CL) U) ROADSTOR PORT CD BURNERW/SLOT

by MICRO SOLUTION

Product Details

• Item Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• ASIN: B0000ET7GC
• Item model number: 401010
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 10, 2003

Product Description

Manufacturer

Digital Photo Viewer

• View digital photo slideshows on TV anywhere you are (remote control included)
• Reads all popular flash memory cards (SD, SM, CF I/II, MMC, MD, MS and xD with adapter)
• Zoom, rotate and create thumbnails of your digital photos
• No more worries about downloading digital photos or filling up memory cards on the road
• Portable, one-touch copy of digital photos to CD
• Share your photo discs with friends and family on-the-spot

Photo to CD Burner

• Now supports 1GB and larger backups.
• Burn CDs on the road with or without a computer
• High Speed USB 2.0 external storage
• Attaches to both PC (Windows 98, Me, 2000 SP3, XP) and Mac (OS 10.1.3 and above)
• Read or write from all popular flash memory cards to CD-R, CD-RW
• Reads DVD data discs

Portable DVD and MP3 Player

• Watch your favorite DVD movies on TV anywhere, any time (vacation, grandma's, in your vehicle, etc.)
• Supports both NTSC and PAL formats
• Download MP3s from your flash memory and burn to CD without a computer
• Portable multimedia player - plays DVDs, CDs and MP3s

Features

• Attach to USB 2.0 port - works with Intel-based PC or Mac
• Detachable, rechargeable Lithium Ion battery pack included
• Portable - take it on the road and connect it to a computer or TV
• Works as a stand-alone unit - record CDs without a PC or Mac and plays DVD videos directly to TV
• Comes with everything you need to make CDs and watch DVDs on your PC, Mac or TV
• Simple one-button record function for CD-Rs
• Built-in buffer underrun protection
• Hot Pluggable with USB 2.0 - attach and detach RoadStor without restarting your PC or Mac
• Rewrite CD-RW, write CD-R and read CD-ROM discs
• Plays DVD video and reads DVD data discs
• Includes CD creation tools software
• CyberLink PowerDVD software included for DVD video playback
• Reads all popular flash memory cartridges - SmartMedia (SM), SecureDigital (SD),
• MultiMedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick (MS), Compact Flash I and II (CF I/II), MicroDrive (MD) and xD (Extreme Digital) with adapter
• Plays Jpeg, Mpeg and MP3 files from storage card, CD or DVD
• Includes remote control for when RoadStor is attached to TV
• Custom carrying case included

Product Description

CL) U) ROADSTOR PORT CD BURNERW/SLOT

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect hotel room buddy, April 30, 2004

By 

Nameless Faceless User (Holbrook, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CL) U) ROADSTOR PORT CD BURNERW/SLOT (Electronics)

The two most popular solutions for backing up a digital camera during a vacation is to either bring your laptop computer or use a digital wallet (portable hard drive). Laptop computers are heavy and take up valuable carry-on baggage space. Portable hard drives do not give me the most amount of confidence, but are small enough to stuff in a camera bag.

This gizmo backs up photographs to CD-R or CD-RW (I prefer not to use CD-RW since a multi-session CD-RW is not as reliable to read). Backing up digital photos to CD-R while traveling provides a shock-proof, xray-proof media which will have you sleeping a bit easier at night. It also eliminates that long USB download when you get home.

It's a little bulky to drag around during landscape photography day trips, but it makes a wonderful hotel room companion. Just unload your CF card(s) at the end of the day with the press of a button. Bring an RF modulator with you to review your photos on the hotel TV. It also doubles as a DVD player which can play all my DVD-R's. It also holds many hours of MP3's, using the video output and infrared remote as a song selector.

There are a few annoyances, for this otherwise perfect device. The USB cable is too short to do anything with. The power cable can wiggle out unless you prop it up just right, but the plug is compatible with most popular battery packs and 9v adapters. The owner's manual is only a few pages long, so if you don't like figuring stuff out through experimentation, it may drive you nuts for a while.

But, as for the function and design - you can't find anything better. The drive is similar to those found on most laptop (notebook) computers. The built-in DVD player is wonderful. It's just a great idea and I wish I had thought of it myself. Oh, in case your notebook computer needs a CD burner or DVD drive, it will do that too.

