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atip (CD) absolute time in pregroove - contains information about the manufacturer, the capacity and the recommended writing speed. You can see this information in the Media tab. adip (DVD)
AutoStrategy DataBase (DVD+R, DVD-R) (PX-716, PX-755, PX-760) let's you activate and deactivate the AS DataBase entries. On PX-755 and PX-760 it is also possible to create a new AutoStrategy for an inserted blank media. Here you can choose between a "Quick" strategy creation in simulation mode and "Full" strategy creation which is really writing on your blank media. In "Quick" modus the writing strategy is created cautiously, the recommended writing speed can be much lower than the official media speed. Beta (CD, DVD) Data on CDs and DVDs is encoded using pits and lands. The information is contained in the length between 2 transitions between pits and lengths. Those transitions can only have predefined lengths. Beta also called Asymmetrie is an indication how well pits and lands are in balance. The optimum would be a horizontal line. A Beta scan result is good if there are no stair-case shaped jumps. Also, the beta graph should stay between -5% and +15% (for DVDs) and between -8% and +8% for CDs. However, staircase like jumps are more problematic than beta values outside the given range. To prevent bad beta values you could update the firmware and change the blank manufacturer. Block Error Rate is part of the Extended CD Scan and shows how many errors occur in a block of 32 bytes. BurnProof (CD, DVD) is a feature to prevent buffer underruns, which occurs when the drive's buffer does not contain enough data to proceed the writing process. This is often a DMA or bus problem. C1, C2, CU (CD) are low level errors, which are displayed in the Pi/Cx tab. On a good quality CD there should be no C2 and especially no CU errors. C1 and C2 errors should be as low as possible and normally can be handled by the drive's error correction. CU are uncorrectable errors or errors that still exist after C2 level correction. For audio CDs CU errors should be 0 or it results in data loses. This is not a generally valid stencil and should only be a little help to absolute beginners. The orientation values of the table rely on errors, which are consistently dristributed on the CD. There are also no hard crossings between the border values of the quality areas.
Changing Booktype of DVD+R due to some compatibility problems of older standalone DVD readers with newer Book Types, it is possible to change the Book Type field value to the value for DVD-ROM. This is also known as bitsetting. Changing Booktype of DVD+R DL due to some compatibility problems of older standalone DVD readers with newer Book Types, it is possible to change the Book Type field value to the value for DVD-ROM. This is also known as bitsetting. CAV - Constant Angular Velocity during the writing process the rotation speed of the spindle motor keeps constant. This results in high speeds at the outer position of the media. For every 1x speed stepp between 20x CAV and 48x CAV there is an explicit writing strategy. See the relying information for Plextor Premium, Plextor Premium2 ,PX-712, PX-716, PX-755 and PX-760. CLV - Constant Linear Velocity here the writing speed is constant, so the media can be written with only one Writing Strategy. This should result in the best writing quality. See the relying information for Plextor Premium, Plextor Premium2 ,PX-712, PX-716, PX-755 and PX-760. deadreader is part of the QPxTool Suite. You can rip media with damaged sectors. Deadreader creates an image of the media, which can be mounted or written to a new blank media. In the next version it will be possible to define the read speed. The ability of reading damaged sectors also rely on the device manufacturer. This software has been developped for ripping dvd media, but it is also possible to grab cd media with 2048 Bytes/Sector, so called Data/Mode1. Destruct opens the PlexEraser dialog to make the inserted media unreadable. Handle with care. Device Info tab here you can see the capabilities and supported features of your drives. Supported features are marked with a green check. A questions mark means, that it is not possible for QPxTool to check if this feature is available, often due to a firmware bug. Device Info shows information like the installed firmware, the buffer size, the used Interface, supported media formats and much further information. Device menu gives you the possibility to "Rescan IDE/SCSI bus", which is used to redetect installed optical devices. Use "Update media info" to tell QPxTool about a new inserted media. This results in rereading the media informations which are displayed in the Media tab. After using PlexEraser it is necessary to reload the media to see current media status. Ex1, Ex2 (E11, E21, E31, E12, E22, E32) menu can only be measured by Plextor drives and is a more detailed view of a Cx Scan. If one byte of a 32 bytes block is damaged, it is called an E11 error. Two corrupted bytes beneath this block are known as an E21 error. Both errors, E11 and E21, can be corrected by C1 error correction. If more than two bytes in one block of 32 bytes are corrupted, we call it an E31 error - a C1 error. For correcting this error it is necessary to rearrange the data in new blocks of 28 bytes, so that another checksum can be applied. In this new group one error is called a E12 error. If two errors occur, we talk about an C2 error. More than