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We take a look at Sony's new D-R If you thought that the CD ROM was just a clever toy with no real place to go, then think again. Now, more than ever, CD ROM brings a whole new world of information as close as your PC. By DARREN YATES Remember back to those grand old school days when you had to do those natural science assignments and you spent hours looking up books for information on all sorts of animals? Often you found one photo and only a couple of paragraphs of information when you had to write four pages! If you think about it, it's amazing how things have changed in just the last 10 years, let alone the last 50! The CD ROM makes it possible to store 680 megabytes of information on a single compact disc - or, in other words, a complete edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica from A to Z. But if that isn't your cup of tea, then what about desktop publishing, wildlife, history, music, engineering? - the list of titles now available for CD ROM is growing all the time in a wider area of subjects. So, when we were offered the chance to review the latest Sony package from Pelham Pty Ltd, it was a case of "who's first to play with it?" For just $1140, you can purchase everything you need to get their CD ROM up and running; from cables to the software and the CD ROM card. But of course, the whole package is useless unless you've got software to go with it. Fortunately, they've covered this end of the wicket as well by providing a package containing six discs, each in its own container. The titles included are Compton's Illustrated Encyclopaedia, National Geographic Society's Mammals, Languages of the World, World Atlas and CD Player Simulator software. This selection is claimed to be valued at over $3000. The CD ROM drive itself is very compact, measuring approximately 320 x 180 x 50mm, and it contains its own power supply so that it doesn't have to reply on the computer's supply. The front panel of the drive contains a thumbwheel volume control, the CD eject button and a 3.5mm stereo socket for a pair of headphones. A dualcolour LED shows when the CD is being accessed by the computer; orange for access and green for ready. Sony have done their best to make sure that installing the CD ROM is as easy as installing any other peripheral into your PC. They've even given you the corBoth the software & the hardware for Sony's CD ROM are easy to install. You can use it with just about any computer from an XT up, although at least an AT with a VGA monitor & driver card is recommended. 6 SILICON CHIP rect Phillips-head screwdriver to undo the computer case! The CD ROM card is a half-width unit that will fit into any expansion socket on an XT through to a 486. There are no DIP switches to set and it's very easy to install. The socket at the end of the card simply connects to either one of the sockets on the back of the CD ROM drive. After that, it's just a case of connecting up the power cable and you're ready to go. Installing the software The driver software for the CD ROM comes on a single 5¼-inch or 3½-inch floppy disc. All you have to do is load in the disc, type "llinstal" and press return. The installation software automatically loads in and then asks you what sections of the 6-pack CD-ROM software you wish to load into your hard disc. There's a very good reason for this, too. The demo program, which is a top-grade mix of high-resolution graphics and digital stereo sound, is about eight megabytes (8Mb) long and when you add that to everything else, the total comes to about 17Mb! Once you have decided on what software you want loaded in, the driver software prompts you to load in the correct CD and away it goes. When it's completed, it also automatically reboots your computer so that changes it has made to the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files take effect. If you had enough room on your hard disc to load in the demo program, go to the LASERLIB directory and type "lldemo" and press return and you'll learn briefly how the CD ROM system works. Six-pack software As mentioned before, there are six CDs provided with numerous reference titles. To give you a taste of what you can expect, we'll take a brief look at a couple. To load in one of the CDs, you have to load it into a plastic caddy which then fits into the CD ROM drive. When you consider that some CD ROM drives now do without this caddy system and no CD players have it, you wonder why Sony has persisted with it. From our point of view, it was about the only negative feature of the whole package. But that aside, you only need to change discs when you change applications. CD music sampler Although not one of the bigger programs, this is one that is sure to be a hit in just about every workplace (including here in our editorial offices)! WHERE DO YOU GET IT? o~ (<,~ The unit is supplied complete with six CDs, including Compton's Illustrated Encyclopaedia, National Geographic Society's Mammals, Languages of the World, World Atlas and CD Player Simulator software. QLD'S LARGEST SUPPLIER OF MICROWAVE OVEN PARTS & ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS REPLACEMENT PARTS DISTRIBUTORS FOR • A SHARP Panasonic AKAi e TV e CAR STEREO e VCRs e STEREO e BUSINESS EQUIPMENT e WHITEGOODS e PHONES e VIDEO CAMERAS e MICROWAVE OVENS A RANGE OF MAGNETRONS, DIODES, CAPACITORS & SHEET MICA TO SUIT MANY MODELS & BRANDS OF MICROWAVE OVEN lf ffi EDSON FIELD PTY LTD (A.C.N. 010 378 588). Trading as: ECONOMIC ELECTRONICS, 24 Campbell Street, Bowen Hills, Old 4006. PO Box 481, Fortitude Valley, 4006 Telephone (07) 252 3762. SOUTHPORT ELECTRONIC SHOP, Shop 1/ 10 Welch St, Southport, Old 4215. Telephone (075) 32 3632 Fax (075) 51 0543 I VlSA I e VAST RANGE OF COMPONENTS e TEST EQUIPMENT e TOOLS e SOLDERING EQUIPMENT e DATA BOOKS e AUDIO/VIDEO ACCESSORIES e CABLE & CONNECTORS MAY 1992 7 You can now afford a satellite TV system For many years you have probably looked at satellite TV systems and thought "one day". You can now purchase the following K-band system for only: $995.00 These two off-screen shots are from the National Geographic Society's Mammals & from World Atlas. Here's what you get: * A 1.8-metre prime focus dish antenna, complete with all the mounting hardware. This