Review: Plextor PX-W4824TU
Reviewer: G@M3FR3@K
Provided by: Plextor Europe
Firmware: version 1.02
Production date: September 2002
TLA#: 0001
A few weeks ago we presented you with our in depth review of Plextor's latest recorder the
PX-W4824A drive. Today we have a new review for
you of basically the same drive but now in an external case using the USB 2.0 interface. Because the 'A' and 'TU' drive
are the same drive our test results will probably be the same as we got with the internal model but this Plextor
PX-W4824TU drive has the latest firmware version (v1.02) and it will be interesting to see if there have been any improvements.
Of course this external Plextor drive has the same features as we saw on the internal model. The drive supports the new
ultra-speed (24X) re-write standard, the same fastest access time ever (< 65ms), Mount Rainier and 48X
CAV recording of data and audio. Besides that
we of course have the usual Plextor technologies on board such as PoweRec and VariRec ensuring a quality back-up.
As we just mentioned this Plextor drive uses the USB 2.0 standard which we also saw on the Plextor
PX-W4012TU drive. USB 2.0 is still a pretty new
technology that extends the speed of the peripheral-to-PC connection up to 40 times over existing capabilities. USB 2.0 can
reach speeds up to 480 Mb/sec, 40 times faster than USB 1.1.
In this review we will take a look at this latest external Plextor drive and see if the drive performs the same as the
internal model we reviewed a few weeks ago. Read on to find out what we have to say about this Plextor drive!
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:
- Motherboard: GigaByte GA-7VAXP
- Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2100+
- RAM: 256MB (PC2700)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Hard Disks: DiamondMax 40GB & 30GB (7200rpm)
- IDE Controller: PCI UDMA100 Controller
System set-up:
As you can see the Plextor PX-W4824TU was hooked up to the onboard USB 2.0 Controller and identifies itself as "PLEXTOR
CD-R PX-W4824A". As you can see this Plextor USB 2.0 is thus just a normal PX-W4824A drive but with an external case.
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 v3.37.0
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.9.14
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v1.01.3
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.03.2
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.0.1.10
- Exact Audio Copy v0.9 beta 4
- Plextor PlexTools v1.16A
On the next page we'll take a look at the retail package of the Plextor PX-W4824TU...
First things first as we check out the contents of the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive. In the box
Plextor Europe send to us we find the following things:
- The Plextor PX-W4824TU drive itself
- Quick installation guide
- Warranty RMA procedure manual
- USB 2.0 connection cable
- External 12V power adapter
- Emergency eject pin
- Nero Burning Rom 5.5 disc containing;
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom
- Ahead's NeroMediaPlayer
- Ahead's InCD
- Ahead's Nero BurnRights
- PlexTools v1.16A disc including 16-language
manual and USB 2.0 driver for Windows 98SE - Five (!) blank 48X 700MB Plextor CD-R's
(manufactured by Taiyo Yuden*) - One blank 24X 650MB Plextor CD-RW
(manufactured by unknown company*)
As we already saw with the Plextor PX-W4824A package the external model has the same generous amount of five 48X
CD-Recordables. Besides that you get the usual power and USB 2.0 cables. Of course this package does not include any screws
or flatcables since the drive is an external model with its own case. An emergency eject pin is also included in the
package.
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.
Installation:
The Plextor PX-W4824TU drive uses the USB 2.0 standard so your computer has to have support for this. Most new
motherboards have USB 2.0 ports but many older motherboard do not have this support. Since our motherboard is brand new
it has these onboard USB 2.0 ports but if you have an older computer you'll have to install a PCI USB 2.0 card. Luckily
these cards aren't very expensive.
Note: It's recommended to attach this high-speed Plextor drive to an onboard USB 2.0 port instead of using a
PCI card. This is because 48X writing requires 7.2 MB/s and when you're running the drive via a PCI based USB 2.0 card you
may experience buffer underruns. We tested this on an older system using a 700MHz CPU with a PCI USB 2.0 card and the
maximum speed we could reach was about 43X.
The Plextor drive was attached via the USB cable that was delivered with it. Its power supply comes from the 12V power
adapter. When Windows XP is running and the drive is turned on via the switch on the back, it's automatically recognized
and ready for use. You don't need additional software to use the drive (well at least not under Windows XP since this
Operating System already supports USB 2.0). There's no need to set the drive to DMA mode or anything. Just hit the switch
and we're good to go.
The Drive:
shiny metal casing and a black drive. On the front of the Plextor drive we find the supported speeds (48/24/48), the 'BPRec'
(BURN-Proof Recording) logo and the 'Ultra Speed CD ReWriteable' logo. Besides that we have the
usual headphone jack, a volume control, a disc/busy LED and of course an eject-button.
The back of drive has the same switches and connections as found on the PX-W4012TU drive, which basically are all
self-explaining:
- 12V Power Connector
To connect the device to the power adaptor. - USB Port
To connect the device to the computer with the USB 2.0 cable. - Stereo RCA Jacks
To connect the device to your sound system (audio cables are not included with the drive and the drive will only send
direct audio output to the RCA jacks if it's loaded with an audio disc). - Power Switch
Switch to turn the power of the PlexWriter on and off. - Selftest Switch
To use the diagnostic functions of the PlexWriter (the drive can test itself for possible malfunctions).
One small note we forgot to mention in our previous Plextor PX-W4824A
review is that the new Plextor models have a
belt-driven tray instead of a gear-driven one. This makes less noise when opening the drive's tray. The latest firmware
we're using (1.02) even smoothened opening and closing the drive's tray.
The Software:
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
CD-ReWriteable discs. With this software you can format a CD-RW disc and use it as a large floppy disc. InCD now also
supports the 'Mount Rainier' (CD-MRW) format.
Other small tools located on the Nero 5.5 CD-ROM are NeroMediaPlayer and, more interesting, Nero BurnRights. Nero
BurnRights was designed for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. After Nero BurnRights has been installed, the system administrator
can assign a specific group the rights to record CD's/DVD's on the system. If an administrator wants to allow or disallow
CD/DVD recording rights for certain users, it is enough to make the user a member of this group or to remove the user from
the group.
