The cost of cutting your own CD-ROMs has never been this low, but you'll need a big, fast hard drive
Tom Thompson
Much has changed since BYTE looked at low-cost CD-R (CD Recordable) drives just over a year ago (see "Affordable CD-R Drives," February 1993 BYTE, page 118). Then, a CD-R system cost from $9000 to $18,000. One reason earlier setups were so pricey is that, in addition to the CD-R unit and recording software, they included an expensive hard drive--one large enough to hold the 650 MB of data you planned to record, and fast enough to pump that data into the CD-R drive at the sustained rate required by the recording process.
Today, several vendors offer SCSI CD-R packages that cost right around $4000. The prices vary slightly, depending on the platform (Macs have built-in SCSI, but most PCs require a SCSI adap
ter card) and whether you order an internal or external CD-R unit. At these prices, however, you get only a CD-R drive and recording software; you have to supply your own large, fast hard drive to feed the data to the CD-R unit. While that makes the drop in price smaller than it first seems, the price of cutting your own CD-ROM disks has dropped thousands of dollars.
I evaluated JVC's Personal Archiver, Microboards' PlayWrite 1000, and Pinnacle Micro's RCD-202. I ordered external units to make it easier to check out the recording software on both Macs and PCs. JVC and Pinnacle Micro offer internal versions of their CD-R units that cost slightly less because the drives run off the computer's power supply; Microboards doesn't offer an internal CD-ROM drive at this time.
All three reviewed units can record onto 63-minute and 74-minute CD blanks. In computer terms, the 63-minute CD holds 580 MB of data, and the 74-minute CD stores 680 MB. (The time values are standards for audio CD recording.)
As test systems, I used a 33-MHz Mac Quadra 800 with 8 MB of RAM and running System 7.1, and a 50-MHz 486-based Texas Microsystems computer with 8 MB of RAM and running DOS 6.2. The PC's SCSI connector was an Adaptec 1542C card. Since the ISO 9660 CD-ROM standard serves as a nearly universal interchange format among various platforms, I used it to make the test CDs.
JVC Personal Archiver
JVC's Personal Archiver works with PCs, Macs, and the Sun SparcStation Solaris 1.0 Unix system. The software supports three recording modes: track-at-once (the regular single-session CD-ROM format), incremental (a special mode of JVC's that lets DOS users record and read portions of the data before finalizing it as a single session), and multiple sessions. The DOS software writes ISO 9660 or High Sierra formats, and the Unix software writes ISO 9660 and native UFS (Unix File System) formats. On the Mac, you can record ISO 9660, Mac HFS, or Red Book Audio (CD-DA) formats; the audio material must be 44.1-kHz, 16-bit
stereo data captured on the Mac. Once you record this data in the audio format, you can play the resulting CD on a standard audio CD player.
The CD-R unit, the JVC XR-W1001, is a single-speed drive with a built-in 64-KB cache. A thumb wheel lets you quickly set the drive's SCSI ID. On the Mac, I simply selected an unused ID and added the drive to the Quadra 800's SCSI chain. This chain consisted of an internal hard drive and CD-ROM drive, an external 1-GB Envisio SmartStack hard drive, an Epson 800C flatbed scanner, and a Kodak slide scanner. I used the last two devices to generate 400 MB of test image data in 50 files that I stored on the Envisio hard drive.
The Mac Archiver application lets you select files scattered among various servers on a network and consolidate them into a single image file that represents the CD image byte by byte. Using an image file reduces system overhead during recording. This was important because of the JVC drive's small 64-KB cache buffer, although the drive's s
ingle-speed (150 KBps) transfer rate isn't all that demanding. By preassembling the data into an image file, I thought I would easily write my first disk.
Wrong. I ruined two blanks before discovering that the Quantum hard drive inside the SmartStack was undergoing TCAL (thermal recalibration) every 20 minutes and the process was interrupting the data flow long enough to wreck the blank. (See the text box "Recording Perils" for more on this and other CD recording pitfalls.) I obtained a Maxtor 1-GB drive that uses a less disruptive TCAL mechanism and copied my source files to it. The JVC software then produced a perfect ISO 9660 CD-ROM.
