Path: kernighan.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: arcade@mystical.xs4all.nl (Pascal Eeftinck) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Pioneer DR-U10X CD-ROM drive unit Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 12 Dec 1996 22:53:52 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 298 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <58q2e0$mff@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: arcade@mystical.xs4all.nl (Pascal Eeftinck) NNTP-Posting-Host: knots.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, CD-ROM, commercial X-Review-Number: Volume 1996 Number 35 Originator: barrett@knots.cs.umass.edu PRODUCT NAME Pioneer DR-U10X CD-ROM drive unit BRIEF DESCRIPTION A 10-speed, internal SCSI-2 compliant CD-ROM unit. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Pioneer Electronics Service, Inc. Address: Customer Support Division P.O. Box 1760 Long Beach CA 90801-1760 USA COMPONENTS SUPPLIED Pioneer DR-U10X internal CD-ROM unit Software device drive disk (for MS-DOS/Windows 3.xx) Audio cable (supposed to go to a soundcard) Short-circuit sockets (jumpers, 4 pieces) Mounting screws (4 pieces) Installation instructions Operating instructions Correction to the Operating Instructions LIST PRICE Unknown. I purchased it at a sale for dfl. 420, which roughly amounts to $250 (US). DEMO VERSION None. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE SCSI controller required SOFTWARE A CD-ROM filesystem. The CDFileSystem as shipped with AmigaDOS 3.x will work, but others are available from various sources. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 500+, CSA Derringer 68030/25 + 68882/25 16MB 32-bit RAM, 4MB 16-bit RAM, 2MB Chip RAM GVP A500HD8+ Series-II SCSI controller (gvpscsi.device 3.15), Quantum Fireball 2GB, Quantum ProDrive LPS240S, Iomega ZIP drive AmigaDOS 3.1 (Kickstart 40.63, Workbench 40.42) INSTALLATION This is an internal device which has to be connected to your SCSI bus with a 50-pin flatcable. It also needs power from a `PC standard' power supply, and PC-users can connect the drive to their soundcard. The operating instructions explain the installation well, even though it is directed towards PC and Macintosh usage. Hardware configuration is simple, but the jumpers at the back of the drive are small and a bit hard to get out. The Amiga needs some software to be able to talk to the drive and the software supplied with the drive is usable with PC's only. Users of AmigaDOS 3.x have the CDFileSystem in their L: directory, but other (better) filesystems such as AsimCDFS and AmiCDFS are available. The operating instructions mentions the following formats to be supported by the drive: Red Book (CD Audio (CDDA)), Yellow Book (ISO 9660, High Sierra, Rock Ridge, CD-ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 1 and 2)) Orange Book (CD-Recordable) ISO 9660 is supported by the CDFileSystem which comes with AmigaDOS 3.x, High Sierra and Rock Ridge might be supported as well (I'm not sure). The others are not as far as I know, so a filesystem other than the CDFileSystem which comes with the operating system is highly recommended. HOOKING UP THE DRIVE In my Amiga there is not enough room to house all the hardware, I have a 1 meter flatcable leading from my controller to an external case (an old PC) which serves as the power supply and housing for my SCSI drives. In my setup the ZIP drive is at one end of the SCSI chain and has the termination enabled, and at the other end is the CD-ROM drive for which I had to remove a jumper to enable termination. I set the SCSI ID at 4 for the CD-ROM drive with the supplied jumpers and plugged in a cable from the power supply to the CD-ROM drive. The audio cable can't be used, but perhaps it's possible to feed the signal to an amplifier. After installing the drive, the system booted without a hitch. From other sources I've read that it's wise to put the CD-ROM drive at an ID higher than any of your harddisks, or the booting will stop for a while since the drive has to be polled. My ZIP drive is at ID 6, the CD at 4 and the two harddisks at 0 and 1. I haven't had this same problem with my setup. As for the software side of things, a CD-ROM filesystem has to be mounted. Users of Workbench 3.0 and up have this already through SYS:Storage/CD0. All it took was setting gvpscsi.device and unit 4 in the icon information. Then after double-clicking the CD0 icon any CD popped into the drive will be recognized. I had the problem that I couldn't eject the disc anymore after mounting it, so I went to look for another filesystem. On one of my CD's I found AmiCDFS 2.37 which is uncrippled shareware. After copying a few files to install AmiCDFS my discs can be ejected again. The SCSI-activity LED on my controller keeps flickering every few seconds since it is polling the drive to see if a disc has been inserted, but I don't consider that a problem. I have tried booting off a CD-ROM, but so far have been unable to. I think that it is impossible, since no filesystem is present at boottime. But anyone who has more information on this subject, please feel free to write me. THE PERFORMANCE I haven't done any benchmarks with this drive as my system isn't really suitable. With the Derringer turboboard the SCSI bus has become slow at 900KB/sec. Yet, from working with the drive I've noticed it is about as fast as my harddrives, and works like a charm. According to