PlexWriter Premium 2 review (by HWP)

This thread is to collect my findings about my newly acquired Premium2.

Production date: May 2006
S/N 109xxx
TLA# 0101
Firmware 1.01

This thread is for the collection of the review results only.

For questions or discussions about this review please use this thread: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=193782 Thanks!

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Last edited by crossg; 22-09-2006 at 02:23. Reason: fixed link after thread merge

Writing curves

The Premium 2 introduces 48x CAV and 2x CLV writing over the original Premium. Interestingly the 48x CAV writing speed is not an extension of the existing 40x P-CAV speed. Instead an entirely new curve has been implemented.

The following graph shows the write transfer-rate curves for 23-52x and 21-48x CAV, 20-40x, 20-32x 20-24x P-CAV curves.

FE/TE-Test comparison
Taiyo Yuden, Type 1, 700MB, 48x, as sold by Plextor

The Premium2 shows slightly higher Focus Error than the Premium.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE-Test comparison
Taiyo Yuden, Type 1, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Verbatim

Again the Premium2 shows quite a bit higher Focus Error than the Premium. Note that AFAIK Taiyo Yuden does not produce 52x media. So these are very likely 48x media only.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE-Test comparison
Ritek, Type 7, 700MB, 48x, as sold by TDK (Metallic)

This time the Premium2 shows only marginally higher Focus Error than the Premium.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE-Test comparison
MPO, Type 7, 700MB, 40x, as sold by EMTEC (Gold reflection layer)

Again the Premium2 shows slightly higher Focus Error than the Premium but lower Tracking Error. Since these media are 40x only and the FE/TE-Test is done at 52x in the

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE-Test comparison
Sony, Type 6, 700MB, 48x, as sold by Sony

The Premium2 shows slightly higher Focus Error than the Premium.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE-Test comparison
Prodisc Technologies, Type 9, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Pleomax (Samsung)

I knew these were going to be bad even before I bought them. I just needed something bad to test and was wondering just how bad it would be.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE-Test comparison
Moser Baer India, Type 6, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Verbatim

Premium show higher Tracking Error and Premium 2 shows higher Focus Error.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.

FE/TE conclusions

On one hand it seems that my Premium 2 does focus slightly worse on the disc surfaces than my Premium does. On the other hand the Premium 2 sometimes seems to have a slight advantage in Tracking. Overall they are rather close together which we can take as an indication that the laser unit used in the Premium 2 is nothing revolutionary new. Any difference in favour of the Premium is small enough to be attributed to a more mature servo driving algorythm in the firmware. After all we must not forget that the Premium is a mature product while the Premium 2 is still in it's infancy (a fact that will surely also show clearly in further testing).

In comparison the laser unit of the PX-760 with it's "advanced intelligent tilt" capability shows a marked improvement, while a PX-716 would show about the same results as the Premium and Premium 2 (for results of the 716 see the generic CD-scans thread: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=136562 ).

Bad audio disc reading
Prince, The very best of Prince (Warner Bros. 8122742722)

"Bad" in this case does not mean the presence of a copy protection but rather a bad production quality of a pressed audio CD. The CD is otherwise in very good condition (no scratches etc.). This pressed this is of general low quality.

Premium: Can read this @22-52x but sometimes needs to slow down. Can read this without problems @18-40x (first scan)
Premium 2: Can read this @14-32x maximum (second scan)
PX-760: Can only read this at a maximum of 8x (no scan provided).

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Last edited by hwp; 21-06-2007 at 14:50.

Bad audio disc reading
Donna Lewis, Now in a Minute (Atlantic 7567-82762-2)

"Bad" in this case does not mean the presence of a copy protection but rather a bad production quality of a pressed audio CD. The CD is otherwise in very good condition (no scratches etc.). This pressed disc has severe problems in the outer area.

Premium: Can read this with 20-48x up to the 28min mark, then slowdown to 4x (first scan)
Premium 2: Can read this with 20-48x up to the 34min mark, then slowdown to 4x (first scan)
PX-760: Can read this with 16-34x maximum (second scan provied).

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Last edited by hwp; 04-11-2007 at 10:58.

Bad audio disc reading
Queen, Greatest Hits II (Parlophone CDP79.7971 2)

"Bad" in this case does not mean the presence of a copy protection but rather a bad production quality of a pressed audio CD. The CD is otherwise in very good condition (no scratches etc.). This disc is of general bad quality.

Premium: Can read this @8x speed maximum (no scan provided).
Premium 2: Can read this with 10-24x maximum (see scan)
PX-760: Can read this @8x speed maximum (no scan provided).

Low speed FE/TE-Test comparison
Taiyo Yuden, Type 1, 700MB, 48x, as sold by Verbatim

FE/TE-Test run at 4x speed. (PTPXL doesn't offer to slow the Premium 2 to 2x in silent mode. As a side effect this also makes the results comparable.)

