Accuracy of FE/TE scans?

vbimport
#1

I recently purchased 100 ($11.99 for each 25 pack) Verbatim MCC004 discs from Best Buy. After running FE/TE scans (PX-716SA TLA#0304) on all of them I find that only 32 are capable of being recorded at rated speed. That is a horrible ratio if PlexTools (version 2.21) is correct.

To those of you that regurarly use FE/TE scans, are you experiencing similar resullts? Are these scans a good indicator of disc quality or just a general guide? Or is it likely that these discs, at $11.99 per pack I would not be surprised, which were manufactured in Taiwan are not an example of Verbatims best efforts.

#2

Are you doing a full scan or just a quick scan?

#3

I did full scans and I think I have found the problem. As originally mentioned the scans were done on a PX-716SA TLA#0304. I suspected the drive was not performing properly so I did a random scan of the failed discs with a PX-716A TLA#02XX and found that it indicated the discs could be written at maximum speed. The focus errors were approximately 45% lower with the PX-716A than the PX716SA.

Here is where the story gets a little odd. This is my fourth PX-716SA TLA #0304. The first two were returned to the place of purchase and the one I have now is a RMA from Plextor. They all exibited poor performance on TA and FE/TE tests. The serial port works perfect with a hard drive so I assume the difference must be the changes made between TLA#02XX and TLA#03XX. The odds of getting four consecutive defective PX-716SA drives is relatively low. I think I will wait until TLA#04XX is released before I attempet to RMA the drive.