 | Review: Plextor PX-504A (IDE) Reviewer: Dennis Provided by: Plextor Europe Firmware: version 1.00 TLA: #0000 |
Plextor is a well known brand in the optical storage industry. They have been producing CD-ROM and CD-RW drives for a very long time and it's no surprise that they have recently released their very first DVD-writer, the PX-504A. For their first DVD-writer Plextor has decided to go for the +RW (plus) format and not the -RW (minus) format (or a dual format writer).
A lot people have been wondering which is the better format when it comes to recordable DVD discs. Both formats have their advantages and disadvantages and as of yet, it's hard to identify a clear winner in the ongoing 'DVD format war', or as the manufacturers like to call it, the 'DVD format race'. Although the minus format was the first recordable standard for DVDs, the plus format has lately been gaining some advantage with Microsoft's announcement to back the plus format.
For now Plextor has decided to bring out a writer that supports the plus format and it's one of the first drives to support 4x DVD+R recording. One thing we should mention before we begin is that, contrary to what some people seem to think, DVD-recording speeds are not measured in the same was as CD-recording speeds. While 1x CD-recording means a transfer rate of 150kb/s, DVD-recording speeds are about nine times higher and 1x DVD-recording means a transfer rate of 1.350kb/s.
Besides 4x DVD+R recording the Plextor PX-504A also supports 2.4x DVD+RW recording, 16x CD-R recording and 10x CD-RW re-writing speeds. Reading of DVD-ROM media is done at 12x maximum while normal CDs can be read at a maximum speed of 40x. In this review we'll see what these speeds mean in real terms and if the PX-504A drive can life up to the standards we've come to expect from Plextor...
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:- Motherboard: GigaByte GA-7VAXP
- Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2100+
- RAM: 512MB (PC2700)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Hard Disks: DiamondMax 40GB (7200rpm)
The Plextor PX-504A drive was hooked up as Master to the (onboard) secondary IDE-controller and identifies itself as "PLEXTOR DVDR PX-504A". DMA (Direct Memory Access) was enabled and autorun was disabled for every device.
Used Software:
The Windows XP Professional operating system is installed on our test machine. We'll be using the following software to perform the various tests:
- Ahead InCD v3.5.24.0
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.10.15
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v1.02
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.03.2
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.2.0.2
- Plextor PlexTools v1.21
As always we're going to start our review by checking out the contents of the retail package Plextor Europe send to us. In the box of the PX-504A recorder we can find the following items:
- Plextor PX-504A drive
- Quick installation guide
- Warranty RMA procedure manual
- Warranty registration card
- Audio cables, IDE flat cables
- Mounting screws, emergency eject pin, extra jumper cap
- Plextor Software Package, containing;
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom disc;
- Nero Burning Rom v5.5
- NeroMediaPlayer
- InCD/Packet-Writing
- UDF Reader
- NeroBurnRights
- Plextor PlexTools disc;
- PlexTools v1.20
- PX-504A Manual (in 16 languages)
- Cyberlink PowerDVD XP 4.0 disc
- Pinnacle Studio 8SE disc
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom disc;
- One blank 4.0x 4.7GB Verbatim DVD+R disc
- One blank 2.4x 4.7GB Verbatim DVD+RW disc
As always Plextor has put together an excellent package. In the European retail package (note that the American package differs from the European package) we can find the usual items that you'll need to install the drive into your computer. Plextor has included one 4.0x DVD+R disc and one 2.4x DVD+RW disc, both were manufactured by Verbatim.
When it comes to software Plextor has really put together a superb package. Not only have they included a full copy of their PlexTools software and Ahead's Nero Burning Rom software, they have also included a full copy of Cyberlink's PowerDVD and Pinnacle's Studio 8 software. We'll get back to the software packages later on this page of our review.
The manual of the Plextor drive can be found on the PlexTools disc and is very complete and in many different languages. Plextor has included a printed quick installation guide and a printed manual on how you should proceed when you have problems with your drive. For Europe, The Middle-East and Africa Plextor Europe offers a two year warranty on the drive as they do for all their new writer models.
