Recordable and Rewritable CDs

You need only look at the selection of removable media in any computer supply store to know that Recordable and rewritable Compact discs are the most popular form of mass storage. It's not hard to see why. Compared to the 10 cents or so a megabyte of storage costs on a Zip, Jaz or most other removable storage media devices, the cost per meg on a CDR disc is about 2 cents or less. And the paltry $2 cost for a CD-R discs makes them an easy purchase. And, of course, there's the fact that almost everyone, everywhere with a computer can read them.

Thus, there has been a lot of action in the CD-R and CD-RW software arena over the past year or so. Here are some notable updates.

New Software for DirectCD

Version 2.5a of DirectCD for Windows 9x and NT improved the performance of DirectCD by up to 60% under Windows 95 with CD-R media. (The company says "your performance may vary"). Subsequent revisions improved error checking and fixed some bugs that could cause data loss. Download the latest upgrade (currently 2.5d) here.

Also new at the Adaptec site are upgrades to Easy CD Audio, EZSCSI and a fix for the annoying APIX.VXD failure that caused Windows 98 to crash after an application (such as the HP SureStore CD-Writer installer) installs an obsolete version of the ASPI driver.

Also updated is the version of Easy CD Audio that shipped with HP's 7100 and 7200 series of recorders. We've enjoyed burning audio CDs with Easy CD Audio recently. Its ability to automatically print out inserts for jewel cases makes it a great way to give your home-brewed discs that professional look. And for making professional labels, the company provides a series of templates for Corel Draw, Illustrator, MS Publisher and PageMaker, designed for use with the Custom CD Labels that come Adaptec CD Creator for Windows. Other products we've tested that include custom label making capabilities include CeQuadrant's WinOnCD3.6 and Neato's CD Labeler Kit. Both of these products include gizmos to help you affix the label to the disc. We're particularly fond of the CD Stomper that comes bundled with WinOnCD. It's also available separately.

Adaptec hasn't forgotten its Mac users, of course. A free tool called UDF Volume Access is a System Extension that allows Mac users to read closed DirectCD discs in most CD-ROM drives. Updates to Adaptec's Toast (CDR/RW) and Jam (Audio) for Mac are also on the Adaptec site. Software Architects, meanwhile has also released a UDF file system enhancements for Macintosh that allows users of that OS to access and write Direct CD-type discs. Adaptec's Toast CD-R software for Mac users still lacks support for IDE drives, however. A product from CharisMac called Discribe is a better choice there. A web page provides details on which drives it supports.

HP has dropped the price of its SureStore 7200 CD-Writer by US$100 and announced a new 8x00 series of internal and external models that offer double the writing performance and up to 24X CD-R read speeds. The 8100 series drives writes to CD-R discs at 4x speeds and read at 24x, roughly twice as fast as the previous 7200 series models of the HP CD-Writer Plus. The new drives read CD-RW discs at 8x and write to them at 2x speeds. Additionally, the new 8100 series drives have an improved method of formatting CDRW discs, which allows the discs to be prepared for writing in minutes instead of the hour or so it took previous models. The internal model of the 8100, shipping Sept. 1, sells for US$399.

Prices aren't expected to drop much further in the CD recordable media department, though. A tariff that was originally to be instituted Jan. 1, 1999 is expected to be applied later in 1999 that could dramatically increase CD-R costs. The tariff, ostensibly a fee to be paid to the recording industry, much as it currently has applied to tapes, could quadruple media costs. Fight the fee by writing your local elected official or signing the petition at www.sycorp.com

For Further Reading

• TCP's CDR report.
• Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ (http://www.fadden.com/cdrfaq/) lists the top models of CD-R and CD-RW.
• For more info on CD-R technology, see http://www.cd-info.com.
• See our review of the HP 7110e
• DVD Status Report
• Recording CD ROMs
• Deal-Mac tracks the best prices on CD-R drives and shows how you can get blank CD-R media for free.
• See CD-R FAQ for more info on CD-R, DVD and related technologies, plus buying tips and other info.
• A technical description from Sony of how CD-R, CD-RW and other writable media work: http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/rmeg/mediatech/overview.html