In House Review - Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4824TA 48/24/48 CD-

[Ian]

Today CDRLabs takes a look at the newest CD-RW drive from Plextor. Featuring some of the fastest speeds available, the PX-W4824TA reads and writes at 48x and is one of the first drives to feature 24x rewriting speeds. The drive also has its share of features including Plextor's VariRec audio recording mode and their new SpeedRead technology. The PX-W4824TA also includes old favorites like Sanyo's BURN-Proof buffer underrun protection and Plextor's own PoweRec technology. I'm sure the question on most of minds is how does it perform? Does this drive deliver the type of performance Plextor is known for? Is the PX-W4824TA the fastest 48x writer around? To find out, you'll have to check out the review.

Plextor PlexWriter PX-W4824TA 48/24/48 CD-RW

If you have any questions or comments about the review or the PX-W4824TA, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

[Ian]

bumpity bump bump

[Ankerson]

Good review Ian.

It did about as I expected it would, it seems Plextor is more concerned about writing quality than speed as you stated in the review.

If I didn't already have a 24x and 40x Plextors I would get this drive in a second.

Maybe I will get one for my collection.

[versatyl]

Thanks, Ian. I have been waiting for this review. Yet again, you have done a commendable job. (I really like the review format at CDRLabs).

I agree with both you and Ankerson, as I was hoping for something a bit better, but got what I expected. I am about to purchase my first CD-RW drive EVER and have narrowed my decision to either this drive or the Yamaha CRW-F1. As such, I would have liked to see a more decisive winner between the two. This suggests to me that this is as good as it gets when quality is top priority.

What is most important to me in a drive (aside from quality) is the re-write capabilities as well as the Mt. Rainier as this drive will be the closest thing to a floppy I'll use for the computer I'm building. Your reviews make me think that the Plextor is better, but I'd really prefer the software that comes with the Yamaha.

I have yet to come to a final decision. Those of you having used one or the other (or both), any thoughts?

[coolcdrman]

Ian,

Great job on the Plextor review. I have a few additional questions:

Where was the drive manufactured (China, Japan or else where)?

In the Features section of the review you mentioned that by placing shunts on the CSEL and Slave jumper the drive goes into test mode. However you didn’t explain the type of testing offered by this mode? What sort of information does the drive produce? Is this a hardware/software test mode, or, simply a stand-alone testing mode?
(I can’t see this being a hardware/software testing mode because most BIOSes will become confused by the CSEL and SLAVE jumpers being covered with shunts simultaneously--especially if there’s already another Master device on the chain).

[coolcdrman]

Also,

How long must you keep the eject button pressed (1sec, 2sec, 3sec) before SpeedRead is enabled? LoL – I guess you should add that to Plextor’s seek time if you intend to read at 48x (kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?).

[vinnie97]

Well, I now have no qualms with going w/ the TDK (Lite-on) 48X/24X/48X after reading that review. I just hope they get their 24X rewriting capability up to snuff, or else they'd be guilty of false advertisement.

[coolcdrman]

IMPO – Plextor was a great CD-RW company who’s trying keep faith with the high-end enthusiasts. Let’s see: They launched their 40x (E-IDE) burner that could only record Audio at 24x max. Their explanation was (according to CDRinfo): “When writing AudioCDs, the maximum speed is reduced to 16x-24x (Z-CLV). The main reason is that Plextor believes that others speeds (32x/40x) would have a cost of writing quality.”

Then according to you’re review of the PX-W4012TU (in the features sections) you gave the following explanation: “One of the shortcomings of Plextor's internal 40x writer was that its recording speed was limited to only 24x when recording audio tracks. Plextor found that when the drive recorded audio CD's at 32x and 40x, there was a measurable noise pattern in the background. This noise pattern could not be heard by the human ear, but was quite obvious when measured electronically. To remedy this, Plextor limited the recording speed to 24x in the firmware. The PX-W4012TU does not have this limitation. You can write your audio CD's at 40x without any problems.”

So, which explanation is correct?

