Post by: TotalSonic on January 24, 2011, 05:56:16 PM
http://www.esaitech.com/commerce/ccp50638-plextor-px-premium -u-sw-52x-32x-52x-plexwriter-pr-px-premium-u-1005971.htm
Considering the reports of mediocre performance of Optidrive Control, Plexutilities, and KProbe's BLER check accuracy relative to the old Plextools - it seems to me that this is one piece of "vintage digital" actually worth paying a premium for.
Anyway - I just ordered another backup unit considering that I had one of my older Premium drives go down recently. I figure we're at the tail end of even NOS Plextor "Premium" line drives being available.
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: mcsnare on January 24, 2011, 08:31:38 PM
Dave
Post by: TotalSonic on January 24, 2011, 08:55:37 PM
| mcsnare wrote on Mon, 24 January 2011 20:31 |
Plextor sells a new drive that works with an updated version of Plextools. I can't remember the model off the top of my head, but I use it everyday. Dave |
There were the Premium 2's - but I haven't seen these available outside of European and Asian sellers - and apparently they are very difficult to source even from these at this point.
There were some of the older (now discontinued) 7xx series combo drives that were also part of the "Premium" line and compatible with Plextools' "Q-check" BLER testing (I use two 760's daily here in fact).
But afaik all the recent Plextor drives are rebranded drives (mainly from LiteOn) that use the new "Plexutilities" software - that from what I've seen has proven in tests to not be anywhere as near as accurate as Plextools in terms of BLER checks. (I'm glad if folks can point to their own or other tests that run contrary to this info though.)
SO - is the drive you are using running Plexutilities? Or is there something else out now that I wasn't aware of? Do you mind checking what the model # is?
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: lowland on January 25, 2011, 03:30:44 AM
Post by: SafeandSound on January 25, 2011, 08:00:02 AM
Post by: bblackwood on January 25, 2011, 08:06:15 AM
| lowland wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 02:30 |
I have two new Premium 2s (one in an unopened box) here, hopefully that'll tide me over to whatever the next suitable drive or way of doing things turns out to be - my current working P2 is doing fine at the moment after 3+ years. |
Yah, I bought a half-dozen Plex Premiums four or five years ago and stored them away. As the demand for discs drops every year, these will likely last me until I retire...
Post by: HDTT on January 25, 2011, 08:25:25 AM
Post by: OTR-jkl on January 25, 2011, 08:47:09 AM
Post by: lowland on January 25, 2011, 08:53:06 AM
| bblackwood wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 13:06 |
As the demand for discs drops every year, these will likely last me until I retire... |
Yes, I'm certainly seeing a reduction in masters as audio CDs and also CD refs. With the rise in DDP takeup coupled with increased approval via the internet (I plan to buy DDP Player OEM soon to promote this) and more work intended for purely digital distribution, my CDR usage has roughly halved in the last year or so.
Post by: Jerry Tubb on January 25, 2011, 10:14:22 AM
| bblackwood wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 07:06 |
Yah, I bought a half-dozen Plex Premiums four or five years ago and stored them away. As the demand for discs drops every year, these will likely last me until I retire... |
Yeah we bought a bunch of 716s, 755s and Premiums a few years ago, they're holding up pretty well. Lost a few over the years.
We currently have four of 'em running daily, with 4 NOS spares.
I don't expect 'em to last till I retire, since I'll probably working till I'm 80, then found keeled over the Sontec : - )
Seriously though, Doug, Bernie, and Bob are all still working, didn't know retirement was in the music industry vocabulary.
Best, JT
Post by: dave-G on January 25, 2011, 02:08:44 PM
| lowland wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 03:30 |
I have two new Premium 2s (one in an unopened box) here, hopefully that'll tide me over to whatever the next suitable drive or way of doing things turns out to be - my current working P2 is doing fine at the moment after 3+ years. |
Same here. I've got a pair of NIB Premium 2s, a Premium 2 in service for burning, and one of the USB enclosed ones that lives in VMWare Fusion for Plextools. Just bought another of those from the esaitech site as a backup for that, but given the growing proportion of masters delivered as DDP and changing demands, I think even this small pile may last me until Brad retires.
