison.

I just bought this drive because of reading this review. Paid 186.00 shipped. Hopefully I'll be satisfied. It is my first dvd writer.....

Bought it yesterday for 179€ as retail package (but without blank media) ... burned 4 DVD+R (TY, MCC) at 4x so far ... no problems and Plextools 2.12 PIPO scans show a PI max below 10 ... unfortunately, the Plextools 2.13 download is unavailable at the time so I cannot state which ECC sum I'm scanning ... :-/

I wanted to register my product so I can use their On-Site Collect & Return Service but the PX-712A is not even mentioned in their registration form's drive list yet ... strange things are going on there.

Hmm.... I am a bit concerned about the unavailability of Plextools updates...

UPDATE: Finally they have released version 2.14 on european site.

ET

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Last edited by eltranquil; 01-06-2004 at 13:03.

Hi Leutz,

im new in this Forum.

1st: I want to say, good Job on testing. But it can be better.
2nd: Why you do not use Alc120% and BWSuite to test the most common used copyprotections? CCD ist to old to test the newest copyprotections!
3rd: And i miss some informations like the supportet read modes and especially the supportet write modes like DAO-RAW+96, EFM and so on.

Last i want to say this is one of the best forums is where i am a member.

greetings
Verminaard The Dragon_Lord_Evil

@ClayBuster
Your K-Probe Scans don't look too promising. Might it be that the whole K-Probe thing is a misconception?

Remember that PI errors in plextools = PO errors in K-Probe.

Comparing the PI errors on the plextools scan of the pioneer written disc to PO errors in the K-Probe scan shows that there is some agreement.......

Where did you get that information ?

PO in K-Probe are Parity Inner Failures BTW ...

I am waiting for the first CATS scans of discs that have been recorded with the PX-712A ... both K-Probe and Plextools' results depend too much on the drive's tolerance towards "real" errors on the hardware level (like Jitter and ASYM).

Although I must admit that the CATS comparisons at CDR-Info show that Plextools' results cope very good with CATS scans.

As with everything Plextor does, they try to follow the standards as good as possible. They don't support things that are not standard (booktype setting for instance) but when they support something that is standard (error measurement) they follow the 'rules' very closely.