Mediavision Reno CD Rom Drive Reviewed By Andrew Bolt Specs ===== Model: Mediavision Reno Portable CD-ROM Drive Price: £174.99 including Squirrel From: Siren Software, Manchester, UK (0161 796 5279) Amigas: A600/1200 Speed: Double (306kB/s) Access Time: 180ms Power: 4xAA batteries for personal CD use, 12xAA batteries for CD-ROM use or 13.5V mains adaptor Audio Plugs: 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5mm line out jack. SCSI: 2x50 way SCSI2 Micro 'D' connectors. Built in termination via DIP switch, external SCSI ID selector. Multisession:Yes MPEG: No Buttons: Play/pause, stop/off, track up, track down, open, button lock switch, volume LCD Display: Track no, time, busy, low battery, on, no disk, open. Dimensions: Audio section: 14x14x2cm + docking station: 25x14x2cm Accessories: Cheap 'n' nasty headphones, nice carry case, 3.5mm stereo male -> male lead, SCSI cables and adaptors, mains power supply. The Mediavision Reno CD-ROM drive is unique in that it can be used a portable audio CD player, or as a double speed SCSI CD-ROM, via a small docking station. I bought the drive after being seduced by its dual purpose design. If your getting a CD-ROM, why not pay and extra £10 for a portable one too. Hmm, why not? Well, the Reno really isn't a particularly good portable audio CD player, when compared with something you could pick up down at Argos for £90. It's quite a bit bigger for a start, but it doesn't seem to like working at all from batteries. Admittedly my batteries are knackered old rechargeables, but they only last for about 40 minutes. Also the track access is painfully slow as the mechanism grinds and clunks away. I suspect this is why 8 extra batteries are needed for computer use, as these access times would be unbearable when accessing data strewn across a disc. So if your planning to use this thing on the move, be prepared to shell out for some Duracells. One good thing about the drive though is its reluctance to skip. I had to shake it very violently to get it to mess up. Connect the AC adaptor and the drive is transformed. Instant, and I mean instant, access to any track, and without as much painful grinding, although it does tend to make a plasticy ticking sound. Together with some Amiga software to make up for lack of fast forward and track programs, you can have quite a nice audio CD setup. I didn't get a plug with the mains adapter though (I think this is illegal now in the UK for new electrical goods), and there is no information on what fuse to fit, so I just fitted the lowest I could find to avoid frying the drive. Anyway, the main reason to buy the drive is, of course, to use Amiga CD-ROM disks, which it does very well. The claimed transfer rate of 306kB/s is verified by Sysinfo, and the access time of 180ms is exceptional for a twin speed drive. The build quality is good, but some may not like the mid-grey colour. The docking station is guided into place by 2 metal rods and is then locked securely onto the CD player. The top opening lid may not have as much sex appeal as a motorised drawer, but its fine for whipping CDs out while they're still spinning :). The magnetic clamp that makes the CD so shock resistant, does however make the drive stiff to open. Also a problem with the layout seems to be the lens, which is positioned at the front of the drive and could easily be touched by accident. The carry case is very neat and well designed, although it'll take you a few weeks to work out what all the zips and velcro flaps are for. The supplied headphones, unfortunately, are crap. The documentation supplied is very sparse to say the least. 2 A4 photocopied sheets. This is due to the drive being foreign (the text on the box is only in French, German and Italian) so the original manual has been nicked and replaced with the sheets, which will probably differ depending who you buy the drive from. Also stolen from the pack for some reason is the PC and Mac software, which could come in handy in the future, so I might try and get hold of this. Power Computing has recently stopped selling the Reno drive due to its lack off support for the CDi Video CD format, which I don't see as much of a problem. If I want fuzzy jerky video I can just pop down to the rental shop and get it for a couple of quid. The drive will still play MPEG/AVI from files on CD using the CPU although you really need an 040/060 to get decent speed. A plea to PD authors: Please write a decent AVI/MPEG player that isn't a slow port, full of bugs and which requires 4 lines of cli commands to get working, and also a working utility to play CDs through the Amiga audio. If the Reno is your first SCSI device you will need to chose your interface. I opted for the Squirrel because its the cheapest. I was worried about speed but according to the instructions it's capable of 3Mb/s on an 030 A1200, which is quick enough for any devices I'm ever likely to be able to afford. (incidently, I found that after fitting an 030 my internal 3.5" IDE HD went from 1.39Mb/s to over 2Mb/s according to Sysinfo). Fortunately the Squirrel comes with an excellent manual and set of software spanning 3 disks (2 of which are useful CD oriented PD utils) which makes up for the photocopied sheets. Overall Ratings: (divided into an excessive number of categories) Portable use: 49% - Not too good Hifi use: 75% - Pretty good Computer use: 94% - Excellent Documentation: 18% - Very tatty Features: 90% - Yep, lots of features Accessories: 79% - Good, but let down by headphones Looks: 85% - Pretty smart, especially in its carry case Speed: 78% - 10x floppy speed, 0.25x hard disk speed Squirrel SCSI: 95% - Excellent piece of kit Value: 90% - Only a few quid more than a normal CD-ROM Overall: Just scraped a 90%, due to the fact it does the important computer side of things very well Or, see what Amiga Format (issue 78) has to say: Speed - 4/5 - A standard double speed drive but sustained transfer rates are impressive. Manual - 3/5 - Adequate instructions are provided, so you should have no real problems Accessibility - 4/5 - The hardest thing to work out is which way the carrying case fits. Supplied with software for Squirrel and CD tools Features - 5/5 - It's hard to see what more could be added to this mechanism Value - 5/5 - Outstanding value-added price makes it competitive with other "multimedia" solutions with the added advantage of portability. Overall - 94% - This brilliant CD-ROM system represents supreme value for money.