Customer Reviews

CD-RW Drive 4X/4X/6X USB Mobile CDRw with Ac/battery for Mac/pc

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I needed a CD burner for my laptops, and a USB compatible one was a necessary choice. After a lot of reading and researching, I opted for the Digital Relay: most professional reviews were positive (...), but I was held back by some feedbacks by (...) users. So there was some suspense in the air when I installed it.

The results so far are very positive: software installation (on a thinkpad with win2000) was flawless, and burning audio and data a piece of cake. There is also a backup software utility. Both applications do their job well, although very advanced users will want something better: free/cheap recording software abounds both for Mac and Windows, so this is besides the point of this review. The fact that the digital relay duplicates as a stand-alone mp3 player is extremely useful if you listen to a lot of music; using a tape adapter you can play mp3 in your car -- very cool.

The only drawback is that this unit won't record in packet writing mode on win2000-based systems; the customer service warned me about it before I bought the unit. To me it doesn't make any difference, since I use it for data backup and music recording, not as hard drive substitute.

Another very minor drawback is the remote: it's cute and useful when driving a car. But it looks very fragile, and designed for the hands of a toddler. Something bigger and sturdier would have made for better engineering design.

Dont buy unless you are running win98SE. Manufacturer indicates W2K support but it does not run with anything but w98SE as you soon find out on SONY web site. "Box information was in error..."

This CD-RW Drive is slim and lightweight, it feel fragile, good battery life, easy setup, in few minutes no more than 5 you are ready to transfer your files to a CD. But the drawbacks are the very poor software Sony include with the CD-RW, only two are compatible with Windows 98 first edition and no compatible with Apple Powerbook. The look and the portabitlity is great, as a portable CD player. But as a CD-RW to storaga data and transfer files between computers are no so great because software and hardware (with Apple) incompatibility.

Well if you're a Mac user, and confined to a USB port, this is the CD burner for you. Using iTunes and OS 10.1, I have burned over 40 CDs without coastering one. I've been very happy with it, and it is as fast as you can get with an USB plug.

The included software didn't run under os 10, and when I installed it under os 9.2.1, it didn't work very well. But its unnecessary anyways. Using iTunes, or the built in burn feature in 10.1 negates the need for the included software.

The mp3 player works quite well also. I've been happy with it, and haven't had any problems with the remote either.

Solid product from a reputable company.

Easy To Use --- Trust me I'm a Huh?? kind of Computer Person.

I realize I am a relatively novice user to CD Writing however I have found this unit extremely easy too use. It takes about 12 to 18 minutes to transfer 75 minutes of music, depends on the transfer speed allowed.

The software supplied with it has not caused any lock ups or freeze and every disk so far has been perfect.

One issue and I am not sure if it is the cause of the unit, probably me, is if it is plugged into my USB Computer Port I get an error (communications conflict) at boot I just press “continue” everything works fine, I don’t know why this happens, to much stuff I suppose.

Well in a nutshell, I don’t regret my purchase and would buy it again. I do nothing fancy yet so the software works great for me.

This is a great Item, and really a must have for people who want it all.
You have a portable CD player with MP3 playback capabilities.
Additionally you also have a remote.
So add a car adapter, and you can hook up your car to an mp3 player at an affordable price.
But that's not all, it's not just a mp3 player, or CD writer.
It also accepts VCDs, and also read the small size CDs that are now coming out.
So yes, you're getting a player, with 6x read, and 4x write and rewrite capabilities,

It is the fastest you can get for the easy accessiblity of an USB port.
So, lets review, you get a:
(1) CD player
(2) Mp3 player
(3) CDRW
(4) Remote
(5) Rechargable battery pack, that gives you 2 hours of portable play back
(6) USB connection
(7) VCD, and small size cd playback
all that in one package, you can't go wrong. Mp3 players along are very expensive, but you're also getting a CDRW!
This is a great buy, with quality products from SONY.
You can't go wrong with the purchase of this machine.
I sure didn't, and I'm very happy that I made this little investment!

A while back I wrote a review on this product, which you can read below. Having used the product for a few months now, I would like to add two slightly negative remarks and a positive one. First, the unit is really too big to be taken around. It's great if you share it among computers, or attach it to your home theater, but that's about it. If you are looking for a portable MP3 player, consider lighter options (Rio-like). Second: battery life is actually 2 hours, as mentioned by the user's manual. Again, this is OK for "emergency" operations, but limits the usability of the drive.

On the positive side, I have used the drive on several computers and for long periods of time. So far it has not faulted me once.

This product is by far the easiest component I have ever installed. Although the price is almost double that of its competitior (HP), it is worth the money. The software is not as robust as I hoped, but I am extremely pleased with my purchase.

I can't comment on this product's use as a portable MP3 player, other than to say it has a lot of cool gadgets to facilitate that sort of thing. And you could put all the music you'd ever want on a few CDs in MP3 format, which struck me as impressive (as did the little readout attachment which actually gives you track info).

I got this for one purpose: To burn CD-Rs on any computer I happened to be at. USB connectivity makes this a pleasure. I just plug the player into a USB port and it appears as a drive. The burning software is adequate, if not spectacular. And the unit burns a full CD quickly and cleanly. (I've never "burned a coaster" with this.)

If someone needs an emergency backup, I can just connect this and save their data quickly. I only have to avoid cracking one computer case to make this worth my while. And if it's a little pricier than an internal model, just remember your next computer won't =need= to have a burner on it--you can just use this.

So, to sum up: It connects quickly and easily, is totally self-sufficient, and does the job nicely. Quite apart from whatever capacity it might serve as an MP3 jukebox.

I think I would've been happier with an uglier, cheaper CD burner. I've coastered three disks for every one I've recorded. The software is useless -- it hangs precisely 47 seconds into testing. To get the included software to work properly, I've had to uninstall and reinstall each time. So now I'm using MusicMatch. Sony's support,while pleasant, was also useless. They repaired problems with a grinding noise and the eject button, but couldn't help me with the stalling problem. In fact, I had better luck when I did exactly opposite what they told me!