Does anyone know the difference between Plextor AMQR and GigaRec? Both, I thought, lengthened pits and lands (AMQR by a factor of +15% and GigaRec up to +40%).

Regards,

I think AMQR lengthens pits and lands (where possible) to increase ease of reading, while GigaRec shortens pits and lands to allow more data to be burnt.

You can also set 0.9x or even 0.6x as setting for GigaRec which allows less data to be written to a normal disc.

I am also interested in the difference between the two.

Indeed. with PlexWriter Premium2 you can burn at GigaRec 0.9X which lengthens pits/lands by +10%. GigaRec 0.8X ... +20%. GigaRec 0.6X ... +40%.

So, it is for putting less data on the disc but making it easier to read and improve quality. Or putting more data on the disc (GigaRec 1.1X 1.2X 1.4X) ... making it harder to read & etc.

I have tried some burns at GigaRec 0.9X and 0.8X. They measure only slightly better for C1/C2 but in 'blind' tests and with good hifi sound quite a bit better.

AMQR is supposed to lengthen pits/lands by +15% so should be equivalent to GigaRec 0.85X. But I am not sure and Plextor tech support either do not know or are not saying. Is AMQR doing more than just lengthening pits/lands? If not why bother with it?. Why not just call it GigaRec 0.85X? If you look at Plextor web-site for AMQR it says almost nothing. Surely Plextor should give some tech info as to what the thing does. Preferably on their web-site for all to see. Call me old fashioned..

Regardz,

AMQR: Pits and lands are 14% longer. This is supposed to make length variations of the jitter less important. The CD spins 14% faster in the drive, and it only fits 70 minutes. Writing a CD with AMQR takes about 19 minutes (maximum burn speed 4x). According to the tests done by c't / AUDIODEV, the BLER doesn't improve, but the I3-markings have a higher amplitude and the jitter decreases. Therefore, the CD is more resistant to aging (durability). Also see here.

Gigarec on the other hand is a "worse-quality" feature (if you use it to fit more data). Burning takes longer, durability gets worse, and by far not all drives can read CDs burned with a high Gigarec value.

While I understand that increasing the capacity of a CD-R by using GigaRec rates higher than 1.0 leads to wose quality discs, how exactly does AMQR compare to GigaRec at 0.8 or 0.6x?

I don't know of such a comparison. I don't think Gigarec was intended for values <1, but since both methods don't use any special magic, my guess is that it's the same.

Thanks for the post.

No, I am not interested in GigaRec for more data but for better quality i.e. longer pits and lands (=less jitter). So you would agree that AMQR would be equivalent to GigaRec 0.85X? If so. why does Plextor bother with this thing called AMQR? Keep it simple, keep it GigaRec.. Plextor, what's your game?

My interest comes about because I am running my Premium2 on Plextools Professional V2.35. Plextor tech support say that AMQR will require Plextools Professional XL V3.10 to operate. So I will need to part with more cash for AMQR. But why if GigaRec 0.8X-0.9X does precisely the same thing? Also I am annoyed with Plextor for the lack of info.

For all you guys and gals out there running your Premium2 on PTP V2.35 be warned. Even though the software is telling you that AMQR is ON, it is not. Uh, Uh, nope. Flip the disc over and you can see if AMQR has operated because the radial dimension of the burn should be 15% greater than AMQR OFF. Incorrectly, Plextor tech support say with AMQR ON not to expect the radial dimension to increase. With respect, this is nonsense. If pits and lands increase by 15% then of course there is going to be a physical difference on the disc unless of course Plextor have found another 'dimension' to the three I know about.

Yes, I am annoyed with Plextor..

Regardz,



Regardz,

An educated guess ... AudioMasterQualityRecording sounds good to geeks who still believe that Yamaha F1 burns gave better definition in the bass (or whatever) ... and it had to be licensed from Yamaha. Plextor pays royalties for it and thus gives it a well-known name.

GigaRec, on the other hand, automatically implies the word "Gigabyte" which implies overburning rather than burning quality.

I would not recommend burning at GigaRec 0.6X. Two reasons: Uno, some players ain't gonna like it since it is getting well away from redbook. Duo, you ain't gonna fit much data/music on your disc.

