Yamaha Corp. has rolled out what they claim is the industry’s fastest internal and external ReWritable CD recorders: the LightSpeed CRW2200 Series models.
The systems can record on CD-R discs at an “industry-first” top speed of 20X, writing a full CD in under four minutes; rewriting CD-RW discs at a top speed of 10X; and reading CDs at a sustained maximum rate of 40X, according to Allen Gharapetian, general manager, Multimedia Products Division, Yamaha Electronics Corp. Plus, the CRW2200 Series let users rip audio CDs at a maximum speed of 40X. That’s up to 66 percent faster than conventional CD-RW recorders currently in the marketplace and allows digital audio extraction of a 74-minute audio disc in less than three minutes, Gharapetian said.
“We have also included an external USB 2.0 model in this series,” he added in a statement. “This breakthrough product will create even more consumer interest in a market that is already projected to grow by 42 percent this year.”
Yamaha developed the CRW2200 Series to take advantage of Partial Constant Angular Velocity (P-CAV) technology, a combination of CAV and standard Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) technology, for optimum performance, he said. The CAV recording method purportedly keeps the disc rotation speed constant while adjusting the data transfer rate depending upon which portion of the disc is being recorded.
Besides utilizing conventional CLV recording at 2X, 4X, 8X, and 10X in rewriting mode, the CRW2200 also supports the 4X-10X CAV mode. This permits high-speed random writing/reading of data and realizes floppy disk-like ease of operation using packet writing, Gharapetian said. Yamaha CRW2200 CD-RW recorders are also the first CD recorders to use the Yamaha SafeBurn System, which provides the new recorders with an advanced buffer underrun control system, an 8 MB buffer, and Yamaha’s Optimum Write Speed Control. The latter checks a disc’s capability and the recording conditions. This allows LightSpeed recorders to select the optimum writing speed to further improve reliability, Gharapetian said.
Yamaha has also equipped the CRW2200 Series with a new software suite for both Mac and Wintel systems, including Ahead Software’s NeroMAX for CD Mastering for Macs and PhotoShop LE. The recorders comes in five models (all of them Mac compatible): the internal CRW2200EZ using E-IDE (ATAPI) interface, shipping this month; the internal CRW2200SZ using Ultra SCSI (SCSI-3) interface; the external CRW2200SXZ using Ultra SCSI interface and the external CRW2200FXZ using FireWire technology, available next month. The external CRW2200 USB 2.0 model will be available in late July.