Excellent performance and great feature!
Written: Dec 23 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: performance, valuable software, features
Cons: a little light on the documentation
|
|
|
| onepercent1's Full Review: Sony Spressa Professional |
I purchased a Sony Spressa Professional CD-RW (8x4x32)on 2/15/2000 after reading about a million reviews on the major brands. This was the fastest CD-RW available at the time, and I got the SCSI model for the best performance. This was my first CD-RW, and I wanted good tech support "just in case". The 1-800 technical support, open 24/7/365, was the deciding factor. I've heard too many horror stories from people spending hours on a tech support line (on their own dime) from some of these other manufacturers. I called Sony's tech line twice during setup, and they were great...short wait and good help.
This Spressa has excellent features, like a 4 MB memory buffer, and the ability to write in many modes: Disc at Once, Track at Once, Session at Once, Multisession, and Variable and Fixed Packet Recording. This makes the Spressa a good choice for data distribution, back-up, archiving, personal data storage, creating audio discs, creating mixed audio/data disks, or just about anything.
This drive also comes bundled with some valuable software:
CD Extreme with HyperDrive is the best application. From one interface, you can choose to make a data disk (back-ups, storage), audio disc (from .wav or .mp3 files), global image (save an entire CD onto hard drive), or disc-to-disc copy. It even allows you to attach a second CD-RW drive and record two discs at a time.
abCD, another included program, makes data storage even easier. It allows you to format a CD-RW disk, then use it just like a 650MB floppy! Drag and drop files or folders on the drive's icon to save.
The Spressa Back-UP program has a "One Button Back Up" to save your entire hard drive to disk, or you can select files manually to back-up. Also included is a Disaster Recovery disk Wizard to make a disk for recovering from a complete hard drive crash. With the included compression, I backed up over 6 GB of data onto five disks. This is the easiest backup I've ever used, although setting it up took some thinking. The help files are very good compared to most products, but when trying to make a Disaster Recovery disk I was asked to add a command line to allow the system to recognize my backup device in case I needed to recover. I know what a command line is for, but did not know what file the program wanted me to specify. Since were not all Help Desk Technicians, it would have been nice if Sony had some better instructions in this area. Starting with a blank set of disks, it takes about three or four hours to format the blanks and save the entire hard drive. I do this about twice a month...or at least I try to :). This was my main purpose for getting a CD-RW drive, as Zip disks are too expensive and it would take about 431 floppies to hold the data on one CD.
An audio player, Spressa Play and Record, is included and allows you to make a playlist of .mp3 and .wav files to play back. It has an 11 band equalizer and allows you to record audio CD-R's straight from your playlist, although I mainly use CD-Extreme for recording because it is so easy.
CD Stomper Pro is a handy program for making custom CD jewel case inserts and CD labels. It comes with some clip-art and a few blank labels and inserts.
One of the best programs included in the Spressa Professional is the MixMan Studio Pro software. This is a Recording Studio, Editing Studio, and Mixing Studio that lets you create your own music. It includes a bunch of music to get you started mixing, and has some cool effects. This is the complete version too, not a demo! The mixman.com website has tons more music to add, some free, some not. It's easy to spend hours editing a mix you've made, adding a loop here and there. The Editing Studio lets you pause the music to modify, so you don't have to have any musical ability to make a good mix and record it on CD.
It took me about half an hour to install this drive, and it has worked flawlessly since. I would recommend the Sony Spressa Professional to anyone looking for top performance and great features.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
onepercent1
|
|
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.