- Introduction

recently announced its latest drive addition for high-speed optical storage. The new drive comes to complete the puzzle for the best 24x recorders and includes several features that make the drive unique! Mitsumi's proposal comes at the same time where Yamaha and TEAC's 24x recorders are ready to be shipped at the market. Let's see how Mitsumi's CR-4809TE can compete with the rest of competitors...

- Features

The drive supports 24x writing (Z-CLV), 12x re-writing, 16MB Buffer and "ExacLink" as the main anti-buffer underrun technology. Mitsumi added two unique features ,the biggest available internal buffer (16MB) ever found in a recorder and the fastest re-writing speed (12x)! The exact writing speeds are 4x, 8x, 16x (CLV), 16x-24x (Z-CLV) and re-writing speeds 4x, 10x, 12x (CLV).

- Product Specifications

* Supported formats: CD-DA, CD-ROM (Mode 1 und 2), CD ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 1 und 2), Enhanced CD, Photo CD (read only), CD Text, Video CD
* Recording methods: Disk at once, Session at once, Track at once, Multisession, Packet Writing
* Supported sizes: CDs with 8 and 12 cm diameter
* Interface: IDE/EIDE
* Transfer rates read: CAV Max 40x Speed 2.400 to 6.000 Kb/sec
* Transfer rates write: CD-R, 16-24x Speed 2.400 to 3.600 Kb/sec/ CD-RW, 12x Speed 1.800 Kb/sek
* Random Access: 98 ms typical
* Full stroke: 180 ms typical (00:02.00 - 60:00.00)
* Data buffer: 16 Megabyte
* MTBF :> 50 000 POH min

- The features

technology was developed by OAK Technologies as an anti-buffer underrun solution. Let's now see how OAK describes ExacLink : "....The ExacLink feature allows the drive to pause the write operation when data flow to the drive is interrupted due to other computer activity. When the drive receives enough data to continue, it begins writing again at the exact point where the previous write was stopped and with the exact power level and frequency used during the previous write. In this way, it appears to a reading device as if the writing operation had never been interrupted. This feature is valuable for writing CD audio discs since without the ExacLink feature, the drive would not be allowed to stop and re-start writing at random times since the resulting disc would be unreadable or contain errors..."

- The package

The package in which the drive arrived, contained only the bare drive -engineer version- with final firmware/hardware. The retail European version will include: The drive itself, a quick starting guide in 14 languages, 1 piece (24x certified) of Ricoh 80min CD-R blank, 1 piece of Mitsumi 74min (4x only) RW Blank, data/audio cables and mounting screws. The software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning ROM v5.5.5.1 OEM and Ahead InCD v2.32 (for packet writing use). The retail price of the drive is expected around 299DM and plans to hit the European market in the 5th of November 2001.

The front of the drive is exactly the same as we witnessed at the CR-4808TE model. The drive doesn't have the Mitsumi logo in the front of it, while it has the "High-Speed RW" logo, which indicates its RW speed. You will also find only one led, the eject button and the headphone input jack/volume selector:

At the back of the drive we will find the usual connectors (IDE interface, power), the jumpers for assigning the drive as a Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector and the analog/digital output connectors:

- Installation

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE was installed as a Master in the secondary IDE BUS. The drive worked in UDMA33 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "CR-48X9TE". We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted.

The drive was an October 2001 model with firmware revision v1.0b installed. We used the Nero (5.5.5.6), InCD (3.12), CloneCD (3.1.1.0) and Padus DJ (3.50.799) for the recording tests.

- Test Machine

WinMe/XP OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
ATI AIW 128
Mitsumi CR-4809TE firmware v1.0B
PleXWriter PX-W2410A firmware v1.02
TEAC CD-524E firmware v1.0A
LiteOn LTR-24102B firmware v5S0F