Adding more sessions is a snap: Set up the data, insert the CD into the CD-R unit, and let the Archiver software add the new session. To play back one or more sessions, you use the Mount command within the Mac Archiver application to display the list of sessions on a CD and pick the ones you want. These sessions then appear as volumes on the Mac Desktop.
O
n the PC side, the Personal Archiver setup can be restrictive. The SCSI ID of the CD-R unit must be one less than the SCSI ID of the hard drive. This means you can't make the data storage drive a boot drive, because that requires a SCSI ID of 0 with most SCSI adapters.
The PC Archiver program uses a character-mode user interface with a minimalist set of menus. Several keystrokes got the recording run set up. Then the CD-R drive ground away for the 50 minutes required to write the test data, burning a perfect ISO 9660 CD the first time. Making a multiple-session CD is just a matter of selecting the Add Session command from a menu and inserting the CD. A SESSION .EXE program lets you list and then mount one session at a time.
Microboards PlayWrite 1000
The PlayWrite 1000 comes with recording software for three platforms: DOS, Mac, and Unix (flavors supported are SunOS 4.1.x, HP-UX 8.07, and NEC EWS V/4). The recording software is from Dataware Technologies and supports Mac HFS, ISO 9660, RockRi
dge, CD-ROM XA (Extended Architecture), and UFS formats as well as multiple sessions.
The CD-R drive is an external Ricoh RS9200CD. One minor annoyance is that you have to remove a small plate on the drive's housing to get at DIP switches that set the SCSI ID and SCSI termination. Note that Microboards doesn't supply a SCSI card for the PC; the company assumes that you already own an ASPI-compatible (advanced SCSI programming interface) board. (If you don't, Microboards recommends an Adaptec card.)
The Dataware software sets up a virtual ISO 9660 partition on the source hard drive. It does this by using a driver that maps and converts the hard drive's native file structure into ISO 9660 format on the fly as the drive is accessed through the MSCDEX CD-ROM driver. This way, you can examine the results of your planned CD-ROM image before committing it to a blank.
The mapping software accomplishes this sleight of hand by consulting a map file that you write to describe the CD-ROM's layout and
the corresponding links to files on the hard drive. The map file is an ASCII text file, and the commands you write in it provide an exact description of the CD-ROM. You can create simple one-to-one links between files and directories on the hard drive and the planned CD-ROM, or you can arrange more exotic fare with mixed data files and audio tracks.
Once you've written the map file, you run the mapping application. On the Mac, VMapBuild creates a map file that's used with another application, VMapMount, to "mount" the virtual CD-ROM image. The virtual image appears on the Mac Desktop, and you can explore the arrangement of the CD-ROM by pointing and clicking.
Under DOS, the VMAP_ISO.EXE program places the map in memory, and you mount the virtual image using MSCDEX .EXE. You then examine it using DOS commands. If you reboot the system, you'll have to rerun VMAP_ISO.EXE to re-create the virtual CD-ROM. When the virtual image meets with your approval, you run CD-Record (both platforms) to either m
ake a real image file or record on a blank.
The ISO 9660 CD-ROMs I made were readable on both the Mac and the PC. However, the Mac-made CD-ROM had some nested subdirectories (well under ISO 9660's limit of eight) that the PC claimed were "invalid directories," even though the directory and its files were visible on the Mac. The PC-made CD-ROM, using the identical file data and directory structure, had no problems at all. Dataware is aware of the problem and should have it fixed by the time you read this.
Depending on the CD-R drive, CDRecord writes the data at single speed or double speed (300 KBps). For the Ricoh drive, it uses single speed, so the 400-MB data transfer took about 50 minutes. This drive has a 1.2-MB cache, which makes the recording session less susceptible to data dropouts; I confirmed this by successfully writing a CD-ROM using the Envisio drive with its clumsy TCAL process. As with the JVC software, adding another session is just a matter of putting the CD back into the drive
and writing more data to it.
