Plextor PX-712A Dual DVD±RW Recorder - Page 10

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

The Plextor PX-712A supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum supported speed for the DVD+R is 12X (6X~12X P-CAV), 8X P-CAV for DVD-R and 4X CLV for DVD±RW media. Currently, no 12X certified DVD+R media is sold on the market. Nero Burning Rom reported speeds are shown below. Notice that the drive burns CLV at 4X & 6X writing speeds for both DVD±R formats .

The Plextor PX-712A will burn at 12X using existing 8X certified DVD+R media. With the current firmware revision (v1.01) the following media are supported for the maximum burning speeds. Too bad Plextor's website doesn't post the exact media codes so users can identify if their media will be burned or not at max speeds:

Recommended Media	Recording Speeds	Disc Manufacturer
DVD+R	12X	Verbatim DVD+R (8X) Prodisc Technology Inc DVD+R (8X) MPO Media DVD+R (8X) Taiyo Yuden DVD+R47TYA Ricoh DRD-8XCW5 Plextor PX-DVD+R8JC1 Maxell D+R47C.1P
DVD-R	8X	Maxell DR47C.1P Mitsubishi Chemical DHR47H1 Plextor PX-DVD-R8JC1 Taiyo Tuden DVD-R47TYA TDK DVD-R47K Sony DVD-R (8X) Ritek DVD-R (8X) Prodisc Technology Inc DVD-R (8X) NAN-YA DVD-R (8X) Fujifilm DVD-R (8X) CMC DVD-R (8X)

The current version of Nero CD-DVD Speed had a problem, closing immediatly after completing the "create disc" function, therefore we run two simulation tests, one in Nero CDSpeed and one in Plextools Professional, using Maxell 8X DVD+R media.

The Plextor PX-712A starts writing at 6.03x, and gradually increases its writing speed until 2.7GB where it reaches the 12X writing speed until the end of the disc is reached. The average writing speed is around 10.62X, while the total burning time is around 6:09mins for a full DVD-5 project.

For the DVD-R format, P-CAV writing strategy is being used, as the Nero CD-Speed software reports:

The time needed for 4316MB was 7:54min, making the PX-712A a fast burner. For the DVD±RW 4X CLV writing technology used.

- Burning Tests

We burned 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media. We used the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc, with the PoweREC feature enabled. The best recording times for DVD-R format came from That's 8X media with 7:50mins. Its not a secret that Plextor uses Taiyo Yuden media for branded products, so it was natural the PX-712A to perform best with them. We can say that Plextor followed a rather strict policy with DVD-R media since it allowed 8X only with 8X rated media, with the exception of That's 4X DVD-R.

On the other hand, things changed when burning DVD+R media. The PX-712A allowed all tested 4X DVD+R media to be burned at 8X! For the absolute 12X P-CAV recording speeds, the supported media list , as we saw before is rather limited, and only three media managed to burn with many differences in the final recording time. The lowest burning time came from Maxell's 8X DVD+R media with 6:09mins, followed by Ricoh's 8X (6:12mins) and Plextor's 8X (6:24mins).

Below are all the burning results from the various media types used.

• DVD-R/RW Media

Disc Label	Disc Information	Allowed Writing Speed	Total Recording Time (mins)
That's 8X	TYG02	8X	7:50
Verbatim 8X	MCC 02RG20	8X	7:53
CMC 8X	CMC MAG. AE1	8X	7:54
TraxData 8X	RITEKG05	8X	7:56
Maxell 8X	MXL RG03	8X	7:51
That's 4X	TYG01	8X	7:52
That's 6X	TYG01	6X	10:03
BenQ 4X	SONY04D1	4X	14:44
TraxData 4X	RITEKG04	4X	14:51
Verbatim RW	MCC01RW4X	4X	14:44
Traxdata RW	RITEKW04	4X	14:47

• DVD+R/RW Media

Disc Label	Disc Information	Allowed Writing Speed	Total Recording Time (mins)
Plextor 8X	YUDEN000T02	12X	6:24
Ricoh 8X	RICOHJPNR02	12X	6:12
Maxell 8X	MAXELL 002	12X	6:09
CMC 8X	CMC MAG E01	8X	7:37
Verbatim 4X	MMC 002	8X	7:34
Traxdata 4X	RICOHJPNR01	8X	7:36
Traxdata 8X	RITEK R03	8X	7:35
CMC 4X	CMC MAG F01	8X	7:36
Mitsubishi Kagaru 8X	MCC 003	8X	7:34
MMore 4X	MBIPG101R03	8X	7:34
Traxdata RW 4X	RICOHJPNW11	4X	15:12
Mitsubishi Kagaku RW 4X	MKMA02	4X	13:48

- DVD Overburning Test

Using Nero CD-DVD Speed v3.00 we tested if the PleXWriter PX-712A can overburn using DVD-R and DVD+R media:

• DVD-R Format

Unfortunatly, the PX-712A doesn't support overburning with DVD-R media.

• DVD+R Format

For this test we used two media, RICOH 4X DVD+R and TY 8X DVD+R. Nero CD-DVD Speed automatically sets as test capacity 5GB and warns us that simulation is not possible, actual writing must be performed:

The PX-W712A was able to write up to 4616MB, an overall gain of 133MB. Not bad at all :-)

With TY 8X DVD+R, the additional space increased by 19MB.

Finally below we can see the tested media ID and the overall overburning capacity.

- DVD+MRW Tests

We used MRW Validation Suite 2.2 from Philips to test the compliance of the Plextor PX-712A with the Mount Rainier DVD+MRW format.

For the test we used 4X DVD+RW media from TraxData and 2.4X DVD+RW media from Sentinel. The test was terminated immediately after starting prompting us to insert a blank DVD+RW disc. Probably the problem lies with the testing software since we had similar problems testing other drives also. If and when MRW Validation Suite solves this issue, we will repeat the tests.