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Rating: 
Summary: Oops!
Review: Addition to my previous review:
I am using Roxio EZ CD Creator rather than the bundled software and have found it doesn't support USB 2. However, the burner will function at an 8 write speed rather than 16 with this software. I have been advised by Pacific Digital that Nero will support this burner at 16x as well as the bundled software.I have chosen Roxio because I use it at home (my internal burner) and can use the cds at home and take them work and also use them on my Pacific Digital.
Rating: 
Summary: I don't recommend this drive or any Pacific Digital product
Review: Despite having all the system requirements, my pc started to freeze after installing this drive. Every time I turned on the drive, I had to reboot and lost everything. I tried calling Pacific Digital, but you can't actually get through to talk to someone. It asks you to leave a voice mail on a machine and I didn't get a call back until after I had already gotten so frustrated I returned the drive. Their online support is unhelpful too. They claim to have an online chat available, but the hours are limited and try as you may, you can never actually get through during those hours. I will never buy Pacific Digital again!
Rating:
Summary: Great Value - Great Performer
Review: I began looking for an external cd-rw to use between work and home. The Pacific Digital has really filled the bill. It writes to speed as advertised and I am using it on two different computers (both desktops) . Set up was quick. It was up and working in under 10 minutes. Pros: Easy set up, performs as advertised, comes with a usb card for 2.0 if you need one, backward compatible with usb 1.1 (although it will perform slower), works with multiple operating systems, sturdy solid design. Cons: A little pricey (but worth the extra $ over slower, low cost drives), I didn't care for the included software bundle so I purchased EZ CD Creator 5 by Roxio (works great with this unit), a lttle bulky ( a smaller design would be nice). Summary: Pros far outweigh the cons. If your looking for a sturdy unit that will do the job for a little extra cash, this one is for you. A slower cheaper unit will only disappoint you!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome burner!!
Review: I was very surprised at the ease of installation and the speed at which this external USB burner creates music cd's.. It only takes about 5 mins to burn about a full 80min cd.. It was also compatible with my Musicmatch 6.0 software that was previously installed when I got my Dell computer awhile back. So I really haven't messed with the burning software that came along with the package. Installing the USB 2.0 card was a breeze also. Overall, I would highly recommend this external USB burner to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome burner!!
Review: Portability, high-speed recording, and even an attractive sleek black design make this external CD-RW drive a valuable tool in a multi-computer household. Included with the drive is a USB 2.0 PCI card--essential for fast burning as most computers come standard with only USB 1.1 ports. However, even if you don't install a 2.0 card in your computer you can still utilize this backwards compatible drive at a speed of 4x4x8 with USB 1.1. Installation was a snap, however, the installation manual was rather sparse and the troubleshooting guidelines were ineffectually written, which may pose difficulty for the novice user. I cannot comment on Pacific Digital technical support because I did not have reason to use it. They do provide toll free supoort 12 hours per day Monday-Friday and 6 hours on Saturdays. Burning CD's at the speed promised works provided you have an up-to-date high speed processor. In decoding MP3 tracks to CD, the system processor becomes the key factor, but I also discovered that in copying data and application files the processor had a significant effect. To trial this I burnt a 600.78 Mb application CD using my Pentium 4 1.6 Ghz processor and completed such at a rate of 5:13. I then recorded the same CD on a 300 Mhz AMD-K62 processor (also with a 2.0 USB card) with a resulting time of 10:15. These findings do not denote deficiencies in the CD-RW drive itself, they only demonstrate the correlation between processor capabilities paired with the CD-RW drive. Thus far all of my recordings have been clean, accurate, and error free. What makes this particular Pacific Digital CD-RW drive a stand out is the abundant software package included. Loaded with standard, trial, and lite versions of multiple programs, the user if offered a great deal of versatility. The following is a list of such: 1) NTD CD-Maker 2000 Standard: An easy to use interface for
creating and publishing your CD's. 2) ixla Web Easy Express: Create a website. 3) Sound Forge XP Demo 4.5: Use for multimedia presentations
or websites. Manipulate your wav files with noise shaping,
fade-outs, pitch blends, echoes, and more. 4) Acid 2.0: Create your own digital music tracks. 5) D Cart 32: This trial software will allow you to restore an
old 78 RPM recording. 6) File CD 2.0: Turn a CD into a high capacity floppy like
storage device. 7) Stamp Click 'N Design: This trial allows you to create high
quality CD and jewel case labels. 8) Lumenati: Create playlists of different types of music and
video files. Organize media files and design wild new
skins. 9) Diamond Cutters: A trial advanced noise reduction tool. 10) Muvee: An audio producer/video production tool. 11) Virtual Drive: A trial that copies data from a CD to a
virtual CD-ROM drive on your hard drive making the CD-ROM
unneccessary. 12) Photo Fantasy (lite): Combine personal photos with a wide
variety of background images. 13) Photo Printer (lite): Enables you to lay out and print your
images in muliple sizes on a single sheet of paper. 14) Photo Studio: A trial photo editing application. A huge
collection of photo editing and retouching tools. 15) CD Identifier: Identifies the manufacturer of your CD
recording media. 16) Photoisland.com: Directs you to a photo editing website. Needless to say there is also what I would term junk software enclosed. This can be easily bypassed though with customizing your installation. In conclusion this Pacific Digital CD-RW kit represents a good bang for your buck. So give its purchase your consideration....sorry Mac owners this one is PC compatible only.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid Performance and A Rich Software Package = 4 1/2 Stars