The Drive:
The front of the Plextor PX-504A drive is a bit different than we're used from Plextor drives. On the front of the PX-504A drive we can find the Plextor logo (in full colour), the model number (PX-504A), a 'DVD+ReWriteable' logo, a 'DVD-ROM' logo and a 'High-Speed ReWriteable' logo. The tray of the drive has been fitted with a black plastic strip, which makes it look quite good:
On the front of the drive we of course also have our usual headphone jack, volume control, a busy/write LED, emergency eject hole and an eject button. The back of the Plextor drive is the same as any normal CD-writer. On the back we can find the usual IDE and power connectors, the Master/Slave/Cable Select jumpers and the audio output connectors. On the back of the drive we can also see a square cut-out where it looks like a fan could have been fitted. We're however not sure about this.
One thing that we should also mention about the Plextor PX-504A drive is that the drive itself is based on the NEC ND-1100A DVD-writer. You can hardly tell this but on the label on the PX-504A drive itself we can see that the FCC ID mentions the ND-1100A model.
Software:
Plextor's PlexTools is well known program and is delivered with European Plextor CD/DVD-recorders. The program has come a long way since its first introduction and now offers some advanced features such as 'DAE Error Recovery' and advanced settings to control your Plextor drive with, such as 'Enable Single Session', 'Hide CD-R Media' and 'Disable PoweRec'.
As briefly mentioned when we listed the package contents, this European Plextor drive includes Nero Burning Rom v5.5 which doesn't really need an introduction. Nero Burning Rom, by many people, is considered to be one of the best software packages around when it comes to your CD/DVD burning needs.
Of course Ahead's InCD is also located on the Nero 5.5 CD-ROM. InCD is Ahead's packet writing software to use with your ReWriteable discs. With this software you can format a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc and use it as a large floppy disc. InCD also supports the 'Mount Rainier' (CD-MRW) format.
| A full copy of CyberLink's PowerDVD XP 4.0 is also included in the Plextor's software package. With PowerDVD you can (of course) play DVD movies on your computer using a feature-rich navigation control. |  |
Pinnacle Studio version 8 is a video-editing software for your computer. Simply capture your video footage and then use the professional editing features like scene transitions, title effects, and fast/slow motion to create compelling movies. After you've edited your video, you can output to tape or burn your movies to a CD or DVD that will play on most living room DVD players.
Drive Specifications:
In the Nero InfoTool screenshot above we can see that the Plextor drive supports three (CD-)recording speeds; 16x, 8x and 4x. The drive has a 2MB buffer and has firmware revision 1.00 installed. The PX-504A can almost read all types of media, except for DVD-RAM. From the screenshot we can also see that the drive is a RPC II (Regional Playback Control) DVD reader. This means that the drive has been set to play region 2 DVDs (Europe) and has five region changes left. After the last change the drive will be locked to the last used region. This was done by motion picture studios to control the release of movie titles in each world region. This lock can then be reset four times by the manufacturer of the drive.
In the next PlexTools screenshot above we can see that has an average access time of less than 120ms for CDs and 140ms for DVDs. What the screenshots don't tell us is that the PX-504A supports 10x re-writing, 40x CD and 12x DVD-Video read speeds. Let's take a closer look at some of the features that the drive supports:
Drive Features:
Buffer Underrun Protection:
Nero Burning Rom reports us that the PX-504A drive supports the BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRuN-Proof) technique but, since this drive is a rebadged NEC drive, we don't think this is correct. It doesn't matter that much though since buffer underrun prevention techniques basically all work in the same way: when the buffer of the recorder falls beneath a certain level, it will stop recording as of a specific location on the CD. The recorder then continues attempting to receive data from the PC to refill the buffer. As soon as the buffer has been refilled, the recorder will start recording again.
PoweRec:
Like almost all new Plextor drives, the PX-504A supports the PoweRec technology to ensure a quality back-up. PoweRec (Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control) monitors the quality of the disc while burning and will adjust the speed if necessary. You can read a full explanation of the PoweRec technique in this PDF-document.
Lossless Linking:
In the DVD+RW Video format, video can be encoded with a variable bit-rate (VBR). Because the writing process takes place at a constant bit rate, the writing process needs to be suspended and continued frequently. Normally, this would result in a linking loss, making the disc incompatible with read-only devices like DVD Video players and DVD-ROM drives. With DVD+RW it is possible to perform lossless linking, i.e. to suspend and continue the writing process without linking loss. This feature makes the format very efficient and suitable for random write in data as well as video applications (source: Philips).