Plextor PlexTools is another well
known program and is delivered with European Plextor CD-writers. 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, which we'll get back to later on in our review:
and SpeedRead. But you can also use PlexTools to Hide CD-R Media and to let your Plextor drive only read a single session
of a disc. Disabling the PoweRec feature has an interesting extra feature. When you disable the PoweRec function of the
Plextor PX-W4824A or TU drive you can force it to write media at the selected speed (e.g. 48X) instead of the speed the
recorder would normally use when its quality checks (PoweRec) are enabled. When you disable PoweRec you can see at which
speed your media would normally be written and you can thus check which media will be written at 48X! A unique feature for
the PX-W4824A and TU drives which, by the way, also works in Nero Burning Rom:
disable the PoweRec feature of your Plextor drive you will of course create a risk that the disc will be written at a too
high speed and it may contain (uncorrectable) errors. For more information on Plextor's PlexTools please read our small
review on it.
On the next page we'll take a look at the features the Plextor PX-W4824TU...
First things first as we check out the drive specifications as mentioned on the Plextor Europe
website and as detected
with additional software like Nero InfoTool:
Drive Specifications:
| Write Speeds: | 48X: 7200KB/s Full-CAV 40X: 6000KB/s P-CAV 32X: 4800KB/s P-CAV 24X: 3600KB/s P-CAV 20X: 3000KB/s CLV 16X: 2400KB/s CLV 8X: 1200KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV |
| Re-Write Speeds: | 24X: 3600KB/s P-CAV 10X: 1500KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV |
| Read Speeds: | 20X-48X: 3120-7200KB/s CAV 18X-40X: 2710-6000KB/s CAV 14X-32X: 2170-4800KB/s CAV 10X-24X: 1600-3600KB/s CAV 8X: 1200KB/s CLV 4X: 600KB/s CLV |
| Buffer Size: | 4MB |
| Interface: | Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (also compatible with USB 1.1, supports 4/4/6X) |
| Access Time: | <65ms |
| Supported Formats: | CD-DA, CD-ROM mode 1, CD-ROM XA, Mix Mode CD, Photo-CD, Video CD, CD-I, CD-Extra, CD+G, CD TEXT, CD-MRW |
| Recording Modes: (detected with Nero InfoTool) |
Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96 |
| VariRec Recording: | 4X: 600KB/s (TAO or DAO) |
| System Requirements: | Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP, minimum 64MB RAM, one free Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connector |
| Disc Loading: | Tray, auto load/auto eject |
| Dimensions WxHxD: | 169 x 58 x 247.5 mm |
| Weight: | 2.2 kg |
| Extra's: | VariRec, PoweRec, two year full-warranty * (parts, labor, and replacement) with on-site Collect and Return Service **. |
** Only for EU-Countries + Norway and Switzerland.
Overall very nice features. The drive supports all recording formats and of course offers the same Plextor technologies
such as VariRec and PoweRec which we'll get back to later. Let's give you a screenshot of Nero InfoTool first and the
detected features of this latest external Plextor drive:
48X models are the first drives the new 'Mount Rainier' format and we hope to see a firmware upgrade for the 40X models
soon. As you can also see from the screenshot the read speed of the PX-W4824TU drive is detected as 40X maximum. If you've
missed our previous review of the internal model here's the explanation again:
"...Even though it would seem logical to expect the same maximum speed for reading and writing, and if not equal to
expect a higher read speed, this is not always the case for Plextor recorders. The reason for this comes from the different
characteristics of the media that is typically used in both cases.
Writing is usually performed on brand-new, blank media, with virtually no surface print or labels attached, still free
from scratches, probably inserted in a CD drive for the very first time and mastered with very high precision.
In the case of reading, the inserted disc is often a completely different type: there is a good chance that it is a
stamped disc, maybe mastered with lower quality, less precision, poorer tolerances and greater eccentricity. It may have
heavy or unequal surface printing or attached labels. Maybe it has been used in many drives before what may have introduced
fingerprints, scratches or small damage to the inner hub.
Spinning such discs at high speed may introduce vibration, irritating noise, or even read errors that will cause the
drive to spin down. Even worse, the micro-cracks caused by certain drives' clamping mechanisms could grow in an
avalanche-like way under influence of temperature, pressure and high rotation speed, causing the disc to scatter or
"explode" in many pieces. Additionally, thorough tests have shown that a large increase of rotational speed will
reduce the lifetime of the spindle motor by 25% while at the same time the internal drive temperature will rise, which will
affect the stable operation of all components. The effects of a continuous spin at high speed for reading are much worse
than the limited time (<3 minutes) it takes to write a disc at this speed..."
Writing
Of course the Plextor PX-W4824TU can be 'unlocked' to enable 48X reading. This can be done via the PlexTools software
or manually by opening the drive's tray, making sure it's empty, closing it and then by pressing and holding the eject-button
for three seconds. The drive's LED will blink four times and the so-called SpeedRead option will then be enabled. You
can disable it again (and thus limiting the read speed again) by pushing the eject-button or by cutting the drive's power.
Here's another screenshot of Nero InfoTool when the SpeedRead option has been enabled via the PlexTools software. Notice
that the read speed is now detected as 48X:
recorder, Plextor has fitted the drive with an extra strong front bezel. This will ensure that no parts of the exploded disc
can come out through the front of the drive.
Now let's take a closer look at some of the supported features and technologies:
Buffer (Underrun Protection):
The Plextor PX-W4824TU, like all Plextor writers, uses BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRuN
Proof) to prevent buffer underruns. When the buffer of the drive falls beneath 10% of its maximum capacity,
the recorder 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. In the meantime, the BURN-Proof circuit determines where the last
successful sector was written. Using the location of the last successful sector, the BURN-Proof circuit will position
the Optical Pickup. As soon as the buffer has been refilled, the CD Recorder will start recording again. Like mentioned
before in the drive specifications, the Plextor PX-W4824TU has a 4 MB buffer on board as you can also see in the
screenshot below of the drive's detected features with Nero Burning Rom:
We would of course not recommend doing this since when the drive's quality checks are disabled you can risk creating a
coaster.