I could be wrong on this but I’m not fimilar with any CD-RW manufacturer who’s capable of limiting ‘Maximum recording’ speeds through firmware. My understanding was that recording speeds were controlled solely through the burners LSI. Perhaps Plextors engineers are superior to all other manufacturer’s and have a unique method of doing this? LoL

Here’s my explanation: Marketing push forced the 40x (internal E-IDE) out the doors before the product was ready (from an engineering standpoint). By the time the PX-W4012TU (USB 2.0) was ready they improved the LSI and a new revision was introduced. This makes sense because if, as Plextor’s claimed, the audio recording speed had been limited through firmware then a simply firmware update should allow the internal model to also record audio at 40x. Where’s this firmware update? No Where! Because this was a LSI issue. LoL.

[coolcdrman]

I recall Plextor being extremely adamant about Zone-CLV being superior to P-CAV and Full-CAV technology – What happened to all those theories? Did Plextor forget all that they preached about?

[Ian]

Where was the drive manufactured (China, Japan or else where)?

>>The picture of the label is kinda hard to read, but it says made in Japan.

In the Features section of the review you mentioned that by placing shunts on the CSEL and Slave jumper the drive goes into test mode. However you didn’t explain the type of testing offered by this mode? What sort of information does the drive produce?

>>As Plextor puts it, it tests three functions of the drive. Write, random access and verify. You need to put in a blank CD-R disc for all of this too. When its done, it will then tell you if the drive had any read/write errors or an intialization error. It really doesn't tell you much, but I figure its a good way to find out if the problems you're having are caused by the drive itself, or by some other factor like software.

Is this a hardware/software test mode, or, simply a stand-alone testing mode?

>>It's standalone test mode. You have to remove the IDE cable from the drive before running it.

How long must you keep the eject button pressed (1sec, 2sec, 3sec) before SpeedRead is enabled? LoL – I guess you should add that to Plextor’s seek time if you intend to read at 48x (kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?).

>>Three seconds. You have to enable it before you put the disc in the drive. You can't do it while the disc is in the drive already like with Sony's drives.

>>I asked one of Plextor America's engineer manager's about the audio recording and the answer was essentially what I had in the review of the PX-W4012TA. I guess it is sort of a writing quality issue too. I mean, if the drive was causing problems with the recorded audio at 40x, there was something going on there.

[eliminator]

Congrats Ian, great job as usual (and pbly the first real review on new plexy 48x)
And ofcourse, on CDFreaks front page...again !!

[Ian]

Yeah I'm waiting for CD Freaks to finish up their review. They usually do some tests we don't. I always like to see what audio CD protections a drive can defeat.

[eliminator]

that's

[cdrfreak]

I recall Plextor being extremely adamant about Zone-CLV being superior to P-CAV and Full-CAV technology – What happened to all those theories? Did Plextor forget all that they preached about?

Nope. Check out this document:
http://www.plextor.be/English/pdf/The%20Process%20of%20Writing.pdf

Mostly marketing stuff but interesting to read anyway.

[alchip80]

Ian


As usual an excellent review, I have just a couple of observations. I have this drive and have been very pleased with it. Your tests are what I have noticed in my own testing, although there is one thing I noticed about pushing the eject button for increasing the read speed.

When I do this it doesn't start up as fast in CD Speed. However, when I installed Plextools and activated the speedread option. I get a faster startup and ending speed. According to the manual, software control over rides the eject button. This way it overrides the CD Speed software. So far using Plextools this way overrides any issues with other software programs.

You also mentioned that it took 6hrs to read the leadout. This must be an fluke. In my experience with this drive, I have never seen the leadout take longer than 30 sec. the avg has been 10-15 sec.

In any case Ian, another excellent review. I would not hesitate to recommend this drive, It's audio recording is superb. with no errors and jitters issues.

[Ian]

You're lucky that PlexTools supports SpeedRead. As far as I could figure, Plextor Manager does not. The only way to enable SpeedRead was with the eject button.

That's interesting that you're getting faster speeds with PlexTools. I might have to dig up a copy of the new version and do some more tests.

