Hi. This is my first post here. Anyway, I bought a Plextor PX-230A drive a few months ago and I want to start doing super-high quality audio extraction with it. It has the speeds 52x-32x-52x. So far it's worked really well. But I'm having a few issues: For some reason, this Plextor cd-rw drive isn't listed on either Feurio!'s database or the CDRDAO database that comes with EAC. I've used EAC in the past and will be using it again. Does anyone know why it's not in those databases?

Also, I want to do some cd-copying to back-up some of my better cd's and want exact copies so I need over-reading and over-burning. I've found from the AccurateRip database that it has a +738 samples read offset correction, but what about the write offset? I really wish it was supported by EAC and Feurio!. The main thing is that I need to get the settings in EAC exactly right the first time so I can do all my cd's at maximum quality (also compressing with FLAC or Monkey's, haven't decided yet).

Is there any way we could get this model into the databases? Thanks.

Im not sure that this drive is a "real" plextor. I may be wrong but I thought that it was a rebadged drive from another company.

If it's a rebadged Plextor you can cross-flash the firmware, i suggest you vist the plextor forum at:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=43

Hey thanks. I checked that forum and found that it probably is a rebadge from another brand, but I couldn't find out which brand. That makes me really mad, actually. I'll never buy another Plextor. I thought they were good, but I think you are just paying for the name. My old Samsung 616 dvd rom drive that came with my Dell computer works fine, although the ripping speed is slower. Are the Samsungs out of style nowadays?

Thanks.

Well, all plextors are not rebadged models, you'll notice by looking at the price. Real Plextors are are the best drives you can get. I personally have only had bad experiences with Samsung drives, as well as a few friends.
You can find out the write offset by creating and offset test CD in EAC. Look in the drive options under writer.

Well, all plextors are not rebadged models, you'll notice by looking at the price. Real Plextors are are the best drives you can get. I personally have only had bad experiences with Samsung drives, as well as a few friends.
You can find out the write offset by creating and offset test CD in EAC. Look in the drive options under writer.

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Well ok, but if they're so good, why would they sell "non-real" Plextors? I mean, I paid for a "real" one, so why wouldn't it be "real"? I don't know. This whole thing sucks.

Cdrdao works on all drives listed in it's driver-table + all drives that are SCSI-3/MMC compatible and supports either SAO(SAO + close disc = DAO), or RAW writing mode, and since most newer drives fall into the later catagory, then the driver-table isn't that important. If you write with EAC through cdrdao, then your drive either needs to be listed in it's driver-table, or be SCSI-3/MMC compatible and support SAO writing mode(next version of EAC will include either an option, or a command line switch for enabling the use of the generic-mmc-raw driver). You should first try to see if your drive is suported by EAC's internal writing routines, since writing with EAC through cdrdao is only meant for people with drives that aren't supported by EAC's internal writing routines.

If writing with EAC through cdrdao, then overwriting into the lead-out isn't supported on any drives. If using EAC's internal writing routines, then overwriting is supported only on : Teac 56-600, 56-400 and 58.

Ok, thanks. That helps a lot.

Plextor has started 2 offer a couple of rebadged models due 2 the dont have any "cheap" units in their line of products

Off-topic: is it so difficult to write "to"?

TOS #10

Ok, I think I have this issue resolved. I found a discussion on cdrlabs.com

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=18651

Sorry if it's not a hyperlink, I don't know how to make them.

There were some other threads on that forum too but I couldn't find them again.

I think it's a "real" Plextor. Just a sort of watered-down version of one of their other (older?) models or something. For me, with EAC and secure mode, I've been able to extract audio from cd's at about 13-22x, which is pretty good, at least compared to my old Samsung 616. I also tried writing a cd and it didn't make a coaster even though the 2 Mb buffer was obviously full at one point (I did that on purpose to check the buffer underrun capacity). The drive spun down, and picked up again and finished it, no problems.

So, I am going to use it and assume that I have a "real" Plextor. I think we can close this discussion by concluding that it is "authentic". Unless anyone has some other hard evidence that it is not, anyway. Thanks for all your help.

have you managed to find any more info about the px-230 dae features?

Has anyone else noticed that some audio cds do not play on the 230a, what is the reason of this ?
in my order drives I have, they play all of them. Those cds that do not work that I have tried so far are all 2007 produced cds. Is this some evil copy protection crap ?
And is it any way to get pass this ?

I am not sure if this answers your question. Some of my older CD-ROM drives had two buttons. One button ejected the disc tray, the other would play any audio CD in the drive. This allowed for CD playback via the hardware rather through an external software program. I do know that this worked with drives connected to the sound card via the analog cable. I am uncertain whether this worked via the IDE connection.

Most of the disc drives I have now do not have that second button.

As far as I know 230a only have one button. All I know is the cd wont open, if I try to open it on explorer it says "cd/files is corrupted" so it is definitely some crap copy protection. But must be a way to get through this.

I do not think that this is a case of copy protection. I am able to play copy-protected discs on my computer. Heck, I can even rip them. I have never had any difficulty ripping a "copy-protected" disc. You've been an HA member for almost a year, so I trust you are aware that many copy-protected discs rely on CD Autostart. Disable Autostart and you defeat the protection.

If I am understanding you correctly, you are attempting to play the CD's by going into "My Computer," opening your CD drive, and open the .cda files (which are not really files . . . look here)

Have you tried playing the CD with a software like foobar2000, Winamp or, even Windows Media Player?

Yeah I know about the autostart thing...but I have been too lazy to disable in this windows installation. But it still do not explain why it do work on my other Lite-On drive.

I have tried both in dBpoweramp and in explorer. dBpoweramp, cannot detect any audio cd when I use 230a. Does not work in winamp either.

Faulty drive. My PX708 did the same after a couple years.

mine is almost new, have not been using it much at all.

Heh, my PX-760 also did stop working with CDs first. Only after a while it stopped recognizing DVDs.


Those drives could probably start playback without any EIDE connection at all, but I'm not sure about that. More recent drives have just omited the second button like they no longer have a headphone jack. Hardware playback could still be initiated on later drives with a command from the system. The command would be received thru EIDE, but audio playback still happen independent of the system (the system could even crash in the meantime).

But how do I know if the cdrom is dysfunctional or not ?
Obviously other cds works perfectly fine...