detail information

We're almost done with our Plextor PX-W4012TU review and we'll, as always, conclude with our 'special discs' tests. These include an overburning test and a test to see if the Plextor drive can write 8cm CD-R's. We'll of course also test if the drive can read 99 minute discs. First off, the overburning test:

Overburning:

We used Infiniti 99min/900mb CD-R's for our tests that were certified up to 32x writing. We used Nero CD Speed to do an overburn test. We set the 'Test capacity' to 99 minutes and started the test. Unfortunately, just as we saw with the PleXCombo PX-320A, Nero CD Speed wouldn't even start when using a value of 99 minutes as test capacity. When we lowered it to 94: 49 minutes, the test would start. You can see the achieved results below:

As you can see in above screenshot the Plextor PX-W4012TU now did overburn to around 94 minutes (when using a higher test value, the tests wouldn't start). Then how about reading 99 minute CD-R's? When reading 99 minute CD-R's the Plextor PX-W4012TU again gives the same error with Nero CD Speed as we saw with the PleXCombo drive:

To conclude our read tests we tried to read an 88 minute audio disc to see if this would work. This time the Plextor drive could read the disc without problems:

8cm CD-R Tests:

To conclude our Plextor PX-W4012TU review we tried to write 8cm CD-R's manufactured by Plasmon. The discs can hold a maximum of 23min/200MB and were certified up to 12x writing. Here's the ATIP information and a picture of the disc itself:

• ATIP: 97m 27s 19f
  
• Disc Manufacturer: Plasmon Data Systems, Ltd.
  
• Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
  
• Media type: CD-Recordable
  
• Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
  
• Nominal Capacity: 201.86MB (23m 00s 00f / LBA: 103350)

We set-up up Nero Burning Rom to burn a compilation of about 200MB and started the write process. The disc was written without any problems at 12x. We of course did a final test with Nero CD Speed to verify if the disc was written correctly:

As you can see from the screenshot the 8cm disc is read without any problems at full speed.

That concludes our Plextor PX-W4012TU review. Let's go to our final words and conclusions.