CD-ROM - INFORMATION OVERKILL - Part 2 from Brian Burke @~Continued from last issue 6. Is it important to buy a fully SCSI compatible drive? Several CD-ROM drives only support a sub-set of SCSI, and usually come with their own semi-SCSI controller card. Full SCSI compatible drives usually cost more, but are better if you already have a SCSI controller and want to daisy chain several devices, or if you want to be able to use the drive on different machine types. SCSI 2 is the latest interface standard (March '94) which affords faster transfer rates. Whilst SCSI interface problems have been reduced the casual user should probably stick to AT drives for economy. ================================================================== 7. Where can I get information on SCSI controllers for CD-ROM drives? Many SCSI drive vendors recommend the Adaptek 1542-B SCSI Card. The phone number for Adaptek is 800-959-7274 or 408-945-2550. Adaptek have placed their ASPI device manager into Public Domain. Corel sell a SCSI software kit to support a multitude of drivers and interface with ASPI compatible cards/devices. ================================================================== 8. How much does it cost to make a CD-ROM? You can get a master made for about $1300, and then about $1.50 per disc for duplication. So to make 1000 discs, it will cost you about ($1300 + (1000 * 1.50)) = $2800. Publishers often have `first-timer' specials with steep discounts off the list price. For instance, DMI recently had a special of mastering, 50 discs, and two hours of tech support for $750. If you only want a few discs, you can have single ISO-9660 `one-offs' made for about $200 for the first disc, and $100 for additional copies. ================================================================== 9. I have a great idea for a CD-ROM but no money. What can I do? You can author a CD-ROM, and have someone else publish it and pay you royalties. One company that does this is Walnut Creek CDROM. Their author guidelines are available by anonymous ftp from cdrom.com in the file /pub/author.txt. ================================================================== 10. Where can I get a CD-ROM published? Digital Audio Disc Corporation 1800 North Fruitridge Avenue Terre Haute, IN 47803 812-462-8100, 812-466-9125 FAX Disc Manufacturing Inc. 4905 Moores Mill Road Huntsville, AL 35810 800-433-DISC, 205-859-9042, 205-859-9932 FAX DADC is a subsidiary of Sony, and DMI is a subsidiary of Philips. In total there are about 25 publishers in 8 countries. There are now over 10 manufacturing facilities active in CDROM in North America, and another growing collection of write-once service bureaus. These are listed in MFG.TXT in Lib #8 of the Compuserve CDROM Forum. If you only want to make one disc, or just a few copies, there are several companies that offer this service: On-Site CD 13901 Lynde Avenue Sartoga, CA 95030 (408) 867-0514, 408 867-0518 FAX ISO-9660, Mac HFS, Call for price Optical Media International San Jose, CA (408) 376-3511, 408-376-3519 FAX omi@applelink.apple.com ISO-9660, Mac HFS, Call for price Walnut Creek CDROM 1547 Palos Verdes Mall, Suite 260 Walnut Creek, CA 94596 1-800-786-9907, +1 510 674-0783, FAX: +1 510 674-0821, info@cdrom.com ISO-9660, Rock Ridge (Unix), $195, $95 each for additional copies Young Minds Inc. 1910 Orange Tree Lane, Suite 300 Redlands, CA 92374 714 335-1350, 714 798-0488 FAX, yngmnds!ayoung@ucrmath.ucr.edu Rock Ridge (Unix), $950 ================================================================ 11. Where can I find equipment to make my own CD-ROMs? If you want to do single copy `one-offs', or low volume CD production, there are recorders announced by JVC, Philips, Sony, Yamaha and Pinnacle Micro. JVC Personal ROM-Maker $12500 (complete system, including software) Philips CDD-521 $5500 (+ $1900 for software) Sony CDW-900E $10000 (???) Yamaha ???? ???? Pinnacle Micro $3995 ISO 9660 and HFS software for Macs Kodak remarkets the Philips drive as their PCD Writer 200. This machine costs E3995 and is a worm drive (write once read many). Needs special