Write Methods:
CD-Recordable Media:
There isn't much to tell about the Plextor PX-504A's CD-recording performance since it uses the CLV write method which means that the drive starts at 16x writing and stays at this speed throughout the entire disc. The same also applies to the drive's re-write performance. We'll get back to the Plextor's DVD writing performance later on in our review.
On the next page we'll take a look at how well the drive performs when reading various media...
In this part of our Plextor review we'll test how fast the drive can read various media, including audio CDs and various DVD discs. Since this is our first review of a DVD-recorder we unfortunately cannot directly compare the drive to other DVD-recorders but we of course can check if the drive can reach the promised speeds. Let's give you an overview of what read speeds the drive supports, according to the PlexTools software:
CD Read:
The PlexTools software reports us that the drive can read all types of CD media at maximum speed, including CD-RW discs and audio discs.
DVD Read:
The Plextor PX-504A drive can read single layered DVD-ROM discs at 12x while it will read DVD-Video and DVD±R(W) media at a lower speed of 5x. Let's find out if what the PlexTools software has reported us is correct:
Pressed Discs:
For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing PlexTools v1.05 which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced results in the Nero CD Speed graph:
The produced graph shows us that the Plextor drive came very close to its rated speed of 40x. The drive had decent seek times and a low CPU usage. Unfortunately, since this is our first review of a DVD-recorder, we cannot directly compare the Plextor drive to other drives. Therefore we can for now only give you an overview of the achieved speeds and seek times:
| Pressed Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Plextor PX-504A | 29.62x | 17.44x | 39.09x | 110ms | 113ms | 188ms |
CD-Recordable Discs:
For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we used a back-up (CD-R) of a PlexTools v1.05 disc. The used disc was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD Speed:
This time the Plextor drive had no problems reaching its rated speed of 40x. The drive, again, had good seek times and a low CPU usage:
| CD-R Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Plextor PX-504A | 30.67x | 18.35x | 40.31x | 116ms | 119ms | 174ms |
CD-ReWriteable Discs:
To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we again used the "PlexTools v1.05" disc only this time we read from a CD-ReWriteable disc. The used disc was a 'Plextor High Speed CD-RW' disc manufactured by Ricoh. The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD Speed again:
From the produced graph you can see that the Plextor PX-504A drive didn't reach 40x reading and its top read speed was 34.45x so the information we got from the PlexTools software was incorrect. When it came to seek times and CPU usage the Plextor drive showed a similar result as in our previous tests:
| CD-RW Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Plextor PX-504A | 26.08x | 15.34x | 34.45x | 113ms | 124ms | 178ms |
Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:
To test the Plextor's digital audio extraction performance we again used Nero CD Speed to do a transfer rate test. The audio disc we used was of a slightly larger size than in our previous tests (77 minutes). In the graphs below you can see the performance of the DVD-recorder:
Just like with the CD-ReWriteable media the Plextor drive didn't reach its maximum speed of 40x and had a top read speed of 34.09x. So the PlexTools information was again incorrect. Keep in mind though that 34x DAE is actually not bad at all for a DVD-recorder, judging from other reviews we've read.
| Audio Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Plextor PX-504A | 25.87x | 15.35x | 34.09x | 110ms | 119ms | 177ms |
As a final test we used PlexTools to extract the audio disc to our hard disk. As an extra tests we also tested the drive's performance using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) in Secure Mode. The PX-504A does not support Caching, but does support Accurate Stream and C2 Error Info in EAC's secure ripping mode: |  |
The Plextor drive performed as expected when extracting the audio tracks, using the PlexTools software. As we already saw in the Nero CD Speed tests, a DAE speed of about 34x is the maximum speed for this drive. When using the PX-504A in EAC's Secure Mode we saw an excellent result. Because the drive does not cache audio data it reached the highest speed we've seen on a drive (compare 26.5x to the Plextor PX-W4012TA (12.2x maximum) and the Plextor PX-W4824TA (12.6x maximum) for example, using EAC's Secure Mode).
Audio - Advanced DAE Quality Test:
To conclude our read tests we did an 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with Nero CD Speed. You can see the produced results below:
When we did the advanced DAE tests the Plextor drive didn't perform that well. Although the drive had no problems reading the CD-text and SubChannel Data from the disc, it did produce some data errors while reading and thus failed to reach the 100% quality score. The drive also didn't pass all the on-the-fly copying tests and was too slow for 16x copying. The PX-504A drive could not read any of the lead-in and lead-out data.
