I didn't buy it because of the software!
Written: Apr 27 '00 (Updated Apr 29 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: reliable, fairly good speed for its time
Cons: small buffer (1MB)
|
|
|
| mwhitlock's Full Review: Sony Spressa CD-RW (4X/2X/24X) |
I didn't buy my Sony Spressa CRX100E/CH because of the CD Right! software that came with it. I've never used HotBurn which comes with many of the newer Sony CD-RW drives, but I know it can't be much better. The CD Right! software is unintuitive and provides lousy layout management, with the only option being what root folder you want to put an item in. No, I bought this CD-RW drives because of four other factors. One, I trust the Sony brand name. I have never EVER had a Sony device break on me. In fact, I have a Sony tape/radio boombox that must be from the 80's that still works. Secondly, I liked the 4x speed. This drive was one of the only drives out at the time that supported the 4x CDR burning speed, and boy, has that paid off. I am consistently annoyed by writing CD-RW's at 2x which is the fastest the drive supports, and am glad I have the ability to burn CDR at 4x. I might mention that the drive also supports packet writing, a must have for the new Windows 2000 operating system, which is supposed to support this natively. Another factor that convinced me to buy this drive was its remarkably high estimated operating time before failure. This drive had a 100,000 hour time to failure specification, which was well over any of the other drives I looked at while deciding which drive to buy. Finally, the last issue which sold me on this drive was its ability to write CD-TEXT, a standard which was limited to only Sony and Phillips CD burners for a long time.
I have been very happy with my drive. I have had it at least 8 months and I have enjoyed using it. Some of the features I have found the best are the CD-TEXT writing it supports and also that it will write audio in the pregaps of audio tracks, a neat trick and a nice touch on mix CD's. I have had absolutely no trouble with the recorder at all. My only complaint was that the software packaged with it was grossly underqualified for my standards. But a quick installation of Adaptec's wonderful Easy CD Creator solved my problem.
This drive was wonderful, and although I doubt you can buy it new any more, I would definitely recommend buying a used one if the price is right, because it will not fail you. Being Sony, it is one of the most reliable CD recorders I have found.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mwhitlock
|
|
Member: Matt Whitlock
Location: Tampa, FL
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 7 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.