#CD-R machine
5 messages in this thread
Lloyd,
The Philips 521 is an excellent workhorse of a machine. We use it in our shops
(along with some others) as well as selling it. We also carry a full lineup of
software to use with it (including Meridian Data's Netscribe & Personal Scribe
systems).
Which software and writer to buy depends on what kinds of disc you intend to
make and how heavy your usage will be. The higher end systems like the Philips
and Sony are probably the most versatile and durable (no big surprise, I'm
sure). You may be interested to know that Philips has done OEM machines for
the likes of Kodak, Meridian Data, and others, basing those on the CDD521.
CDD521 was the first economical desktop CD-WO machine on the market. As such,
it does lack a few features that the market has started to demand. The buffer
is very small, and since it is a double speed drive that means you need a fast
computer & hard drive to avoid dropping the data transfer rate. If the buffer
is allowed to run dry, the writer stops and the disc may be ruined. Some other
drives are single speed, or have a single speed setting, to avoid this problem.
However, if you have a fast production system, it shouldn't be a serious
matter. I've never had the buffer empty during a write, using a 486/50 EISA.
For software, the considerations are a little more critical. Rather than
filling up the message section with one note, I'll get back to that later.
Regards,
Kathy
Very interesting I look forward to you appraisal of the various authoring
software packages..
May I just chuck twopence or is it a dime in your lingo in.. I think you do a
great job in here Kathy…I only hope your work doesnt interfere with it too
much…<G>
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for the vote of confidence. No, work doesn't get in the way too much
most of the time — maybe it should. But since I'm the boss, I can get away
with it 😉
I ought to make clear perhaps that I may not be very impartial about authoring
systems — we're resellers for FOLIO Views, for instance. However, that said,
I should also say that no single package is going to do everything everyone
needs. I like FOLIO because I'm really enamoured of hypertext as defined by
Ted Nelson, and this product is the closest to a full implementation of that
definition I've seen yet. But it's not perfect for everything.
What kind of systems are you interested in?
Kathy
Hello Kathy
Sorry to take so long getting back to this, but things get rather hectic around
here.
We have decided to get the Meridian package. After looking at the specs we felt
that it would do all that we needed. All we really need at this point is
something to archive data. Any multimedia application is definitely in the
middle to far future (6 months to 2 year time frame). We decided that when we
needed the capability, we would upgrade then.
The system we are going to use the 521 on is a 486-50 ISA running both the
controller that will come with the system, and two Micropolis 1 G SCSI hard
drives running off of the IN2000 SCSI adapter. I think these will keep up with
the package, but only time will tell. Wish me luck!!!
LLoyd
Lloyd,
I do wish you luck. The Meridian (Personal Scribe, perhaps?) systems are
excellent. We had a copy of their NetScribe to demo at Spring COMDEX. I'm
sure you'll enjoy your choice.
Kathy