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We're, as always, going to start our review with the read tests using various media. As we already mentioned the Plextor PX-712A supports some impressive read speeds of 16x for DVD-ROM media and 48x for CD-ROM media. On this page we're of course going to check if this is indeed the case. But, before we're going to start the tests, let's take a look at some screenshots from PlexTools confirming the read speeds that the PX-712A drive supports:

From both screenshots we can summarize that the Plextor PX-712A drive can read CD-ROM media at 48x but by default it's limited to 40x to keep the noise of the drive down. Via the PlexTools software the SpeedRead option can be activated to enable full speed reading. When it comes to DVD media the drive is by default also limited to 2x for DVD-Video discs, which is the same thing as we saw with the PX-708A drive. The Plextor PX-712A drive can be unlocked though to enable full speed reading (16x for single layer DVD media, 12x for dual layer DVD media) of DVD-Video discs, which is very helpful when you want to rip a DVD-Video disc to your hard disk. Last but not least PlexTools reports us that the drive can read recordable and rewriteable DVD media at a maximum speed of 12x CAV.

DVD-Video Ripping:

We mentioned that the Plextor PX-712A drive is by default limited to 2x reading for DVD-Video discs. Luckily the drive can be unlocked to enable full speed reading. You can unlock the drive by making sure the drive is empty and closed. Then press and hold the drive's eject button for about three second until the drive's LED flashes green three times. Release the eject button so that the drive's tray will open. Now insert a DVD-Video disc and voila the drive reads faster. When you eject the disc or when you cut the drive's power, the drive will be reset to 2x reading again.

To make things easier for us the Plextor PX-712A drive can also be unlocked via the PlexTools software. When you enable the SpeedRead DVD option the drive will read DVD-Video discs at maximum speed. We suggest to Plextor though that they change the name of this option since by default the option is called SpeedRead CD, which doesn't sound like it has anything to do with the drive's DVD read speeds. The name of the option changes to SpeedRead DVD when you insert a DVD disc into the drive and we can imagine that many people will not notice this. Anyway, here's a screenshot of a DVD ripping session of a dual layer DVD-Video disc, using DVD Decrypter:

DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading tests we're going to start with a DVD-Video read test of a single-layered and double-layered DVD disc. Keep in mind that a low read speed has no effect on the drive's performance when playing a DVD. The drive's read speed is only important when you, for example, want to rip a DVD disc to your hard disk. Note that we enabled the SpeedRead DVD option via the PlexTools software.

From both graphs you can see that the Plextor PX-712A showed a very good performance here although it did slow down at the end of reading each DVD. The slow downs at the end of the read session did not have a great impact on the drive's overall performance though. Compared to other drives we've reviewed, the Plextor PX-712A is by far the fastest DVD reader. When looking at the seek times we can see that they are well within the Plextor's specifications (>150ms random stroke).

DVD+R(W):

To test the Plextor's read performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media we simply copied 4.4GB to an empty DVD+R and DVD+RW disc. Below you can see the results:

When it came to reading DVD+R(W) media the Plextor PX-712A drive showed an excellent performance. The drive had no problems reaching 12x with both the DVD+R and DVD+RW media. In the table below we've compared the achieved results again, and as you can see, it was by far the fastest drive:

DVD-R(W):

To test the Plextor's read performance with DVD-R and DVD-RW media we again copied roughly 4.4GB to an empty DVD-R and DVD-RW disc. Below you can see the results again:

And once again an excellent result! The Plextor PX-712A drive had no problems reading both the DVD-R and DVD-RW media at 12x. And, just as we saw with the previous read tests, the seek times of the drive are well within the specifications. Below we've compared our results again where we can see that the Plextor PX-712A is again by far the fastest drive.

CD-ROM:

For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM that was shipped with the PX-712A drive (Application CD-ROM 1).The disc was just over 80 minutes long. Below you can see the produced Nero CD-DVD Speed graph:

The graph shows us that the Plextor PX-712A had no problems reaching its rated read speed of 48x. Its seek times were a little higher than specified though (>100ms random stroke). When we compare the achieved results to other drives we've reviewed we can see that the Plextor PX-712A has the highest average read speed:

CD-R:

For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we used a back-up (CD-R) of a PlexTools software disc. The used disc was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. Here are the results:

The CD-R disc that we used for this test was slightly smaller in size than the CD-ROM we used in our previous read test. As you can see from the produced graph the Plextor PX-712A didn't reach its maximum read speed with this disc but it was still able to beat all of the previous drives we've reviewed:

CD-RW:

To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we once again used a "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. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD-DVD Speed again:

In the PlexTools screenshot we posted at the beginning of this page we could already see that the Plextor PX-712A has a limited read speed for CD-RW media. From the produced graph we can see that the drive can read CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 40x (41.62x to be exact) which is not bad at all for a DVD recorder:

Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the Plextor's digital audio extraction performance we again used Nero CD-DVD Speed to do a transfer rate test. In the graph below you can see the performance of the DVD-recorder:

The Plextor PX-712A disappointed us here since it was limited to a maximum read speed of around 34x when reading our audio disc. This is strange since PlexTools reported us that the drive could read audio discs at 40x. We tried two different discs, both produced the same result. We also tried reading audio from a CD-Recordable disc but then the read speed even dropped to 24x maximum.

As a final test we used the PlexTools Professional software to extract the audio disc to our hard disk. As you can see from the screenshot below, the complete disc was extracted in 3 minutes and 14 seconds with a maximum speed of 32.8x.

We contacted Plextor about this issue and they told us that they are aware of it. The firmware of the PX-712A drive has been constructed so that it will always look for a way to get the highest quality during reading or writing a disc. When the drive thinks that the inserted disc is not optimal, it will reduce the speed.

Audio - Advanced DAE Quality Test:

As always, to conclude our CD media read tests we did an 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with Nero CD-DVD Speed. We already mentioned that in our previous DAE test the Plextor PX-712A limited its read speed to 24x when reading audio from a CD-Recordable disc and as expected, we saw the same thing in the advanced tests:

Although the Plextor PX-712A achieved a perfect quality score of 100% and was able to read everything from the audio disc, it only reached an average read speed of 17.87x.