Mount Rainier:
The Plextor PX-W4824A and TU drives are the first Plextor drives to support the Mount Rainier format and as we already
tested here the Plextor PX-W4824A and
TU drives are doing a great job. Here's a small introduction of the CD-MRW format. Click on the Mt. Rainier logo to
read our article on the Mt. Rainier format:
"...Mount Rainier enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use
and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the
drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout.
The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders:
OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers.
The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and
interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW
discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy..."
PoweRec Technology:
The Plextor PX-W4824TU has the same features as found on all new Plextor drives. These features include quality controls
like PoweRec 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. The main features include:
- The first function will identify and test the target disc and select an optimised write strategy for the media.
Running OPC will overcome the variation in dye characteristics over the disc. - During writing, real-time write quality monitoring ensures the best write quality for the selected speed. If write
errors are likely to occur, the recording speed will be decreased automatically by the drive. - For CAV-mode recordings like the PX-W4824TU uses, Plextor developed a unique and fine-tuned mechanism that offers a
combination of speed and quality. The write strategy will change every 1X speed step while the laser power is
adjusted every 1 minute position change. Besides this, PoweRec will also use a double safety system to watch over
the CAV writing process:- Continuous monitoring of the write result will cause the drive to switch to CLV mode if the error signals exceed a
certain threshold. - Simultaneously a thermistor-based circuit will adjust the Laser Power should the drive's internal temperature rise too
much.
- Continuous monitoring of the write result will cause the drive to switch to CLV mode if the error signals exceed a
As you can see Plextor has put a lot of effort into ensuring a quality write process. While they're now using the
CAV write method they're actually still
using Z-CLV in a way since the disc is divided
into a lot of 1X zones. After each zone the write speed is increased with 1X and the Plextor PX-W4824TU will hit 48X at the
80 minute mark.
VariRec Technology:
Just like Yamaha with its 'Audio Master Quality Recording', Plextor has introduced its own technology when writing
audio discs. This technology, called VariRec (Variable Recording), allows changing the laser power when
writing audio at 4X (in TAO or DAO mode). With the VariRec option the user can make a slight modification to the
default setting:
VariRec has the same goal as Yamaha's 'Audio Master Quality Recording'; to reduce jitter. Like said the user can make
a slight modification (-2 ~ +2) to the laser power to achieve the best result for their audio back-ups.
With VariRec enabled you should be able to improve the quality of the recorded disc and make it more compatible with
picky CD-players like a car stereo. The default '0' setting is based on results from a database which in turn are the
result of thorough tests in the Plextor labs.
(reflected by various objects such as the mirror-like metal layer of the disc, but also from the shiny metal screw heads,
the slider bars and so on) and an optimised PCB (Power Circuitry Board). The optimised PCB was
designed to reduce power-supply induced noise. Special designed circuitry will guarantee host independent and noise-free
power supply.
Write Method:
Next we will take a look at which writing methods the Plextor PX-W4824TU uses to write CD-R's. We used
Nero CD Speed to do a test write. Because the Plextor drive is
one of the first external drives supporting 'Ultra-Speed CD-RW' writing we also did a test write using the CD-ReWriteable
media. Below you can see the produced graphs of both tests:
CD-Recordable:
The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) of the CD-R(W).
In the produced graphs you can see that the Plextor PX-W4824TU also uses the full CAV method when writing a CD-Recordable
disc and P(artial)-CAV when writing the ultra-speed CD-ReWriteable disc. Note that for the write method tests we used an
older version of Nero CD Speed (v0.85e) because, for some reason we're unsure of, the latest CD Speed version changed the
write method to P-CAV at about 46X.
CD-R |
In the left screenshot you see that the Plextor PX-W4824TU comes very close to 48X and would have reached this speed at |
CD-RW |
When writing CD-RW media you can see from the right screenshot that ultra-speed in this case indeed means ultra fast
writing. The Plextor PX-W4824TU's CD-RW performance was of course very close to the PX-W4824A drive. Although Nero CD Speed
reports that the drive uses the CLV write
method, it actually uses P-CAV, getting an
average CD-RW write speed of 23.88X.
Next up in our Plextor PX-W4824TU review, the data read tests.
In this part of our Plextor PX-W4824TU review we'll start testing the reading of normal/unprotected data discs. Let's
see how fast the Plextor drive can read data and if it can really reach the claimed 48X. For the tests we used
Nero CD Speed v1.01.3 and repeated the tests several times to make
sure the results were accurate. The SpeedRead option (to enable the Plextor drive to reach 48X) was enabled via the PlexTools
software before each test.
The data read tests are divided into five sections:
Let's start with a screenshot of the detected Plextor PX-W4824TU read speeds with PlexTools. In the screenshots below
you can also see some more information on the drive itself like firmware, interface and access time:
interface. The external Plextor drive has the same low access time of less than 65ms. This is the fastest access times we've
ever seen on a drive (compare 65ms for instance to the 120ms for the Plextor PX-W4012A drive).