Post by: crna59 on January 25, 2011, 05:02:51 PM
| OTR-jkl wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 07:47 |
As I'm just getting into Win7, I'm wondering if PlexTools will work in that OS (Pro 64). Anybody know...? |
At least it works in Pro-32
Post by: TotalSonic on January 25, 2011, 07:17:52 PM
| dave-G wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 14:08 | ||
Same here. I've got a pair of NIB Premium 2s, a Premium 2 in service for burning, and one of the USB enclosed ones that lives in VMWare Fusion for Plextools. Just bought another of those from the esaitech site as a backup for that, but given the growing proportion of masters delivered as DDP and changing demands, I think even this small pile may last me until Brad retires. |
Dave -
Where did you purchase your Premium 2's from?
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: dave-G on January 25, 2011, 07:21:36 PM
| TotalSonic wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 19:17 |
Dave - Where did you purchase your Premium 2's from? |
Plextor USA had some back in 2006 ... I bought my bunch directly from them.
-Dave
Post by: TotalSonic on January 25, 2011, 07:37:14 PM
| dave-G wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 19:21 | ||
Plextor USA had some back in 2006 ... I bought my bunch directly from them. -Dave |
oh well, I'm 5 years late to that party!
Best,
Steve B.
Post by: domc on January 25, 2011, 08:07:50 PM
| OTR-jkl wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 23:47 |
As I'm just getting into Win7, I'm wondering if PlexTools will work in that OS (Pro 64). Anybody know...? |
Works fine for me
Post by: TotalSonic on January 25, 2011, 08:31:50 PM
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: Allen Corneau on January 26, 2011, 01:26:11 PM
I just picked up a used one off eBay for $35 so I hope to stay running for a while longer, but a better solution would be nice.
Post by: mcsnare on February 11, 2011, 01:17:58 PM
| TotalSonic wrote on Mon, 24 January 2011 20:55 | ||
There were the Premium 2's - but I haven't seen these available outside of European and Asian sellers - and apparently they are very difficult to source even from these at this point. There were some of the older (now discontinued) 7xx series combo drives that were also part of the "Premium" line and compatible with Plextools' "Q-check" BLER testing (I use two 760's daily here in fact). But afaik all the recent Plextor drives are rebranded drives (mainly from LiteOn) that use the new "Plexutilities" software - that from what I've seen has proven in tests to not be anywhere as near as accurate as Plextools in terms of BLER checks. (I'm glad if folks can point to their own or other tests that run contrary to this info though.) SO - is the drive you are using running Plexutilities? Or is there something else out now that I wasn't aware of? Do you mind checking what the model # is? Best regards, Steve Berson |
Steve, I'm using a PX-880SA with PlexUtilities v 1.3
Seems to work fine for checking errors.
Dave
Post by: TotalSonic on February 11, 2011, 01:39:19 PM
| mcsnare wrote on Fri, 11 February 2011 13:17 | ||||
Steve, I'm using a PX-880SA with PlexUtilities v 1.3 Seems to work fine for checking errors. Dave |
Dave -
Have you verified any of the Plexutilities test results with Plextools, Clover, Stagetech or Eclipse? I guess if you are getting no "fails" on provided CD-R's from the plants then no news is good news - but I'm still interested in knowing whether PlexUtilities returns the same results as Plextools
A few reports from others I've seen have stated that Plextools has found errors where PlexUtilities have found none - but it's possible this has been changed in a more recent update of PlexUtilities.
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: Table Of Tone on February 14, 2011, 08:43:21 AM
I found that the new software was not picking up the errors that Plextools was.
I also found that burns on my new PX880 came out looking really bad on C1's, when checked on a 700 series and Plextools.
Maybe my 880 is just a bad one?
Post by: SafeandSound on February 16, 2011, 01:01:00 PM
So many computers to administrate.
Post by: mcsnare on February 16, 2011, 03:45:44 PM
| Table Of Tone wrote on Mon, 14 February 2011 08:43 |
Although I stocked up on 700 and premium series Plextors a few years ago, I also recently bought a new PX880 just to checkout the newer Plexutilities. I found that the new software was not picking up the errors that Plextools was. I also found that burns on my new PX880 came out looking really bad on C1's, when checked on a 700 series and Plextools. Maybe my 880 is just a bad one? |
Or maybe Plextools was picking up more errors than was really there? Just sayin'.
Dave
Post by: Table Of Tone on February 16, 2011, 05:56:29 PM
Plextools seems to be more consistant when checking the same disc several times.
I seem to be getting the lowest errors with discs burnt on Sony Optiarc drives at 8x.
I only really use the old 700 series Plextors for checking.
The one thing about Plexutilities that I think is cool is the blank disc check that shows any bad spots.
That test can show up before burning what will up as a C2 on Plextools, after burning.
