Portable CD Tattoos with Yamaha’s CRW-F1UX USB 2.0 Burner – THG.RU

A Burner in the Spirit of the Age: Yamaha’s CRW-F1UX

Andrea and Sabine have got one. Claudia wants one too. What’s trendy enough for the youth of today is good enough for a burner manufacturer to offer, too. We’re talking here about tattoos. Recently, we reviewed the Yamaha CRW-F1, a CD RW-drive with just such a function. This time, we take a look at the extermal version of the drive, the CRW-F1UX, which comes with a USB 2.0 interface.

Included with the CRW-F1UX are a USB cable, a mains power source, a CD-R and a CD-RW. On the software CD you’ll find Nero Burning ROM, the Nero toolkit, InCD Packet-Writing software and device drivers for Windows 98.

Complete package: unpack it, plug it in and let it burn.

Useful: audio controls and headphone jack on the front.

From the rear: standard USB connector and mains switch.

Just like the CRW-F1, the CRW-F1UX supports the following write modes: Track-at-Once; Disc-at-Once; Session-at-Once; Multisession; Packet-Writing; and Mount Rainier with CRW-F1UX at the following write and read speeds:

The odd thing is that the CRW-FIUX is not capable of any other write speeds in between 16x and 44x, such as 24x or 32x.

In Packet-Writing mode with InCD, you can select whether to write in CAV or CLV mode. In practice, however, the difference between the write speeds of the two modes turns out to be marginal. As well as these standard packet-writing modes, CD-MRW mode (CD-Mount-Rainier-RW) is also supported.

To get the best possible, error-free writing results, the device provides the two functions, buffer-underrun protection and optimum write-speed control. Both functions can be selected in Nero.

Special Functions

Some special goodies offered by the CRW-FIUX are functions such as Disc T@2 and Advanced Audio Master Quality Recording, which we discussed last time with the CRW-F1.

Disc T@2 – Further Details

This function allows you to customize the data-side of the CD. Suitable features for customization include graphics, texts or just the title of an audio CD.

You gain access to the tattoo function in Nero, via the “File,” “Compilation Info” menu, on the “Miscellaneous” tab. The appropriate layout is edited with Disc-T@2. This permits both files and Twain-compatible sources to be used as data sources.

How the Images Are Burned onto the Blanks

After the actual burning process is complete, the data created with the editor are first written to the eight-megabyte cache of the recorder. The conversion from Cartesian to polar coordinates is achieved by means of an algorithm within the burning software. The data are transferred sequentially from the cache to the controller chip (YDC132V) in the CDW-F1UX. This converts the gray-scale information from the image into a pixel pattern (minimum pixel size 0.1 mm), which is burned onto the CD. The writing process took several minutes in the test.

Limitations to the Tattoo Function

• Only functions with CDRs.
• The visibility of the tattoo is very dependent on the dye on the blank. We got the best results with Verbatim blanks and Metal Azo Dye (Super AZO). Blanks with phtalocyanine-based dye are not suitable.
• The writing process for the tattoo takes several minutes.

Test Setup and Benchmarks

The test platform took the form of a PC with the following setup:

The burner was operated through a USB 2.0 adapter (PCI expansion card).

Read Performance, Part 1: Data

Read Rates with Pressed CD

For the test we used a pressed data CD with a length of almost 74 minutes (73 minutes, 21.05 seconds, to be precise).

As the screenshot of Nero CD Speed shows, the drive works in full CAV mode. The maximum transfer rate of 44x was, however, not achieved. Despite that, the device is the quickest in this discipline in direct comparison with USB2.0 competitors such as Liteon’s LXR-24101A and Waitec’s Frisby II.

However, the access times achieved are not very exciting.

Read Rates with CDR

For this test we used a 1:1 copy of the aforementioned original CD. The blank TDK CD-R80 Metallic carries the following ATIP information:

ATIP: 97m 15s 17f

Disc Manufacturer: Ritek Co.

Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. phthalocyanine)

Media type: CD-Recordable

Recording Speeds: min. unknown – max. unknown

nominal capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 73f / LBA: 359848)

The read rate and the access times were on the same level as those of the original CD. In the comparison, the Yamaha device does not score as well because of worse access times.

Read Rates with CDRW

There followed a test with the backup copy of the original CD on an HS-RW medium from Liteon (4x-12x):

ATIP: 97m 15s 35f

Disc Manufacturer: NAN-YA Plastics Corp.