Windows based software at E1495 in order to write to a "gold" blank CD. The software is dongle protected. Pinnacle Micro announced at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco a new, recordable CD-ROM drive with a list price of $3,995! This price includes ISO 9660 and HFS software for Macs. PC interface kit and software is extra $200. Here are some phone numbers you can call for more info: JVC Product Information: +1 714 965-2610 Philips Consumer Electronics: +1 615 475-8869 Sony Computer Peripheral Products: 1 800 352-7669 Pinnacle Micro 1 800 553-7070 1-714-727-1913 (fax) You can buy the Philips drive with CDGEN software for ISO-9660 discs from DataDisc (1-800-328-2347, FAX: +1 703-347-9085) for $7895. They recommend that you use it with the Adaptec 1542 SCSI Card. Optical Media International (1-408-376-3511, omi@applelink.apple.com) has Macintosh HFS premastering software for the Philips CDD-521. The program is called "Quicktopics" and the cost is $2500. The JVC drive comes with software for making ISO-9960, Apple HFS, and hybrid ISO-9660/HFS discs. Additional third party integrators are: Meridian Data 408-438-3100; CD-ROM Strategies 714-733-3378 &Interactive Support Group 818-709-7387. Here is a list of software vendors CD-ROM Strategies CD-GEN 1 714 733-3378 DataDisc CD-Gen 1 800 328-2347 Dataware Technologies, Inc. CD Make 1 510 942-3111 JVC RomMaker 1 714 965-2610 Meridain Data CD Publisher 1 408 438-3100 OnLine Business Systems CD-Formatter ? ??? ???-???? Optical Media International Topix 1 408 376-3511 PoINT Software and Systems CDWRITE ? ??? ???-???? Young Minds, Inc. CD Studio 1 714 335-1350 Authoring Software: Dataware Technologies, Inc. CD Author 1 510 942-3111 Dataware Technologies, Inc. ReferenceSet 1 510 942-3111 Electronic Text Corporation WordCruncher ? ??? ???-???? Executive Technologies, Inc. Search Express ? ??? ???-???? Folio Corporation Folio Previews 1 800 228-3934/801 375-3700 I-MODE Retrieval Systems, Inc. I-SEARCH ? ??? ???-???? Knowledge Access International KAware ? ??? ???-???? Nimbus Information Systems Romware ? ??? ???-???? OnLine Business Systems CD-Build ? ??? ???-???? Retrieval Technologies, Inc. re:Search ? ??? ???-???? Textware Corporation Textware ? ??? ???-???? TMS, Inc. InnerView ? ??? ???-???? 12. Where can I get blank media for my CD-ROM recorder? The blank discs for CD Recorders are not the same as a normal CD. The metal data surface is gold instead of aluminum. The recorder uses a high powered laser to modify a dye layer which is between the gold and the plastic. This dye is somewhat photo sensitive so write once CDs should be stored in a dark place. They should be stored in an area that does not rise above 40 Celsius (104 F). It takes about half an hour to burn each disc. The blanks come in two sizes - 63 minutes, and 74 minutes. The time refers to the amount of digital audio that can be recorded. Since DA is read from the discs at a constant rate of 150 kb/sec, it is easy to calculate the amount of data they will hold. The 63' discs will hold about 580 mg, and the 74' discs will hold about 660 meg. Here are several sources for blank discs: DataDisc (1-800-328-2347, 1-703-347-9085 FAX). 74 minutes $27 for 10. 63 minutes $19 quantity 25. DataWare (1-510-942-3111) ask for Jeff Caplan - 74 minutes (650meg) blanks for $31 quantity ten, $29 quantity 100, and $27 quantity 500. Sonic Solutions 415-485-4800. Their April 1992 price list shows CD-R74 quantity 100 as $27.50, CD-R63 quantity 100 as $25.00. APDC sells blanks discs, magneto-optical disks, 8mm and 4mm tapes. 800-522-7232, ask for Susan Bradley. Kodak also sells them. Call 800-242-2424. The U.S. sales office for DIC (a Japanese ink and chemical company) can be reached at 201-224-9344. DIC claims a useful life in excess of 75 years for their discs. 3ms sell the "gold" blank CD. Cost around E18 for 650Mb. Uses burn process. Some other sources for blank discs (sorry, no phone numbers): Mitsui Toatsu, TDK, JVC, Ricoh, Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi Chemicals. @~To be continued next issue - o -