TDK AI401248 40x12x48 CD-RW Drive

by TDK

Product Details

Product Manual [1.04mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000643QX
• Item model number: AI-401248
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 23, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

TDK smashes the speed barrier with its 40x/12x/48x veloCD ReWriter. The proof is in the numbers: burn a full CD in three minutes with 40x writing and rip a three-minute audio track in five seconds with 48x digital audio extraction. If you demand uncompromising quality and unrivaled performance, you need the flagship veloCD 401248, the world's first 40x CD burner.

True to the TDK heritage of digital audio excellence, the 401248 veloCD burner sets a new record with bit-perfect 48x digital audio extraction. Ripping audio with a typical CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is often slow and inaccurate, and the process often contaminates files with audible clicks and pops. The veloCD 401248 delivers a clean, pop-free rip every time. With 48x ripping and 40x writing, the veloCD burner is so fast, it may be the only drive you need. For CD-to-CD-R recording, it's a one-drive alternative that's better sounding than, and takes less than half the time of, most two-drive setups.

The veloCD lets you burn while running multiple applications. You're free to burn CDs while you surf the Web, download music, or print a document. With the veloCD, you're assured of perfect CDs every time--no failed sessions, no CD coasters.

TDK makes CD rewriting faster and more convenient. The 401248 veloCD combines the advanced functionality of 10x rewriting with the convenience of drag-and-drop recording. To achieve full 10x rewriting speed, it's necessary to use high-speed CD-RW discs.

Designed as an all-in-one solution for CD music and multimedia recording, the 401248 veloCD burner comes complete with TDK's own CD Blender software suite, as well as Nero 5.5 multimedia recording software and InCD packet-writing software. VeloCD comes with everything you need to organize and play your digital music files, create play-anywhere CDs from MP3, WMA, and WAV files, copy CDs with one-click convenience, and lots more.

Note: In order to write at 40x speed, you must use certified 40x CD media. It is not necessary to use certified 40x CD media for writing at speeds slower than 40x.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best burner I've ever had!, May 26, 2002

By 

Mark Lahren (Bismarck, North Dakota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TDK AI401248 40x12x48 CD-RW Drive (Personal Computers)

I've owned 5 CD burners, three of which lasted less than two weeks. Those three were 'bargain' brands, which led me to finally invest in this one, which I had heard was one of the two best ones available (the other one being the Plextor Plexwriter). Well let me just say I'm not sorry I went with the TDK. For reference, my system is a self-built AMD Athlon 1.2 ghz. with 256 megs of ram and Windows 98. I am using it in conjunction with a Creative 52X CD drive. I installed each on a separate IDE channel and the first thing I did after installation was do a 12X Music CD copy directly from the Creative to the TDK using a Maxell 80 minute CD-R Music CD. This burner flies! I didn't time it, but I left the room for a couple minutes and when I returned, it had already finished! I was skeptical, so I took my newly burned CD out to my stereo and it played absolutely perfectly from beginning to end. It was indistinguishable from the original. Installation was easy and I never once looked at the manual, although if you've never installed one before, the manual appears to be complete and should get you through okay.

The burner's blue tray adds a subtle beauty to my system and really makes it look pro-built. It comes with great software too, including Ahead Nero 5.5, TDK Digital MixMaster, InCD CD-RW Packet Writing Software, and Adobe ActiveShare. Nero, while not quite as user-friendly as some others, is the most complete set of tools I've seen come with a burner, and is fairly self-explanatory once you've fooled with it for a bit. And of course the TDK also comes with Buffer Underrun Protection. I can't think of a thing that would cause me not to recommend this fine product. It's super-fast, well-built, reliable, easy to install, and easy to look at. If you want professional results, this is the one to get.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent piece of hardware, July 16, 2002

By 

Andrew Hamada (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TDK AI401248 40x12x48 CD-RW Drive (Personal Computers)

The velo-cd series of cd writers by TDK has consistently proven itself as a winner in the market. I've purchased (for either my own use or in building PCs for educational institutions and friends) well over twenty different cd writers over the course of three years and can easily say TDK is the best out there. Not only does this one write at 40x, but it also includes burn-proof technology (which is quickly becoming an industry standard), which if you don't know is a buffer-underun prevention mechanism which ensures your burns almost always succeed, even if the read buffer is used up. It also utilizes Nero software, which is superior to Roxio Easy CD Creator in every aspect imaginable (including such goodness as drag-n-drop mp3 burning for beginning users, as well as hundreds of options for more experienced users).

Beginning customers should be aware of several things, however, when purchasing cd writers. First of all, a computer without sufficient RAM will not burn at 40x, no matter how much you want it to. Do not expect this burner to perform consistently at 40x without 512 mb of RAM. Also, be aware of the CD-R media you buy: cheaper brands & cheaper quality media cannot necessarily be used at 40x speed, even if the packaging says it supports the speed. Use TDK media, which tends to be both affordable and reliable, or other brand-name media (and not, for example, the bulk CD-Rs produced by CompUSA).

I encountered no driver, IRQ, or other conflicts while installing and using this product. It worked right out of the box, and as the drivers install with the software, I did not need tech-support's help to get it running properly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Works great - if you have the time to configure it, August 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: TDK AI401248 40x12x48 CD-RW Drive (Personal Computers)

i bought this burner with the highest expectations. I've had a plexwriter, a QPS, an HP before this, so i've had experience with high end brand-name burners. I had purchased the QPS Que 40x and returned it the same day after reading the high/positive ratings the TDK received. After installing it, i was nothing but disappointed. it wouldn't burn a cd faster than 10 minutes, with almost a 100 buffer-underruns each time. It hung my system, w/c by the way is a brand new dell - 2ghz, win 2k, 512 ram, 80gb hdd. after plenty of analysis, trips to the website and coasters, i finally called the tech support 800 #. they were great (except for a rude comment i heard the tech make when he thought i wasn't listening), very patient and helpful - w/c eventually led to us figuring out that this burner does not work with Zone Alarm's Firewall. (why, i don't know) It also needs to be configured for DMA and running the updated nero/wnaspi.dll/firmware, etc. it works great now - i'm a DJ - so i do lots of successive burns and get lots of use out of my burner. after giving me atleast 30 bad cd's in the first week, its now working like a charm - not a coaster in sight and blazing speeds. Can't recommend this burner higher than a 3 because of all the setup/initial problems - but i can tell u that once all the kinks are worked out, its a beauty!!