Thread: C2 and plextor PX-w4012A

i have a new plextor IDE 40/12/40 CDRW drive, and am having problems with C2. when enabled, about one out of 20 CDRs shows read problems when i use the "copy image and create cue sheet" command. i get a track quality index of 99.9%, and the error occurs at the end of the read. when i read the disk tack-by-track i get no errors, read quality of 100%. i also get no errors (little red dots on the display) and read quality of 100% when i turn off C2. these cdrs were all burned by the same person, who has a reputation for producing very high quality product.

the strange part is that when i use feurio to write a copy of the cdr from the wave file (actually, i've added cd-text info), the copy exhibits the exact same behavior, at the exact same place. no matter what speed i set the plextor at, PoweRec enabled or not.

does the plextor have a faulty C2 reporting scheme or is there a real problem with these cdrs?

thanks,
craig

This can also be an offset / overread into leadout problem...

cu, Andre

andre -

i tried various combinations, using a CDR i just burned using feurio, taking advantage of the adaptive writing speed feature (PoweRec) on this CD-RW unit:

c2 on, overread on - 99.9% quality, errors corrected occuring at 99.9 percent progress
c2 on, overread off - 99.9% quality, errors corrected occuring at 99.9 percent progress
c2 off, overread on - 100.0% quality, no error-correction
c2 off, overread off - 100.0% quality, no error-correction

i am using a read sample correction of +98, obtained from the Dandy Warhols CD in the database - I got results which agreed with other users in the database at the Coaster Factory(?) on this CD for my last drive, a NEC7800(? model number), so I am confident that the +98 is correct. The write offset was set at -30 based on results from creating a test CD using EAC. the figure of +98 is also very close to that of other recent plextor drives.

i do not get C2 error reports on all CDs, just some. so is C2 invalid for this drive, or what is going on. i will call plextor tech support tomorrow to see what they have to say about their C2 capabilities, and post the results here if i can get through to a knowledgeable human being.

thanks,
craig

well, no response from tech support yet, but i downloaded the 1.01 firmware upgrade and my extraction speed went from around 4.2 up to 7.9 (C2 not enabled). still get the error correction, but at least it's faster.

any plextor owners out there ought to do the upgrade!!!


craig

Don't draw any conclusions from this thread, since i am the only plextor owner who posted!!!!!

the drive died yesterday afternoon - just quit in mid-burn, and it is being replaced by the nice people at provantage. in the meantime, i put my old NEC 7800 back into the box and it rips the "defective" cds perfectly. incidentally, the NEC extracts data as fast or faster than the plextor.

craig