I'm not sure why it took so long with the lead out. Plextor's 40x writers took awhile too (2 hours). None of the other drives I've tested have done this.

[coolcdrman]

Ian, Thanks for the update.


CDRFreak,

Thanks for the wonderful link – I found the documentation most informative (and somewhat hilarious). According to page 11 of the PDF document Plextor claims:

“Until recently, Plextor opted for Z-CLV technology as the best compromise of quality over speed. The newest generation of components and technologies allow equal quality and performance to be achieved in CAV systems.”

How convenient a statement now that they are producing CAV products. I guess the world should believe that Plextor is the only optical manufacturer that can achieve stable CAV recording.

IMO - The above quote should have read:

“Plextor always believed CAV technology was superior however, our engineers were at their wits end and could not develop a stable CAV LSI until recently – thus we’ve waited this long to adopted the CAV writing strategy.”

LoL

Don’t get me wrong I believe Plextor produces wonderful products – it’s just interesting to now see this great optical company as a “copycat” rather than an industry leader...

[alchip80]

Ian

A little clarification is needed here. When I stated that when reading the leadout . I didn't use CD Speed v1. advanced DAE test. I was using EAC in my normal extractions. However, you got me very curious and I am doing the CD Speed Advanced DAE test for my own curiosity. I will let you know my findings.

In creating your DAE Test disk what drive did you use originally? and is this test disk created by CD Speed?

Thanks.
alchip80

[The_King]

Ian, is it true that the new PX-W4824TA has a new tray loading mechanism??

Instead of the gear loading system of the PX-W2410TA & 4012TA, the PX-W4824TA now has a *BELT* loading system?? Is that the case with the drive you got?

Is it smooth and "strong"? I have seen all sorts of problems with belts becoming loose/broken....

[BuddhaTB]

This Plextor Drive Says MADE IN JAPAN

[The_King]

This Plextor Drive Says MADE IN JAPAN

This won't be the case for *all* American and European models, only Asia/Oceania units.

[BuddhaTB]

I think you just have to get lucky as to where the drive is manufactured in since it can be made in Japan or China.

CloneCD users will be disappointed that the PX-W4824TA does not support EFM. I was able to make backups of some of the older SafeDisc 2 protected games like Max Payne with CloneCD 4.0.1.9, but newer ones protected by SafeDisc 2.51 like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter were not playable in all drives, even with AWS enabled.

Sucks this drive doesn't support EFM. Another thing I don't really like is the limited number of re-write speeds that the Plextor is capable of. Being media picky also isn't that great either. Looks like I'll be getting the TDK VeloCD 48/24/48 and save the extra $40 instead of getting the Plextor 48/24/48.

[Ian]

In creating your DAE Test disk what drive did you use originally? and is this test disk created by CD Speed?

I don't remember. However, I made a few new ones with the Plextor and it didn't change anything. I'm curious to hear if you have the same problems with CD Speed.

The_King, I'm not sure. I'd have to ask Plextor. I do know that the 48x writer is shorter than their 40x writer so its possible that they used a belt system to save some space (and $$$??).

[The_King]

Yeah, for you guys in the US and Europe, for me, apparently all our drives will be made in Japan

Yeah that is not good, no 16X ReWrite

I'll still probably get it though, our review @ CDRInfo.com should be up soon (courier mess-up= delay ) Also CDFreaks.com should have theres up soon aswell for some more tests. It will be interesting to see how the PX-W4824TA does perform in the CDRInfo.com's numerous error correction tests And with Data/audio protections, and the read speeds of protected stuff...


Clint

[The_King]

The_King, I'm not sure. I'd have to ask Plextor. I do know that the 48x writer is shorter than their 40x writer so its possible that they used a belt system to save some space (and $$$??).

Thanks for the reply. Just open the PX-W4824A's drives tray, and look in side and tell us if you see a black "rubber band" attached around a little 'gear' type thing which would be the tray motor?? If not there will be a mass of *good* gears, which is what we all want to see. Belt systems are cheap (as you say) and are more prone to failure

Have you a photo of the inside of the open tray (a little more front-on than the one in the review)??

Thanks again,

Clint