Software Package

CBDDBBD

In case you haven't noticed, audio ripping is something I tend to do quite often. So I see myself as somewhat of a connoisseur of this type of software. The Plextor program provided does indeed rip audio quite well. The quality and speed at which this is done is not to be scoffed at. The program has an error correction bar where it sacrifices speed for quality. While fiddling with the error correction I noticed no difference in the quality of the files produced. This option could be used for extracting from slightly damaged discs. And as important as this review is, I don't really care to find out how good it is by taking an exacto knife to my precious discs.

My problems arise out of the file naming aspect of the program. I convert to MP3 quite often and I tend to be, shall we say… anal, about the way the files are named. It does provide CDDB (Compact Disc DataBase) support but does not let you use it efficiently. There is no option for track numbers or sequencing of the file name. As good as this program is, the fact that I can't choose how the filename is generated will keep me using my original program, Audiograbber. I think future versions of the program may fix the shortcomings, 'till then I'll stick to what works best for me.

AudioFS

The drive also comes with some other tiny features that are rather nice. If you right click on the drive in the root directory and go to properties, a set of options appears. Among the options, there is a setting for speed reduction. Speed reduction allows the user to reduce the reading speed of the drive to allow reading of either shoddily made or scratched media. One of the better options is for spin down time. Some drives spin forever and some don't spin long enough. With the spin down time option, you get to decide whether you want burn the drive motor to a crisp or make it stop after a few minutes. This option is pretty handy because drive performance drops considerably if it has to spin up every time the disc is accessed(kind of like Rambus, eh? -Ed). Infrequent access occurs in most games, because the game only loads every level or in certain parts of levels. If the drive does not have to spin-up period that is a little less time you have to wait, which is always good when there is a baddie just behind the corner.

Some of the more mundane options include volume controls and a lock drive option for those pesky people that keep stealing your Quake 3 disc. AudioFS is also another option that might come in handy. If you place an audio CD into the drive you will see the files as wavs while exploring the CD. This feature allows you to copy the files off the CD in the manner in which regular files are copied. The .wav encoding is completely transparent.