Pinnacle Micro RCD-202
Pinnacle Micro's recording software supports ISO 9660, CD-ROM XA, CD-I (CD Interactive), Photo CD, multisession, and audio CDs. As with the JVC software, you use 44.1-kHz, 16-bit stereo (AIFF or Sound Designer files) on the Mac for the audio data. A utility program on the PC lets you convert WAV files to the appropriate format. The Mac software can also make Mac HFS-format CDs. There's no support for Unix systems at this time.
The Pinnacle RCD-202 CD-R drive lets you set the SCSI ID by a thumb wheel, which simplifies installation. It's a single-speed drive with a 64-KB cache, and, as with the JVC drive, this small buffer means that you need a peppy system and a fast source drive to maintain the data flow.
The RCD recording program provides a neat drag-and-drop interface on both the Mac and the PC running Windows. You click and drag the source drive's icon and the destination drive's icon from a listbox to the appropriate windows to ar
range the data transfer. With the listboxes beneath the source/destination windows, you drag and drop to assign the desired source files and folders for transfer to the destination drive. Once you've finished arranging the data, you can create an image file.
On the PC, you can "mount" this image and test it. As with the Dataware software, a special driver maps the ISO 9660 data so that the MSCDEX.EXE considers it a CD-ROM. However, the mapping information is obtained not from a text file, but from a database created by RCD as you arranged the files. On the Mac, you can select a target SCSI drive and RCD will format the drive into an ISO 9660 CD image. A provided Extension allows the Mac to access this non-HFS volume. You can also mount multisession CD-ROMs, where each session appears as a separate volume on the Mac Desktop.
Now you're ready to burn a blank. RCD lets you do a test run to verify that the system can sustain the transfer rate for the duration of the recording; or, if you prefer, you
can skip the test and go ahead with the recording session. Using the Maxtor drive, in about 50 minutes I made ISO 9660 CD-ROMs that were readable by both Macs and PCs. As with the other programs, adding sessions was simply a matter of writing more data to the CD.
One annoying quirk I discovered with the Mac version is that once you drag and drop a source drive, you can't also use it as the destination. This is a problem if you were planning to use the same large drive as both the container of your source files and a destination for the image file. The workaround is to partition the drive and set one partition as the source and the other as the destination.
Recording Results
JVC's setup gave me the least trouble in making CD-ROMs on both platforms. Aside from the initial problem with my choice of source hard drive, the JVC hardware and software provided trouble-free recording. The programs were simple to use, and they supplied good status information as they operated. This was especially valu
able when the error messages pointed out that the drive might be at fault during my first two recording attempts.
If you already have a SCSI card in your PC, Microboards' solution might be the better choice. (Microboards doesn't supply an adapter.) With its large cache, the Microboards drive is also more tolerant of data dropouts, which might be an issue if you already own a hard drive and a desktop computer. The Dataware software manual gives you comprehensive information on CD formats, which is a plus for both the novice and the expert planning a sophisticated product. The virtual CD image is a nice concept, although I wish making the map file was easier.
Pinnacle Micro's click-and-drag assignment style will appeal to those who'd rather not tinker with map files. This product has no Unix support, however. Interestingly, the PC manual gave copious details as to CD formats and storage requirement calculations, while the Mac manual did not.
With their low prices, these three CD-R setups of
fer new opportunities for small companies to manage and distribute large amounts of information. They're also a convenient way to archive data, especially scanned images or reams of printed text. Given a choice, I'd pick JVC's Personal Archiver, although the Microboards PlayWrite 1000 and the Pinnacle Micro RCD-202 placed a close second.
Recording Perils
If you thought dye-sublimation printing goofs at $3 a page were expensive, brace yourself for the cost of CD recording mishaps. At $20 to $40 a blank, the cost of mistakes mounts rapidly. Obviously, you want all your data together and organized before writing a blank. But an important fact often overlooked is that once recording begins, data must flow to the CD-R drive at a constant rate without interruption--otherwise, the blank is ruined. Here are some hints to minimize expensive recording goofs.
