The next test is an integrated write test in CDspeed.This is a short test that graphically displays the writing speed of the drive on every position of the disc.It finally determines the average writing speed.

This test simulates an actual burning, thus no cdr is being lost to perform this test. CD-speed is a freeware utility from Eric Deppe.

The cd-write test from CD Speed

The result shows that the PX-W4012TA initially begins the writing at 20x whereas it changes speeds after 6 minutes to 24x and after 16min to 32x an finally after 58min to 40x. The overall average writing speed is 29.88x.

Test burns:

The next test are some test-burnings with 74 and 80 min CDRs. The test were created using Nero Burning Rom V5.5.8.0. First we took some 74min CDRs afterwards some 80min CDRs. We selected some different brands (Sony, Infiniti, Discplanet, Tayo Yuden, Frosted CD-R, Hi-Space)

What we noticed during these burnings was the fact when we enlighted the burned CDR's we could see a difference in color shade respectively at those points whereas the writing speed increases.
Wheter this was an effect due to increased speed or OPC correction we couldn't determine.

We asked Plextor for a reaction on this:

Reaction Plextor - Our drives start off with a certain value of OPC. When the drive determines that this value should be increased it will do this at certain points The difference in color is not always visible and depends on the type of CDR.

This color nuance should give no difference in reflection and should not alter the quality of what is written on the disc.

Media Compatibility:

Thanks to PoweRecII Plextor prevents the user from writing bad discs due to media-specifications. However technology improves very rapidly CDR-manufacturor's can hardly keep up the trend. Yes we have seen some very quick steps into the market claiming their media is 40x certified.

Companies are adjusting their production lines but mind that enhanced lines are not as good as new lines. Due to the speed increase of writing the possible error-rate on a disc increases significant.

Especially towards the outer circle of the disc.
As for normal data we can rely up to a certain point to error-correction to solve the quality problem. Audio data however doesn't have such a sophisticated correction system and is much more vulnerable to possible errors.

PoweRecII gives certain parameters to the drive according to the media which is used. If a disc isn't supported with PoweRec it will receive standard parameters.

This technology results not in the fastest writings, but the best writing strategy for the disc being used. Thus making the result of the best quality.

Protected Audio CDs

90/99 minutes writing

Want to submit your own review? Click here

Reactions on this item

Posted by 123456789 on Monday 22 April 2002 21:28

We would like to see an option to switch poweRecII off in order to try and burn at 40x regardless the media

This is NOT negative, it's a precaution.
Why switch something off that is a great help for the right burning speed.

So it's a 100% score!!

Posted by roadworker on Monday 22 April 2002 22:29

Nice review....

Just 1 thing to add:it's obvious that the reviewer didn't use the best settings to get the quickest reading time for the LiteOn and safedisk 2...
Why?To make the Plex look better???

Posted by Fishbutt on Tuesday 23 April 2002 08:59

Heh, and I bought one today before even reading this review. I bought the us version with TLA#0000, firmware 1.00 and made in Feb 2002. I was going to look for anything referring to the firmware flashes and disabling the sd2.5+ backups. There was a rumor(?) about a previous plex burner that supposedly disabled that "feature" and made it so you couldn't reverse flash to a previous firmware version. I want to be sure of this BEFORE I flashed it to whatever the bios is up to now for it. I will go and look for plextools 1.13 tho...

My tests with cdda99b showed it's speed very good but it had to slow itself down a few times. CDSpeed tho, gave a constant reading. Plus I tried a brand new pressed music cd I got about a week ago (the first one was a few months old so it might of been dirty or something) and the results were great! I'll post some of the cd speed results shortly...

Posted by louiskhorweiwu on Tuesday 23 April 2002 15:18

any chance you did tests for reading damaged discs? scratched etc? very useful and was in other reviews, hope it gets included/ kept in mind for future reviews...

Posted by Fishbutt on Tuesday 23 April 2002 21:21

Before I read louiskhorweiwu's reply, I was already going to test the plex to see if it could read a scratched disc better than my previous drives. Those were a TDK VeloCD 12x10x32 which was one of the earlier models that was a repacked plex and a Pioneer dvdrom dvd-104 slot drive. Both of those drives could not read that disc without reporting errors. The plex 40x went through it fine, although not screaming through it like it normally does. Here's the clonecd log of the cd in question. The cd was "on the floor at the boutique: mixed by fatboy slim." It's a 2 session disc with audio and a video. I'm running a test on a really bad data cdr that someone gave me to try and read that looked like it was dropped on the asphalt outside. It used to be guarenteed to lock up the box anytime you put it in. Clonecd is running pretty slow but it's not locking up the pc yet. I'll post those results when they are finished.

