This is what many people have been waiting for, lets get down to business.

The drive was a retail PX-712 with 1.01 firmware installed, used PlexTools v2.12. Our first impressions is that Plextor kept a rather "scrict" policy with the PI/POF error testing, no reading speed selection is available (PI/POF reading performed at 2X CLV as Plextor responded) and the general options are rather limited. There is no indication how the drive measures the PI/POF Sum (8CC or ?) with the PI/POF tests, however there is such indicator for the BETA/Jitter test (8ECC/16ECC) with default 16ECC (changed to 8ECC).

* Reference Scan



* PIPO Error #1st Scan



* PIPO Error #2nd Scan



The PI Error rate seems following the trend line of the SA300, even it misses to report increased error rate at the beggining. Of course as we can easily notice, the reported PI error rate level is far away from what the SA300 returns, however reading the same disc two times, gives the exact same results...Again we are looking for the basic trend, not the absolute values.

Maybe the BETA/Jitter tests will tell us more about the disc readability!

* Reference Scans





* BETA/Jitter #1st Scan



* BETA/Jitter #2nd Scan



As we can see, the Jitter line follows the trend of the SA300, which is good. Whats interesting is that the second scan has a downshift of the whole Jitter graph, while the BETA line stays the same.

On the other hand the BETA graph, seems to agree with the SA300, even not at absolute values (Beta = 1 / Asym).

(in reply to emperor)

[Deleted by Admins]

(in reply to emperor)

Measuring the Taiyo Yuden's would be also interesting, since they are coming in the Plextor's package with the Plextor brand..
I like the consistency of the PlexTools results, revealing very accurate reader.

(in reply to Deleted User)

Looks like Plextools Pro 2.12 still scans 1ECC for PI, not PiSum8. Or at least, I find that more likely than the possibility that Plextools Pro is reporting PiSum8 and 712SA is just so much better a reader than the Pulsetec drive :)


regards,
halcyon

(in reply to Tony Veglis)

Halc, actually PlexTools doesn't report the ECC sum, so we compared with PISum8...Hopefully we can find more info about this soon.

(in reply to Halc)

BTW does the current Plextools (2.12) only report the graphs for PI/PO or does it also give a summary window like for C1/C2 scans, also showing max, average and total values?

regards,
halcyon

(in reply to emperor)

No it doesn't report any values of the PI/POF error rate

(in reply to Halc)

If anybody has contacts within Plextor, could they find out any of the following:

- What scanning interval (or sample points for a full DVD burn) does 712SA/PlextoosPro 2.12 support?
- Will they support TRUE PiSum8 (i.e. running window measurement) by reading repeatedly blocks in each consecutive 8 ECC block scan?
- Will they support TRUE PO/1ECC block measurements (or just some statistical average per 1 block)?
- Sampling interval for DC jitter measurement? Is it peak or running average?
- Will Plextools/712 support PIF/POE reporting at all (or only PI/POF)? If not, could they at least fix the UI to be inline with what they report :)
- Will we see more improvements in Plextools Pro for PI/PO scanning in the future?
- Could they add accurate descriptions to the help file / PDF about how Plextools Pro scans?
- When Plextools Pro fails to analyze a disc for PI/PO, could the program report an error message giving some clues as to what failed (i.e. loss of tracking or what?)

I have written this to Plextor myself through their feedback form, but I doubt it'll make any difference being as it is that I know nobody from Plextor :)

Answers to some of the questions above would really help in comparing the graphs and trying to find out what works and is reliable.

Cheers,
halcyon

(in reply to emperor)

Halc, i will try get those answers...

The newest v2.13 of PlexTools added more testing...It rocks




There are now three available options before scanning: SUM8, SUM1 and Basic Test...

We now are testing again the test discs to update the results...

(in reply to Halc)

Plextools is looking good!

More questions, if you have time to answer:

- Are all those three measurements separate test runs (i.e. you have to run the test 3 times to get PiSum8, Sum1 and Basic test completed)?

- What is the "lowest speed"? 1x ?

Thanks for the update!

(in reply to emperor)

Yes you need to run each test seperatly to get the results, that is bad...As for the reading speed, only 2X CLV supported (there isn't any option to change this).

(in reply to Halc)