Review: Portability, high-speed recording, and even an attractive sleek black design make this external CD-RW drive a valuable tool in a multi-computer household. Included with the drive is a USB 2.0 PCI card--essential for fast burning as most computers come standard with only USB 1.1 ports. However, even if you don't install a 2.0 card in your computer you can still utilize this backwards compatible drive at a speed of 4x4x8 with USB 1.1. Installation was a snap, however, the installation manual was rather sparse and the troubleshooting guidelines were ineffectually written, which may pose difficulty for the novice user. I cannot comment on Pacific Digital technical support because I did not have reason to use it. They do provide toll free supoort 12 hours per day Monday-Friday and 6 hours on Saturdays. Burning CD's at the speed promised works provided you have an up-to-date high speed processor. In decoding MP3 tracks to CD, the system processor becomes the key factor, but I also discovered that in copying data and application files the processor had a significant effect. To trial this I burnt a 600.78 Mb application CD using my Pentium 4 1.6 Ghz processor and completed such at a rate of 5:13. I then recorded the same CD on a 300 Mhz AMD-K62 processor (also with a 2.0 USB card) with a resulting time of 10:15. These findings do not denote deficiencies in the CD-RW drive itself, they only demonstrate the correlation between processor capabilities paired with the CD-RW drive. Thus far all of my recordings have been clean, accurate, and error free. What makes this particular Pacific Digital CD-RW drive a stand out is the abundant software package included. Loaded with standard, trial, and lite versions of multiple programs, the user if offered a great deal of versatility. The following is a list of such: 1) NTD CD-Maker 2000 Standard: An easy to use interface for
creating and publishing your CD's. 2) ixla Web Easy Express: Create a website. 3) Sound Forge XP Demo 4.5: Use for multimedia presentations
or websites. Manipulate your wav files with noise shaping,
fade-outs, pitch blends, echoes, and more. 4) Acid 2.0: Create your own digital music tracks. 5) D Cart 32: This trial software will allow you to restore an
old 78 RPM recording. 6) File CD 2.0: Turn a CD into a high capacity floppy like
storage device. 7) Stamp Click 'N Design: This trial allows you to create high
quality CD and jewel case labels. 8) Lumenati: Create playlists of different types of music and
video files. Organize media files and design wild new
skins. 9) Diamond Cutters: A trial advanced noise reduction tool. 10) Muvee: An audio producer/video production tool. 11) Virtual Drive: A trial that copies data from a CD to a
virtual CD-ROM drive on your hard drive making the CD-ROM
unneccessary. 12) Photo Fantasy (lite): Combine personal photos with a wide
variety of background images. 13) Photo Printer (lite): Enables you to lay out and print your
images in muliple sizes on a single sheet of paper. 14) Photo Studio: A trial photo editing application. A huge
collection of photo editing and retouching tools. 15) CD Identifier: Identifies the manufacturer of your CD
recording media. 16) Photoisland.com: Directs you to a photo editing website. Needless to say there is also what I would term junk software enclosed. This can be easily bypassed though with customizing your installation. In conclusion this Pacific Digital CD-RW kit represents a good bang for your buck. So give its purchase your consideration....sorry Mac owners this one is PC compatible only.
Rating:
Summary: good machine, bad software, documentation
Review: This burner really does install very easily -- which is good, as the "manual" might as well have been written in Esperanto for all the assistance it provides. Other reviewers have noted this, too. Frustrating, how tekkies can continue to produce such good equipment, then support it with drivel. Had to coax Windows 98 to find the drivers, which wasn't really a problem, had it up and burnin' in about 15 minutes...but the technically fearful might not have found it so easily. Did 15 consecutive burns with just one "coaster," and that was caused by a conflict in another program I was running at the time. On to the software: The basic CD burner software works OK when it comes to simply copying another CD. But in building a menu of files and folders to back up onto a data disk, everything froze solid on five consecutive attempts. At that point I downloaded some Nero software, which worked like a charm. From what I can tell, the "bonus" software included in the box is 100% junk, don't even bother loading anything beyond the basic burner software...and even that stuff seems dicey. To sum up: Nice piece of equipment, if you don't mind the feeling that you're on your own once you've bought it.
Rating:
Summary: good machine, bad software, documentation
Review: This burner really does install very easily -- which is good, as the "manual" might as well have been written in Esperanto for all the assistance it provides. Other reviewers have noted this, too. Frustrating, how tekkies can continue to produce such good equipment, then support it with drivel. Had to coax Windows 98 to find the drivers, which wasn't really a problem, had it up and burnin' in about 15 minutes...but the technically fearful might not have found it so easily. Did 15 consecutive burns with just one "coaster," and that was caused by a conflict in another program I was running at the time. On to the software: The basic CD burner software works OK when it comes to simply copying another CD. But in building a menu of files and folders to back up onto a data disk, everything froze solid on five consecutive attempts. At that point I downloaded some Nero software, which worked like a charm. From what I can tell, the "bonus" software included in the box is 100% junk, don't even bother loading anything beyond the basic burner software...and even that stuff seems dicey. To sum up: Nice piece of equipment, if you don't mind the feeling that you're on your own once you've bought it.
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