40X speed. For this review we enabled the SpeedRead option with which it's possible to 'unlock' the drive to reach 48X
with Mode 1 data 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 the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
 |
In the left screenshot you see that the Plextor PX-W4824TU shows about the same performance as the internal Plextor drive. The drive cannot reach 48X until the 80-minute mark and gets a top read speed of 45.23X. The average read speed was 34.30X.The seek times were however superb and the fastest we've ever seen on an external drive as you can see in the screenshot on the right. |
 |
In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4824TU
of course performs very similar to the Plextor PX-W4824A drive. They're not the fastest readers but their seek times are
simply superb:
| Original Discs |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| 44X Max Readers | ||||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
31.22X | 18.46X | 41.18X | 120ms | 139ms | 263ms |
| 48X Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
37.44X | 22.21X | 49.57X | 96ms | 96ms | 266ms |
| Plextor PX-W4824A |
34.47X | 20.31X | 45.48X | 63ms | 71ms | 111ms |
| Plextor PX-W4824U USB 2.0 |
34.30X | 20.24X | 45.23X | 61ms | 71ms | 111ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
36.85X | 22.08X | 48.43X | 88ms | 102ms | 229ms |
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
36.54X | 21.19X | 48.15X | 99ms | 100ms | 168ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we again used the PlexTools v1.05 disc only this time we read from
a back-up disc. The disc used was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16X writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. Here's
the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:
- ATIP: 97m 28s 12f
- Disc Manufacturer: Gigastorage Corp.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
Nero CD Speed:
 |
As expected the external Plextor drive cannot reach 48X but it comes pretty close with a top read speed of 46.77X and an average speed of 35.58X. Again very similar to the internal Plextor model.In the right screenshot you can see that the seek times with CD-Recordable media were amazing, as we also expected. |
 |
In the table below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed. The Plextor PX-W4824TU
is a little slower than the internal model but it's very close. Both drives are the slowest 48X readers we've reviewed
but their seek times are the best we've seen:
| CD-R Discs |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| 44X Max Readers | ||||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
32.39X | 19.41X | 42.57X | 116ms | 135ms | 254ms |
| 48x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
37.44X | 22.21X | 49.57X | 96ms | 96ms | 266ms |
| Plextor PX-W4824A |
35.68X | 21.38X | 46.87X | 59ms | 71ms | 105ms |
| Plextor PX-W4824U USB 2.0 |
35.58X | 21.25X | 46.77X | 64ms | 75ms | 109ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
36.85X | 22.08X | 48.43X | 88ms | 102ms | 229ms |
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
36.54X | 21.19X | 48.15X | 99ms | 100ms | 168ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
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. We created a back-up of the disc using a PleXCombo PX-320A. The disc used was a 'Plextor CD-RW' disc. Here's the ATIP information from CDR
Identifier:
- ATIP: 97m 27s 00f
- Disc Manufacturer: Disc ID not allowed
- Reflective layer: Phase change
- Media type: CD-ReWriteable
- Recording Speeds: min. 4X - max. 8X
- Nominal Capacity: 651.86MB (74m 12s 00f / LBA: 333750)
The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
using Nero CD Speed:
 |
Again as expected the external Plextor PX-W4824TU drive is limited to 40X reading even when the SpeedRead option is enabled. The top read speed was 41.42X and the average speed was 31.37X.The seek times with CD-ReWriteable media are again the best we've seen. |
 |
In the table below we compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The Plextor PX-W4824TU
performs very close to the internal model although this time its seek times were a little better:
| CD-RW Discs |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| 44X Max Readers | ||||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
33.06X | 19.46X | 43.66X | 119ms | 139ms | 263ms |
| 48x Max Readers | ||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
32.32X | 19.05X | 42.54X | 94ms | 96ms | 405ms |
| Plextor PX-W4824A |
31.45X | 18.52X | 41.53X | 62ms | 72ms | 113ms |
| Plextor PX-W4824U USB 2.0 |
31.37X | 18.42X | 41.42X | 61ms | 69ms | 110ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
37.53X | 22.12X | 49.54X | 99ms | 96ms | 303ms |
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
32.23X | 18.96X | 42.57X | 91ms | 101ms | 170ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
The result we got with the external Plextor PX-W4824TU drive were (of course) very similar to the internal model. The
achieved read speeds were certainly not the best we've seen but this is because the latest Plextor drives will not reach
48X until the 80-minute mark of the disc and not at the 72 minute mark we use for our tests. This means that the external
Plextor drive can reach 48X but only when you use a 78 (or more) minute disc. We saw the same thing when
we reviewed the Yamaha CRW-F1 drive.
Note that other read speeds (40X and below) are reached at the 68-minute mark as normal.
When it comes to reading CD-ReWriteable media the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive is limited to 40X reading. Finally, the seek
times of the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive were about the same as the PX-W4824A drive and they were simply the best we've seen.
Previous Plextor drives had some problems with high seek times but this has been improved drastically with these new 48X
models.
So far for the data reading part. Now let's check the audio reading (DAE) speeds on the next page...
On the previous page where we showed you the PlexTools screenshot with the listed supported read speeds we could see
that audio was listed as 40X instead of 48X. Let's check if this latest external Plextor drive is also limited when it
comes to DAE (Digital Audio Extraction). For the audio read tests we used our usual 'tools',
Exact Audio Copy (EAC), Nero CD Speed and PlexTools.
 |
In order for EAC to use USB devices we copied Nero's 'WNASPI32.DLL' file to the EAC folder. Else this program will not recognize the USB recorder! |
Features:
First we checked the features the Plextor PX-W4824TU supports using EAC:
As you can see from the screenshot on the left the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive supports all features. Below some more
information on these terms:
- 'Caching':
If your drive caches the audio that was just read, it would be a problem to read this data again in order to compare both
extractions to find out if they match. - 'Accurate Stream':
This means the drive won't jitter, thus no jitter correction has to be done anymore. - 'C2 Error Info':
Some newer drives are able to return C2 error information beside the actual audio data. In that case EAC doesn't need
to read all data twice anymore, which will result in a big speedup.
Digital Audio Extraction - Exact Audio Copy:
For the Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) tests we started Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and simply extracted the separate audio
tracks in uncompressed WAV format to our hard disk. Our test disc (DJ Promo - Last Men Standing) had 16 tracks and a total
playing time of 77 minutes and 3 seconds. We used both the 'Burst' mode and the 'Secure' mode:
- 'Burst Mode':
Burst mode is the fastest mode available. The audio sectors are just read without any error-detection and
error-correction. - 'Secure Mode':
The extracted audio is checked for correctness and if errors occur, EAC will try to recover them.