DVD - DVD-Video:
According to the PlexTools software the PX-504A drive can read DVD-Video discs at a maximum speed of 5x. The drive uses this low speed to avoid vibration and noise during playback. To test this we read two DVD-Video discs (single-layered and dual-layered) with the Nero CD Speed software. You can see the produced results below:
From the results you can see that the Plextor PX-504A drive was indeed limited to about 5x maximum when reading DVD-Video. Keep in mind that a low read speed has no effect on the drive's performance when playing a DVD and it's only important when you, for example, want to rip the DVD to your hard disk. We also tested the Plextor drive when playing various DVDs using the PowerDVD software and the drive was indeed very quiet during playback.
DVD - DVD+R:
As a final read test we tested the PX-504A's performance when reading DVD+R media. For this test we copied 4.4GB to a Verbatim 4x DVD+R disc and then used Nero CD Speed to test how fast the media could be read back again:
The test confirms the information we got from the PlexTools software at the beginning of this page. In conclusion we can say that the Plextor PX-504A can read a lot of media but will only achieve its maximum speed of 12x when using DVD-ROM media. All other media like DVD-Video, DVD+R and DVD-R media will be read at a maximum speed of 5x.
So far for the reading part. Now let's see how the Plextor drive performs when writing recordable CDs and DVDs...
As we already mentioned the Plextor drive supports 16x CD-recording and 4x DVD+R recording. On this page of our review we'll see what these speeds mean in terms of write time when recording 700MB of data (when using a CD-R disc) and 4.4GB of data (when writing a DVD+R disc). The Plextor's re-write performance will be tested on the next page:
Writing Data (CD-R):
For our data writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 700MB using the Nero Burning Rom software. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully:
Since the Plextor PX-504A drive only supports three CD-recording speeds (4x, 8x and 16x) there isn't much to tell about the drive's performance. It achieves an acceptable write time when recording 700MB (5 minutes and 24 seconds). We didn't test the drive's performance when recording at lower speeds since most users will probably only use the drive at its maximum speed.
Writing Data (DVD+R):
The next thing we're going to test is the Plextor's DVD+R recording performance. As you can see from the screenshot below, 4x recording means a total write time of 14 minutes and 13 seconds:
So in less than 15 minutes you can write a complete DVD movie! Unfortunately 4x certified DVD+R media is very hard to come by at this moment so how does the drive perform when using 2.4x certified media? To test this we simply used some Philips 2.4x DVD+R media and started the write process. In the screenshot below you can see that the drive now needed a little over 23 minutes, about 9 minutes more than when recording at 4x:
Since this is our first review of a DVD-recorder we unfortunately cannot directly compare the drive's write times to other drives.. Let's continue with the PX-504A's CD-R write quality.
Write Quality:
Since the Plextor PX-504A supports recording speed of only 16x maximum, it doesn't need high-performance media to reach its maximum speed. Since the recording speeds are low this will probably mean that the write quality will be ok (since in general, a lower write speed means better quality). To test this we wrote several discs at maximum speed. For each disc we then used Lite-On's C1/C2 error scan program called WSES (Write Strategy Evaluation System) to measure the amount of errors.
In the graphs below you can see an overview of errors occurring during the read process. Please note that every burned disc will always have C1 errors. These are errors that are corrected by the drive and they will not effect the disc in a bad way as long as their amount is limited. C2 errors are however very bad for a disc and are harder to read and correct. When there are too many C2 errors present on the disc it means you have bad burned disc and it can't be read in the test drive you're using as a reader. Although a low amount of C2 errors can still be recovered by the drive, a zero amount of C2 errors is always preferred!
Plextor/Taiyo Yuden - 48x certified - 16x write
Mitsui/MAM-E - 48x certified - 16x write
Maxell - 48x certified - 16x write
From the created C1/C2 graphs you can see that all discs were written with excellent quality. There was a very low amount of C1 errors on every disc and the Plextor drive didn't create a single C2 error. As expected, all discs were written at the PX-504A's maximum write speed of 16x.
