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In this part of our Plextor PX-W4824A review we'll start testing the reading and writing of copy-protected data discs. Copy-protections are used on almost every game nowadays so it's important a writer can handle the various protections out there. For the tests we used the latest CloneCD version 4.0.1.10 from Elaborate Bytes. As you might know if you've read our CloneCD v4.0 preview, CloneCD now uses Profiles for each type of disc. In this review we created a separate Profile for each protection with the common settings used in the old CloneCD versions. E.g. for SafeDisc we only selected the 'Fast Error Skip' setting.

As an extra 'service' or help you can download the Profiles we have used in this review. Click on the Profile images to download the used Profile. Store these files in your CloneCDProfiles folder on your hard disk. Alternatively you can view and download all used Profiles from our CloneCD forum, by clicking here.

Now let's start by giving you a screenshot of the supported drive capabilities of the Plextor PX-W4824A drive with CloneCD v4.0.1.10:

As you can see in the picture above, the Plextor PX-W4824A is fully supported by CloneCD (DAO-RAW96). To determine the copy-protection used on our game discs we scanned every disc with the latest ClonyXXL version 2.0.0.6. ClonyXXL can be obtained from kickme.to/englishclony. In the table below we've summed up all of our results and after the table we will clarify our results and compare the read times with other recorders we've previously reviewed:

LaserLock:

For the LaserLock test we use a game called 'Desperados' protected with LaserLock 2. As a comparison we read from both the original disc and from a back-up (CD-Recordable) disc. We did this because there can be quite a difference in read time as you can also see from the results we got with the Plextor PX-W4824A drive. While the original disc is read in 45 minutes and 59 seconds, the back-up was read in 9 minutes and 8 seconds. Not a bad result for LaserLock as you can see from the table below:

SafeDisc:

To test the SafeDisc protection we used a game called 'Beavis and Butthead: BungHole in One'. The SafeDisc protection is quite old but it uses a lot of errors on the first 5% of the disc which can make reading the disc take a really long time. The Plextor drives are however very fast when it comes to reading the error sectors and this PX-W4824A drive is no exception. The disc is read at full speed in 2 minutes and 28 seconds. Exactly one second faster than our previous 'SafeDisc Reader Champions':

SafeDisc 2:

For our next tests we used a game called 'The Sims: House Party' protected with SafeDisc version 2.10.030. As expected the disc was again read at full speed in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. To test the Plextor PX-W4824A's ability to write this protection we wrote the image with 'Amplify Weak Sectors' (AWS) disabled. The created back-up disc was then tested in the following drives:

• Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: success
• Plextor PX-W4012A: success
• Lite-On LTR-48125W: success
• Plextor PX-W4824A: success

As expected the SafeDisc 2 protection was no problem at all for the Plextor PX-W4824A drive. When it comes to reading the SafeDisc 2 protection the Plextor PX-W4824A is just as fast as the Plextor PX-W4012TU drive as you can also from the table below where we compare the read times to some of the other drives we've reviewed:

SafeDisc 2.51:

Besides our SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests we need to take a look at the latest SafeDisc 2 version 'called' SafeDisc v2.51. This is a new version of the regular SafeDisc 2 and has caused quite a few problems for a lot of writers (which didn't have problems with the normal SafeDisc 2). For this test we used a game called 'Serious Sam 2: The Second Encounter' protected with SafeDisc v2.51.021:

We read the image with the Plextor PX-W4824A drive using the same 'SafeDisc (2) [no AWS]' Profile as for our normal SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests. The 'Hide CDR Media' option was enabled in the CloneCD tray to test playing from the CD-RW drives. The results when playing from the following drives:

• Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: failed
• Plextor PX-W4012A: success
• Lite-On LTR-48125W: success
• Plextor PX-W4824A: success

As you can see from the list above the created back-up didn't play from all drives. As expected the back-up failed in the picky Toshiba DVD-ROM. Next we re-wrote the same image file but now with the 'AWS' option enabled using the 'SafeDisc 2(.51) [AWS]' Profile. The 'Hide CDR Media' option was again enabled in the CloneCD tray to test playing from the CD-RW drives. The results when playing from the following drives:

• Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: failed
• Plextor PX-W4012A: success
• Lite-On LTR-48125W: success
• Plextor PX-W4824A: success

With 'AWS' enabled the Plextor PX-W4824A drive still failed to create a fully working back-up! We tried reading and writing the image at lower speed and on CD-R and CD-RW media. We also repeated the tests with a different SafeDisc v2.51.021 protected title, Grand Theft Auto 3, but we got the same results; none of the created back-ups would start from the Toshiba drive. As a final test we tried to copy GTA3 using BetaBlocker 2.51 but this also failed.

Update: With firmware 1.03 the 'AWS' problem has been fixed. More information on this thread on our Plextor forum!

Let's give you a final comparison of the read times we achieved with the Plextor drive and compare it to other drives we've reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4824A is again just as fast as the Plextor PX-W4012TU drive:

SecuRom *NEW*:

The next protected data tests we did was with a game called 'Neverwinter Nights' protected with a newer version of SecuRom. Note that we didn't apply the official game patch for this title since with this patch no back-up works. We tried to read the third disc of the game (play disc) and the Plextor PX-W4824A could read the disc at full speed. We then tested the created back-up disc in several drives and the game started every time. When playing from a CD-RW drive you have to enable CloneCD's 'Hide CDR Media' option. When we compare the read times to some of the other drives we've reviewed you can see that the Plextor PX-W4824A is a lot faster than the other Plextor drives and it's thus not limited to about 8X when reading the SubChannel Data:

PlayStation/LibCrypt:

And finally, as expected because of the results we got when reading the SecuRom protection, when reading a PlayStation disc the Plextor PX-W4824A is also not limited to 8X reading. In the table below we compare the achieved read times to other recorders we've reviewed for the final time:

Conclusion:

The Plextor PX-W4824A showed an excellent performance when reading the various copy-protections. It's lightning fast when it comes to reading the SafeDisc protections and, unlike Plextor's previous models, the PX-W4824A drive is not limited to 8X reading anymore when it comes to extracting the SubChannel Data (SecuRom, PlayStation).

Writing the various copy-protection went as we expected but we were disappointed the drive couldn't create a fully working back-up from the SafeDisc v2.51.021 (Serious Sam 2, Grand Theft Auto 3) protection. Every created back-up failed to start from the picky Toshiba SD-M1502 DVD-ROM drive. We hope this behaviour can be fixed either via a firmware upgrade or via a CloneCD update since normally a Plextor drive should have no problems copying SafeDisc v2.51.021 when 'AWS' is enabled. The other protection we tested were no problem for the Plextor drive.

Next up in our Plextor PX-W4824A review, the reading of protected audio discs...