Below the screenshots of the speeds the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive reached in both extraction modes. We also included a
screenshot of the Plextor drive doing DAE of the same disc using the PlexTools software:
Plextor PX-W4824TU DAE speed - EAC - Burst Mode
Plextor PX-W4824TU DAE speed - EAC - Secure Mode
Plextor PX-W4824TU DAE speed - PlexTools
doing DAE. The DAE speeds in Burst Mode were a little slower than we saw with the internal 48X Plextor drive but with the
PlexTools software we got a better result. The DAE speeds in Secure Mode using EAC were a little higher than we saw with
the internal model using firmware 1.00:
| EAC DAE Speeds |
Burst Mode Average |
Burst Mode Maximum |
Secure Mode Average |
Secure Mode Maximum |
| 44X Max Readers | ||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
30.9X | 43.0X | 7.1X | 9.7X |
| 48X Max Readers | ||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
35.3X | 48.0X | 11.0X | 14.2X |
| Plextor PX-W4824A |
30.3X | 41.8X | 9.7X | 12.6X |
| Plextor PX-W4824U USB 2.0 |
29.9X | 39.9X | 10.7X | 14.1X |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
29.3X | 40.8X | 10.1X | 13.0X |
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
35.0X | 48.6X | 7.1X | 7.8X |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||
Digital Audio Extraction - Nero CD Speed:
Now let's check our results we got with Exact Audio Copy using Nero CD Speed. You can see a screenshot of the tests
below:
and the drive reaches a top speed of 41.82X. The drive (of course) has an accurate stream and gets a quality
score of 10 which is the highest score. Finally the CPU usage was pretty low although 28% for 1X reading seems a bit
high and is not correct. The burst rate of the drive was 9MB/s:
| Original Audio Disc |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
Quality/ Accurate Stream |
| 44X Max Readers | |||||||
| Yamaha CRW-F1 |
32.74X | 19.50X | 42.96X | 118ms | 141ms | 263ms | 10/yes |
| 48X Max Readers | |||||||
| Lite-On LTR-40125S |
37.35X | 19.98X | 49.07X | 88ms | 102ms | 177ms | 10/yes |
| Plextor PX-W4824A |
31.85X | 18.94X | 41.94X | 61ms | 74ms | 111ms | 10/yes |
| Plextor PX-W4824U USB 2.0 |
31.75X | 18.76X | 41.82X | 61ms | 88ms | 127ms | 10/yes |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
30.98X | 18.33X | 40.82X | 84ms | 95ms | 136ms | 10/yes |
| VisionTek Xtasy 48X |
37.23X | 19.96X | 49.11X | 84ms | 96ms | 167ms | 10/yes |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | |||||||
Advanced DAE Quality Test:
To conclude our DAE test we did the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with
Nero CD Speed. This test is a very hard and intense test for any reader.
We created a new test disc using a Plextor
PX-W4012TU recorder. We used some high quality 'Hi-Space' media which are also available from our
online shop (for our Dutch and Belgian visitors only).
These Hi-Space discs have a 24 carats gold reflective cover and can be written up to 24x. Here are the results from the
Advanced DAE Quality Test:
drive can't keep up with other 48X readers. The external Plextor performed a little better than the internal model but
not by much. We ejected the test disc during reading of the lead-out data since else the Plextor drive will keep reading
for hours and hours as we experienced during our previous review.
CD-Text using NeroMediaPlayer and the PX-W4824TU could indeed read it without problems as we expected. Writing CD-Text
with Nero Burning Rom was also no problem.
Now that we've concluded our data and audio reading part, let's see how well the Plextor drive can write discs.
The scratched and low quality disc tests are skipped because the drive
performs about the same as the internal
model.
As mentioned before the Plextor PX-W4824TU can write discs at a maximum speed of 48X max using the Full-CAV method. What
does this mean in real terms? Can the Plextor drive keep up with the fastest CAV writer available today, the Lite-On
LTR-48125S? To test the write speeds of this latest Plextor drive we set-up a basic write process using the latest
Nero Burning Rom version 5.5.9.14. We used the DAO (Disc
At Once) method for writing the disc. The disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc. In
the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully
PX-W4824TU review we'll do some quality tests with media burned using the Plextor drive.
Comparing:
Because this external Plextor drive performs exactly the same as the internal model we won't be comparing the drive
to other recorders. If you want to see the table in which this 48X Plextor drive is compared to other recorders then please
click here.
In conclusion we can say that the Plextor PX-W4824A and TU drives have the longest write times, probably due to the
drives determining the best write strategy. When the write speed is increased the differences become less and the Plextor
is faster than some of the other drives we've reviewed. The Lite-On LTR-48125S is still by far the fastest writer we've
seen and the Plextor PX-W4824A and TU drives have some problems keeping up.
DAO-RAW Writing:
If you own or perhaps checked out our Plextor forum you will probably have noticed that the Plextor PX-W4012A drive was limited to 24X
recording when writing audio and when writing in DAO-RAW mode (using CloneCD for instance). We of course checked if the
PX-W4824TU was limited to 24X recording in DAO-RAW but, as we expected since the internal model also wasn't limited,
the external drive can write at maximum speed in DAO-RAW mode.
Conclusion:
So what can we conclude from all of the achieved results? Well as expected the external Plextor PX-W4824TU performs
exactly the same as the internal model. That's also why we left some things out like writing audio for instance. If you
want to read the full write tests done with the internal model please click here.
Now that we've finished our normal read and write tests, it's time to check the Plextor PX-W4824TU's write quality
and compare it to our previous results...
When we reviewed the internal Plextor PX-W4824A drive we saw that the drive had excellent quality results with Plextor's
recommended media but there were some problems with media of lower quality or media that was certified
for a low write speed.
To test the Plextor PX-W4824TU's write quality we went to the stores and simply bought the cheapest media we could find.
We then used either Nero Burning Rom or CloneCD to write the discs at maximum speed. For each disc we then used Lite-On's
C1/C2 error scan program called WSES. This program can accurately scan a disc for errors and it's a better method of
checking the write quality then when using Nero CD Speed for instance. For the quality tests we wrote several different
CD-Recordable media and then measured the C1/C2 errors from the disc. The created disc was scanned using a Lite-On
LTR-48125W drive (WSES only works with Lite-On drives) at 40X reading.
Note: The display scale were using for our error measurement is 60 for C1 and 20 for C2. Please keep this in
mind when you, for instance, compare our tests to other reviews. The scales may be different and you can thus not compare
the results just by looking at the created graphs!