Reflective layer: Phase change

Media type: CD-ReWritable

Recording Speeds: min. unknown – max. unknown

nominal capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

This followed the same procedure as with the original CD and the copy on CDR:

The reader performed a little below expectations in this test, too. The maximum data rate was 42.29x. However, in comparison to the competition, the CDRW-FIUX did a really good job: Liteon’s LXR-24101A never gets above 16x, and even Waitec’s Frisby II is well short of the spec of 40x, reaching a little over 32x.

Read Performance, Part II: Audio

According to the packaging, the CRW-F1UX enables a maximum DAE rate of 44x. To check this, we used not only Nero CD Speed 1.0, but also the DAE tool, EAC 0.9b4. For the test CD, THG used the title “TOP99 CD1.” The CD contains 20 tracks and plays for 78 minutes and 24 seconds.

DAE with EAC

As EAC shows, the drive supports the caching of audio data and delivers an accurate stream. However, it cannot transfer “C2 error messages” to EAC.

Here is a brief explanation of the features:

• Accurate stream: The drive delivers a clean flow of data because of the lack of jitter. This means that time-consuming jitter-correction is not necessary.
• Caching: EAC always reads every audio sector twice, and compares the results to ensure that the data have been read correctly. If a drive caches the data, the EAC always receives apparently correct data from the second read attempt, as the data do indeed originally come from the cache.
• C2 error info: A drive that has this feature can inform EAC when a read error has occurred. The advantage of this is that EAC does not have to read the individual sectors twice over, but relies on the messages from the drive. As a result, the reading goes much quicker.

For the test, we read all 20 tracks onto the hard disk as uncompressed wave files. We carried out the read-in in two different modes.

• Burst Mode: In this mode, the audio data are simply read in by sectors, without being checked for errors. This is the quickest mode available with EAC.
• Secure Mode: The data being read in are checked for errors. If a read error occurs, EAC attempts to correct it.

The EAC screenshots below show the results of the two extraction modes:

EAC Burst mode: Yamaha CRW-F1UX

EAC Secure mode: Yamaha CRW-F1UX

In burst mode the drive still reaches 42.9x. It does indeed just beat its USB2.0 competitors, but the promised 44x is still not achieved.

DAE with Nero CD-Speed

A test run with Nero CD-Speed confirms the values that we were able to achieve with EAC.

As the screenshot shows, the maximum extraction rate is 42.19x. The drive delivers a precise data flow and the DAE quality achieves the highest possible rating of 10 points. When it comes to seek times, the drive falls behind its competitors once more.

The final “Advanced DAE Quality Test” with Nero CD-Speed shows that the drive can read CD text and sub-channel data.

Comparison with the competition gives us the following picture:

Read Performance, Part III: Scratched media

For this test, we use a pressed CD that we prepared with a V-shaped scratch (in a radial direction).

Many a drive would tear its hair out over this scratch.

We carry out a surface scan with Nero CD-Speed in order to find out the number of unreadable or damaged sectors. As the screen shot shows, the drive reports 4.16 % of the sectors as being unreadable.

At first glance, this result seems really good in view of the massive damage to the data carrier. In comparison with the two other drives, however, it becomes clear that the CRW-F1UX makes hard work of the damaged CD.

This is also shown by the graph in the final CD quality check.

The red horizontal lines denote areas with unreadable sectors. Even after the spot with the scratch (approximately from the 11th minute on), the transfer rate hovers around at just under 5x. A drive with “smart” error correction would pick up speed again at this point.

Read Performance Data, Audio and Errors: Summary of Results

All in all, the CRW-F1UX falls short of what we would expect of a 44x reader. The specified read rate was not achieved with a variety of 650 MB media. In our opinion, Yamaha would be better advised to extol the virtues of this device as a 42x reader. The drive does not cope particularly well with seriously scratched media. Its competitors do better in this respect.

Write Performance, Part I: Data CD, CD-DA, A.A.M.Q.R. and Disc-T@2

As already mentioned, the maximum write speed of the CRW F1UX is 44x on CDR media, and 24x on CD-RW media (Ultra-Speed CDRW media). Yamaha uses the full CAV procedure in order to achieve write speeds of this magnitude.

The medium turns at almost constant speed (yellow line). The write rate increases continuously towards the outside (green line).