-- Check out your SCSI setup. Loose cables, improper termination, and
conflicting SCSI IDs can introduce all sorts of ha
rd-to-trace intermittent
problems and data dropouts.
-- Use a hard drive with unobtrusive TCAL (thermal recalibration). TCAL is the
periodic process most hard drives use to check head tracking and adjust it
to temperature-related dimension changes. Depending on how it's done, TCAL
can (and often does) disrupt the data flow to the CD-R drive, with
catastrophic results. Newer drives stagger this operation among read/write
heads so the data flow remains essentially continuous. Ask your CD-R drive
vendor for a list of recommended hard drives. Also, a CD-R drive with a
large cache, like the Microboards unit, can help smooth out dips in the
data flow.
-- Reduce system overhead. First, switch off network services or disconnect
the network line; unexpected network traffic can interrupt the CPU and
create a glitch in the recording data stream. Also turn off screen savers,
sound utilities, and any other TSR programs or Extensions that might
unexpectedly take control of the CPU.
-- If your CD-R recording software has a test option, use it. This software
can evaluate your system's throughput and, with some packages, identify
potential ISO 9660 name problems or missing files. Generating an image file
of the CD-ROM you're about to create can also spot missing files; this has
the added advantage of turning the recording session into a simple
data-copy operation, which reduces system overhead.
-- For the most predictable results when making ISO 9660 discs, Mac users
should restrict filenames to ISO name format (an eight-character maximum
plus a three-character extension, like MS-DOS filenames). Some recording
applications offer automatic name conversion when making a disc. But you'll
avoid surprises if you do it yourself.
-- Although the reviewed systems can record multiple sessions per the Orange
Book specification, this standard for magneto-optical, CD-R, and WORM
recor
ding isn't final yet. (For more information on the Orange Book
standard, see "Start the Presses," February 1993 BYTE). Minor last-minute
adjustments could create compatibility problems for any CDs you record
before finalization. For the same reason, not all drive vendors have
written multisession Orange Book drivers. If possible, restrict yourself to
single-session recordings for the sake of compatibility.
The Facts
Personal Archiver
Internal Mac....................$3995
Internal PC.....................$4100
External Mac....................$4495
External PC.....................$4595
Price includes CD-R drive, Adaptec SCSI adapter card for PCs, Archiver software, SCSI cable, one recordable media blank, and caddy. Media: $26 per 63-minute blank; $29 per 74-minute blank.
JVC Information Products
17811 Mitchell Ave.
Irvine, CA 92714
(714) 261-1292
fax: (714) 261-9690
PlayWrite 1000....................$3899
Price includes
external CD-R unit; Dataware Technologies CD-Record software for Mac, PC, and Unix systems; 3-foot SCSI cable; two recordable media blanks; and caddy. Media (box of 10 discs): $190 for 74-minute blanks; $170 for 63-minute blanks.
Microboards, Inc.
308 Broadway
Carver, MN 55315
(800) 225-4414
(612) 448-9800
fax: (612) 448-9806
RCD-202
Internal Mac or PC..............$3995
External Mac....................$3995
External PC.....................$4195
Price includes CD-R drive, Adaptec SCSI controller board for PCs, RCD software, SCSI cabling, and caddy. Media: $39 per 63-minute or 74-minute blank; $35 each in quantities.
Pinnacle Micro
19 Technology
Irvine, CA 92718
(800) 553-7070
(714) 727-3300
fax: (714) 727-1913
Photograph: CD-R drives from (left to right) Microboards, JVC, and Pinnacle Micro come with recording software and cables and cost around $4000. All three support Mac and PC platforms. The JVC and Microboards systems also work with some types of Unix.
Tom Thompson is a BYTE senior technical editor at large with a B.S.E.E. from Memphis State University. He is an Associate Apple Developer. You can contact him on AppleLink as T.THOMPSON, or on the Internet or BIX at
tom_thompson@bix.com
.
Budget CD Recording
