detail information

First things first as we check out the PleXCombo drive specifications as mentioned on the Plextor Europe website and as detected with additional software like Nero InfoTool:

Drive Specifications:

Overall very nice features. The drive supports all recording formats and even offers some extra technologies such as VariRec and PoweRec II (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control) which we'll get back to later. Let's give you a screenshot of Nero InfoTool first and the detected features of the PleXCombo drive:

As you can see from the screenshot the PleXCombo PX-320A can read almost every type of disc except for DVD-RAM. From the screenshot you can also see that the PleXCombo is a RPC II (Regional Playback Control) DVD reader which means that you can change the region setting of the drive five times (in this case) after which the drive will be locked to the last used region. This was done by motion picture studios to control the release of movie titles in each world region.

Buffer (Underrun Protection):

The PleXCombo PX-320A, like all Plextor writers, uses BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRuN Proof) to prevent buffer underruns. When the buffer of the drive falls beneath 10% of its maximum capacity, the recorder will stop recording as of a specific location on the CD. The recorder then continues attempting to receive data from the PC to refill the buffer. In the meantime, the BURN-Proof circuit determines where the last successful sector was written. Using the location of the last successful sector, the BURN-Proof circuit will position the Optical Pickup. As soon as the buffer has been refilled, the CD Recorder will start recording again. Like mentioned before in the drive specifications, the PleXCombo has a 2 MB buffer on board as you can also see in the screenshot below of the PleXCombo's detected features with Nero Burning Rom:

PoweRec II Technology:

Although the Plextor PX-320A is not considered as an extremely high speed writer it does have quality controls to ensure a quality back-up. This technology called PoweRec (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control) monitors the quality of the disc while burning and will adjust the speed if necessary. Additional, PoweRec II has been added for Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Veolcity) writers. The write quality at the end of each zone is checked and the outcome will determine the recording speed in the next zone.

VariRec Technology:

Just like Yamaha with its 'Audio Master Quality Recording', Plextor has introduced its own technology when writing audio discs. This technology, called VariRec (Variable Recording), allows changing the laser power when writing audio at 4x (in TAO or DAO mode). With the VariRec option the user can make a slight modification to the default setting:

VariRec has the same goal as Yamaha's 'Audio Master Quality Recording'; to reduce jitter. Like said the user can make a slight modification (-2 ~ +2) to the laser power to achieve the best result for their audio back-ups.

With VariRec enabled you should be able to improve the quality of the recorded disc and make it more compatible with picky CD-players like a car stereo. The default '0' setting is based on results from a database which in turn are the result of thorough tests in the Plextor labs.

We of course tested the PleXCombo with and without the VariRec setting enabled. You can read more about this later on in our review when we do our audio tests.

Write Method:

As you may have seen in the drive specifications on top of this page, the PleXCombo PX-320A uses the Z-CLV write method (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) when writing at 20x (16x and below is done in the CLV method). Z-CLV is used to reduce the rotation speed of the CD-R disc inside the recorder and thus reducing noise and stress on the drive mechanism. During switching writing speeds, the drive's buffer underrun technique (BURN-Proof in this case) takes over preventing buffer underruns. In the screenshot below you can see a test burn done with Nero CD Speed:

In the graph you can clearly see that the PleXCombo PX-320A uses two zones to write the disc:

• Zone 1: 16x, then at 2 minute mark the write speed shifts to
• Zone 2: 20x and remains at this speed until the end of the disc is reached.

We would have liked to see the Plextor starting to write at 20x immediately just as the TEAC CD-W540E does but Plextor has chosen to keep the RPM's low and go for Z-CLV instead. This reduces noise and stress on the drive mechanism as mentioned before.

Because the drive doesn't start writing at 20x, the average write speed is a little lower, 19.64x in this case as you can see in the screenshot on the left.

Next up in our PleXCombo PX-320A review, the data read tests.