It's easy to get digital constipation these days. It happens when your hard drive and removables, such as Zips, get clogged up with all the versions of those wonderful images you've been creating. You've spent hundreds of hours working on them so you don't want to delete them before you've archived them somewhere safe. That's where writable CDs come in. They're a natural laxative for blocked up computers.

It's more than a decade since the sexy 12cm diameter silver audio CDs wiped vinyl off the shelves of our record shops in what was like an overnight revolution. In those days it seemed highly improbable that we should ever be able to write - and even re-write &emdash; our own CDs at home one day. But now CDs are a mature technology and not only is it possible to write our own data CDs &emdash; and even audio CDs - but the prices have come down to the point where it's not just cost effective but downright inexpensive to do.

A few years ago a CD writer cost around £2,000, writable blanks an expensive £17.50 each. As one supplier put it, "When you're going to be selling less film, you've got to make your money somewhere else." But writable CDs aren't as difficult to make as high quality colour film, so the competition is intense and prices have tumbled. These days you can get a blank CD, which will hold 650MB of data, for as low as 65 pence. That's only a penny for 10MB - far cheaper than any other method of digital storage. CD writer hardware has also dropped to around £250-£400, including the software needed to drive it.

A CD which holds 650MB of data is often referred to as a '74 minute' disc. This is a hangover from the audio-only days: a 650MB disc will hold 74 minutes of audio. These days, its a fair guide to how long it will take to record a disc. A 1x drive takes about 74 minutes to lay down 650MB of data, a 2x about 37 minutes, a 4x about 19 minutes - all plus a similar time for data verification, something not to be skipped if you're about to reclaim the space on your hard drive. There must be no interruption to the steady flow of data to a CD during writing, otherwise you have a 'buffer underrun' and end up with useless discs you can only use as coasters.

Wasting discs in this way led to an interesting test in our studio. We washed some ruined CD coasters after they became sticky with coffee and beer and pieces of coating came off the Kodak and TDK discs. Maybe this was a drastically accelerated ageing test but we advise you to keep your writable CDs in a dry atmosphere. This 'test' was two years ago and we haven't wasted any discs since, so we tried the experiment again, leaving a brand-new Kodak CD-R in the wash basin for two days. This time the coating stayed on. Amazed at this durability, we put one in the dishwasher at 65°C. Again it survived intact. So our preference is Kodak CD-Rs at £1.08 each (plus £9 carriage and VAT for any quantity) from Disc Direct Computer Ltd in Cambridge (01223 507705). By all means use the cheapest unbranded discs you can find to send files to your mates, or to distribute things like press releases, but for long-term backup and peace of mind spend a bit more for one of the major brands.

THE TWO MAIN TYPES

Two types of CD writers are currently available. One records onto Writable/Recordable CD-R discs which have a special gold, green or blue dye coating which changes its reflective properties when hit with a laser. All dyes fade in light so keep your precious data discs in the dark. The discs can be read in a standard CD-ROM drive, so they are ideal for limited distribution of data to friends, colleagues or clients. If you make your own audio CDs, they can be played in a domestic audio CD player. CD-Rs are 'WORMs' - Write Once Read Many - devices. Though this may seem to be a disadvantage it can be a major advantage as it prevents precious data being modified unintentionally.

A newer variant, CD rewritable, known as CD-RW, uses similar size discs which work more like optical cartridges. The big deal about them is that the process which changes the reflective properties of the discs is reversible, using 'phase change technology'. This means that data can be erased and new data written in its place. At around £15 each, CD-RW discs are many times more expensive than CD-Rs. Without the protective casing enjoyed by optical cartridges, CD-RWs are much more prone to damage. Call us old fashioned but we're not particularly excited by them. We know precisely where we are with plain old CD-Rs. They're cheap and the fact that they're unmodifiable is a real advantage when it comes to confidence that your stuff cannot be erased accidentally. We'd rather use a Zip, Jaz or MO for rewritable storage, backing these up to CD-Rs as appropriate. However, it will not be long before all CD writers are CD-RW compatible - and for little or no extra price. At the moment, they're only available in 2x speed, though 4x is expected.

In the future, we'll see DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) recorders, again using 12cm discs but capable of holding much more data. They will be priced at a premium for some time.

SOFTWARE

Until recently you had to be a bit of a boffin to 'burn a worm'. The software was non-friendly, to put it mildlyt. At first we could only write a complete disc at once, then came multi-session, and now we have 'packet writing', which allows us to write a single file at a time if we wish.

For the PC, DirectCD from Adaptec enables you to write to CD-R and CD-RW almost as you would to other types of removable media. This software uses packet writing to write many small amounts of data to a CD without using up lots of overhead for lead-in and lead-out information. Packet writing makes it easy for a beginner to start writing CDs. Also from Adaptec is Easy CD Creator, which enables you to make audio and data CDs and to make copies of existing CDs. An upgrade to the deluxe edition brings Picture CD Creator to make CDs containing images and CD Spin Doctor, to make audio CDs from analogue music sources including LPs and cassettes, with the ability to remove clicks, pops, scratches and hiss. For the Mac, Adaptec's (formerly Astarte's) Toast is the standard.

NAME THAT DISC

CD-Rs all look the same if you don't label them. If you always fancied having your own record label, you can print self-adhesive labels to personalise your discs. Don't try sticking these on by hand, use a special applicator: just a little off centre and you could induce imbalance and shake the disc and drive to pieces as they reach the speed of laser light. And who knows whether, in a few years time, the adhesive will dry out and peel the coating off as it shrinks?