Now that we've finished our normal read and write tests, it's time to check the drive's re-write performance...
The Plextor PX-504A supports 10x (1.500kb/s) CD re-writing and 2.4x (3.240kb/s) DVD re-writing. On this page of our review we'll see what these speeds mean when writing normal data compilations and when using the packet writing method.
Re-Writing Data:
For our data re-writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 650MB using the Nero Burning Rom software. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc we used was a Plextor CD-RW disc manufactured by Ricoh. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully:
As you can see our data compilation was written in 7 minutes and 44 seconds. For our next test we set up a new DVD-ROM compilation of about 4.4GB. We again used the DAO writing method and started the write process:
The total compilation was written in 23 minutes and 19 seconds (two seconds were used to format the media). This is (of course) the same result as we saw in our normal 2.4x write tests we did on the previous page. Let's continue with packet writing:
Packet Writing:
For our packet writing tests we used Ahead's InCD and inserted an empty Plextor High Speed CD-ReWriteable disc in the recorder. When formatting was complete we measured the time it took for the drive to write our test folder of data (containing 400MB (419.791.239 bytes)). In the table below we've summed it all up for you:
| CD-RW Packet Writing | InCD Formatting 650MB | InCD Copying 400MB | Average Write Speed |
| Plextor PX-504A | 11m:32s | 5m:22s | 8.49x |
Although the Plextor PX-504A drive only supports 10x re-writing it showed an excellent result with the highest average re-write speed we've seen on a drive (compare it for instance to the PleXCombo PX-320A (8.28x average) and the Yamaha CRW3200E (8.38x average)). Let's check the Plextor's performance when using DVD+RW media. For this test we created another test folder of random data containing 4.0GB (4.336.861.184 bytes). In the table below we've summed up the results again:
| DVD+RW Packet Writing | InCD Formatting 4.4GB | InCD Copying 4.0GB | Average Write Speed |
| Plextor PX-504A | 1m:10s | 21m:27s | 2.4x |
In our DVD+RW packet writing tests the Plextor drive again showed an excellent result and had no problems writing the data at maximum speed. Notice that formatting the DVD+RW disc with InCD takes only 1 minute and 10 seconds! Unfortunately the PX-504A does not support the Mount Rainier format so this concludes our re-writing tests.
Now that we've finished our normal tests, it's time for some advanced testing...
For our final (advanced) tests we're going to test how the Plextor drive performs with data and audio copy-protections. Besides that we'll also check if the drive can overburn and if it can handle 8cm discs. Let's start with the data copy-protections:
Copy-Protected Data:
For our copy-protected data tests we, as always, used CloneCD to read and write several popular copy-protections. In the picture below you can see that the Plextor PX-504A is full supported by CloneCD:
The Plextor drive supports the DAO-RAW96 recording mode which basically means that the drive can write uncorrected data and SubChannel Data. In the table below we've summed up all of our results and after the table we will clarify our results:
| Protected Data | Game Title | Protection (version) | Read Time | Back-up Works |
 | Desperados | LaserLock | 20m:46s | Yes |
 | The Sims: House Party | SafeDisc v2.10.030 | 2m:22s | Partially |
 | Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven (CD1) | SafeDisc v2.70.030 | 2m:49s | Partially |
 | Neverwinter Nights (CD3) | SecuRom v4.76.00.0051 | 2m:25s | Yes |
 | Final Fantasy VIII (CD1) | PlayStation LibCrypt | -m:--s | No |
The Plextor PX-504A showed an expected result. It performed very well when reading the LaserLock and SafeDisc protections. As expected the Plextor drive needed weak sector amplification to create a fully working back-up of the SafeDisc 2 protection, even when copying lower versions of this protection.
When it came to SubChannel Data reading the drive was fast, faster than we're used from a Plextor drive since many are limited in read speed when it comes to extracting the SubChannels. It was too bad the Plextor drive failed to read the PlayStation discs. We tried other discs but the drive simply couldn't read them.
