Plextor PX-208T combo CDRW/DVD - Page 9

RW Writing Tests

We used Nero 5.5.9.3 for writing CDs at the maximum RW speed for all the tested drives. The data we burned were 651MB. The Plextor PX-208T supports 8X re-writing while the Freecom Traveller II only 4X. As it was expected the Plextor PX-208T comes first with 592secs.

- Philips CD-RW Testdisc

Philips offers a CD-RW testdisc for verification of HS-RW recorders. The disc has an illegal subtype basically reserved for future HS-RW standards. When the drive fully supports ,and accurately, the Orange Book Part III Vol.1 (HS-RW), it should refuse writing in that disc. There will be a message such as "unusable disc" or "incompatible disc" or "format not recognized" e.t.c.

If the drive is writing on this disc, according to Philips, compatibility problems will possibly occur with this drive with future versions of high speed rewriting formats (Ultra HS-RW).

The testing procedure is quite simple. Insert the CD-RW test disc and try to burn upon it. Unfortunately, Plextor PX-208T wrote the disc at 4X, while it should't. Plextor can fix this in-compatibility with a newer firmware upgrade.

- Packet Writing Tests

We used Ahead InCD v3.31 for all Packet Writing tests with a Ricoh HS-RW media. The formatted disc had 534mbs of free space. We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC as the writers) to the formatted RW media using Windows Explorer (we dragged and dropped) and we completed the test twice to eliminate any possible time measurement faults and user errors:

Plextor PX-208T wrote the file to the formatted disc at 5.65X and read it back at 5.1X. Freecom traveller II is slower due to its lower (4X) RW writing speed.