Rating: 
Summary: A decent CD Burner
Review: Compared to my first CD burner this is a tremendous upgrade. While I haven't cranked out dozens of cd's, I like it's speed and reliability. I had to send it in for repair 3 months after receiving it, apparently the laser was faulty. Yamaha's tech support was helpful and fairly prompt. The next problem came shortly after the repair when I wanted to compile an audio disk. My computer kept crashing. Everthing else about the CD burner seemed to work fine. Obviously there was some sort of software incompatability. Long story made short, load the software onto your C: drive, don't use a secondary drive. The problem isn't so much with Nero Burning ROM as it is with a Windows driver that gets confused. Now I have the software on the C: drive, but I configured the cache memory on my slave drive to take advantage of it's greater speed and volume. Throughout, tech support was helpful on the phone and through email. Kudos to "Ron" at Yamaha.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product, Poor Customer Service
Review: I bought this drive a little bit less than a year ago. At first, it worked fine and I would've written a raving review just like all the other ones you read here.About 4 months ago, the burner started acting up. The verification process showed errors after the burn and soon I couldn't burn any more. Blue screen of death whenever I burned a CD. You can imagine the rest. I contacted Yamaha's customer support for support. Well, that's what they are there for, right? In total I contacted them 16 times. Everytime I contacted them, I had to explain to them again and again what the problem was. Clearly that never heard of Ticket or Issue #'s. The result was that the same suggestions were made to me on every call or email. Although under warranty they refused to give me an RMA until I have tried their suggestions again. Unfortunately, some of the support personal wasn't much of help. 3 of them realized that they weren't able to help me and decided just to hang up. In the hope that I won't call back??? Indeed, I stopped bugging them and bought a Mitsumi, which is faster and costs only half of what you have to fork over for this drive. In short, great product as long as it works. Don't count on Yamaha support to assist you. I hope sharing my experience will help you. Good Luck!
Rating:
Summary: A decent CD Burner
Review: I bought this drive after two previous purchases left me high and dry. I don't know how many drives realistically implement the "underrun protection" feature, but I can honestly say that using it has saved me many dollars in unwasted media. I was so pleased that I bought a second one.
Rating: 
Summary: At first leary, but won over quick
Review: I bought this drive after two previous purchases left me high and dry. I don't know how many drives realistically implement the "underrun protection" feature, but I can honestly say that using it has saved me many dollars in unwasted media. I was so pleased that I bought a second one.
Rating:
Summary: Its fine
Review: I mean it has not recorded anything in three minutes(only 5) for me nor has the tatoo thing worked but its fast and it has potential. It seems flimsy(cheap plastic plate-they may vary tho) but I tell you Yamaha makes quality audio. It was packed with care and it has these neat lights that glow on the outside. Im still glad I have it. It is better than most burners out there and nero is good software when it does not freeze up my win2k os. What can I say. Its the name.
Rating:
Summary: Its fine
Review: I mean it has not recorded anything in three minutes(only 5) for me nor has the tatoo thing worked but its fast and it has potential. It seems flimsy(cheap plastic plate-they may vary tho) but I tell you Yamaha makes quality audio. It was packed with care and it has these neat lights that glow on the outside. Im still glad I have it. It is better than most burners out there and nero is good software when it does not freeze up my win2k os. What can I say. Its the name.
Rating:
Summary: This is an *awesome* piece of hardware!