Copy-Protected Audio:
For our protected audio disc tests we this time only used the PlexTools software. We simply inserted the audio discs in the Plextor drive and waited if the drive could recognize the disc and if so, could extract the audio tracks. In the table below we've summed up our results:
| Protected Audio | Audio Title | Protection (version) | PlexTools |
| Shakira - Laundry Service | Key2Audio version 2 | Read the disc without problems | |
| Celine Dion - A New Day Has Come | Key2Audio version 3 | Read the disc without problems | |
| Bitte Ein Beat! - Beat 5 | Cactus Data Shield 200 | Read the disc without problems | |
| Yorin FM - Hitzone 21 | Doc.loc | Could not recognize disc | |
The Plextor recorder showed an excellent result with the Key2Audio and Cactus Data Shield protection. It had no problems reading the discs and extracting the audio tracks. Although the 'Enable Single Session' option in the PlexTools software was not available for the PX-504A drive, it didn't need it since it could extract all tracks without a problem. It was too bad the Doc.loc disc could not be recognized by the drive at all. We of course also tried other software like CloneCD but this gave us the same result.
Overburning:
We used DataTrack 99min/900MB CD-R's for our tests that were certified up to 40x writing. We used Nero CD Speed to do an overburn test. We set the 'Test capacity' to 99 minutes but at this value the test unfortunately didn't start. When we lowered the test capacity to 89 minutes the test was completed successfully:
From the results we can see that overburning is limited to about 89 minutes. As expected reading of 99 minute media also failed as you can see from the screenshot on the right. The size of the 98 minute audio disc was detected completely wrong. When we used an audio disc of 88 minutes the Plextor drive had no problems reading it.
8cm Discs:
As a final test we tested if the PX-504A drive could read and write 8cm discs. For our write test we used Nero Burning Rom and after that we used Nero CD Speed to do another transfer rate test. Both tests were completed without a problem:
Positive:
- Nice looking and quiet drive
- Supports 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW recording speeds
- Excellent hardware and software package
- Complete manual and in many different languages
- Two year full warranty for Europe, The Middle-East and Africa
- Buffer underrun technology to prevent buffer underruns
- Good overall read speeds (data and audio)
- Good write quality
- Excellent re-write performance
- Supports PoweRec technology
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports reading and writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text information
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Could read Key2Audio and Cactus Data Shield audio copy-protection without problems
Negative:
- Created some errors in Nero CD Speed's Advanced DAE Test
- DVD+R(W)/DVD-Video read speeds could be higher
- Mount Rainier format not supported
- Cannot fully overburn to 99 minutes (max is 89:50 minutes)
- Needs weak sector amplification to copy SafeDisc 2 protection
- Failed to read Doc.loc audio copy-protection and PlayStation media
Conclusion:
As we've come to expect from Plextor they have put together an excellent package for the PX-504A drive. The manuals are complete, you get a two year warranty on the drive and it's shipped with a superb software package.
When reading various media the Plextor drive performed pretty well. Although the drive didn't reach its maximum speed with audio CDs and CD-ReWriteable discs, it showed decent speeds and had no problems reading CD(-R) media at maximum speed. The PX-504A's performance with DVD media could have been better since it can only reach its maximum speed (12x) with DVD-ROM media. All other DVD media (DVD±RW/DVD-Video) is read at a limited speed of about 5x maximum.
When it came to write and re-write performance of the drive we have nothing to complain. The Plextor PX-504A supports 16x CD-writing and although this is no record breaking speed, it's fast enough for people that don't burn that much or already have another CD-recorder. A benefit of the 16x recording speed is that the drive's write quality at this lower speed was excellent. The PX-504A's DVD-recording performance was great since recording a complete DVD movie can be done in less than 15 minutes while re-writing a complete DVD+RW disc is done in just over 23 minutes.
The Plextor PX-504A showed a bit of a mixed result when it came to our advanced tests. Although the drive had no problems reading and writing most copy-protections, it couldn't read PlayStation discs at all. We saw the same thing with the audio copy-protections. Although the drive had no problems reading the Key2Audio and Cactus Data Shield protection, it failed with the Doc.loc copy-protection. Overburning is also not completely supported by the drive since it cannot read discs that are larger than 89 minutes. Perhaps Plextor can improve the drive's performance on this area with a future firmware upgrade.
The price of the Plextor PX-504A drive is about $ 250 while the NEC ND-1100A drive, on which this Plextor drive is based, can be purchased for about $ 175. Of course, when you buy a Plextor drive you know you'll get an excellent package, good support and full warranty on your drive. We'll leave it up to you to decide if you're willing to pay the increased price.
