#DAK Drive
24 messages in this thread
John,
I've got the "cheap" DAK drive. Although I don't have the Kodak CDs, if they
have any animated video, you might have a problem. I have a few MPC CDs by
ARIS, "Worldview", "Jets & Props" and "MPC Wizard". The slideshows work fine
but the "movies" are choppy both audio and video-wise. Your drive should access
at least 150K/sec. for the animation/sound to be smooth. The DAK cheapo drive
tests out at 185K/sec. with the "MPC Wizard" diagnostic test. Really sorry I
didn't buy the more expensive/faster drive! Live and learn! Good Luck!
Max
Max,
Thanks for the reply. One thing about your note puzzles me. If 150k/sec is
required to avoid the choppiness and the cheap DAK drives tests at 185k/sec,
the speed would not appear to be the problem. One of the things that is
attractive about the DAK drives is the great prices for the CD's they have. Do
you have any opinions about caddy or caddy-less?
John
The prices MAY appear to be great, but, beware, when I purchased their
package, I found out that I got the 1991 version of almost all of the software,
very dated, very low featured CD's.
Not to mention, I inadvertently left a CD (Proprietary Pre-lease disk) in
their drive when I returned it for a refund, and they still have not returned
the CD.
Roger
John,
Pretty stupid of me…wonder what I was thinking about!?!? <g> Nonetheless, the
"movies" on my ARIS CDs are choppy, as is the audio. Oh yeah, the "movie
screen" takes up about a 1 1/2" square in the middle of the monitor! Something
is definitely amiss…just haven't any idea of just what. Since I have the $199
BSR drive, which is caddyless…couldn't tell you about caddies. I could live
with using a caddy if I had to…I want more SPEED!!! If you are going to buy
from DAK, go with the $399 BSR (It's 380ms – uses caddy). The drive I have is
800ms. I now wish I had purchased the faster one. I had to sell my CD ROM
version of Wing Commander because I couldn't stand waiting what seemed like
forever for the scenes to load.
Max
Max,
You and Roger have talked me out of the cheapo drive. Thanks for the help.
John
John,
Good Luck with whatever you end up with!
Max
Max, the faster one isn't much better. I really think that it's the fault of
the game and not of the drive. I have them both.
Phil Haase 🙂
Phil,
You have both CDROM drives? Or you have the drive and the program? When I ran
Wing Commander on CD, It was a major disappointment! It's now back on the HD.
<sigh>
Max
Max, no. I have the fast CDROM (a Sony 531-01) and Wing Commander. I just
refuse to load a game thsat takes 11 megs of HD disk onto my HD. My kids use
WC and really like it. They have the patienece to put up with the load time.
I don't.
Phil 🙂
How do I get information on these "cheap" DAK drives? Do they have a catalog
that I can call and get?
Eldon
Eldon,
They sure do have a catalog! They sell a BSR 800ms caddyless CDROM drive for
$199.90 (I own that one…too slow!), and a BSR 380ms caddy-type drive for
$399. Here's the info:
DAK Industries Inc.
8200 Remmet Ave.
Canoga Park, CA 91304
Corporate Office (818)888-8220
Credit Card Orders (800)325-0800
Fax Order (818)888-2837
Any Other Inquiries (800)888-7808
I've been getting their catalog for years. They have a lot of neat gadgets at a
reasonable price. You might want to check out some of the CDROM software they
are offering at "bundled" prices. Also great deals on music CD packages. I just
got a 20 CD collection of classical music for $75! If 20's not enough…they've
got a 40 CD collection for $149! I tempted to go for those too! <G>
Max
Max,
Thanks for the info. I gave them a call and a catolog is on the way!
Eldon
Eldon,
Great…Enjoy! Now you are officially a DAKonian! 🙂
Max
Max,
A DAKonian! WOW! I feel so honored! 🙂
Eldon
Eldon, I have a DAK CDROM. It has worked great. But beware. DAK has NO
techinal support. You can't EVER get through to them. So, you are really on
your own.
Phil Haase 🙂
Phil,
The tech support issue in a bit of a downer, but I am sure DAK is not the only
company that is having tech support problems. Do you have the "fast" or the
"slow" drive? How do you like the performance of the drive? Any other
observations about it?
Eldon
Eldon, I have the fast drive and really do like it. It's not the best in the
world, but it allows me to run MM ok, at least enough to get the favor of MM.
It handles DOS-based, text-based CDs without any problems and now that I
connected it to the SBP board I get, plays great CD audio. It's not quite
MPC compliance, but close enough to allow me to subscribe and run most of
the MPC stuff I get in the mail every month….All in all, a
happy Dak owner.
Phil 🙂
Eldon:
Pardon me for jumping in, but DAK does have (sort of) BBS Tech Support. Their
number is (818)715-7153. Set your modem to 2400 baud, no parity, 8 bits data,
1 stop bit. They say it's 24 hours, but I've had "No Answer" many times after
11:30 or midnight. I say (sort of) Tech Support, because I've had incomplete
info from the sysop (Tom Krough) there, only to get the complete fix from the
actual software publisher. My suggestion is to first try to find the
manufacturer, on CIS, or other users. Then enhance that info with whatever DAK
can provide.
Good luck,
Mike
Eldon,
DAK gets very bad marks from me, as they will only ship to US addresses.
Adrian
Adrian, don't be to hard on DAK. I'm sure they can't ship to foreign because
of arrangments that they make with their suppliers, many of which are foreign
themselves.
Phil Haase 🙂
Phil,
Seems a strange way of doing business<g>. Lots of other companies will ship
anywhere, so potential customers just go elsewhere.
Adrian
Adrian, yes I agree. But many of DAK's deals are closeout specials in the US
only. I heard that at one time, they were offering some kind of gardet that
was available worldwide but didn't sell too well in the US, so they got a
deal to sell it cheap in the US. I know about this because my sis-in-law is
from England and she had just paid "full price" for it.
Phil :-)_
Phil,
Still seems strange. OK they've got the rights in the US, but if I take the
trouble to locate the best price, it shouldn't make any difference to them. You
may be forgetting, that even 'normal' US prices are half what they are in
Europe for most things.
Adrian
Adrian, good point! Never thought of that.
Phil 🙂