Customer Reviews

Yamaha CRW-F1ZE 44x24x44 Internal EIDE CD-RW Drive (White)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To complain about the burned images that this drive can produce is like complaining that your Ferrari's sunroof opens a little too slow :-)

This drive's "Wow" factor will not wear out anytime soon. To geeks, it's incredible that this drive has finally made a consumer priced laser etching system! And to everyone, these images look sweet! If you view the T@2's like a Hologram (like the one on your Visa/Mastercard) you can see them just fine. Yamaha has rated the image quality at 250dpi, which for comparison sake is 3 times sharper than any image you find on the web. The images are faint, but not too faint, and it's totally worth the cost, in my opinion.

The best way to get the sharpest image is to use a CD with Azo dye (the data side looks blue). Yamaha sells these kind of CD's, again at a little higher price.

Even without the special features, this drive would be a winner. So for a few more dollars out of your pocket, you get all these incredible features, plus an unbeatable CD-RW drive.

Also look on Amazon for the Black colored drive, Yamaha CRW-F1ZEN. It's the same drive, it's just black to match black computers.

The Advanced Audio Quality Recoding Mode is very good and is really the best part of this unit. If you want your cd's to sound their best use this mode, but you are limited to 8x tops and can be used only with audio cds (no data, vcds, etc)only. This mode is said to replicate conventional recording methods. A burned audio cd-r should last longer also.

The standard mode at full speed is also very good. The unit will pick the fastest safe burn speed in any mode. Will burn on the cheap cds. No skipping in a GM deck. Sounds very good.

DiscT@2 (disc tatoo) A neat f(x) that will only work well with dark dyed media (good for those old blue verbatims). Only works on a finalized disc, because of this it is a two step process. Put your data on the cd, finalize. The area that is left over is suitable for a tatoo. The more data you have on the disc the less size from the center to the edge you will have to work with. You can tatoo images and text.

To get the tatoo to wrap: type out text in the text box, click away from text, right click on text for menu. You now have the wrap fxns. The tatoos can be very elaborate and fun to do.

I think this unit is the best cdrw out there right now. 129.99 at best buy after $20 rebate 10/2/02. Much, much better than my old Yamaha crw-2100.

This is what I've been waiting for. It took next to nothing in time to install. The previous review covers the technical end of things quite well. The only complaint I have is the disc t@2 feature. So far, it doesn't seem to work as advertised. Tech support says to try blank media with a darker dye. Other than that, I'm quite satisfied.

Still playin' around with those junk Plextor's?
I went to recording school and can't recall one
piece of equipment that bore the name Plextor.
The F1 smokes'em all and does it effortlessly and
flawlessly.Would you buy a car made by Coca Cola?
Then why would you buy recording equipment from
companies not in the business.The F1 is the best burner
to date...Head and shoulders above the rest.A tip
for newbies and greenhorns;Don't hook your drive up
to the primary ide channel(the one your hard drive is on)
It should go on the secondary ide channel(the one yourcd/dvd rom
is on)Always set jumper to slave unless you're using it for
your master drive.You can set all jumpers to cable select and
let the computer choose but that won't guarantee you'll be
conflict free.If you're getting the blue screens or the drive
isn't recognized,you've got an IRQ conflict.The gray connector
on your secondary ide cable is the slave connection,the black con
nector is for your master drive.Don't know which cable is which?
Your hard drive is on the primary cable(the connector on your
motherboard should be blue and the secondary cable connector on your board will be black).You can hook your drive up to the primary ide channel but, don't be surprised if conflicts arise.

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!

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.

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.

Well, i have this CDRW ror a month now...it works good BUT the nero software that comes with it has one big probleme, ut only support X44 & X16. any cdr that i used under 44, nero droped the speed to X16. and media @ X44 speed is not commone

This product is great, but I have a big problem with it, I could not use it to write with 32X speed, it only gives certain speeds such az 4x, 8x, 16x, 44x.

And one more strang thing, I have some CDs that are multispeed (they! said) ... but writing with 44X speed is take as long as writing with 16X ?!!!

anyway, if anyone can help me with these problems I would be very happy to hear.

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.