Introduction:
C1 and C2 errors are not really on a disc. They occur during reading. The more difficult it is for a drive to read a
disc, the more errors will occur while reading that disc. A good disc should report low error rates even at high scanning
speeds. But don't forget that a bad disc can also have low error rates after burning. A good disc will still report low
error rates if you put the disc into direct sunlight, while a bad disc will damage and/or may degrade after some months.
The results below are thus not an indication whether or not the used disc is of a good quality. It's merely an indication
if the burn process was done properly.
In the figures below you will see a graphical overview of errors occurring during the read process. Please note that
every created/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 your using as a reader (a coaster). Although a low amount of C2 errors can still be recovered by
the drive, a zero amount of C2 errors is always preferred!
The Tests:
700MB Plextor CD-R80:
| Internal Plextor PX-W4824A Using firmware v1.00 |
External Plextor PX-W4824TU Using firmware v1.02 |
Disc Info:
|
Disc Info:
|
These discs were delivered with the Plextor drive and were (of course) certified for 48X recording. Both drives wrote the
disc at 48X and as you can see from the graph below the number of C1 errors is low and there are no C2 errors on the disc. A
perfect burn done at the maximum speed for both drives:
| Internal Plextor PX-W4824A Using firmware v1.00 |
External Plextor PX-W4824TU Using firmware v1.02 |
Disc Info:
|
Disc Info:
|
Both drives both wrote the MMORE media at 40X and while it was certified for 32X writing. When we wrote the disc with the
internal Plextor drive we had a lot of errors and we had to adjust the display scale for the C1 errors to 600 instead
of 60. The external drive created less errors but there were still quite a lot (display scale for C1 is set at 200).
The C2 errors you see at the end of the scan were actually a result of a scratch on the disc and thus not caused by
the write process:
| Internal Plextor PX-W4824A Using firmware v1.00 |
External Plextor PX-W4824TU Using firmware v1.02 |
Disc Info:
|
Disc Info:
|
The Hi-Space Metal media produced a rather weird looking graph as you can see below. With the internal Plextor drive
we saw about a maximum of 200 C1 errors but the external drive created even more as you can see in the graph below (700).
There were even some C2 errors so this is not a good result although the disc was still readable:
- Contents: Data
- Certified Speed: 24X
- Write Speed: 32X (3m:06s)
- Disc Type, Material: CD-R, Phthalocyanine
- ATIP Lead-in: 97m 27s 19f
- Nominal Capacity: 654.49MB (74m 30s 00f)
- Disc Manufacturer: Plasmon
The cheapest discs we could find were disc manufactured by Plasmon. They were certified for 24X writing and can hold
a maximum of 650MB. The Plextor PX-W4824TU drive wrote the discs at 32X and as you can see from the graph below, produced
a perfect result:
| Internal Plextor PX-W4824A Using firmware v1.00 |
External Plextor PX-W4824TU Using firmware v1.02 |
Disc Info:
|
Disc Info:
|
When we tested the Discplanet media with the external Plextor drive we got a result that wasn't too good. Although the
disc had far less C1 errors (maximum of 180) than we saw with the internal model (maximum of 1200) there were still quite
a lot as you can see in the graph below. Luckily there were no C2 errors:
When we reviewed the internal Plextor PX-W4824A drive with firmware 1.00 we got some mixed
results. When we used quality media,
recommended by Plextor, the results were good but when we used other (lower quality?) media the number of C1
errors increased enormously. With the external drive the results were about the same. Although some cheap media was
written perfectly we saw some problems with other media. We can therefore give you the same advice as we did with our
previous review: stick to
recommended media to get reliable results!
Now that we've finished our read, write and quality tests, it's time to test the drive for its ability to read
and write data and audio copy-protections.
In this part of our Plextor PX-W4824TU review we'll start testing the reading and writing of copy-protected data discs.
Copy-protections are used on almost every game nowadays so it's important a writer can handle the various protections
out there. For the tests we used the latest CloneCD version 4.0.1.10 from Elaborate
Bytes. As you might know if you've read our CloneCD v4.0 preview,
CloneCD now uses Profiles for each type of disc. In this review we created a separate Profile for each protection with
the common settings used in the old CloneCD versions. E.g. for SafeDisc we only selected the 'Fast Error Skip' setting.
As an extra 'service' or help you can download the Profiles we have used in this review. Click on the Profile
images to download the used Profile. Store these files in your CloneCDProfiles folder on your hard disk. Alternatively
you can view and download all used Profiles from our CloneCD forum, by clicking here.
Now let's start by giving you a screenshot of the supported drive capabilities of the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive with
CloneCD v4.0.1.10:
copy-protection used on our game discs we scanned every disc with the latest ClonyXXL version 2.0.0.6. ClonyXXL can be
obtained from kickme.to/englishclony. In the table below
we've summed up all of our results and after the table we will clarify our results. Since the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive has
about the same read times as the internal model we won't compare the read times to other recorders.
For the LaserLock test we use a game called 'Desperados' protected with LaserLock 2. As a comparison we read from both
the original disc and from a back-up (CD-Recordable) disc. We did this because there can be quite a difference in read
time as you can also see from the results we got with the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive. While the original disc is read in
38 minutes, the back-up was read in 17 minutes. Not a bad result for LaserLock. The original disc was
read faster than we saw with the internal Plextor drive while the back-up disc was read slower this time.
SafeDisc:
To test the SafeDisc protection we used a game called 'Beavis and Butthead: BungHole in One'. The SafeDisc protection
is quite old but it uses a lot of errors on the first 5% of the disc which can make reading the disc take a really long
time. The Plextor drives are however very fast when it comes to reading the error sectors and this PX-W4824TU drive is no
exception. The disc is read at full speed in 2 minutes and 13 seconds. A new record time!
