Ian from CDRlabs had the joy of taking a look at Sony's latest CDRW drive, the CRX175M-C1. This IDE drive is able to write at 24 speed, rewrite at 10 speed, and to read at 40 speed, but comes with a not seen before future a Memory Stick Slot that is able to contain data up to 128 MB. This slot doesn't need extra installation but will appear as an extra Harddrive.
The drive uses PowerBurn to prevent buffer underruns, supports RAW-DAO, but does not support correct EFM encoding. No Nero or EasyCDCreator but B's Recorder Gold is the software that comes with the drive. Here's a part of the conclusion:
Highs: |
CD-RW drive and Memory Stick Media reader all in one.
Very good media compatibility. Writes at 24x with many brands.
Good data transfer speeds with all types of media. Can read CD-RW media as fast as other types.
Features Sony's Power-Burn recording protection system.
Very good software package. B's Recorder Gold is a nice alternative to Nero and Easy CD Creator.
Lows:
Does not support PIO Mode 4.
Limited installation options. The drive must be the only drive on the secondary IDE chain for Memory Stick slot to work.
Poor performance when reading scratched and dirty discs.
Took longer than the competition to erase CD-RW discs.
Drive does not overburn.
Source: CDRlabs.com
