Ricoh MP9060 6x4x24 CDRW & 4x DVD-Rom

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Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004R7OP
• Item model number: MP9060
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,143 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Optical Drives > DVD Drives

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Most PCs ship with DVD-ROM drives these days, and some even come with CD-RW (rewritable) drives for recording data to CD media, but only the most expensive systems have one of each. Now Ricoh has done something unheard of by combining both DVD-ROM and a CD-RW drive into a single unit and offering it in kit form at a reasonable price.

The specifications for Ricoh's MP9060A are impressive. It reads DVDs at 4x speed and CD-ROMs at 24x speed. It also writes data to CD-R media at up to 6x speed and to CD-RW media at up to 4x speed. Some separate DVD drives and CD recorders are faster, but none combine the multimedia and backup abilities the MP9060A boasts.

The drive comes with nearly everything you need to get started, with the surprising omission of an EIDE cable to attach it to the motherboard. Ricoh must have assumed customers would use the MP9060A as a replacement for an existing drive, in which case you could use the old cable. But if you plan to use the MP9060A in a system you're building, you'll have to supply the requisite cable. In a slave configuration (the way we tested it), the MP9060A can attach to the second port on the EIDE cable already attached to the master drive, so this shouldn't be a problem.

The drive includes an audio cable in addition to mounting screws, a software CD, a blank CD-R disc, and a blank CD-RW disc. We had to move a jumper to set the drive up as a slave device on our system, and that simple step was as tough as the hardware installation. The drive installed as soon as Windows detected it, and it was operational within 10 minutes of taking it out of the box.

The only thing holding this drive back from its full potential is the bundled software. The MP9060A comes with a hobbled "lite" version of Adaptec's Easy CD Creator, which failed to copy nearly every CD we tested. We used some better software that already was installed on our system and discovered the MP9060A is an excellent and accurate CD recorder if the software is up to snuff. The included Adaptec DirectCD software, used to make a CD-RW disc act like an external hard drive, worked well.

Setting up the DVD playback software is more cumbersome that it should be, due mainly to poor documentation. We couldn't even play DVD movies until we established a regional code for the drive, which involves scrounging for a password and serial number that isn't even mentioned in the setup documentation.

After going through all that, we still received a regional coding violation when we loaded a DVD. The Cinemaster software finally let us permanently enable the proper coding, but the process was intrusive, to say the least.

Once we jumped through the requisite hoops, we were left with a great DVD-ROM drive that also happened to be able to record on CD-R and CD-RW discs. While recording to DVD media is beyond the capabilities of this drive, it still makes for a reliable backup device that is also fairly speedy for a CD-RW drive. The Cinemaster software isn't the best we've ever encountered, but when combined with the accurate abilities of the MP9060A, it was able to play a horribly mangled DVD disc that most other DVD drives can't even detect.

If you decide to buy the MP9060A, it's likely you'll soon pine for a more robust software suite and perhaps a hardware DVD decoder, so you may want to factor that into your final price. Otherwise, the MP9060A is a sturdy, quiet drive that packs more than enough functionality and build quality to justify its price tag. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• DVD and CD-RW capabilities in a single device
• Generous 2 MB buffer
• Extremely quiet operation
• Good build quality
• Front-mounted headphone jack and volume control

Cons:

• Software bundle is weak
• DVD playback would benefit from a hardware controller card
• Software setup is clumsy

Product Description
The standard for recording and storage media, CD-R/RW, and the new standard for movies and multimedia software, DVD, are together in one unit. It begins with the convenience of CD-R/RW technology, like fast backups and original CD mastering. And it continues with DVDs that deliver high-impact movies right to your desktop. Ricoh's MP9060A-DP responds to your needs for an all-around media solution.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great value?, May 29, 2000

By	"rour" (California) - See all my reviews

Great if you have a limited number of drive bays. I found the 4x DVD drive to be a little slow, and there were occasional pauses during playback of The Matrix. The writing capabilities of this drive are amazing! I upgraded from a 2x CDRW drive and I'll say that this one blows the pants off of it. But for $299, you can probably find a faster DVD drive and an equivalent CDRW drive for about the same price.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All-In-One Device... Great Value for the Average User, September 21, 2000

By	"ultraman_zero" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

If you've been waiting for CDs to be replaced by DVDs, and are starting to become a bit impatient 'cos it doesn't seem to be happening, this unit maybe just what you'll need right now during this painfully slow transition period.

CD writing ability of this drive is generally fairly good, although I did find that there was one particular major brand of CD-R which caused the drive to almost hang up, and was unable to make any sort of successful recordings on it. Otherwise, the qualities of the recordings were very consistent. However, older drives might have problems in reading CDs created by this drive. One other problem detected was the inconsistencies between the size of files to be recorded (as reported by the bundled software) and the actual size of the recordings made, which means quite often you'll find that you're unable to pack in all the files you originally planned.

DVD reading is adequate and satisfactory. As usual, the quality DVD video playback will be greatly enhanced if accompanied by a decent graphics card and/or hardware decoder. The speed of the drive should be sufficient for any DVD videos, and if there are any pauses during playback (which there weren't many at all), it is probably due to the quality of the laser pickup.

To summarise, there is nothing exciting or outstanding about this unit, but its major selling point is that it is extremely good-value for what it does, and also saves a lot of space. Be warned that the unit does heat up quite a bit while it is on (even when it's not actually recording!), although I don't think that should cause any problems. And like most multi-function-in-one devices, don't expect it will last very long.

21 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Value for the Price., June 25, 2000

By	"compmaster88" (Staten Island, NY 10308) - See all my reviews

If your computer beats the minimum system requirenments, you will have no problems with your DVD. The write and rewrite options work good, no bad cd's so far. For the current price, you can pretty much get the same value. This drive is optimal if you have limited bays, or just don't want to buy seperate drives. Over all, this is a good value. Works fine with the right pc. Even though, I don't suggest buying this just for watching movies or just for making cd's.