two error beneath this block results in a CU error. Extended CD Scan is only available on Plextor drives. If Cx Scan is selected, then the Extended CD Scan Results can be wiewed from within the Pi/Cx tab. Just press the Ex1/Ex2 button there to view it. For further information read Ex1, Ex2 (E11, E21, E31, E12, E22, E32) FE/TE tab shows the maximum and average Focus Errors and Tracking Errors values of a blank media. For good DVDs the FE values should be below 50 and the TE values should stay below 30. For good CDs both values should be below 60. There should be no steppings, a harmonic line is an indicator for a good blank media. File menu here it is possible to save the proceeded tests to a file. It is possible to save each test separately into a png-file, or to safe all tests into one html-file. The html files contains more information at the moment. The free text from the Media tab will also be included. Focus Errors occur when the pickups cannot follow the laser beam on the disc. The FE values for DVDs should stay below 30 and for CDs they should be far below 50. GigaRec (CD-R) makes it possible to increase or decrease the regular capacity of the CD-R media. Not all non-Plextor drives are able to read these medias. Ejecting the disc will disable the current GigaRec settings. Buffer Underrun Proof is not working with GigaRec enabled. Recording speed is limited to 4x or 8x DAO for CD-R. Not all GigaRec settings are supported by all drives. disc capacity depending on the GigaRec values
supported GigaRec values depending on the drive
Hide CD-R (CD) prevents an inserted CD-R from being recognised by an application. Jitter (CD, DVD) Data on CDs and DVDs is encoded using pits and lands. The information is contained in the length between 2 transitions between pits and lengths. Those transitions can only have predefined lengths. Jitter measures how much those transitions lengths deviate from the lengths they were supposed to have. Unfortunately, Plextor drives don't allow a measurement in units like percent, they only report some absolute values which can be considerd 'higher' or 'lower' than other values. In QPxTool these values are calculated into percentage values. Jitter/Beta tab the minimum, the maximum and the the average values for Jitter and Beta are displayed here. The left y-axis shows the values in percents for Beta, while the right y-axis scales the jitter values. Layer 1 is the standard layer for all DVDs. Every DVD-R(W) and DVD+R(W) have this single layer, where all data will be saved. Layer 2 All DVD-R(W) DL and DVD+R DL come with two layers, one upper and one lower layer. Every layer has a capacity of up to 4.2 GByte to store data Media Quality Check tab here you see if the inserted blank media passes the quality test at the selected speed. You can select between Quick (simulation mode) and Advanced (real writing) detection mode. If the blank media should not pass the quality test, then you should repeat the test with lowered speed. Media tab fullfills two essential tasks. First it shows you all available information about the inserted CD or DVD. To tell QPxTool that a new media is inserted, just use the "Update media info" command from the Device menu. This will tell the selected drive to read the media informations. The media manufacturer, disk type, book type, disk size, disk erasability, GigaRec settings, tracks, layers and probably the used writer (only DVD-R(W)) will be shown here. There can also be filled in some free text for the Disc Label and a Comment to insert additional information. If you save the test result, this free text will also be saved into the output file. The second task is the selection of the q-check functions which should be proceeded. The availability of these q-checks depends on the inserted media. The possible Scan Speed depends on the device and the inserted media. The resulting q-checks are displayed in the relying test display tab When a written CD is inserted into the selected drive, then C1, C2, CU, Jitter, Beta and Transfer Rate tests are available. With an inserted written DVD the PIE, PIF, Jitter, Beta, TA and Transfer Rate tests are available. PCAV - Partial Constant Angular Velocity Only the first part of the media is writen in CAV (Constant Angular Velocity). Due to the high speeds at the outer position of the media it will be switched to the safer CLV mode. This is like a compromise between speed and quality. See the relying information for Plextor Premium, Plextor Premium2 ,PX-712, PX-716, PX-755 and PX-760. Pi/Cx tab the total, the average and the maximum error values of the q-check are shown. The y-axis shows the number of errors. For additional information on the related DVD error checks see PIE, PIF and POF.. PIE (DVD) Parity Inner Errors - exist on all DVDs and are nothing unusal. Normally the error correction of the drive can handle this. This test counts how many errors in a continuous set of 8 blocks occur (pisum8). If too many PIEs occure in a matrix line, so that the error correction can not fit any more, it is called a PIF. The highest possible value for PIE sum is 1664. The maximum value based on the recordable DVD specification for 8 blocks is 280. This table is for beginners and only for approximate orientation - it should only show tendencies. This is not a generally valid stencil. The orientation values of the table rely on errors, which are consistently dristributed on the DVD. There are also no hard crossings between the border values of the quality areas.
