Yes its up and sorry for the delay:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=YAMAHA+CRW%2DF1E+CD%2DRW&index=0

Any comments, questions or whatever, always welcomed

PS. One more page added with DiscT@2 scanned pictures. We will try update the pictures cause you must hold the DiscT@2 CDs under angle to see its full capabilities. I can say that we are pleased from the "printing" features

Two comments about the negative findings:

a) YAMAHA said that 99min should work with the drive, but we didn't made it work. Some new 99min media is on its way so we will re-test

b) Even we got the assurance that Celine Dion disc should be "handled" from the F1 drive, from our test didn't...However it read another Key2Audio disc, with however earlier build.

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This drive was really hyped up.. hehe

But it still falls behind most of the competetion
the Disc Graphics feature is awesome, but I'm not going to buy it just for that feature...

I was really hoping the F1 was going to burn faster than the other 48x drives out, but I guess it was just hype... ...

(in reply to john)

Hey Jeomite
I would like to bet you are a Lite-on 24x owner.

Laffin Assassin

It's Nice to be Important!!!
But it's more Important to be NICE!!!

(in reply to john)

Yes that is what most users will believe but...Check ASUS 48X and see that a gain of 20secs causes 80% un-readable CDs

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(in reply to john)

John...
EXCELLENT REVIEW!!!!
A big thanks for putting it up for us! :)

I prefer Ritek media.
I noticed that Ritek was not used in the tests.
I'm wondering if you plan on testing it with these discs? or if you already have?

Also,
I'm dissapointed to hear that it did NOT recognize the 99min CDR's.
Did Yamaha say whether the Ritek 99min cdr's will work?


--
miguel
http://www.extrememhz.com

(in reply to john)

GOOD REVIEW!!!! thanks a lot John!!!
I'll read that tomorrow with more time but overall it looks good...
do the printing acutally look better in the cd than what we see in the pictures? I understand is a matter of how to handle the disk when you take the picture too, but you should do the same thing just to look at those pictures when you have the cd in your hands? or you just see the printing from any angle?

Thanks again

Laszlo

(in reply to john)

What can I say??

This drive is a must have, especially in black .

John, just wondering how the tray mechanism is?? Is it a gear driven system or belt??

Smooth or what and is the build quality good??

Excellent writing quality

I'm impressed for shure!!!!!!!!!!!!

_________________
You get what you pay for...

(in reply to john)

Thanks for the comments!

a) RITEK media used (check the media table on the bottom of writing quality page)

b) We are using still 99min from Disc4You. Yamaha had tested other 99min and said it was working ok. We will get new media and re-test this

c) do the printing acutally look better in the cd than what we see in the pictures?

Yes they do..We will try update images soon to show it better.

d) This drive is a must have, especially in black

Yes it does!

Visit www.cdrinfo.com - The Recording Authority

(in reply to john)

Great, thank you!!!

Ken. kennyshin@msn.com

(in reply to john)

Hello!

Great, John. Itīs a super review of the Yamaha.

This drive not to seems be perfect, but I like this drive :)

cu
Scour

(in reply to john)

I was most interested in its Mt. Rainier performance.

1. Nearly 24x CD-RW speed.

2. Slow CD-MRW writing and reading speed though still faster than other drives.

3. No true defect management yet but Yamaha will surely try to improve it through future firmware updates.

Ken. kennyshin@msn.com

(in reply to john)

John,

BTW, can we get Nero 5.5.9.2b (b for beta maybe) and InCD 3.32? I couldn't find them anywhere. I've been using 5.5.9.0 and 3.32.

Ken. kennyshin@msn.com

(in reply to john)

> John can you tell me how the tray is??

Very nice. No problems like LiteOn

> Great, thank you!!!

Thanks!

> This drive not to seems be perfect, but I like this drive :)

We also didn't said its perfect, and no-one is (at least so far). But CRW-F1 has many new unique features, compared to other products. Don't you agree?

> 1. Nearly 24x CD-RW speed.

Yes this one rule! 3:41mins for a full 74min disc!

> 2. Slow CD-MRW writing and reading speed though still faster than other drives.

Yes seems slight slower than other drives, even with 24X HS-RW media is much faster!

> 3. No true defect management yet but Yamaha will surely try to improve it through future firmware updates.

Even the CRW-F1 didn't worked with the EasyWrite test suite, that doesn't mean the drive cannot handle defects, but Yamaha said will fix this and as soon it works with EasyWrite test suite, we will re-test this. Don't worry!

> BTW, can we get Nero 5.5.9.2b (b for beta maybe) and InCD 3.32? I couldn't find them anywhere. I've been using 5.5.9.0 and 3.32.

Actually we have already 5.5.9.3 that will be posted shortly in the web. Be patient

Visit www.cdrinfo.com - The Recording Authority

(in reply to john)

The drive seems to ba amazing. Personally I am waiting for the USB-IEEE version.. Thing is I am expecting the competition to crash the poor drive. I'll just have to wait to see when the F1 will reach Greece..

I have a few questions!

What was the configuration of the system you tested the F1 on??
Especially what OS were you using..?

And a general question.
All these drives with the 24+ speeds are tested only on recording from the HDDs, right?
Are there any on the fly tests with these drives that can tell us how they do on that department?

How do they do with WinXP..?


geo design

(in reply to john)

I have a newbie question here.. I'm interested in replacing my plex24x with one of the newer generation of highspeed writers. previously i was looking at the liteon 48x due to the general consensus that it was the best. having read the yamaha review i'm a little confused. its slower and a little bit more $ then the liteon. what exactly makes this a better drive (other then the cool graphic burning)? Also should i be concerned about the amplify weak sector bit? I am interested in making a backup of my wc3 disc and need a writer that will be able to accomplish this task.

Thanks for your all input!

(in reply to john)