If you're more down to earth you can label your CDs with a pen. But don't use a ball pen, which will damage the coating, or a fountain pen, which won't take on the shiny surface. We use a Staedtler Lumocolor 313 permanent waterproof fine felt tip pen. It's worked well for us over the last four years.

NOMAI

The Nomai 680.RW uses a 2x Ricoh MP6200S mechanism. First impression is of a very neat small metal case, 1.75 H x 6 W x 10.5 D inches (4.5 x 15 x 26.5cm). The small size is possible because the unit has no internal power supply or cooling fan. The power supply is one of those built onto a large 13A plug. It delivers both 5 and 12 volts DC at 1A via a special miniature 3 pin line socket, so you're hardly likely to get a replacement at Tandy if you lose this one. The Nomai also comes in a neat little carrying case. Who would want to drag a CD writer around with their laptop, we wonder?

The Nomai is a SCSI device with built-in termination. The SCSI ID has to be set using three of the four DIP switches on the rear, so don't lose the manual or you won't know where you are. Why don't they print the table of settings on the underside of the case or, better still, use a switch which indicates the SCSI ID? Two 25 pin connectors are provided, so you can loop through to another SCSI device - but don't confuse these connectors with those for your PC printer. Comes with Easy CD Pro and Direct CD (Windows 95), Toast (Macintosh)

For:	Writes CD-RW, small size.
Against:	Top speed only 2x, separate power supply
Price:
Performance:	4 (out of 5)
Value:	3 (out of 5)

LACIE

The LaCie is built like a brick sh… (well, we did say CD writers are like laxatives) and uses a 4x Yamaha CDR400t mechanism. The big steel case is 3.5 H x7.5 W x 10 inches D (9 H x 19 W x26cm D) and reminds us of a Volvo car - "It's boxy but it's good," as Dustin Hoffman said in some movie - but at least it houses an internal power supply and a fan. It's a SCSI device with two big 50 pin connectors which will be familiar to Mac users and a neat SCSI ID selector which indicates the selected ID without having to find the manual. There's a separate terminating switch. Mains power comes in via a standard IEC ('kettle') panel mounted socket. It's more than twice the size of the Nomai and HP it doesn't have an external power supply. You get the impression it will churn out CD-Rs for ever. Mind you it will not churn out CD-RWs. The manual is one of those multi-lingual style ones that uses more trees - especially as this one covers the installation of other LaCie products: hard disks, Jaz, dZ, 3.5 inch optical, 5.25 optical, CD-ROM, CD-ROM tower… the list goes on and on. At just short of £500 plus VAT it's also a bit pricey. Comes with Easy CD Creator and Direct CD (Windows 95/NT), Toast and Direct CD (Macintosh).

For:	Strong, built-in power supply.
Against:	Doesn't write CD-RWs, bulky.
Price:	£499
Performance:	3 (out of 5)
Value:	3 (out of 5)

HEWLETT-PACKARD

The HP CD-Writer Plus 7200e uses a Philips mechanism, housed in a sleek plastic case 2.5 H x 7 W x 11 inches D (6 x 18 x 28.5 cm) and has a separate power supply which uses a proprietary mini-DIN connector. The unit connects to the computer via 24 pin D parallel connectors, which look just like the SCSI connectors on the Nomai. This was the only non-SCSI device we tested, which means it is the only writer which cannot be used on both PC and Mac.

The HP User's Guide is very thorough and you get an amazing amount of software on four CDs, including the Adaptec range together with Photo Organiser, Adobe PhotoDeluxe, Corel Print House Magic - and more.

For:	Writes CD-RW, small size, lots of software.
Against:	PC only, separate power supply.
Price:
Performance:	4 (out of 5)
Value:	5 (out of 5)

PHILIPS

The Philips PCA362RW CD-ReWritable kit is an internal 2x IDE writer for CD-R and CD-RW which comes with comes with a Philips CDD3610 drive and all the fiddly bits you need to fit it into your computer. Installing in a computer limits versatility. We prefer external writers, which can be connected to any computer - or even shared between friends or a group for occasional backups. And the chances are you'll already have a CD-ROM (reader) drive in your computer. There's a 0800 helpline available seven days a week between 0700 and 1900. 1900 is probably just about the time you'll start taking the cover off your computer… It writes both CD-R and CD-RW and costs £329 including VAT.

The manual is one of those 100-odd page English-German-French-Italian-Spanish-Dutch things which nevertheless contains a lot of useful information. Direct CD and Easy CD Creator software is provided.

For:	Writes CD-RW.
Against:	Internal device limits versatility.
Price:	£329 including VAT
Performance:	3 (out of 5)
Value:	4 (out of 5)

CONCLUSION

It's difficult to get worked up about CD writer hardware. Its sole job is to lay the digits down accurately, so that the garbage put onto the disc always equals the garbage read off the disc. In our tests they all did this perfectly.

CD writers don't have any interesting knobs to twiddle - just an indicator light or two, a button to open the tray and an audio volume control, which you'll probably never use anyway. Surprisingly, the badge on the box probably does not reveal the manufacturer of the mechanism inside. All the mechanisms' front panels are roughly the same size (1.75 H x 5.75 inches W, 14.7 x 4 cm) - though the enclosures aren't.

SCSI devices are fast and have the advantage of being useable on both PC and Mac. We'd have no other.

All the writers will also read CD-ROMs but these days you'll probably have a CD-ROM drive which outpaces these already built-into your computer.

Go for a writer which is CD-RW compatible. Despite our reservations about the format, you might as well have the facility. All the drives come with blank media - including CD-RW for those which will write to them.

Once up and running, you'll give as little thought to your CD writer as you do to your floppy drive. And that's precisely the way it should be.

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This article first appeared in "Digital PhotoFX" magazine, Issue 5, August 1998.

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