Grab one before they raise the price.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but seriously flawed., July 26, 2004

By 

R. D. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CL) U) ROADSTOR PORT CD BURNERW/SLOT (Electronics)

I agree with everyone who has posted about this item. I purchased it, tried it and was not able to get it to actually work while I was on vacation. I burned (i.e. wasted) three CDROMs which never succeeded in finishing, and when I talked the guy in the photo shop to let me use his computer to verify what had happened, it was clear that the CD was not properly burned. Fortunately I had a 1GB card in my camera and did not run out of storage. It would operate for a while and then simply spit out the CD without any message or failure notice.

However, I was able to get this to work like others have. The problem is two fold.

First, one reason I had such difficulty was that we were on a cruise ship at sea. Apparently this unit is PARTICULARLY motion sensitive. On "shore" it works perfectly as long as you LEAVE IT THE HECK ALONE.

Second, the internal software is so buggy you expect to see them come crawling out the CD drawer. The thing locks up with no diagnostic messages or recovery mechanism except power cyling. If you push the wrong button, you end up with the thing locked up and it ignores any buttons or anything with the remote control.

It works fairly well as an accessory burner and I have burned dozens of MP3 backup CDs as well as audio CDs for my car.

To use this for the intended purpose I bought it (which is to backup my digital camera) you need to do the following:

1) Be sure it is fully charged.
2) Turn on the power.
3) Insert a blank CD.
4) turn off the power.
5) insert the memory card.
6) turn on the power and wait for the display to let you know it is completely ready.
7) press the "backup" button.
8) wait a few seconds.
9) press the "backup" button again.
10) watch the display progress through the backup.
11) watch the display progress through the "table of contents"

If you have more data than fits on one CD, it will cycle through the CDs. (Like for my 1GB card, it took two CDs to finish.)

To use this as a USB burner, do the following:

0) always make an "image" file first, never write the CD directly with just the current layout.
1) plug in the burner to the wall and turn it on with no CD in it.
2) wait for the display to indicate that the device is ready.
3) plug the USB cable between the burner and your computer.
4) wait a good 10-15 seconds for it to be recognized by windoze.

As long as you realize this device has one of the buggiest firmware codes I have ever seen in a consumer product, and use it in one and exactly only one way, you will be happy.

If, however, you actually expect it to do all of what it advertises it does (like for example play a DVD - you can play the DVD alright, you just cannot navigate the menu and select the actual "play" option...) you will be sorely dissapointed.

The problems that others had are possibly not defective devices (although it is entirely possible) it may just be that they pressed the wrong key in the wrong sequence, the thing got confused, and they got mad because they assumed that the person writing the firmware code Had A Clue (tm).

I have not used the similar Sony product and did not buy it simply because it does not support compact flash. This omission was a stupid decision on Sony's part and is an obvious ploy to push their own memory card technology, however Sony has to realize that I am not going to walk away from compact flash technology just because of their portable CD burner. Grow up, VHS won over Beta, and this is the same argument.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't leave Home without it !, March 25, 2004

By 

PopPop "PopPop" (Blythewood, SC USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: CL) U) ROADSTOR PORT CD BURNERW/SLOT (Electronics)

Okay, you just bought a big 5 Meg digital camera and took a whole memory card full of pictures, Now what? You rush home, download them onto your PC, and hope the Harddrive doesn't crash until you can burn them onto a CD later. Lucky for you, you know how to burn a CD. Granted, it isn't hard for me but everybody who owns a camera doesn't know how.

What about if you or I were on a trip to Europe or Asia? Take a whole memory card full of pictures. Now what? Your PC is back home in the USA. Better buy another memory card. Can you say $$$$?

This RoadStor product takes away all that fuss. Take the card out of your camera, plug it into the RoadStor and push a button. While you sip on your drink, it's writing the pictures to the CD and will do that day after day on your vacation until it fills up the CD or until you decide to "finalize" the CD and start another. Watch your pictures in the hotel room after a day of sightseeing. Or watch a DVD movie if you plug it up to the TV in the room. Use the little remote. The RoadStor even comes with cables for all this to happen.

I do not see how it could get any simpler than this. The Roadstor is a real bargain for $230. Oh, and it even comes in its own little black, miniature nylon suitcase/carrying case for travel. And it holds everything needed including room for a couple of blank CDs.

I would give it 6 out of 5 stars if I could.