Uh-huh...

I found about this thread now that I have already received my PX-712 :(

And my unit is built in May 2004 :/

What are the best ways to find out if my drive is a sure-fire dud?

Which media should I try to burn and test and at which speeds?

Thanks for any tips.

(in reply to emperor)

I'm not sure it's fair to call the drive a dud since it may be fixable with a firmware update. We won't know if that's true or not until Plextor releases the "big fix" next month....

(in reply to Halcyon)

Hello everyone

I have tried the following verbatim media:
http://www.mediamatch.de/detaildvd.php?ID=2120
( Verbatim x4 rated DVD+R Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation MCC 0028 )
on a Plextor 712A 1.05 (RPC1 by Dangerous brothers) with x4, x6, x8 and attached the results, I wanted to know how good is this considered. Obviously the slower the writing, the better the quality. What exactly are the limits that define “good quality”?
they are not all of the same amount of data, but the x8, supposedly the problematic one, is of 4448MB out of the allowable 4482MB, so i guess it still counts :)

Verbatim x4 MCC 0028 @ x4



Verbatim x4 MCC 0028 @ x6



Verbatim x4 MCC 0028 @ x8

(in reply to Dolphinius_Rex)

Writing quality seems ok, i would like to see the BURST measure mode and especially the POE error rates

(in reply to moonwatcher)

Just ran the test again for the x8 burn and its different, isn’t this suppose to be consistent?
I attached a read speed test as well.

Running burst mode now...

(in reply to emperor)

Burst Tests for the x8 x6 and x4:
What does the POE actually mean? Are they fatal problems?

Verbatim x4 MCC 0028 @ x8 burst



Verbatim x4 MCC 0028 @ x6 burst



Verbatim x4 MCC 0028 @ x4 burst



this doesnt make much sense, for any drive, does it? i am confused.
waiting for an explenation...

(in reply to moonwatcher)

ok, this is odd. i used to use ritek g04 discs, but i ran out and got some g05 discs. here are my results.

g04 burn at 4x:


now my first burn attempt at 8x on new g05 disc:


then a burn of the same data at 6x (also on g05):

(note - this burn actually turned out better than the g04 media @ 4x)

then a repeat burn at 8x (again, on g05):

note that this time the test made it past the bad part and jumped down to a very low error rate (similar to the 6x burn). comparing this test to the cav/clv write pattern at 8x:

we can see that the drive seems to have trouble only during the cav portion of the burn. this is odd, because the problem instantly goes away once in clv mode (even though the speed at the end of the cav zone is nearly identical to the speed at the begining of the clv zone).

just for grins - the 6x speed graph:


and the drive / disc info:




i emailed plextor with this info and got a near-instant reply saying that g05 media has not been tested / supported on this drive. correct me if i'm wrong, but hasnt this media been out for a while, and hasnt there been several firmware revisions since then? ugh, whats the deal here... ?

(in reply to moonwatcher)

As have been discussed earlier, the Plextor PX-712A doesn't include a WOPC function, meaning if the media isn't top quality, problems can occur, like the ones you noticed

(in reply to Allyn)

quote:

ORIGINAL: emperor

As have been discussed earlier, the Plextor PX-712A doesn't include a WOPC function, meaning if the media isn't top quality, problems can occur, like the ones you noticed

It's not so much to do with the quality of the disc... it's to do with the variations from disc to disc. If the quality was only so-so, but consistantly so, then it would be easier to work the firmware in such a way that prevents spikes like that from occuring. However with Ritek, the discs vary quite a bit from one batch to another, and sometimes even in the same spindle! So burners with no WOPC at all will have much greater problems burning them with consistant quality.

(in reply to emperor)

> So burners with no WOPC at all will have much greater problems burning them with consistant quality.

very good info. is there a list of current burners that support this function?

(in reply to Dolphinius_Rex)

BenQ/Philips/NEC drives

(in reply to Allyn)

quote:

ORIGINAL: emperor

As have been discussed earlier, the Plextor PX-712A doesn't include a WOPC function, meaning if the media isn't top quality, problems can occur, like the ones you noticed

In the meantime, I have seen several reported cases where the 712A did fall back to lower writing speed on low quality media so there might be some kind of operating WOPC.

But i will not claim that as a fact until I read an official statement from Plextor regarding that issue ... :)

(in reply to emperor)

quote:

ORIGINAL: JeanLuc

quote:

ORIGINAL: emperor

As have been discussed earlier, the Plextor PX-712A doesn't include a WOPC function, meaning if the media isn't top quality, problems can occur, like the ones you noticed

In the meantime, I have seen several reported cases where the 712A did fall back to lower writing speed on low quality media so there might be some kind of operating WOPC.

But i will not claim that as a fact until I read an official statement from Plextor regarding that issue ... :)

They have something working that way, but it's pretty limited.

(in reply to JeanLuc)

Yes i feel only BenQ/Philips/NEC drives WOPC does work...

Maybe the new announced PX-716A finally solves all those problems

(in reply to Dolphinius_Rex)

quote:

ORIGINAL: emperor

Yes i feel only BenQ/Philips/NEC drives WOPC does work...

Maybe the new announced PX-716A finally solves all those problems

You're more optomistic then I am! I think Plextor has gone too down hill to be able to do anything that impressive. Still, I could be wrong. I'm much more excited to see what Pioneer, and NEC, and BenQ have up their sleeves then Plextor.

BTW: Word on the street is the Plextor Europe is trying for a new firmware to fix more of the problems... if they follow suit, it'll be out at the beginning of October.

(in reply to emperor)

Great to hear that Dolphinius!

My unit works well for me for the media I use (although subjectively evaluated, still not up to Nec 2510 quality).

Let's hope Plextor understands the message and gets their QC/firmware problems solved for the most part.

(in reply to Dolphinius_Rex)