SafeDisc 2:
For our next tests we used a game called 'The Sims: House Party' protected with SafeDisc version 2.10.030. As expected
the disc was again read at a record time of only 1 minute and 59 seconds. To test the Plextor PX-W4824TU's
ability to write this protection we wrote the image with 'Amplify Weak Sectors' (AWS) disabled. The created back-up disc was then tested in the following
drives:
| Test drives (AWS disabled) |
The Sims: House Party v2.10.030 |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502Â | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012A | passed |
| -Yamaha CRW-F1 | passed |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824TU | passed |
As expected the SafeDisc 2 protection was no problem at all for the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive. The same result as we got
with the internal Plextor PX-W4824A drive.
SafeDisc 2.51 and newer:
Besides our SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests we need to take a look at the latest SafeDisc 2 versions. For these tests we
used two games: 'Serious Sam 2: The Second Encounter' protected with SafeDisc v2.51.021 and 'Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven'
protected with SafeDisc v2.70.030.
We read both games with the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive using the same 'SafeDisc (2) [no AWS]' Profile as for our normal
SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests. The 'Hide CDR Media'
option was enabled in the CloneCD tray to test playing from the CD-RW drives. The results when playing from the following
drives:
| Test drives (AWS disabled) |
Serious Sam 2 v2.51.021 |
Mafia v2.70.030 |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502Â | failed | failed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012A | passed | passed |
| -Yamaha CRW-F1 | passed | passed |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | failed | failed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824TU | passed | passed |
As you can see from the list above the created back-up didn't play from all drives. As expected the back-up failed in the
picky Toshiba DVD-ROM. Next we re-wrote the same image files but now with the 'AWS' option enabled using the
'SafeDisc 2(.51) [AWS]' Profile. The 'Hide CDR Media' option was again enabled in the CloneCD tray to test playing from the
CD-RW drives. The results when playing from the following drives:
| Test drives (AWS enabled) |
Serious Sam 2 v2.51.021 |
Mafia v2.70.030 |
| -Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502Â | failed | failed |
| -Plextor PX-W4012A | passed | passed |
| -Yamaha CRW-F1 | passed | passed |
| -Lite-On LTR-52246S | passed | passed |
| -Plextor PX-W4824TU | passed | passed |
As expected the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive unfortunately still failed to create a fully working back-up even with 'AWS'
enabled.
Update: With firmware 1.03 the 'AWS' problem has been fixed. More information on this thread on our Plextor forum!
SecuRom *NEW*:
The next protected data tests we did was with a game called 'Neverwinter Nights' protected with a newer version of
SecuRom. Note that we didn't apply the official game patch for this title since with this patch no back-up works. We
tried to read the third disc of the game (play disc) and the Plextor PX-W4824TU could read the disc in the exact same
time as we needed for the internal Plextor drive. Unlike older Plextor recorders the latest Plextor 48X drives are not
limited to about 8X reading anymore when it comes to reading the SubChannel Data.
PlayStation/LibCrypt:
And finally, as expected because of the results we got when reading the SecuRom protection, when reading a PlayStation disc
the Plextor PX-W4824TU is also not limited to 8X reading. The complete disc was read in 3 minutes, only one second behind
the previously reviewed internal Plextor drive.
Conclusion:
As expected the results we got with the external Plextor PX-W4824TU drive were about the same as we got with the internal
version. SafeDisc reading has been improved a little with the latest version but unfortunately writing has not. The Plextor
48X drive still fails in creating a fully working back-up even with CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' enabled. SecuRom reading
and writing has remained exactly the same.
Next up in our Plextor PX-W4824TU review, the reading of protected audio discs...
Now that we've taken a look at how well the Plextor drive can handle data protection it's time to see how well
it does with protected audio discs. Audio discs are protected more and more and so it's important a drive can read
these protections. For the tests we used Exact Audio Copy
(EAC) and PlexTools. For more
information on how to handle copy-protected audio discs read
this thread on our Audio forum.
Key2Audio version 2:
The first protection we're going to take a look at is Key2Audio developed by Sony DADC. The disc we're using
is 'Shakira: Laundry Service' protected with version 2 of the Key2Audio protection. On the front of the CD-cover we
can read the text 'will not play on PC/MAC'. For more information on Key2Audio please visit
www.key2audio.com.
We first started EAC, inserted the disc and closed the tray. We waited until the CD-contents were displayed. As you
can see the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive can recognize the disc's contents and we see that it has 13 audio tracks and one extra
(protected) data track:
to our hard disk without any problems. We of course listened to the extracted tracks and they sounded fine.
Key2Audio version 3:
For the Key2Audio version 3 tests we used an audio disc with the title 'Celine Dion: A new day has come'. On the
front of the CD-cover we again find the text 'will not play on PC/MAC'. We fired up EAC and waited until the recorder has
recognized the disc. As you can see the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive again has no problems recognizing the disc's contents and
we can see that the 'Celine Dion' disc has the same structure as the 'Shakira' disc. There are 17 audio tracks and one
(protected) data track:
speed to our hard disk without any problems. The same result as we got with the 'Shakira' disc.
Cactus Data Shield:
For the Cactus Data Shield (CDS) tests we used an audio disc with the title 'Bitte Ein Beat 5' protected with CDS200. On the
back of the CD-cover and on the disc itself we can find a small logo mentioning that the disc is copy protected. When
inserting the disc in a drive and starting the player we can see that the disc has been protected by Midbar Tech
(www.midbartech.com):
can see in the screenshot below:
tracks there was an error. Also notice the progress percentage for total progress (639.7%):
PlexTools has an interesting feature called 'Enable Single Session'. Because CDS uses two session of which the first session
contains the audio and the second session the data, the latter is confusing the drive. Now look what happened when we used
EAC again:
any errors:
PX-W4824A drive using the PlexTools software and got the exact same results. When the 'Enable Single Session' option was
enabled in the PlexTools software the drive showed the correct tracklist and was able to extract all the tracks!
Doc.loc:
Doc.loc is another audio protection and can be recognized by the text 'DOCdata' on the inner ring of the disc. On the back
of the CD cover we can read the following text:
"This product features copy protection technology, as we feel the necessity to protect our artists and ourselves from
illegal copying; it is intended for use in standard home CD audio players and may not play on other devices, especially
computer drives."