PIF (DVD) Parity Inner Failure - means that there are too many PIEs , so that the error correction of the drive can't fix it any more. PIFs are counted separately for each block (pisum1). The highest possible value for PIF is 208, but the maximum value based on the recordable DVD specification for one block is 4. Plextor Controls tab This is the place where you have full access to the Plextor specific Read and Write Functions. Available Reading Controls that you can select are Hide CD-R, Single Session and SpeedRead. You can also specify and tune Writing Controls like PoweRec, GigaRec, VariRec CD, VariRec DVD, PlexEraser, AutoStrategy and Media Quality Check. Further it is possible to change the Booktype on DVD+R, Booktype on DVD+R DL and activate the Simulation mode. Next point is the the Autostrategy. With activated Silent Mode you can specify the Read and Write Speed for your drive. Here it is also possible to select the Spindown Time. POE (PX-755, PX-760) Parity Outer Error can occur when the Parity Outer Layer is trying to correct Parity Inner Failure. The dvd spefications does not give any absolut value like it is known from PIF. If POEs can't be corrected this results in a Parity Outer Failure. POF (PX-755, PX-760) Parity Outer Failure are uncorrectable Parity Outer Errors. DVD specification doesn't allow any POF. They normally result in so called CRC errors - uncorrectable errors. pxcontrol (CD, DVD) is the console tool to control your Plextor devices. It is also possible to export the ASDB from the PX-755 and PX-760 into a file. Also reimporting this file is possible. Be aware that in most cases the last strategy entry of an exported ASDB file, which comes from PX-755 is corrupted. When you reimport this file into PX-755 the last entry is not useable. We have informed the Plextor factory about this bug, they are refusing to solve this firmware bug in PX-755. So we suggest to create a new ASDB entry at the the end of your PX-755 ASDB, which you don't really need. ASDB export with PX-760 is working fine. pxfw is the linux firmware update tool. It is also part of the QPxTool-Suite and has a man page. The following devices have successfully been flashed with pxfw
PlexEraser (PX-755, PX-760) Handle with care! This function makes the data on your disc unreadable. You can choose between destroying Quick (only lead-in) or ALL (complete disc). At the moment only CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R are supported by PlexEraser. The RWs are announced to be supported with an upcoming firmware update. Plextor Premium This is one of the best CD-RW writer which has ever been seen on the market. Unfortunately it is very difficult to get one of it nowadays.
Plextor Premium 2 This is the successor of the legendary Plextor Premium. There was some finetuning for GigaRec Setting and VariRec Setting. Also Yamaha Audio Master Quality Modus and 2x CLV amd was added.
Plextor PX-712 A good and solid DVD-Writer with almost all q-check functions, but without AutoStrategy.
Plextor PX-716 This model had some trouble in the beginning, but Plextor changed the drives in a kindly way. At least TLA #0309 seems to be a good choice.
