Addonics DigiCopier AECDCOP52UM External CD-RW Burner

We have been providing official documents in hard copy for the last millennium. Recently the costs of providing those documents have reached enormous proportions. One way to combat this was to provide the documents digitally. We place them on our website, but for dial-up users this was a problem. Our solution was to provide them on CDs in a PDF format (generally accepted as the best file-sharing format). In the past the CDs were burned on my computer—if you've ever burned a CD you know that doing anything else during the process frequently ruins the newly minted CD. Since we need to make quantities of disks, and didn't want to tie up my computer doing so, we set out on a search for an answer.

We found an affordable and quick answer with the Addonics CD DigiCopier. It was perfect for us. Reasonably priced, this unit copies independently from a computer and at a rate of 52x—amazing speed!

We purchased the unit and had it installed within minutes. Simple software installation and connection with the USB cable--something even a novice can do. In fact, you don't have to do any of this if you want to use it alone.

It's a one-to-one duplicator—so simple you don't even have to push a button. Put the original disk in the top drive, add a blank writable CD to the bottom, and that's it! It does everything without any interaction from you—foolproof! It automatically detects the format of the CD being read, verifies the CD to be copied to is blank, auto detects the media to perform at the maximum speed allowable for the media and supports buffer underrunn. At the end of its cycle, it automatically ejects the new copy.

If it detects that the disk in the writing drive is a rewritable disk it will automatically start erasing it after 5 seconds. If the disk is written, it will compare it to the disk in the source drive and begin detecting after 5 seconds. You control all of this with a small switch on the back—numbers 0-7 determine the function. It comes preset to zero which is the Copy setting.

It has a tiny foot print and interesting faceplate—a clear acrylic cover with holes punched into it—very funky. It comes with CD Mastering software for Windows 98SE, ME, NT, 2000, and XP and the firmware is upgradeable via the built in CD Reader.

The major selling point for us was that this copier can be used connected to your computer or as a stand-alone unit. Connected to your computer you can use the software provided to burn CDs in the usual method, using it as a stand-alone unit you'll use the switches on the back (mentioned above). A switch on the back moves it from connected to stand-alone with ease.

This thing is fast! As a stand-alone unit it's not dependant on the speed of your computer—it copies at 52x which means you can copies a full 680mb (about 30 minutes of music) CD in about 3 minutes—really!

Connected to your computer you can use it as a CD player as well—place the audio CD into the CDRW drive (top drive) and install the software provided. You can also play CDs while using it as a stand-alone unit by plugging headphones into the jack in the front of the unit.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
As a Stand Alone CD Duplicator: No computer or software is needed
As an External CDRW:


•

PC/AT or Compatible System


•

USB port


•

Pentium II 350 MHz or Greater


•

Minimum 64 MB RAM


•

One of the Following Operating System: Windows 98SE/2000/Me/XP

WHAT'S IN THE BOX
CD DigiCopier Main Unit
USB 2.0 cable with 36 pin connector
CD Mastering Software-- Ahead's Nero 5.5
MPEG II CD Playback Software
USB Driver Diskette
Power Cable
User Guide

SPECS
Weight – 9.92 pounds
Size – 6.3" w x 11" d x 4" h
Data Transfer -- 7800KB/sec
Read/Write Format -- CD-ROM mode, CD-ROM XA Mode-2 Form 1/2, Mix mode CD, Video CD, CD-I movies (MPEG), CD-DA, CD-Extra, and CD TEXT
Note: may not able to copy all the contents of copy protected CD, audio CD or game CD

WARRANTY
One-year

MODEL DIFFERENCES:
They all look the same—identical boxes and switches, but there are differences in the way they connect and the media they can copy—here's a look at what's available now:

Addonics CD DigiCopier (AECDCOP52UM) CD-RW Burner – USB Connection, CDs only

Addonics CD DigiCopier (AECDCOP52FW) CD-RW Burner – Firewire Connection, CDs only

Addonics DVD DigiCopier (AEDVDCOP4UM) DVD-RW Burner – USB Connection, DVD & CDs

FINAL THOUGHTS
This unit works perfectly for our use. A huge document burns in less than 2 minutes and we can offer them to our customers for $5 instead of $35 for the hard copy. This gets us out of the printing business and provides a format that anyone can use—it's their choice if they want to print it or use it in some other way. I have done a few music CDs to test it, but since it's not our focus it's not been something I've spent a lot of time with. I rarely use the enclosed software as I prefer to use it as a stand-alone unit and I have an internal burner should I need to make an original disk. The Nero software is fine—standard stuff for arranging the data you want to be copied—nothing remarkable. I never loaded the listening software as I use Windows Media and didn't need another software to play CDs.

I'm amazed at the speed and the quality and love the fact that this unit works on its own—literally!