The average write rate is just about 32.87x. As a nominal 40x writer, Waitec’s Frisby II also manages to get up to 31.41x.

Data CD, Audio CD and Data RW

For the data CD test, we created a 702MB (718384 kilobyte) image. This was burned at maximum speed in DAO mode onto a 700 MB blank.

As the screenshot shows, the process is successfully completed after 3 minutes 21 seconds.

Compared with a 40x burner, the 8-second speed advantage is marginal. Nor is the time difference of less than a minute over a 24x writer earth-shattering.

Data-RW

We carry out the CD-RW write test with the Ultra-Speed medium supplied. Nero Burning ROM 5.5.9.9 is used to do the writing. The size of the data record comes to exactly 660152 KB (645MB), and we choose TAO as the write method.

Thanks to 24x mode, in this discipline the CRW-F1UX sets a new record of 3 minutes and 41 seconds, and completely outclasses the competition from the 12x / 10x camp.

CD-DA and Advanced Audio Master Quality Recording

The image for the audio CD was made up of 20 tracks with a total playing time of 79 minutes and 4 seconds. Die CD-DA is written in DAO mode, and with text contents.

In this instance, the CDW-F1UX even has to admit defeat by the Waitec II by a small margin.

And, of course we couldn’t be deprived of making a recording in Advanced Audio Master Recording Mode. It took twenty minutes and 52 seconds to record seventeen tracks with a total playing time of 1 hour, 8 minutes and 15 seconds. We were not able to distinguish any difference in the quality of the sound compared with a normally recorded audio CD.

Disc-T@2

The benefits and drawbacks of this function have already been discussed. We created the tattoo pictured below on a Verbatim “DataLife-Plus CD-R Super AZO.”

Lots of data or a big tattoo: The user has to decide.

The blank contains an audio track of about 33 megabytes. The remaining 667 megabytes are taken up by the large tattoo. The burner takes just 42 seconds to write the single track. You have to wait almost nine and a half minutes for the tattoo.

Summary of Write Performance, Part I

On CD-R media, the CRW-F1UX offers no significant advantage in terms of speed over a 40x recorder. However, it does write to CD-RW media at a pace previously unheard of – provided that you have the appropriate Ultraspeed RW medium.

The special Disc-T@2 and Advanced Audio Master Quality Recording functions are, without a doubt, attractive goodies. However, the serious reduction in write performance spoils the user’s enjoyment of these functions.

Write Performance, Part II: Packet Writing on CD-RW

We carry out several tests to check the performance in packet-writing mode. First of all, we time the complete formatting of the medium. Then we copy a 447-Mbyte folder by means of “drag and drop” from the hard disk to the medium and back again. Both times are recorded with a stopwatch.

The size of the files in the folder varies from one kilobyte up to several megabytes. This reflects normal practice. Then, all the data are quickly deleted from the medium, using Clone CD. Then, exactly the same folder is written in TAO mode with Nero. Finally, we completely flush the medium with Clone CD.

Every test is repeated at least twice to gain information on reproducibility and performance figures. The results are summarized in the following table.

The CRW-F1UX offers one special feature for writing in packet-writing mode in the choice of CAV or CLV mode. CAV mode should in theory be faster. Our measurements do not confirm this. The differences were in the magnitude of a few seconds.

Summary of Write Performance, Part II

In packet-writing mode, the CRW-F1UX clearly has its nose out in front. Its 24x write mode does not just offer a distinct speed advantage when writing. Formatting and deleting the medium is also much faster than with the 10x/12x devices.

Write Performance, Part III: Media Compatibility

In this part of the test, THG measured how quickly it was possible to write to CDR and CDRW media of various specifications. The result of the write process was checked for errors with the aid of the CD-Speed surface scan function. THG tested five different CD-R and CD-RW media. The size of the collection of data was 717758 kilobytes (for 700 MB CDR), or 660152 kilobytes (for 650 MB CDRW). We used DAO or TAO as the method of writing. Both “Burnproof” and “Optimum write speed” were selected for all the writing processes. We have summarized the results in the following tables.

At 16x speed, there were no obvious differences to be observed.

At 44x speed, the wheat gets separated from the chaff. The Tevion medium stands out because of its poor performance. In this case, every attempt to write produces a “Track following error” message after a few seconds, and the process is terminated. Even the new 48x medium from Traxdata fails to impress. With “Optimum Write Speed Control” selected, the burner reduces the write speed to 16x. So, we deactivated “OWSC.” Now the burner does burn faster, but the results of the writing process are (logically) even worse. The burner does fine with the 40x medium from Traxdata. A good tip turns out to be the 24x medium from Octron, from the special offer display in the supermarket.