DVD-R DL can be written at 6x CLV, 4x CLV and 2x CLV (for DVD+R DL at 6x CLV writing you need firmware V1.05 or higher) (for DVD-R DL at 6x CLV writing you need firmware V1.05 or higher) Plextor PX-755
DVD-R DL: 6x CLV, 4x CLV and 2x CLV Plextor PX-760
DVD-R DL: 6x CLV, 4x CLV and 2x CLV PoweRec (CD, DVD) Plextor Optimised Writing Error Reduction Control - is a mechanism which should detect the optimised writing speed for your drive-media combination. Higher recording speeds than recommended can result in write errors, PowerRec should prevent such errors Scan Speed influences the scanning result. A higher scan speed results in a faster test, but more errors. Also different scanning devices deliver different scan results, even if they are the same model. The results are always only tendencies. SecuRec (CD) allows to create a password protected CD-R. To access a CD-R, which was created with SecureRecording, it is necessary to enter the right password before accessing the CD. SilentMode gives you the ability to limit the maximum CD and DVD read- and recording speed. Further you can select the Access Time. Lower values result in more silence. These settings will still be active after a reboot. Simulation The writer is just simulating a complete writing process without writing any data to the blank media. This can prevent you from loosing blank media. Single Session (CD) only the first session of the CD is visible. You have to enable this feature before you insert the CD. This is a useful option for copy protected audio discs. SpeedRead allows increasing the read speed. This deactivates the so called Rip Lock for Video DVD-ROM. Hold the eject button of an empty drive pressed for three seconds and the drive will also switch into SpeedRead mode. You should use this feature with care, because it can result in excessive vibrations, increased noise and read errors. Spindown Time is the period until the drive stops, when no further data is transfered. Lower values result in more silence, but it takes a little time until the full speed is reached again. TA (DVD) (PX-714, PX-716, PX-755, PX-760) Time Analyzer - makes a check between two successive pits and lands against the standard of the official dvd specifications. Good dvds have only small deviations in the length and show spaces between the peaks. The peaks should be on the vertical line. The results can be viewed for each layer and each zone in Data on CDs and DVDs is encoded using pits and lands. The transitions should have a length of 3, 4, 5, ..., 10, 11 or 14 on DVDs. When running a TA test, the drive returns a couple of thousands of such lengths. Then it is up to the scanning software to build a histogram and calculate statistically interesting values, like root mean square error. TA tab The Time Analyzer tab shows the pits and the lands peak shift depending on the layer and the zone. Change the layer and the zone with the radio button. Read more about TA. Tracking Errors occur when the pickup cannot follow the spiral track on the disc. TE on blank DVDs should stay below 20. On blank CDs the values should be much smaller than 50. Tracks tab here you get a list of all tracks and sessions on the inserted media. Transfer Rate (CD, DVD) checks at which speed the medium can be read. The speed should increase until the end of the media or at least read at a constant speed until the end. An optimised read graph would be a constantly increasing line. The Transfer rate tab here the Transfer Rate test for the CD/DVD is displayed. The start speed, end speed, average speed and the current speed are shown. Also the complete scan time is measured. The y-scale shows the reading speed, the x-axis is the time line. Update Media Info command can be found in Device menu. This option will be used to tell QPxTool, that a new media is inserted in the selected drive. The informations about the inserted media can be viewed in the Media tab. VariRec CD makes it possible to change the laser power between -4 and +4. Recording is be limited to 4x or 8x on CD-R media. The recording strategy can be changed depending on the dye type of the media. The Writing Strategies are determining and documenting your own stratagies. You would determine the differences by selecting a strategy and doing a test burn. Then you should make a q-check and document the results. This will enable you to create and then use your own stratagies. VariRec setting will persist after reboot. VariRec DVD (PX-712, PX-714, PX-716) makes it possible to change the laser power between -4 and +4. Recording speed is limited to 2x, 2.4x or 4x on DVD+R/-R. The recording strategy can be changed depending on the dye type of the media. The Writing Strategies are determining and documenting your own stratagies. You would determine the differences by selecting a strategy and doing a test burn. Then you should make a q-check and document the results. This will enable you to create and then use your own stratagies. VariRec setting will persist after reboot. View menu here you can clean one or all scan results. Should be done before a new scan. Zone CLV - Zone Constant Linear Velocity the media is devided into separate speed zones, where recording is performed at CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). When the drive switches to the next speed zone, BurnProof is used to prevent data losses and PowerRec is watching for the writing quality. Zone CLV results in better data quality than PCAV. See the relying information for Plextor Premium, Plextor Premium2 ,PX-712, PX-716 and PX-755. Much knowledge and some text is taken from Alexander Noé. Thanks. http://www.alexander-noe.com/cdvd/px |