Posted by Fishbutt on Tuesday 23 April 2002 21:22

I 3:01:34 PM CloneCD Version 3.3.4.1 started!
I 3:01:34 PM ElbyCDIO Driver 3.3.3.1
I 3:01:34 PM ElbyCDIO.dll 3.3.4.1
I 3:01:34 PM CCDDriver.dll 3.3.4.1
I 3:01:34 PM ElbyECC.dll 3.1.0.0
I 3:01:34 PM Searching for SCSI/ATAPI devices...
I 3:01:34 PM Device Scan found 1 CD-ROMs and 1 CD-Writers!
I 3:01:34 PM Registered to:
I 3:02:24 PM Starting copy from PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4012A to H:My

Musicfatboy.ccd
I 3:02:24 PM Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks: No
I 3:02:24 PM Read SubChannel Data from Audio Tracks: Yes
I 3:02:24 PM Fast Error Skip: No
I 3:02:24 PM Don't report read errors: No
I 3:02:24 PM Intelligent Bad Sector Scanner: No
I 3:02:24 PM CD contains CD-Text: No
I 3:02:24 PM Reading Track 1... (Blocks 0-12512)
I 3:02:47 PM Reading Track 2... (Blocks 12512-28571)
I 3:03:14 PM Reading Track 3... (Blocks 28571-37890)
I 3:03:29 PM Reading Track 4... (Blocks 37890-52144)
I 3:03:53 PM Reading Track 5... (Blocks 52144-63512)
I 3:04:12 PM Reading Track 6... (Blocks 63512-83852)
I 3:04:46 PM Reading Track 7... (Blocks 83852-99550)
I 3:05:12 PM Reading Track 8... (Blocks 99550-120409)
I 3:05:47 PM Reading Track 9... (Blocks 120409-141819)
I 3:06:22 PM Reading Track 10... (Blocks 141819-155740)
I 3:06:46 PM Reading Track 11... (Blocks 155740-169389)
I 3:07:08 PM Reading Track 12... (Blocks 169389-187623)
I 3:07:39 PM Reading Track 13... (Blocks 187623-198718)
I 3:07:57 PM Reading Track 14... (Blocks 198718-209953)
I 3:08:16 PM Reading Track 15... (Blocks 209953-229028)
I 3:08:48 PM Reading Track 16... (Blocks 229028-244683)
I 3:09:14 PM Reading Track 17... (Blocks 244683-264302)
I 3:09:46 PM Reading Track 18... (Blocks 264302-274862)
I 3:10:04 PM Reading Track 19... (Blocks 274862-302227)
I 3:10:49 PM Duration of operation: 00:08:24
I 3:10:49 PM Reading Track 20... (Blocks 313627-330513)
I 3:10:58 PM Duration of operation: 00:00:08
I 3:10:58 PM Reading finished!

Posted by Fishbutt on Tuesday 23 April 2002 21:29

The way that music cd was scratched was from this...

Look at the inside of a cd jewel case. The tiny "fingers" that are in a circle arrangement that grab onto the hub of the cdrom, that's what scratched it. Apparently, the cd slipped out of the jewel case slightly and it was still 98% shut. The cd hub holder scraped across the surface of the cd pretty good. Good enough to make any audio cd player that it was put into skip alot. As you can see, it went through it without reporting errors! Whoopee! I just saved an old cd that I thought that I'd have to buy another because this one was accidentally damaged!

Posted by lanky on Wednesday 24 April 2002 04:48

The review looses 1 point for a rather obvious error:

On page:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=74&Page=12

I quote:
"The result shows that the PX-W4012TA initially begins the writing at 16x whereas it changes speeds after 6 minutes to 24x and after 16min to 32x an finally after 58min to 40x. The overall average writing speed is 29.88x."

The part:
"initially begins the writing at 16x" is wrong. If you look at the picture it starts at 20x!! Please rectify.

Posted by PieterViljoen on Thursday 25 April 2002 19:38

Note: Please be aware that PlexTools 1.12 (as shipped and downloadable)is NOT compatible with Windows XP! This notice appears on the autorun dialog of the software CD.

Posted by on Thursday 02 May 2002 02:27

Great review , but get the names and serial keys out of the screenshots.

Posted by qbfabar on Thursday 27 June 2002 20:54

Very good review.
Why not include in the audio protected test programs such as Feurio and EAC which have proven even better than Plextools in copying protected audio cds ?

Posted by on Monday 08 July 2002 11:50

NO MOUNT RAINIER??? No mention being made of Mount Rainier support, or lack of it in the review article? Looked at the specs as well on the plextor site, and again no mention of it. Surely this should be a negative point.

Posted by on Thursday 22 August 2002 19:59

I bought one yesterday before reading this review...it definetely blows my old burner away(it burned a whole 700Mb in under 5Min) but Im having trouble burning anything past 80Min or 700Mb still,both with 700Mb media, and 800Mb media...

Posted by on Tuesday 07 January 2003 17:49

http://www.plextor.com/english/news/Mt.%20Rainier.html This is Plextors page on this subject and here it is in a nutshell.
Plextor PX-4012TA and PX4012TU drives are Mt. Rainier 'ready". Once Mt. Rainier is stable, a firmware upgrade will be offered at a later date to make the drives Mt. Rainier compatible. Future Plextor drives will be Mt. Rainier-compatible on release.

This review was very helpful I give it a 99%

Post your reaction

Related tags

A tag is a relevant keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (like picture, product, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information it is applied to. We use it to make searching our database easier and enable all our users to contribute to our database.

add a tag |

Add related tags

Related reviews/articles

Plextor 24/10/40 IDE

LiteON 24/10/40 IDE

Lite-On 40/12/48X CD-RW

Waitec MEGALUS IDE

Get the latest reviews via RSS