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Alongtime fixture of floppy diskette duplication, MediaFORM, Inc. has transferred its amassed technological talents and know-how to the CD-R side in recent years with much success, establishing itself alongside Microboards, Aba, and Champion as a household name in houses where CD-R is spoken. And MediaFORM's namerecognition notoriety should only grow with its latest and most visible release, the CD2CD Pro, a new standalone duplicator that instantly stands out in a well-populated and growing field.
A mid-range product designed for tasks such as small-run disc duplication and rudimentary disc verification, MediaFORM's CD2CD Pro is a standalone tower that can be placed unobtrusively on a desk in an office or production environment. What first seems best about the product is not just how neatly it makes itself at home in such an environment but how quickly and easily it gets busy; even CD-R greenhorns can plug in the drive and be duping discs in minutes. But the CD2CD Pro makes its deepest impression with its range of functionality, consistent 4X write performance, and a logical, flexible, and inexpensive expansion path that is unsurpassed among the current crop of duplicators in the CD2CD Pro's class.
HOW IT WORKS: A MODEL OF SIMPLICITY
Instead of using a proprietary architecture, the CD2CD Pro is based around a standard 75 Mhz Pentium PC configured with an IDE hard drive, one or two Adaptec AHA-2940 SCSI cards, one Plextor 12PleX CD-ROM drive, and one to six TEAC CD-R5OS 4X/4X or Yamaha CDR400t 4X/6X recorders. With one recorder installed, the 47-pound, 19.4" X 18.4" X 6.8" box sells for $4995; the no-vacancy six-drive models sell for $8995. Users type commands on a 14key membrane control pad that protrudes from the top of the unit's face, with numbers 0 to 9 and designations for Start, Stop, Copy, and Compare. An easy-to-read backlit LCD display with two-line, 20-character capacity keeps the user informed of all duplication activities. With Yamaha recorders in use, start-up initialization is a bit sluggish, clocking in at roughly two and a half minutes for completing internal diagnostics.
Direct disc-to-disc copying with the CD2CD Pro is a piece of cake: users need simply to insert the duplication-designated CD...