Slashdot Mirror

"he sad thing is that the built-in tv-tuner only supports NTSC, so this product is obviously not targeted for europe..."

Will this work?

European version of Plextor ConvertX
TV Tuner PAL/SECAM
Video Capture PAL/SECAM (720 x 576, 352 x 576, 352 x 288)
NTSC (720 x 480, 352 x 480, 352 x 240)
Video Input S-Video or Composite (RCA connector)
Audio Input Stereo audio (2 x RCA connectors)
TV Inputs RF/Coaxial
PC Interface Hi-Speed USB 2.0
Power Supply 100 - 240 V, 50/60 Hz

The Plextor 712SA is a SATA variant of the (IDE) 712A. I think MSI do a SATA optical drive too.

SATA Version here.

Due out slightly after the IDE version. Mind you, there's no performance reason to go with SATA, which is probably why the uptake of SATA optical drives is so slow.

European Page sans-flashing.

You'll also note that us lucky non-US customers get a 2-year On-Site collect and return warranty. Woo!

The European site seems to have bare firmware for most drives (excepting one DVD recorder as far as I can see). It even links to an updater program for the Amiga.

I bought the Plextor px708a last week, and I must say that it's amazingly fast. Plextor has a list of supported media on their site. More media to follow as they still update the firmware.

I tried it with two different kinds of Verbatim DVD+R 4x (43231,43211). It works at 8 speed (under 9 minutes to burn "backups" of your DVD collection). Burned over 20 disks, zero toasters up until now.

The PX708a has some Plextor specific goodies to make sure speed of burning is optimized for the media (bad media will slow down the burning).

Needless to say that the px708a is also one of the best & fastests CDR burners around at the moment (under 3 minutes to burn a 700 Mb ISO).

These methods have not only proved effective on previous schemes, we have access to a pre and this is in fact only a slightly revised version...

Firstly, use a Windows box, and TURN OFF AUTOPLAY.

You have three alternatives:

A. Use Plextools "lock to first session". Insert coaster.

B. Use VMWare 4 (from your nearest p2p network, build 4460 was cracked by ROR and relled by Infra-Red). Create a new, throwaway VM, install some version of Windows on it (don't worry, it's gonna die in a minute anyway). Be sure to share the physical CD drive with the VM, non-exclusive. Insert the coaster, let autoplay kick in and load the crappy player. Stop it playing but leave the crappy player application running... Now pause the VM. You're good to go. (If it fails, try unpausing the VM and trying again.)

C. Take a big fat sharpie and draw over the poison session.

Finally; rip with Exact Audio Copy 0.9 beta 4, NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache. We recommend you encode to LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard to make mp3s virtually indistinguishable from the source (except that you can play them).

These DMCA violations were brought to you by a chain of anonymous proxies, and the letters A and Q.

I check the quality of my CD's randomly using KProbe for Lite-On drives (sorry, no direct link - look for it on the net).
This tool can check the the error correction data (aka C1 or C2) stored on the CD, which is an important factor in 'how long a cd will last'. If this data contains errors, chances are high you will be left with a coaster after 2 years.
Nero's CD-speed, as mentioned in other replies, can only measure the C2 data. Plextor also released a tool that measures this data.

Other than that I now, by default, protect important data I store on CD's by redundancy. This can be acomplished by using various PAR-tools.
Depending on how much you love your data, increase the redundancy. Yes you can store less data on the disk, but with a 'simple' error you can at least hope to retrieve your data for 100%
It still doesn't hurt to burn 2 CD's though, and store them both in a safe place.

I'm not buying one of these hobbled dvd/rw drive. I'm waiting for a dvd*rw .

All kidding aside. This is the drive I'm waiting for: Plextor PX-708A (est: sept. 2003) Writing DVD+R: 8x DVD-R: 4x CD-R: 40x Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x DVD-RW: 2x CD-RW: 24x Reading DVD-ROM: 12x CD-ROM: 40x

>Of course, the problem many of us will have with our PCs is a Frankenstein system as we have a beige case with black CD/floppy drives (or vice versa) as we upgrade.

The manufacturers are catching up to the trend; the PlexWriter 20/10/40-12A is advertised as being "now also available with black front bezel" on Plextor's main page.

I have a Yamaha CDRW8424 SCSI CD-Burner and I always use Sony CDs. All other brands (including Traxdata CDs which are quite expensive !) randomly crash...For me, Sony CDs are more than 99% efficient.

I often burn CDs using my x8 Yamaha burner at home, but I also tested Sony CDs with a friend's x24 Plextor burner , and it worked really fine burning 50+ CDs in a row without any problem.

In that case there's no problem. Just buy a CD player like a Plexstor that has a SPD/IF digital output, then buy a sound card with an SPD/IF digital input, and you're ready to go!

For more technical info about this BURN proof technology, check out http://www.plextor.be/eng lis h/technical/burnproof.html/P