MicroBoards CX-1 Disc Publisher

Advantages: "works" with Mac and Windows
Disadvantages: Too many to list.

...To put it simply, this is a horrible bit of kit. Now, going into more detail: - The software (Discribe) is glitchy at best (running under OsX 10.4). - The drivers (should you decide not to use Discribe) refuse to work with other programs (again, under OsX). Even though the manual says that you can install the drivers and print from any application (I tried Photoshop CS3) the printer will tell you "out of discs" even though you've fed it with discs. -The hardware is terrible. >Build quality is very low (bits will come unglued, yes, it is GLUED together!) >The CD holder has some weird design whereby you need to load 5-discs flat and then the rest at some angle (no mention of this in the manual - contact their support after days of frustration to find this out) >Speed!!! It is ludicrously slow! If you're burning, you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Looks nice, software is well appointed.
Disadvantages: Unreliable, expensive re-badged cartridges, noisy

...Very poor experience over the last 12 months with the DX-1. Never reached 48 speed CD burn, usually between 16-24x speed. The printer typically lost register on every other disc and in order to use the MB branded rather than HP ink cartridges there's a barcode on each cartridge that increases the cost from £30 to £50. Not once did this unit burn 100 discs unattended, it typically varied from 4 to 15 discs, requiring manual intervention due to: a) 'invalid ink cartridge' even though I religiously (stupidly?) stuck with the branded carts. b) sync cache error very frequent burn fault. c) discs misfed in the drive tray, requiring the stack to be removed. d) print transport jumping requiring a restart of the unit. In spite of running this unit on many different workstations, and with many different media types it never failed... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: cheap
Disadvantages: they hardly work !

...Dont waste your cash on these discs. They are called Tuffdisc, I think it is more like tough-titty when you waste them recording stuff onto them ! Let me explain. So far I have had little joy with these discs, using them on 3 dvd-burners, and the movies being played in 2 stand alone dvd players, also, they are pretty useless for holding operating systems that will boot PCs. Linux and BSD will install from them, slowly, but Windows, (XP and VIsta) just died. They also make a lot of noise when you are playing them in a stand alone player, I dont know if this has any bearing on anything though. The only thing I have used them successfully with, is archiving. They are pretty resilient that way. I will use them for backing up my clients computers, but for day-to-day use, get something else.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful