Pros: It's 8GB of storage for $10USD and makes for my current price point when purchasing flash memory. No frills. No special software/formatting on the flash drive. USB 2.0 interface.
Cons: Slowest flash drives that I have ever used. Separate cap design. See-through smoked plastic reveals the board and electronics within and it can easily be pried open.
Testing: I encrypted the complete drive using TrueCrypt and its Serpent-Twofish-AES chained cipher algorithms. I then proceeded to use the flash drive as my target audio ripping drive.
Most flash drives I have used with similar crypto config usually get Nero to bog down to around 1MB/sec. I think that's okay since I push for a slow rip with jitter correction and Nero is very accurate for the first phase in archival audio capture for further restoration.
In the case of this fully-enciphered flash drive the EMTEC bogs down to around 200-300KB/sec when pushed with the incoming audio rip data and the move of a previous rip to another hard drive drive. For those who like slow rips that may be overkill. I get awesome results at the higher 1MB/sec speed even with the overhead. But this drive will really keep you waiting.
It's cheap yet slow storage. The memory is reliable but I'll have to perform some extended stress testing to see how long it can last with each rewrite.
It's good for the occasional document. But for high data throughput it's the slowest thing in regards to flash memory that I've tested out there.
Though I have a copy of Nero 6.6.1.15 somewhere with the ad-ware hacked out of the installer that I have used on occasion because it integrates with DVDShrink or DVDDecryptor or one of those programs.
Quote: Though I have a copy of Nero 6.6.1.15 somewhere with the ad-ware hacked out of the installer that I have used on occasion because it integrates with DVDShrink or DVDDecryptor or one of those programs.
Nero 6 OEM was very good, too. I don't know of the adware that was bundled with it unless you downloaded it from Nero's website or else rather than having an actual pressed silver CD-ROM. 6 was bundled with my desktop so I was spared that pain. That and I like OEM versions for obvious reasons.
Nero 7 OEM came with one of my USB 2.0 LightScribe external optical drives that I use with my netbook. The LightScribe support led me to switch from 6 to 7. Though I tend to rely more upon HP's official tools for LightScribe labeling and seeing what I can cook up within LibreOffice's Draw and other vector illustration/bitmap photo software for my artistic needs.
I don't use the A/V production tools within Nero, though. I simply use it for audio extraction and optical disc recording. Though I have paid for a Gold Registration for MediaMonkey way back when and truly dig its audio conversion tools, library functions and its disc recording features. Since I didn't have to pay for Nero it's a good deal for me. That and I've had no problems with Nero.
As for audio editing/restoration I use both Audacity and Magix Music Editor (the circa 2002 version that came with the largely obsolete Magix deluxe video editing suite that I paid $20 for way back when): The former is also great for a myriad of audio-related tasks such as multichannel mixing. The latter I use since it was very inexpensive and it's great for adding the polish to the final audio master. It also has a fantastic digital noise sampling and removal filter that's optimized for music that I can't give enough high marks for.
You may not agree with what I choose to use but there's a method to my madness: I use the tools that have been proven to work through my own rigorous daily use. And so far these oldskool tools are thriving within that test of time itself. It's also an interesting feat to see how much I can get out of low-to-no budget production. At least I'm happy with that.
Besides, most people pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for the privilege. That's worth a few pennies regarding those thoughts. ;-)
I use Nero 7, I don't know the specific version, it came with a DVD Burner I used to use. I have a "Limited" OEM Nero 9, but I don't like it or use it.
As far as ripping music, I use CDEX, but I'm not finicky on music. I just rip "CD" quality MP3s @ 128 bit. I'm using cheap speakers on a 4 GB Sony MP3 player.
Quote: As far as ripping music, I use CDEX, but I'm not finicky on music. I just rip "CD" quality MP3s @ 128 bit. I'm using cheap speakers on a 4 GB Sony MP3 player.
I go beyond "ripping": I go for full lossless archival digital storage so that the original discs remain in pristine mint condition (that's a big reason why I have external terabyte+ drives). That and from those lossless archives I can generate any format directly from them with all tags intact.
Moreso, because the original data is archived, I never have to "re-rip". So if I want to run a restoration on a particular album all I do is hit the digital archives, create a working copy, and go from there.
I'll admit it: I'm an aspie-like audiophile, minus the antisocial aspie tendencies. That and I dig working with audio. It's an interesting hobby among my other hobbies. It's definitely better than booze. :-)
--Bekki
Combating functional illiteracy with latex-clad drama since the '80s, because old video games rule!
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