CD-ROM hardware

28 responses total.

I'm interested in getting a portable CD-ROM drive for a Mac. The usual
outlets don't list any simple (cheap) ones (2x, <$100). An advert in
Nuts&Volts, however, lists a new "Media Vision 'Reno Kit'" - a 2x, SCSI2,
with battery (for either Mac or PC, with accessories and docking bay for
PC, and software), for $100. Does anyone know this unit and can comment on
it for portable use, or point me to similar alternatives?

  I'm amazed at what *bad* deals I could find on portable CD-ROMs.
Didn't see any good ones.  Some advice: make it clear whether or not
it includes Mac software (i.e. a driver).  The Mac OS seems to support
only Apple's CD-ROM drives, and 3rd-party drivers start at around $20,
and go up to about $100 if they're part of a complete "disk utility
suite" (with a good caching program, hard drive diagnostics, etc.)

The Mac software comes with the 'Reno', but you remind me that I
already have software for a (nonportable!) Toshiba, called "CharisMac".
I had been thinking that CD-ROMS were like printers, each having to
have its own driver. So, they are generic?

(There was a guy selling full size 1X CD ROMs at the Chelsea swap for
about $35.  I put together a full sized 2X SCSI CD ROM for about $75
a year ago, including $25 for a driver.

   Disk drives (CD-ROMs, hard drives, etc.) are all pretty similar.  
A generic driver may not support all of the features, though (like random 
playing audio CDs).
   Mac specific CDs like the System CD don't even need a driver.  I've 
booted my computer with an NEC CD-ROM drive.

  I think most non-Apple drivers support most CD-ROM drives.  Your manual
may say what it works with, or you could call the tech support to check.
I've seen great prices on internal CD-ROMs (2x SCSIs as low as $19 qty 10),
but portables (with a battery pack and all) are a different matter...Sony's
discman is something like $400!!!!!

The guy at the Chelsea swap was also selling a single speed portable SCSI
CD ROM drive for under $100 new.  

I found a Media Vision web site with the following information about the
"Reno":

http://www.sunrem.com/sunrem/mediavision.html - size 2K - 9 Apr 96

                MEDIA VISION CD-ROM
Reno, the Fastest, Most Versitle Double Speed CD-ROM Player! Works
with a PC or a Mac!! (SCSI Interface)
Features:
  * SCSI2, Double Speed, 180ms Portable CD-ROM Player
  * Portable-- Works with AC Adapter or Batteries
  * Includes Stereo Headphones, Carrying Case, AC Adapter
  * Kodak Photo CD Multi Session Ready
  * Includes Software Utilities for PC and Mac

$149.00 Media Vision 2x CD-ROM  Part Number 513-305
   ($7 shipping/handling)

Another web page indicated that the unit was first announced in 1994, and sold
for $350. 

So, any final thoughts on whether this is a good unit at a good price, etc?

Sunset Systems (in Ypsi) has 6x internal CD-ROMs under $100, and 8x for just
over $125.

Rane, given the very limited number of portable units I've seen, I'd say
that's a fair price.  I would bet that Sony's is a better unit, based just
on their reputation, but the cheapest I've seen it is $300 (it's also a
2x portable).  A year or two ago, Apple was closing out their 1x portables
for $99, but I haven't seen ads for those in a long time.

I wondered what happened to the Apple portables..why they didn't continue
the line. What I don't know is whether the "Reno" will run off a car
battery. I thought I once saw something about it using 18V. It might
need an inverter to use with the AC adapter......nuisance. A bonus on
the Reno is it would give me car CD...now, where can I plug it into my
car radio....

I think Apple discontinued theirs because the 1x speed seemed obsolete.
They were cool units though, you could hook them up to TVs without a
computer to display Kodak Photodiscs.  I don't know why they (seemingly)
don't still sell portable CD-ROM drives.

I bought the Reno Kit. It works fine for both CD-ROM (driven by the
Charis-Mac softwsre I already had), and as an Audio CD player. It can use
batteries (either 8 AA, for CD-ROM use, or 4 AA, for Audio use) but the
play time is 90-110 minutes. However it runs fine on nominal 12 volts,
from either the AC adapter provided, or from an auto battery. The power
jack on it is very unusual, but I just put an in-line plug-jack in the
power cable that uses a conventional 5.5x2.1 plug/jack. I've used it for
Audio in my car, and it never skipped (that I could tell). [In that
connection - my radio does not have an input jack, so I bought a tiny FM
transmitter sold just to feed radios with tape or CD player outputs: that
worked very well. I wondered if any nearby motorists were puzzled by
finding Shostakovich on a channel with no radio station otherwise.]

I just had to replace my CD-ROM drive on my Intel-compatible Win98 PC.
As advertized, plug-and-play, no problem.  However, when the drive is cranked
up to "warp speed", it is noisy as hell!  :-(  Any suggestions?

Call for Scotty, from engineering.

Learn to live with it.

I'm talking *LOUD* here.  It can't be normal - how could anyone stand to use
their PC with the CD drowning everything out.  I hoping that someone has
experience with "dampening" or something...

The CD drive on my PowerMac also gets very noisy when it is idling with a
CD-ROM in place. I'm not sure why, though it sounds like it is going very
fast. It is quiet when it is being read.

That's the main problem that's happened as CD-ROM drives have gotten 
faster and faster.  They've gotten louder and louder.  In my experience 
the noise is directly proportional to the speed of the drive, and 
inversely proportional to the price.  A cheap, fast drive is the 
worst.  They're especially loud if you put in a CD that happens to be a 
little off balance.

Yes, I have a $40 "50x" drive.

Is it actually "50x"?

Who knows?  It's printed on the unit and its box and documentation.  I bought
it because it was cheap.  Never did I expect that it would be 50x noisy!

I have a $36 "44x" drive.  In my experience it maxes out at about 24x, 
but I haven't done any scientific tests.  It's possible it reaches 44x 
on the very outer edge of the CD.  It's much noisier than my CD-RW 
drive, which is a 36x and was much more expensive.

Come to think of it, my CD-RW drive is listed as 24x - but I just
wrote a disc and had to train it down to 2x not to get an underflow.
It's the thinest pipe that limits the flow...

It's pretty usual to write at a much slower speed than reading.  Usually
cd-rw drives have 2 speeds listed for just this reason.

Usually 3 speeds are listed:  Write speed, Rewriteable speed, and read speed.
My drive is 8x4x24.

There's actually a new feature in CD drives, "audio rip".  This optimizes
reading of audio CDs, since most regular CD-ROM drives read audio CDs at
around 3-4x.  

I've generally seen it listed the other way: Read speed, write speed,
rewrite speed.  My drive is a 36x4x4.

I looked into all that in choosing a CD-RW - and now I find I have
forgotten most of the details. Well, that's appropriate: one's memory
of such arcania shouldn't last any longer than the technology...  8^}

In my search I found the same drive listed at different speeds. In an exchange
with a vendor, they said:

"The mechanism is a 4X4X24 and LaCie used to advertise the drive as such.
You get a maximum of 6X speeds through the USB port, so apparently LaCie has
started advertising the drive as 4X4X6."

Here is what a PC-World FAQ says about the nomenclature:

"CD-RW drives often have three sets of "X" speeds, listing, in order, the
recording speed for CD-Rs, the recording speed for CD-RWs, and the read
speed (6X/4X/24X)."

Response not possible - You must register and login before posting.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss