Hey guys!
I noticed that in the last weeks, my Plextor PX-755A is ripping at 8x only when using burst mode in EAC or PlexTools Professional. I know that Plextors do a quick quality check of the inserted media and throttle the speed if the disc is in bad condition, but I tested with about 20 CDs which are brand new and have absolutely no dirt or scratches. The music style ranges from classical over rock and pop to techno. Enabling speed-read didn't do anything.
Don't tell my this is the third Plextor that is dying.
Regards,.
Sebastian
...my Plextor PX-755A is ripping at 8x only when using burst mode...
Don't tell my this is the third Plextor that is dying.
I don't think this means your Plextor is dying. I've seen this with many of my CDs that appear to be in mint condition also. This is one of the more annoying things with some of the Plextor drives as they are designed these days and another reason to own a second drive.
I've also seen the speed step up to maximum just by re-inserting the same CD. Something does sound a little odd if it's happening so often (or just plain bad luck to have crappy CDs ).
Have you tried reflashing/upgrading the firmware?
The re-inserting of the CD used to work on my PX-712A sometimes, but I have no luck doing this on my current PX-755A.
I did not try reflashing the firmware and I use the latest one.
This was exactly the same for me on two different PX-755A's with latest firmware. It happened on about 95% of the CDs i ripped with it, and where many where brand new, and then when the drive would use full ripping speed, then it was never on brand new discs, but on old and scratched ones! This was the main issue that i ditched it, and instead now uses a LG GSA-4167B which for a comparison starts at about 20x and goes up to 30x and higher in secure mode without cache flushing(caches under 64KB so no need to) and C2 enabled(C2 accuracy measured between 99.8 and 100% on two ABEX test discs). Of course when the drive detects higher error rates or higher jitter values during extraction, then it should slow down untill there isn't a problem anymore, but this is not the Philosofy of the Plextor enginnerers obviously! With my LG, then whenever the red bars illuminate, then the speed goes down, and then a little after, the speed goes up gain, untill the read bars illuminate again etc. With the Plextor, the speed is just perminently locked, no matter if the CD is new or not!
I'm looking to build a new system sometime soon, and I've never used a Plextor. I know they're considered one of the better (if not best) makes, but I've been hearing/reading a lot of things about newer models and such. Any recommendations? So far, I've been looking an NEC DVD-/+RW with an LG CD/DVD-ROM as a second drive.
NEC are pretty bad readers and LGs have a quite large read offset if that bothers you.
NEC are pretty bad readers and LGs have a quite large read offset if that bothers you.
Oh. Crap.
An NEC is what I have now, and an LG was what I had before.
Well, at least, I have bad experience with NEC and scratched discs. My LG E10L works quite well, but it has 667 samples read offset - not that you lose much information (if any).
<off-topic> @Sebastian Mares: As i have been really happy with my LG GSA-4167B, then i would also like to get the LG GSA-H10A/N, but after i read a review of the LG GSA-H10A over at cdfreaks, where the drive would only extract at about 5x in secure mode with C2 enabled and no cache-flushing, then i haven't bought it, since that to me indicates that LG now also has jumped on the bandwagon of making their drives speed-locked during CD-DA extraction, like e.g. Plextor and Lite-ON. Now since your drive uses the same chipset as the LG GSA-H10A/N i.e. Renesas R8J32018FPV, and that the only difference between your drive and the LG GSA-H10A/N is that it's external, and has an added sensor for LightScribe, then i would really like to hear about what ripping speeds you generally get in secure mode ? It really buggers me if all the newer LGs will have that CD-DA extraction speed lock on them, as although they are very nice drives, then i can't really see myself changing from an average of about 20x - 30x extraction speed with my LG GSA-4167B, and then down to about 5x of the LG GSA-H10A/N. Thank's in advance. </off-topic>
40x burst mode, 11.3x secure mode
Edit 1: 18x if you untick that the device is caching. I think you can use this because the cache is smaller than what EAC uses AFAIK. Maybe JeanLuc knows more.
Edit 2: I did not test with C2 enabled because I don't trust C2 in EAC. I think this should give an additional speed increase. As you said, both drives use Renesas chipsets. Keep in mind that external units have an UDMA66 interface unlike internal ones which have UDMA33.
Edit 3: Wait a second, only H10N/L uses Renesas chipset, H10A does not! I think it uses Panasonic.
Many thanks for the info, mate
The LG GSA-H10A/N/L + LG GSA-E10L all uses Renesas R8J32005FP chipset. The difference between H10A and H10N is just a change in the firmware that loosens the Rip-Lock restrictions a little, and the H10L + E10L just has an LS sensor added.
The H20 models are the ones that uses a Panasonic chipset.