program allows you to play your favourite music CDs through your CD ROM and even has a VGA screen display of one of Sony's CD players, complete with shuffle play, repeat and all the standard CD player features. But the best thing from a work point of view is that the software is clever enough to be able to play your CDs in the background while you get on with other work on the computer. That's pretty clever stuff. And what's more, the sound quality is just as good as from any conventional CD player. Sony even provide you with a pair of stereo headphones that plug straight into the front of the CD ROM for private listening while you work. * One super low-noise LNB (1.4dB or better). *magnetic One Ku-band feedhorn and a signal polariser. * 30 metres of low-loss coaxial cable with a single pair control line. * lnfrared remote control satellite receiver with selectable IF & audio bandwidth, polarity & digital readout. Your receiver is pre-programmed to the popular AUSSAT transponders via the internal EEPROM memory. This unit is also suitable for C-band applications. Call, fax or write to: AV-COMM PTY LTD PO BOX 386, NORTHBRIDGE NSW 2063. Phone (02) 949 7417 Fax (02) 949 7095 All items are available separately. Ask about our C-band LNBs, NTSCto-PAL converters, video time date generators, FM 2 & EPAL & Pay TV hardware. I I II ----------Name ...... .. .... ... .. ... .. .. ............... ... .... I I II I Address ........... ... .. ........ ... ...... ...... ... . I I ........................... P/code .... .. ..... ..... II Phone .... ...... .. ..... ....... .... ...... ..... ....... I I I II YES GARRY, please send me more information on K-band satellite systems. . ___________ .I I 8 ACN 002 174 478 SILICON CHIP 01/92 CD player software, you'll hear a myriad of animal sounds in both ears. CD ROM catalog National Geographic Also included in the "6-pack" is a CD ROM catalog which shows the CDs currently available from Sony. The list is truly diverse and includes, among other things , an aircraft registration compendium, Battle Chess , CIA World Fact Book, Variety's Video Directory, Shakespeare on Disc and Coate's Art Review. They're priced at between $80 and $500, depending on the application. One CD contains the complete 26volume edition of Compton's Family Encyclopaedia with over 32,000 articles, 1500 illustrations and sound recordings. What's more, you don't have The most spectacular package comes from the National Geographic Society. Called "Mammals " the program contains information on over 200 mammals, all complete with full colour photographs. But this is where the CD ROM leaves books behind. Also included are sound recordings and real life footage from some of the National Geographic films on a large number of mammals. You can even get a printout of the information provided on a particular screen by clicking on the PRINT tile. To be able to store so many audio recordings of the mammals shown, the right and left channels contain different tracks. For example, when you listen to what an old-world monkey sounds like, the sound is reproduced in the left ear. If you listen to, say, a moose later, you may hear that in the right ear. If you play the Mammals CD via the The CD is placed in a plastic caddy before being inserted into the player. to flip through reams of pages; instead, you just follow the pathways to the particular subject of interest. Again, the same method of storing so many sound tracks has been used here. If you play this disc through the CD player software, you'll hear two separate tracks in both right and left ears. The program, of course, only allows you to hear the sound recording of interest. Play CD's On Your Computer World Atlas One way to help with geography assignments is to have a good atlas and this CD ROM system has one. It gives you a picture of the world and by using either the keyboard or a mouse, you can select any region of interest and it will display that almost instantly on screen. You can then select any country from that particular region and look at it more closely. Overall, the CD ROM system allows you to instantly access a whole world of information previously only available at large reference libraries. As a teaching tool, it provides students and teachers alike with fast, instant information on the latest topics from music, science, art, biology, history and geography - the list goes on. With the way that CD ROM is expanding, it won't be long before you can buy the software as easily as you can buy music CDs. The Sony CD ROM package from Pelham is areal winner. At only $1140, it represents terrific value for money, particularly when you consider the amount of information being made available and the current cost of many of the reference works provided. Although many of the CDs available use high-resolution VGA graphics, many CDs also support CGA and EGA standards as well and there are plenty that don't even require graphics cards. So there are lots of good reasons to consider a CD ROM for your computer. If that doesn 't interest you, think of the complexity of the games that will be possible - at the very least, you should get digital stereo sound and motion picture graphics. The system reviewed here comes complete with drive, CD ROM card, installation software, the "six pack" reference library, CD cassette tray, cables, headphones, screwdriver and user manuals. The system require- THE LATEST MULTIMEDIA SENSATION ..... CD-ROM YOU GET ... •3 - • Textual Information • CD quality audio sounds • Photographic Images • Motion Video • SOUND BLASTER PRO Short Version SENSATIONAL CD TITLES Creative's Sounds Microsoft Windows 3.0 Microsoft Bookshelf, includes Atlas, Encyclopedia & more! Cat X-2250 DISK STORAGE BOXES 5.25" Holds 50 disks Cat X-3531 5.25" Holds 100 disks Cat X-3534 Mini IBM Joystick Cat X-3581 For more information on your nearest store location Phone: (02) 888 3200 PHONE ORDERS: SYDNEY AREA 888 2105 OUTSIDE SYDNEY (FREE CALL) 888 22 6610 81319 DICK SMITH (WHOLESALE) A.C.N. 000 908 716 ments are an XT or AT personal computer, 512Kb RAM minimum,' DOS 3.1 or higher, a hard disc, and a VGA card and monitor (recommended). For more information, contact Pelham Pty Ltd on (02) 980 6988; or see them at 1st Floor, 100 Yarrara Rd, Pennant Hills, NSW 2120. SC MAY 1992 9