detail information

PlexTools Professional XL:

Plextor was kind enough to supply us with a license for PlexTools Professional XL. On this page we will take a look of some of the features of this application.

We will first take a look at the features offered by PlexTools Professional XL, and we will then test some of the advanced media diagnostic features of the Plextor PX-755A and PlexTools Professional XL.

Installation:

Installation splash screen

We were then asked to agree to the terms of the license agreement

Installation completion screen

Finally we were asked to restart the PC

Application run through:

The main start screen of PlexTools Professional XL allows the drive and required feature to be selected. On the main window on the right, our screenshot shows information about the Plextor PX-755A.

Drive information:

Supported drive features.

Drive information.

Drive settings:

In the following screenshots we will show the main Plextor PX-755A features which can be selected and changed using PlexTools Professional XL.

Drive settings (basic)

Allows the basic features of the drive to be selected and adjusted.

Drive settings (advanced)

Allows the advanced features of the Plextor PX-755A to be enabled/disabled, and the advanced features of the Plextor PX-755A to be selected.

VariRec

Allows the laser power to be adjusted for the currently inserted media. Speed is limited to 8x maximum for CD-R media, and 4x maximum on DVD recordable media.

GigaRec

GigaRec lets you change the recording capacity of a standard CD-R disc from 70 percent up to 130 percent of its standard capacity.

Silent mode

Allows various parameters to be set, allowing fast features or quiet features of the drive to be selected.

SecuRec

Allows a password to be set during the record process, a password is then required to view the disc contents.

Applications:

Here we will show some screenshots of the applications within PlexTools Professional XL.

CD Audio extraction

Using this application allows the tracks from an Audio CD to be ripped in many formats, including .WAV and .MP3 to name only a few.

CD Audio maker

Allows the creation of CD Audio discs, by simply dragging and dropping files into the applications main window.

Audio CD player

Plays audio CD's from the Plextor PX-755A drive.

Disc copy

Allows CD and DVD discs to be copied, 'on the fly" copying is also supported.

Plex Eraser

The 'Erase Disc' will erase a CD/DVD RW media.
The 'PlexEraser' will destroy the data on CD-R/DVD R media. This is useful for making sure private information, which may be stored on a disc is unreadable before the disc is disposed of.

Disc maker

This application is used for making your own disc compilations, and supports many formats including DVD-Video and Audio CD.

Media player

You can play your media files using this application. The application supports many audio and video formats. The files can be played directly from a disc inserted in the drive, or from the hard drive.

CD diagnostic tests:

PlexTools Professional XL is one of the most advanced diagnostic applications currently available for the home user. In these tests, we will briefly run through the tests available for testing CD-R/RW media.

Blank media tests:

Write simulation test

Allows a simulated write test, this can be useful for checking your system setup.

FE/TE test

Checks the quality of the blank media and the drive lasers ability to focus and track the blank disc. It will also recommend a maximum burning speed.

Recorded media tests:

Read transfer rate test

Checks the drives ability to read the recorded media, any slowdowns could indicate a problem with the recorded disc.

C1/C2 disc quality scan

Checks the quality of the recorded media, in the screenshot above, the media has been recorded with good quality.

CD All in one test:

One of the nice features of PlexTools Professional XL is the applications ability to do unattended testing. This groups several tests and runs them in sequence.

We choose to include 3 tests.

⋅         Read transfer rate test
⋅         Q check C1/C2 test
⋅         Q check Beta/Jitter test

Below is our result.

The amount of information presented with this test is staggering, and should prove invaluable to the enthusiast.

DVD diagnostics tests:

We will now carry out some diagnostic tests with DVD recordable media, using the Plextor PX-755A and PlexTools Professional XL. All our tests will be carried out with the 'Good Accuracy" setting in PlexTools Professional XL.

Blank media tests:

We carried out some blank media tests with PlexTools Professional XL, and below you can find our obtained results.

DVD write simulation test

In this test we used a TDK 16x DVD+R media to test the maximum writing speed we could expect from this media.

FE/TE test

The FE/TE test checks the drive lasers ability to focus and track the blank media, and will also suggest a maximum burn speed.

Recorded media tests:

We will now run selected tests using PlexTools Professional XL, which checks the recording quality of our previously recorded DVD media.

DVD read test

This simply checks the media for errors.

Sum8 (PIE) test

This test scans our recorded media for PIE errors and reports them in a familiar graph.

Sum1 (PIF) test

This test scans our recorded media and reports PIF errors and presents them with a familiar graph.

Read transfer rate test

This test shows the drives ability to read our recorded media; any major slowdowns could indicate a problem with the recording quality of our recorded media.

TA test inner

TA test middle

TA test outer

The TA test checks the quality of the recorded media by sampling the inner, middle, and outer sections of the disc. It does this by measuring the 'lands and pits" of the recorded disc.

Generally speaking, the narrower the peaks the better, and each peak should be clearly defined from the adjacent peak and should not merge to much with the adjacent peak.

All In One test:

For this test we used a previously burned DVD+R media manufactured by TDK. We choose to include 3 tests.

⋅         Sum8 test
⋅         Sum1 test
⋅         Beta/Jitter test

Below is our result:

Once again the amount of information given with this test is quite staggering, and gives a very good representation of the quality of a previously recorded media. This data is invaluable to the enthusiast.

To sum up:

PlexTools Professional XL is a very sophisticated application, and it is clearly aimed at the enthusiast/professional end of the home user market.

We have only briefly skipped through some of the features of this application. PlexTools Professional XL has many more options for the enthusiast/professional home user to investigate. 

The way in which PlexTools Professional XL displays its diagnostic data is awesome; apart from Plextor's own PlexTools Professional, there is no other diagnostics application that comes even close.

Is it worth paying extra for the XL version? Yes is the answer in my opinion.

We will now round of this review with some advanced tests on the Plextor PX-755A on the next page…….