OAK's "SimpliCD" review - Page 1

Introduction

Technologies is a well known semicontor manufacturer. Oak, founded in 1987, has established a leadership position in the optical storage segment. The company is one of the leading suppliers of optical storage controllers, having sold more than 130 million optical storage controllers to date. Many latest CD-RW drives (from Yamaha, LG, and Mitsumi) are using OAK's optical storage controllers in order to archive the highest recording speeds. Oak announced the entry in the CD Recording at 15/5/2001 with a software called "SimpliCD":

is the first of a new breed of CD-Recording software that embeds directly within the Windows operating system, automating the creation of data, audio, video and photo slide show CDs. This integration makes it possible for first time users to easily create CDs without learning complicated software or arcane formatting techniques. Additionally, SimpliCD includes a breakthrough new feature, Picture Slide Show, which burns a collection of digital photos to a CD that will play on TV in consumer VideoCD and DVD Players, as well as computers..." OAK stated in the press release

As you can understand from the above paragraph, OAK's first attempt in the recording area targets the novice and/or intermediate user. The basic phylosofy behind SimpliCD is "..SimpliCD is the easiest way to make CDs -- bar none. It is total simplicity...". Can OAK's first attempt in the CD recording software area be successful? Can this new software compete with other already established big players in the area (Ahead, Roxio, and NTI) and win in the points? Let's find out.

- Unique features:

"...Most of the new generation of DVD players are already compliant with the Optical Storage Technology Association's (OSTA) MultiPlay standard, a new industry specification that allows DVD devices to play CD-R and CD-RW discs.

SimpliCD's Slide Show feature is the first CDRecording software of its kind to take full advantage of the MultiPlay specification by automating the process of making consumer photo albums in VideoCD format that play automatically on TV with DVD players. By attaching a digital camera to the PC, consumers can instantly create digital photo albums, or archive for permanent storage. The Slide Show feature automatically converts digital picture (BMP and JPG) files on the fly and records them as slide shows and videos on CD-R or CD-RW discs for viewing on computers and TVs having MultiPlay compliant DVD or VideoCD players.

In addition to Slide Show, SimpliCD is able to create Compressed Audio (CA) albums with MP3 and WMA audio files. Such albums will allow users of computers or consumer players to enjoy 10 times more music on one CD, and additionally will allow user to organize by custom play lists or categories such as artist, album or genre. This new CA specification was developed by a group of companies of OSTA, and will soon serve as an industry standard to facilitate an improved playback experience in future CD and DVD consumer players..."

- Key Features
• Integration into Windows Explorer and Desktop
• Creation of audio, video and picture discs for playback in consumer CD and DVD players
• Creation of Compressed Digital Audio (CA) discs (as proposed by the Optical Storage Technology Association - OSTA) containing MP3 and WMA files for playback in consumer or computer CD and DVD players
• User-created Playlist for managing WAV, MP3, WMA, BMP, JPG and MPG files or CD Audio tracks to record consumer discs
• MP3 and WMA encoding and playback
• CD Guide assists First Time as well as Advanced User
• User Manual

- Integrated Features
• ISO 9600, Joliet, Multisession
• CD-DA, CD-Text
• MultiPlay compliant
• Compressed Digital Audio (CA) disc with MP3/WMA files
• Video CD
• Session-At-Once (SAO)
• Track-At-Once (TAO)
• UDF Support