Regardz,

Perhaps so. Another guess could be that Plextor did the 'license thing' with AMQR to get Yamaha off their back with GigaRec. If the technology is more or less the same then perhaps Yamaha were not in the mood for love re: GigaRec.

But this is pure speculation and none of my business. Yamaha, if you got a few bucks out of it then good for you!

You need Plextools Professional XL for AMQR? My "normal" Plextools that came with my old PX-712A also has the AMQR option in the GigaRec tab (however, I cannot activate it because my PX-755A does not support that feature). This means that either your information about XL is incorrect or the option button in my Plextools will remain disabled even after installing a Premium2 (which I don't plan doing).

Oh, and one more thing - does anyone know how much the pits and lands are allowed to vary according to the Red Book standard? I am asking because there are 63, 74 and 80 minutes CD-Rs which are all Red Book compliant as far as I know - and all of them have a 6 cm radius.

Those CDs don't have different marker lengths, they have different spacing of the spiral convolution. The spacing between the windings of the spiral on a 74 min CD is defined with 1.6 µm in the Red Book standard, with a tolerance of ±0.1 µm. Utilizing that tolerance with tighter 1.5 µm spacing results in the 80 min CD. This spacing can obviously not be varied during the burn later, cause the burner follows that already existing spiral.

63 min. CD's are being played back with a CLV of 1,4 m/s whereas 74 and 80 min. CD's are being played back with a CLV of 1,2 m/s ... AMQR does nothing more than make a 63 min. CD out of 74 min. media.

I don't know how much variation in pit/land length is allowed but I'm pretty sure that 63 minutes are somewhere close to the minimum and 90 minutes are close to the maximum allowed pit/land length.

RedBook data-to-data jitter has a limit of 35 nsec IIRC ...

It would not surprise me if I have been given 'bad oil' by Plextor re: needing PTP XL 3.10. As I said earlier my Premium2 running on PTP V2.35 tells me that AMQR is ON. Then when I burn I can see the radial dimension of the burn is just the same as AMQR OFF. So either I need PTP XL 3.10 or AMQR does not work full stop. It would be nice is some other Premium2 users could confirm if AMQR works on their machine and how they really know it is working. Plextor tech support say with AMQR ON they do not expect to see any difference in radial dimension. Only, wait for it. 30% less C1/C2 errors. Other posts (CiTay above) suggest that AMQR has no effect on C1/C2, only jitter.

Also, it would be nice to know if GigaRec is the "rich-man's" or "poor-man's" AMQR.

Here's a scan with VariRec and Gigarec enabled. It seems perfect as i was able to set GigaRec to 0.7x (The Decemberists-The Tain EP is only 18min).
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.php?p=14...p;postcount=149
I have great results with GigaRec: 0.8x and VariRec: +2 so far.

But TY is always good... burn one without Vari/Gigarec, but also at 4x. I want to see if there's a considerable difference. But it should be along the lines of this, i.e. TY burned at 16x without special *rec features should be fine.

Yes, I agree GigaRec 0.8x is good. Have not tried VariRec yet but will do so. If I push VariRec to +4 perhaps I can burn two discs at once!

CiTay is right. You need to burn without Vari/GigaRec at same speed to compare.

Hi,
sorry for me english:) About 1 month ago i bought a Plextor Plexwriter Premium 2 cd writer for only one
goal: writing audio cds in the best quality. For this I want to use the drive's AMQR function.
I search a lot on the Plex homepage, but i can't find any useful information for this function. How it works and mainly: how should use it? I use Plextools Professional 2.35 and i see in the gigarec settings that amqr is enabled. What is the meaning of this? The drive automatically use this technology for all audio cds or it require a special program (mainly i copy audio cds with EAC)? How can i see that the copy made with AMQR technology? Maybe it works only when i burn cds with Plex Professional XL?
I only use MAM-E Prostudio Gold cds (http://www.mam-e.com/web/cdr_gold_medical_prostudio.phtml). I wrote a cd and it sounds very well, but i would like to know that it burned with amqr or not.
Thx the help.

I contacted Plextor a few months ago and they told me that there is no difference between Gigarec (< 1.0x) and AMQR, BTW.

Thanks for the clarification!