the documentation the drive is capable of transfering up to 1514KB/sec (10x speed) at the outer circumference and 652KB/sec (4.3x speed) at the inner circumference. However, there is also a combination mode which increases the rotational speed at the inner circumference, thereby obtaining 1215KB/sec (8x speed). This combinational mode is enabled by default and hasn't given me any problems. AUDIO (CDDA) FUNCTIONALITY One of the things I've always wanted to be able to do is control the playing of CDs through software. A little hunt on AmiNet brought me to OptyCDPlayer, a MUI program. This program really works well with this drive. Inserting a CDDA (Audio) CD will show the tracks and title of the CD if known already, and the play and other control functions are responsive. The sound through my headphones is good, and the volume can be controlled by both a knob on the front of the drive and through software. OptyCDPlayer also allows one to take the audio from the CD straight into the computer, if the CD-ROM drive supports it. The Pioneer DR-U10X is supported in the SONY/APPLE mode. I took a few perfect samples quickly off the audio CDs. The drive is resonating quite a bit when performing this reading, but that's the only problem I've encountered with it. READING KODAK PHOTO CDs I haven't been able to test this functionality since I don't have any Photo-CDs and I also lack the software for reading them. Perhaps needless to say that I wouldn't expect any problems in that area with this drive. DOCUMENTATION The operating instructions are clear and complete, and come in English, French, German and Japanese. The English part covers 21 pages, and I think that nobody will have any problems with it. The installation instructions (for Macintosh and Windows) come in English and Japanese, but this booklet is probably useless to those who use the drive on an Amiga. I haven't read it myself. There is no Amiga specific information included with the documentation. LIKES The Pioneer DR-U10X CD-ROM unit performs very well for me. It's fast, was not very expensive and is reliable. I have not seen any problem with it so far, with a variety of Amiga CD's like AmiNet 13 and 14, the Amiga Developer CD v1.1, the Eric Schwartz CD Archive and CU Amiga Magazine Super CD-ROMs 4&5. I have also succesfully read the files off a PC oriented CD. The audio performance is also very good: one of my audio CD's is very scratched - where my normal Pioneer PD-T305 CD player skips hence and forth at those scratches the CD-ROM drive continues to play albeit with a distored sound. It never skipped to another location and never went into a loop playing the same sound over and over unlike my normal CD player. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS There's really not much I don't like about this drive. It is a pity the audio cable can't be used to get the audio fed into the Amiga, but that's probably a problem with all other CD-ROM drives which can be hooked up to the Amiga. For me it was no problem that there are no Amiga specific instructions and there is no Amiga software included. With OS 3.x and a SCSI controller getting the drive the drive to work is simple, and obtaining a better CD-ROM filesystem shouldn't be too much of a problem. People without OS 3.x will have to get a filesystem first. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS I've never had the pleasure of working with a CD-ROM drive for real before, so I can't really comment on it. I did browse a CD with pictures on a PC with 4x CD-ROM drive before, and this drive is a lot faster than that one. BUGS The only bugs I've found are probably software related, OptyCDPlayer looses track of where an audio CD is playing after a while (exiting and restarting the program fixes that) and the inability to eject a CD after it's been mounted with the AmigaDOS 3.x supplied CDFileSystem. VENDOR SUPPORT I haven't seen the need to contact Pioneer for support. But they have various support sites listed in the manual. WARRANTY I have one year of warranty through the retailer, which is also the warranty given by Pioneer. CONCLUSIONS This drive performs well, as well as I expected it would before I bought it at the fair. It's not expensive, reliable, and I'm glad I waited so long in buying a CD-ROM drive since I'm now not stuck with a bad and cheap drive but with a fast and solid product. If you have a SCSI controller and no CD-ROM drive yet and you have the room to fit an internal CD-ROM drive, I can absolutely recommend the Pioneer DR-U10X. On a scale from one to five, I give this drive an absolute five. The lack of Amiga specific instructions and software is a minus, but not one I take highly. Anyone with a connection to the Internet or a BBS shouldn't have any problems obtaining a decent CD filesystem, and even without that there are many PD libraries who can supply it at a low price. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1996 Pascal Eeftinck -- __ /// Pascal Eeftinck -- C/C++ and Assembler Programmer -+- GFX Freak __ /// http://www.xs4all.nl/~arcade -+- Work: Planet Internet Serv.desk \\\/// arcade@xs4all.nl - arcade@skf.com - mystic@pi.net - arcade@dds.nl \\\/ MOO: MUD Object-Oriented -> ArchWizard: telnet://moo.fdf.net:8888/ --- Accepted and posted by Daniel Barrett, comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Web site: ftp://math.uh.edu/pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews/index.html