The Premium 2 shows slightly better Focus and Tracking Error than the Premium. The Premium 2 is on par with the PX-760 when it comes to tracking but the PX-760 takes the crown when it comes to focussing.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

Low speed FE/TE-Test comparison
Moser Baer India, Type 6, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Verbatim

FE/TE-Test run at 4x speed. (PTPXL doesn't offer to slow the Premium 2 to 2x in silent mode. As a side effect this also makes the results comparable.)

Again the Premium 2 shows slightly better Focus and Tracking Error than the Premium. The Premium especially shows more pronounced spikes in focus. The Premium 2 is slightly better in tracking than the PX-760 but the PX-760 takes the crown when it comes to focussing.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

Low speed FE/TE-Test comparison
Sony, Type 6, 700MB, 48x, as sold by Sony

FE/TE-Test run at 4x speed. (PTPXL doesn't offer to slow the Premium 2 to 2x in silent mode. As a side effect this also makes the results comparable.)

The Premium 2 shows slightly better Focus Error than the Premium. The Premium especially shows more pronounced spikes in focus. Premium 2 and Premium are about on par when it comes to tracking. The Premium 2 is better in tracking than the PX-760 but the PX-760 takes the crown when it comes to focussing.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

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Last edited by crossg; 23-09-2006 at 21:44. Reason: correction requested by hwp

Low speed FE/TE-Test comparison
Prodisc Technologies, Type 9, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Pleomax (Samsung)

FE/TE-Test run at 4x speed. (PTPXL doesn't offer to slow the Premium 2 to 2x in silent mode. As a side effect this also makes the results comparable.)

The Premium 2 shows better results than the Premium. FE/TE-Test thinks the Premium and PX-760 can't write this even @4x.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can not be written at the highest speed.

Low speed FE/TE-Test comparison
MPO, Type 7, 700MB, 40x, as sold by EMTEC

FE/TE-Test run at 4x speed. (PTPXL doesn't offer to slow the Premium 2 to 2x in silent mode. As a side effect this also makes the results comparable.)

Again the Premium 2 shows better results than the Premium. The PX-760 looses in tracking and wins in focussing against the Premium 2.

Scans below are:
Premium: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
Premium 2: Disc can be written at the highest speed.
PX-760a: Disc can be written at the highest speed.

Low speed FE/TE-Test conclusions

Compared to the high speed tests the Premium 2 beats the Premium regularly at low speed and even manages to beat the PX-760 in some cases (mostly in tracking). All this gives the indication that the Premium2 is indeed a drive that can handle / is spezicalized for low speeds as advertized.

Taiyo Yuden, Type 1, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Verbatim
PoweRec: ON
GigaRec: OFF
AMQR: OFF
52x writing speed selected, slowdowns as per writing graph

Yuden CD-Rs are usually 48x certified only. The Premium usually rarely burns these at a full 52x. 1702 total C1 errors. Jitter-variations in the CAV-part of the burn.

Below are writing, C1/C2 and Beta/Jitter scans:

Taiyo Yuden, Type 1, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Verbatim
PoweRec: ON
GigaRec: OFF
AMQR: ON
4x writing speed (pre-)selected, no slowdowns

1956 total C1 errors. Nice regular Beta. Some Jitter variation.

Below are C1/C2 and Beta/Jitter scans:

Taiyo Yuden, Type 1, 700MB, 52x, as sold by Verbatim
PoweRec: ON
GigaRec: OFF
AMQR: OFF
2x writing speed selected

2509 total C1 errors. Very nice Beta/Jitter!

Below are C1/C2 and Beta/Jitter scans:

MPO, Type 7, 700MB, 40x, as sold by EMTEC
PoweRec: ON
GigaRec: OFF
AMQR: OFF
40x writing speed selected, no slowdowns (52x speed offered by PoweRec but since these are archival-grade media with gold reflection layer I stuck with the certified maximum speed)

8807 total C1 errors. Very nice Jitter. Beta ist ok too.

Below are writing, C1/C2 and Beta/Jitter scans:

MPO, Type 7, 700MB, 40x, as sold by EMTEC
PoweRec: ON
GigaRec: OFF
AMQR: ON
4x writing speed (pre-)selected, no slowdowns

21977 total C1 errors. Comparing the total amount of C1 errors to burns @40x and @2x it almost looks as if these media don't like AMQR. Very nice Beta. Beta has some downward spikes.

Below are C1/C2 and Beta/Jitter scans:

MPO, Type 7, 700MB, 40x, as sold by EMTEC
PoweRec: ON
GigaRec: OFF
AMQR: OFF
2x writing speed

5639 total C1 errors. Very nice Beta/Jitter.

Below are C1/C2 and Beta/Jitter scans: