detail information

In this part of our Plextor review we'll test how fast the drive can read various media, including audio CDs and various DVD discs. Since this is our first review of a DVD-recorder we unfortunately cannot directly compare the drive to other DVD-recorders but we of course can check if the drive can reach the promised speeds. Let's give you an overview of what read speeds the drive supports, according to the PlexTools software:

CD Read:

The PlexTools software reports us that the drive can read all types of CD media at maximum speed, including CD-RW discs and audio discs.

DVD Read:

The Plextor PX-504A drive can read single layered DVD-ROM discs at 12x while it will read DVD-Video and DVD±R(W) media at a lower speed of 5x. Let's find out if what the PlexTools software has reported us is correct:

Pressed Discs:

For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing PlexTools v1.05 which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced results in the Nero CD Speed graph:

The produced graph shows us that the Plextor drive came very close to its rated speed of 40x. The drive had decent seek times and a low CPU usage. Unfortunately, since this is our first review of a DVD-recorder, we cannot directly compare the Plextor drive to other drives. Therefore we can for now only give you an overview of the achieved speeds and seek times:

CD-Recordable Discs:

For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we used a back-up (CD-R) of a PlexTools v1.05 disc. The used disc was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD Speed:

This time the Plextor drive had no problems reaching its rated speed of 40x. The drive, again, had good seek times and a low CPU usage:

CD-ReWriteable Discs:

To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we again used the "PlexTools v1.05" disc only this time we read from a CD-ReWriteable disc. The used disc was a 'Plextor High Speed CD-RW' disc manufactured by Ricoh. The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD Speed again:

From the produced graph you can see that the Plextor PX-504A drive didn't reach 40x reading and its top read speed was 34.45x so the information we got from the PlexTools software was incorrect. When it came to seek times and CPU usage the Plextor drive showed a similar result as in our previous tests:

Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the Plextor's digital audio extraction performance we again used Nero CD Speed to do a transfer rate test. The audio disc we used was of a slightly larger size than in our previous tests (77 minutes). In the graphs below you can see the performance of the DVD-recorder:

Just like with the CD-ReWriteable media the Plextor drive didn't reach its maximum speed of 40x and had a top read speed of 34.09x. So the PlexTools information was again incorrect. Keep in mind though that 34x DAE is actually not bad at all for a DVD-recorder, judging from other reviews we've read.

As a final test we used PlexTools to extract the audio disc to our hard disk. As an extra tests we also tested the drive's performance using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) in Secure Mode. The PX-504A does not support Caching, but does support Accurate Stream and C2 Error Info in EAC's secure ripping mode:

The Plextor drive performed as expected when extracting the audio tracks, using the PlexTools software. As we already saw in the Nero CD Speed tests, a DAE speed of about 34x is the maximum speed for this drive. When using the PX-504A in EAC's Secure Mode we saw an excellent result. Because the drive does not cache audio data it reached the highest speed we've seen on a drive (compare 26.5x to the Plextor PX-W4012TA (12.2x maximum) and the Plextor PX-W4824TA (12.6x maximum) for example, using EAC's Secure Mode).

Audio - Advanced DAE Quality Test:

To conclude our read tests we did an 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with Nero CD Speed. You can see the produced results below:

When we did the advanced DAE tests the Plextor drive didn't perform that well. Although the drive had no problems reading the CD-text and SubChannel Data from the disc, it did produce some data errors while reading and thus failed to reach the 100% quality score. The drive also didn't pass all the on-the-fly copying tests and was too slow for 16x copying. The PX-504A drive could not read any of the lead-in and lead-out data.

DVD - DVD-Video:

According to the PlexTools software the PX-504A drive can read DVD-Video discs at a maximum speed of 5x. The drive uses this low speed to avoid vibration and noise during playback. To test this we read two DVD-Video discs (single-layered and dual-layered) with the Nero CD Speed software. You can see the produced results below:

From the results you can see that the Plextor PX-504A drive was indeed limited to about 5x maximum when reading DVD-Video. Keep in mind that a low read speed has no effect on the drive's performance when playing a DVD and it's only important when you, for example, want to rip the DVD to your hard disk. We also tested the Plextor drive when playing various DVDs using the PowerDVD software and the drive was indeed very quiet during playback.

DVD - DVD+R:

As a final read test we tested the PX-504A's performance when reading DVD+R media. For this test we copied 4.4GB to a Verbatim 4x DVD+R disc and then used Nero CD Speed to test how fast the media could be read back again:

The test confirms the information we got from the PlexTools software at the beginning of this page. In conclusion we can say that the Plextor PX-504A can read a lot of media but will only achieve its maximum speed of 12x when using DVD-ROM media. All other media like DVD-Video, DVD+R and DVD-R media will be read at a maximum speed of 5x.

Package and Features

Write Tests