Review: I was in the market for a new CD-R/RW drive, and read some articles about Yamaha's latest "hot" drive. I was a little apprehensive about the higher-than-average price, but the reviews I read were so enthusiastic that I decided to give it a try. To begin, Yamaha's documentation and installation materials are excellent! Other companies should take lessons from them. Physical installation was no different from any other CD-R/RW, and was accomplished without incident in about five minutes. Installation of accompanying software (the current, full version of Nero Burning ROM, and some drive-specific tools) was similarly quick and easy. The drive's performance is truly stunning, especially upgrading from an older, slower drive. Yamaha chose to "top out" CD-R read & write speed at 44x -- an odd number, since most other drives either go 40x or 48x. Yamaha's explanation is that they chose to "split the difference" and certify at 44x -- but, in reality, burn speeds are often above 44x (as high as 52x, in my experience with the drive). Caution: if you're going to burn at higher speeds, use *quality* media; the cheap generic "bulk" brands may say 40x or 48x capable, but that's not been my experience. Burning a full 80-minute disc at 44x takes about 2.5-3 minutes (not including lead-in and lead-out). Just as impressive is the CD-RW speed, certified at 24x. Remember the days of 1x (or even 4x) drag & write to CR-RW, where you drop the files and then go have lunch while the drive writes your data? No more: the 24x is no exaggeration, and file writing is as fast (or faster) than to a floppy drive. Now, to one of the cooler features of the drive (and the one that'll make you slap your forehead and wonder "Why didn't *I* invent that?"), is Yamaha's proprietary (but probably-soon-to-be-licensed) Disc T@2 (pronounced "tattoo") technology. To summarize, Yamaha has partnered with Nero to integrate a feature into the software that allows you to burn text and graphics into the unused outer area of a finalized CD. Yamaha's claim is that their laser control technology is engineered to be so accurate as to make this possible -- "standard" CD-Rs wouldn't have the accuracy or power/speed control to reliably burn bitmapped images with sharpness and clarity. Well, however they do it, they *do* it, and it's incredibly cool! Since the available area to "T@2" depends on the amount of data burned on the disc, you may not always get to be as artistic as you'd like; however, even with just a narrow strip of unburned media, you can burn the disc title and some pertinent data around the edge. This feature is really great, though, for such things as "gift" or "memento" CDs, where you burn a smaller photo album or video to disc and then burn a message or image to make it more special for the recipient. A word of caution though: different CDs use different types of dyes in the media layer. Silver CDs are basically useless for T@2. Gold, light green, and light blue are OK, and give a watermark or hologram-like effect. Darker blue (azo) media offers the most posibilities, and allows more detail and contrast in text, and especialy images. If you want a *fast* drive (and especially if you use CD-RW a lot), the Yamaha is fast. If you hate CD stick-on labels, and like to be an "early adopter" of technology, you'll appreciate the Disc T@2 functionality. And if you're concerned about quality (and who isn't?), Yamaha's reputation is excellent. I highly recommend this drive.
Rating:
Summary: Nero software
Review: I've used computers as tools for many years, and have never seen a piece of software and user guide as bad as the Nero that comes with the drive. Seems like it's written by a couple of high school kids at best. The customer service e-mail requires a dissertation on the problem unlike anything you'd ever believe.
Re the drive, seems like if you can the software to respond, the drive works fine. However, Yamaha should do a better job of bundling the software, it should never be bundled with a good piece of equipment.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Pay no attention to those complaining about Nero.
I have it on both my system(win 98&XP)and it has never
froze either of them.If you're having trouble it's
most likely bad drivers in either audio or graphics.
Or you have other software conflicts or a ...HDD.
After going to recording school I would not own another
brand burner.Ive never heard of Plextor or half the others
and I damn sure didn't run into them in the various studios
I was in.The reason why your Yamaha's run a little steeper
in price,is because they use top notch quality gear and they
always seem to give you way more features than any other company.
The people having trouble with Nero I can gaurantee you,are very
few and far between and more than likely have problems elsewhere.
Yamaha is the poor man's Bose...I should also mention that their
5.1 Home Theater receiver's are crystal clear sounding works of art.
No doubt studio quality converters...Buy without fear!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: Simply The Best
This drive is a little costly and not as fast as others in the price range. It is loaded with those little extras. Like the incredible 8mb buffer underrun protection, haven't had one coaster yet. One of the other features is Mt. Rainier support. If you use cd-rw's for data, I would highly suggest looking into this feature, not available on any other drives in the price range. It also has an advanced audio master burning quality which is a must have for audio fanatics. And then there is Disc T@2. This feature isnt too great, but it can be awesome depending on what discs you have, I have burned some incredible ones. The people that were complaining about the program, Nero, just arent familar with it. This program is a million times more powerfull then Roxio, it just isn't as user friendly, and the people who complained about the MP3 function and DiscT@2 feature, just needs to read the instructions. I would highly reccomend this burner for everyone.
| 
