Zip/Jazz Vs. CD/DVD
by: Needy_and_Greedy
Over the last few months many people have posted with opinions on the
effect "New" Technologies will have on Iomega products.
Since it is the weekend I will offer my views as someone in the
industry that uses these products to comment on my opinions.
"Television will replace Radio" one of my favorite predictions from
the 50's that didn't make it! Each has a place, and each has
advantages the other cannot provide.
In my business we burn CD's regularly - When we have completed a job
and are ready to hand it to the customer. But CD's are not good for
in process work. Work that is "Rewritten/Updated". Rewritable CD's
offer the next step but from conversations on the board it sounds as
if most people are not familiar with the process. A CD holds roughly
650 MB of data, but when you write a CD it is not at all like typing
"Save As". Instead all data is staged in a directory and then all
files are written to the cd at once. A 650mb CD = 72 min of recorded
music, and at 1X takes 72 minutes to record 650MB. At 2X the write is
1/2 or about 35 minutes. At the end of the write, a "Close Disc"
process takes up to 10 more minutes. You can however Burn a CD with
only 1 small file. It is wastefull but it is ok. you also can skip
the close session as long as you intend to read the CD on the same
drive you wrote it on. But to read the CD on more than one drive you
must close the session. So if you wanted to you could write a few
files then close the CD, but the close session would still be 10
minutes. A very slow process when compared to zip or Jazz which acts
like any other Drive - Save As - Done. So CD has it's place just as a
tape backup has a place but as a Portable temporary storage medium
the average user (which outnumbers any other market) will still
prefer Zip/Jazz to Cd.
DVD is the same thing only worse, because right now the cost of the
writer is still out of range for the consumer market, and will likely
continue to be.
DVD is still struggling with standards due to the industry fear of
piracy in the motion picture industry.
Commercially, the Printers/Graphics/Imaging businesses still love
JAZZ and to a lesser degree ZIP, These media can be used to "Pre-
Master" their work then send it around for updates/changes and once
it is approved it can be burned to CD.
Another "Negative" to CD for the average user is that it is a very
sensitive recording process. When you attempt to write a cd the
timing is critical, if anything interupts the data stream from
beginning to end, you end up with what we call a "Coaster" or a
"Frisbie" (The only practical uses for a ruined cd.) The average user
would be surprised at how many coasters they will make. This timeing
problem requires that you not Multi Task at all. So for the Hour you
spend writing a CD you cannot use the computer, and you must make
sure that you havn't forgotten to disable any of the computers built
in proceedures like monitoring the Phone line for a fax, or running
anti virus, or even the screen saver. all of these can wreck it.
So again I havn't given many of the advantages of CD, there are many.
But I have tried to explain why I feel that CD is not the threat that
some have thought. There are places for both and I use both. But with
all the CD's I create I still use a ton of Zip and Jazz media.
Hope this helps - other opinions appreciated!
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