Doc.loc is a protection that has been produced by the DOCdata company (www.docdata.com) and when you insert an audio disc that has the Doc.loc protection in a computer
drive it will simply keep searching indefinitely because the drive cannot recognize the disc. Let's see if this theory also
applies to the Plextor drive. We first inserted the disc in the recorder and waited till the disc had been recognized. This
unfortunately didn't happen so we then started EAC and let EAC close the drive's tray:
The results we got were perfect. Although we had some problems with the Cactus Data Shield protection this was easily
fixed with the PlexTools software.
As expected Key2Audio was no problem since we already tested this with our review of the internal Plextor PX-W4824A drive.
Finally we've also taken a look at the Doc.loc protection which is quite new here in The Netherlands. The Plextor drive had
no problems reading the disc at full speed.
Next up in our Plextor PX-W4824TU review, reading and writing of special discs. We'll be skipping the CD-(M)RW tests
and media compatibility tests since we already did those tests in our previous review.
If you've read our previous review of the
internal Plextor PX-W4824A drive you will have noticed that the drive can overburn to about 95 minutes (94.55 minutes to
be exact). We're not going to do the Nero CD Speed tests this time but instead we're just going to start a real overburning
test. We're going to burn an audio compilation of 94 minutes and see if the external Plextor drive can write it.
written just fine in 4 minutes and 45 seconds. Now let's see if the Plextor drive can read the freshly
recorded disc:
the complete disc was read and gets a DAE quality score of 10, which is the maximum score.
8cm CD-R Tests:
To conclude our Plextor PX-W4824TU review we're going to read and write an 8cm disc. We already showed you a screenshot
of the Plextor PX-W4824A drive writing
the 8cm discs so in this review of the external model we're going to show you a screenshot of the drive reading the disc.
The 8cm discs we're using were manufactured by Plasmon. The discs can hold a maximum of 23min/200MB and were certified up
to 12x writing. Here's the ATIP information and a picture of the disc itself:
 |
|
The 8cm disc was read without any problems with a maximum read speed of 26.94X as you can also see in the Nero
CD Speed screenshot below:
Because the external Plextor PX-W4824TU performs the same as the internal model, which we reviewed
here, some of the positive points are based on
the results we got with the internal model.
Positive Points:
- Nice looking drive and very easy to use because of USB 2.0 interface
- Nice and complete software package (includes for instance five 48X CD-R discs)
- Complete manual and in many different languages
- Two year full warranty for Europe, The Middle-East and Africa
- Supports 48X Full-CAV writing of data and audio
- Supports 24X P-CAV re-writing
- Supports 48X Full-CAV reading via SpeedRead
- 4MB buffer plus BURN-Proof
- Good features:
- PoweRec (which can now also be disabled and used to check the write speed of the inserted media!)
- VariRec
- Good software package:
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom & InCD
- Plextor's PlexTools
- Good DAE quality
- Excellent seek times
- Excellent Mount Rainier performance
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Could back-up SafeDisc 2 (before version v2.51.021)
- Could read tested audio protections just fine
- Drive has an extra strong front bezel to protect from possible injury due to exploding discs
Negative Points:
- Can be picky with media that's not recommended by Plextor
- Cannot fully overburn to 99 minutes (max is 94:56 minutes)
- Doesn't reach 48X reading until 80-minute mark
- DAE and CD-RW reading is limited to about 42X
- Failed to back-up SafeDisc v2.51.021 and above even with CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option enabled
Because the external Plextor PX-W4824TU drive is based on the internal PX-W4824A drive we can give you about the same
conclusions as we did before. The Plextor 48X drives have been improved a lot compared to their previous 40X models. The
Plextor PX-W4824A and TU drives are the first Plextor drives to support the ultra-speed re-writing format, full CAV
writing, the Mount Rainier format and have the fastest random access times ever seen (>65ms).
As always with Plextor drives the package is very complete and it includes everything you need to get started writing
right away. You get a generous amount of five 48X CD-Recordable discs, an ultra-speed CD-ReWriteable disc, excellent
software and a very complete manual located on the Plextor CD-ROM. European Plextor drives come with the
PlexTools software and as you will
have seen during our review this software can be very handy. It for instance allows you to enable SpeedRead, PoweRec,
DMA, etc. Besides that the PlexTools software can also come in handy when dealing with certain audio protections...
Some things that were a little disappointing were the drive's read speeds. When SpeedRead is enabled the Plextor drives
will not reach 48X reading until the 80-minute mark of the disc. We would have liked to see the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive
reaching 48X at the 68-minute mark as Plextor uses as indication to reach 40X. Digital Audio Extraction and the reading of
CD-ReWriteable media was also limited to about 42X.
When it came to writing the Plextor PX-W4824TU showed a good result. It's not the fastest drive we've seen but we can
only compare the drive to 48X Lite-On recorders we've reviewed. When we compare the drive to 40X drives the write times are
pretty close. What did bother us was the write quality. When we used CD-R discs that were
recommended by Plextor we had an excellent result. However when we used other discs that were not on
the list the quality sometimes wasn't that good. Although all discs could be read fine after they were written the C1/C2
error tests showed a lot of C1 errors.
When dealing with copy-protections the Plextor PX-W4824TU performed pretty much as expected. Reading of SafeDisc protected
titles was extremely fast and even has been improved a little with the latest firmware. One thing that did disappoint us was
the fact that the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive still failed to make a fully working back-up of the SafeDisc v2.51.021 protection
and above, even with CloneCD's 'AWS' function enabled. When it came to audio protections we got a better result. The
protections we tested (Key2Audio, Cactus Data Shield 200, Doc.loc) could all be read without any problems.
Finally the Plextor PX-W4824TU drive is extremely easy to use because of the USB 2.0 interface. You only need to connect
one cable to your computer, plug in the 12V power supply and the drive is ready to be used. You must keep in mind though that
reading and writing at the maximum speed will require a fast and stable system. Onboard USB 2.0 support is recommended.
Update: With firmware 1.03 the 'AWS' problem has been fixed. More information on this thread on our Plextor forum!
