Plextor PX-712A Dual DVD±RW Recorder - Page 5

To create the image of the various protected titles to the hard disk, we used Alcohol 120% software and the appropriate settings, according to the protection type of the inserted discs. Below you can see the duration of each process as well as the transfer rate in each case, which is more interesting for all users.

Plextor PX-712A supports reading of subchannel data information from data/audio tracks. The drive was fast with all the protections, and especially with the the SafeDisc v.2 disc!

The Plextor PX-712A supports the DAO-RAW writing mode. For checking the drive's EFM correction status, we used 3 different game titles with different SafeDisc 2 versions having the latest software patches installed. After making the images of the various titles onto the hard disk, we burned them (maximum speed) with Alcohol 120% v1.9.2.1705. Two different discs were created for each title; one with the "Bypass EFM error" enabled and one more with the function disabled.

• Fifa 2004 - Safe Disc v3.1
• The Sims Superstar - Safe Disc v2.9
• The Sims Unleashed - Safe Disc v2.8
• Serious Sam Second Encounter v1.07 - Safe Disc v2.60.052
• Max Payne - Safe Disc v2.51.020

The table below shows the results of the attempted backups and whether they worked (game installed / played normally), or not.

What's rather dissapointing is that despite the fact that the PX-712A supports VariRec, it doesn't have the same implementation like Premium did. With the Plextor Premium and BlindWrite you can create accurate backups of SecuROM 4.8xx protected games. Of course, Sony responded to the special writing mode of Premium with v5.xx series, adding several checks which recognize the original from a backup disc. Despite this, we would like to see this feature present in the PX-712A series.