OTHER TECH

It's another button, labeled HDD for hard-disk drive, that unlocks the CDR-HD1000's secret identity. The hard disk can store up to 30 hours and 40 minutes of CD-format audio without data compression. Even better, the hard-disk drive's data-transfer rates are fast. Ideally, you can copy a CD to the hard disk at 10x speed, and you can copy data from the hard disk to a CD-R at 8x and to a CD-RW at 4x speed. (Blank discs are rated at different transfer speeds, however, so not all of them can achieve these transfer multiples.)

With so much storage capacity, you need some way to organize the hard disk's contents. Cleverly, the Yamaha recorder uses a hierarchy of virtual "discs" (up to 999) and "tracks" (up to 99 per disc, just like a real CD). In addition, tracks from different discs can be organized into a playlist called an "album" (up to 999). Finally, a collection of tracks, discs, and albums is called a "group." If a disc contains CD Text, that's also copied, but graphics and other nonaudio data are left behind. Finally, audio from CD-ROMs and DVDs cannot be copied.

The HD1000 accepts digital audio data with sampling frequencies of 32, 44.1, 48, and 96 kHz, but they're all converted to the 44.1-kHz, 16-bit CD format. The digital output is always 44.1-kHz and 16-bit. The back panel has the connections you'd expect on a CD recorder. It also sports an RS-232C jack, but that's used only for factory diagnostics, and a fan to keep the chassis interior cool. The supplied remote control, most notable for its bland design, duplicates most of the front-panel functions and adds an alphanumeric keypad.

Although the CDR-HD1000 contains a hard-disk drive, it is not a computer, so it can record only on "music use" blank CDs. These discs contain header information that's slightly different from that on "data" CDs and also cost more. The added cost is a royalty meant to compensate artists, record companies, songwriters, and music publishers for presumed losses due to home recording of copyrighted material. In addition, as the law requires of all consumer digital audio recorders, the HD1000 adheres to the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS): you can digitally copy a digital original, like a music CD, but you cannot digitally copy the copy. For example, if you digitally copy a CD's contents to the hard disk, then later want to copy the same contents to a blank CD, the transfer must be analog - meaning that the output from the hard disk goes through a cycle of digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion before it goes to the recorder's inputs.