by Charles H Gajeway
No doubt about it, cds have become the medium of choice for publishing documents, data, and presentations. The Rimage Desktop Publisher 800 offers a nifty solution for small-scale CD publishers.
The DP 800 is designed to queue several duplicating jobs. With a 12x recorder and a 1200dpi inkjet printer, users are only required to refill the 60-disc input stack or remove finished disks.
Setting up the DP 800 on our Gateway P4 multimedia workstation required connecting a SCSI, parallel, and serial cable, loading software, then precisely lining up the printer’s CD drawer with the robotic arm. The process wasn’t difficult, but did require patience and exactitude.
The CD duplicating software stubbornly refused to run until we disconnected the PC’s internal CD-R drive. This prevents sending a job to the wrong recorder. Since recording a disc can take 6 to 9 minutes, it’s not hard to line up a whole day’s output in short order.
Learning and using Primo CDPro to set up duplicating jobs was pretty straightforward. It entailed filling out a checklist with the parameters of each job (e.g., where source files are, where label files are). The SureThing label program that was supplied with the printer made it much simpler to create attractive groupings of text.
Once your employees find out how easy it is, we bet it won’t be long before you upgrade to the network version.
DESKTOP PUBLISHER 800
MANUFACTURER: Rimage Corp.;800-445-8288; www.rimage.com
PRICE: $4,495, for single user version; $5,195 for network version
REQUIREMENTS: Pentium II 350MHz or better; Windows 95 OSR2 or later/2000/NT; CD-ROM drive; Adaptec 2930 SCSI-2 interface or equivalent; serial port; parallel port
PROS: Easy to learn and use; 1200dpi labels look great; saves time and tedium; great technical support
CONS: Monopolizes host PC when in use; primary label program hard to use
RATING: 86