#PanaSonic CR562 Drive
8 messages in this thread
Does any one have any experience of the Panasonic CR562 Double Speed
Mult-Session CD ROM drive. The current pricing is very good, not much more than
i paid for my LU005 a few months ago.
The best uk price i have seen is GBP 195, about $299 approx.
Are better deals in the pipeline? I am thinking upgrading to this model,
retiring my three month old Mitsumi.
Also will be getting a 16 bit sound card. I support the Soundblaster 16 ASP is
the best option?
TIA
Gerard
The drive is really really fast and very very reliable (read some slightly
damaged disks a Mitsumi could not handle).
There is a driver problem though: The drive is so fast taht during reads they
seem to stop all interrupts. So on some programms (like the Sherlock Holmes
Games and The 7Th Guest) there areslight audio problems. Audio stops for a
tenth of a second every second or so. There is supposed to be a driver update
for this problem soon.
Otherwise I can recommend the drive. For those techies out there: Its the first
cheap drive with a motorized tray (like any normal Audio-CD-front loader). The
mechanism seems to be really good.
Boris
Boris,
Would these "Audio Problems" prevent you enjoying an Audio CD? But if the
problems are in the drivers, then i assume that they are easily correctable. Do
you know if there are OS/2 2.1 drivers?
Thanks
Gerard
No, the problem I mentioned is crackling when you want to play
Soundblaster-digitized voices WHILE accessing the CD. Does happen in Games like
"Sherlock Holmes" or "7Th Guest", where they keep loading new video data while
they are playing video (and outputting sounds).
CD Audio works fantastic on the CDR562 and CDR563. They did a pretty clever
trick regarding the double spin: When you insert a CD with mixed data and CD
Audio (there are only very few) the disk will run at normal speed. Some other
multispin drives keep switching speeds between the data and audio sections
(which actually SLOWS them down quite a bit).
Boris
Boris
Well, i ordered one anyway, on the basis of your first reply.
>> When you insert a CD with mixed data and CD Audio (there are only
>> very few) the disk will run at normal speed
7th Guest being one of them…
>> CD Audio works fantastic on the CDR562 and CDR563.
I know about the 562, but whats the 563 ???
Thanks again for your help.
Gerard
7th Guest has mixed mode (audio/data) only on Disk 2. Disk 1 runs at 300 KB/sec
(and that is 95 percent of the game).
The 563 is the same unit but with a "Creative Labs" logo on the tray. It is
only available in an SB16-bundle.
Boris
Hallo Boris,
I have a little problem and I hope, you can give me some clues on that.
A friend of mine is tring to connect a Panasonic 562 to a Creative Labs 16 ASP.
He tried the 'sbpcd.sys' driver as well as the 'cdmke.sys'. He always receives
a message like 'Interfaceboard or CD-ROM drive not ready'.
The drive seems to have power, the cable-connection is o.k.
Are ther any software-switches of the drivers, that must be set, like
port-adresses ? Do you have any idear, where the problem may hide ?
Thank you
Markus
I just dont know. It works on my machine quite well. Be sure to use the special
SBPRO paramter for the CDMKE.SYS. One sec (looking for manual). You must set
the port adress (normaly 220) with /SBP:220 rather than /P:220.
Any more questions? Please mail me (also in German language…)
Boris