Post by: TotalSonic on February 16, 2011, 06:50:05 PM
| mcsnare wrote on Wed, 16 February 2011 15:45 |
Or maybe Plextools was picking up more errors than was really there? Just sayin'. |
Possible but unlikely. If anything the ultimate arbiter as it is the one used at the majority of plants is the Eclipse test - and in general Eclipse will find errors where even Plextools doesn't.
I'd figure if anywhere would have a Clover or Stagetech (which many have found to be more accurate than Plextools) to confirm or contradict differences in Plextools and Plexutilities it would be Sterling. Maybe you can ask some of the QC assistants to check a couple discs for you and let us know what you find?
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: Allen Corneau on February 16, 2011, 08:08:10 PM
I'd love to give up the aggravations of all the things that can go wrong making a CD-R master (C2 errors, printing goofs, lost in the mail, etc.) and stick with MD5-checked DDP images.
Post by: Jerry Tubb on February 17, 2011, 12:31:49 AM
I did find a NOS 716 recently for a reasonable price, but those finds are getting rare as hens teeth.
on a related topic my supplies of TY discs keep creeping down in quality, still within spec, but not super low errors like 5years ago.
I suppose sending a DDP image on a DVD-R will supplant CD-R masters at some point.
JT
Post by: Rick Sutton on February 17, 2011, 01:50:20 AM
| Jerry Tubb wrote on Wed, 16 February 2011 21:31 |
on a related topic my supplies of TY discs keep creeping down in quality, still within spec, but not super low errors like 5years ago. |
Seeing the same here.
Post by: bigaudioblowhard on February 17, 2011, 01:59:19 AM
| Rick Sutton wrote on Wed, 16 February 2011 23:50 | ||
Seeing the same here. |
copy
bab
Post by: James Perrett on February 17, 2011, 09:18:05 AM
| Table Of Tone wrote on Mon, 14 February 2011 13:43 |
I found that the new software was not picking up the errors that Plextools was. |
It is worth remembering that the hardware is different too. The old Plextors used Sanyo chipsets while the newer Plextors with error checking (which are mainly rebadged LiteOns) use Mediatek chipsets. I suspect that the hardware reports errors differently.
Plextools only works properly with the Sanyo based drives while I suspect that Plex Utilities only works properly with the Mediatek drives.
James.
Post by: pmx on February 17, 2011, 04:24:39 PM
i did a lot of burning tests with a PX-830UF and it gave very good results.
Post by: Darius van H on February 17, 2011, 04:53:43 PM
Anyway, surely the first thing that happens to an audio CD master when it gets to the factory is it's ripped into some kind of computer system (to a DDP image?), so actually, as long as the data is 100% identical, we're good to go, right? Or does the plant try to exactly reproduce the pits as they are on the audio CD master they receive from us?
Actually, i should really know this stuff, shouldn't I?!
Post by: Allen Corneau on February 17, 2011, 05:20:28 PM
| Darius van H wrote on Thu, 17 February 2011 15:53 |
Anyway, surely the first thing that happens to an audio CD master when it gets to the factory is it's ripped into some kind of computer system, so actually as long as the data is 100% ok, we're good to go, right? |
Correct.
Post by: Table Of Tone on February 17, 2011, 05:38:55 PM
| pmx wrote on Thu, 17 February 2011 21:24 |
i bought three premium 2's after hearing the stories about them not being available anymore in the usa. about 90% is ddp here, so i don't use them that much but i'm glad i did get 'm. i did a lot of burning tests with a PX-830UF and it gave very good results. |
A re-branded Sony Optiarc I believe?
I have a PX820 which definitely is.
That thing burns with very low errors!
Post by: bkuijt on February 17, 2011, 06:20:23 PM
| Darius van H wrote on Thu, 17 February 2011 22:53 |
Anyway, surely the first thing that happens to an audio CD master when it gets to the factory is it's ripped into some kind of computer system (to a DDP image?), so actually, as long as the data is 100% identical, we're good to go, right? Or does the plant try to exactly reproduce the pits as they are on the audio CD master they receive from us? |
But those cheapo low-end replicator/brokers actually often burn a CD from our DDP images...
I recently had one where all the pauses came out different...
Advantage is that beyond the DDP it's no longer our responsibility.
Post by: Steve Kitch on February 24, 2011, 09:20:34 AM
Post by: James Perrett on February 25, 2011, 10:13:02 AM
James.
Post by: SafeandSound on February 27, 2011, 02:11:52 PM
Post by: Steve Kitch on February 27, 2011, 03:26:17 PM