Write Performance, Part III: Media Compatibility, Continued

The following is a summary of the CD-RW results.

The LiteOn medium is indeed specified as 12x. But Nero won’t permit any write speed over 10x for this medium. At first glance, the burner does not seem to be able to write to any medium without making errors. However, comparing the surface scans of the various media shows that the last sectors are always unreadable on each of the media.

A surface scan with different drives delivers exactly the same results. Even CDRs written in TAO mode show this failing. So, we changed the method of writing from TAO to DAO, and carried out all the measurements again.

This time, everything ran like clockwork.

Summary of Write Performance, Part III

There were problems at maximum write speed with two out of the five CDR media we tested. So, in practice, the lack of write speeds between 16x and 44x represents something of a failing. At 16x, there are no problems of any sort. We grade the media compatibility as good.

When you are writing to CDRW media, it very much depends on what medium is at hand. Writing at 24x speed is only possible with the Ultra-Speed medium supplied. LiteOn’s Highspeed-RW could only be written to at 10x speed. However, very high-quality media, such as the one from Fujifilm, permit even higher write speeds than those specified.

Backup Copies of Protected Audio CDs

Every user has been faced with this problem at some time. You’ve spent a lot of money on a new audio CD. In order to protect this valuable original from wear and scratches in your car CD player, you want to make a backup copy on your home PC. It is becoming increasingly the case, however, that audio CDs have copy protection, such as Key2Audio or Cactus-Datashield. Some CDs that are protected in this way cannot be played on a PC, or are occasionally not so easy to copy. THG ran tests to see if this is possible with the CRW-FIUX.

The following titles are used as test CDs:

We used Exact Audio Copy 0.9b4 and Clone-CD to read the tracks.

For example, as the screenshot shows, the content of the title “A new day has come” is made up of 17 audio tracks and one data track.

In the case of “well-known” copy-protection mechanisms, the audio tracks were read with no problem at all, using both EAC and Clone-CD.

It was a different scenario for CDs with copy-protection mechanisms that we could not recognize. In these cases, the read performance was way below the usual values, at 6x speed.

Backup Copies of Games

Whereas there has only been reasonably effective copy protection for a relatively short time in the case of audio CDs, for games, its use has long been the norm. THG does not intend to give you any instructions at this point on how to make pirate copies. However, using two games (Comanche4 and Serious Sam2), we did test to see to what extent the burner is also suitable for making backup copies.

One glance at a screenshot from CloneCD4.01.10 shows immediately the principal capabilities of the drive.

As you can see, the CRW-F1UX supports CloneCD’s RAW-DAO mode. It should therefore be suitable for making backup copies.

In order to find out the copy-protection mechanism of the games CDs, we first ran a surface scan using ClonyXXL 2.0.0.6. The result of this scan can be seen in the following screen shots.

This shows that Serious Sam2 is protected against piracy by Safedisk 2.51, and Comanche4 is protected by Safedisk2. Then, in the first stage, an image of the original CD was made using CloneCD, and in the second stage this was burned onto a CD-R. In order to check that the backup copy would work, we installed and ran the game in each case. The following table shows a summary of the results.

Consequently, provided you have the right tools, functioning backup copies of games can also be produced really quickly using the CRW-F1UX.

Conclusion

Yamaha’s USB2.0 version of the CWR-F1 is in no way inferior to its internal brother. Its write performance is very good. This writer’s 24x write speed on the new Ultra-Speed RW media is outstanding. In read mode, the device is not so impressive, not least because of poor error correction.

In Disc-T@2 and Advanced Audio Master Recording Quality, Yamaha provides the user with two extremely interesting special functions. However, these lose a little of their fascination at second glance, because of the “inadequacies” already described. But this does nothing to alter the fact that the CRW-F1UX offers all the features that a user expects from a modern writer.

We consider it an exaggeration to describe the device as a mobile burner: its dimensions (W x H x D) of 18.2 x 5.8 x 27.5 cm and a fighting weight of 2.2 kg (including mains power unit and cables) do not exactly invite you to take it with you on your travels. The price is a similar case – it costs over $200, and being around $70 more than for the internal version, that’s not exactly peanuts.