Imation RipGO! Review

Imation’s RipGO! has a lot going for it as a portable external recorder for laptop use. Road warriors currently lacking CD-R capability should give it serious consideration as a convenient, lightweight traveling companion.

Hugh Bennett
EMedia Magazine, May 2002

After long being regarded as an interesting curiosity, the 8cm CD-R disc is coming into its own, finding new applications thanks to advances in compression technology and a new crop of consumer gizmos. Among such opportunities are portable computer storage and digital audio players where diminutive size and low cost make 8cm a viable contender. With Imation’s innovative RipGO!, it’s now a prime candidate, as it combines both recording and playing capabilities into a single unique product.

While dedicated 8cm CD recorders have already been integrated into a few of Sony’s digital cameras, the RipGO! is the first multipurpose external 8cm CD writer to hit the market. Designed by Infinite Data Storage (IDS) of Scotland and manufactured by UnitedBox in Singapore, the RipGO! operates as a 4X CLV CD-R recorder and a 6X CLV CD reader (when connected to a computer). What’s more, it plays discs containing MP3 and WMA files as a standalone audio device.

The RipGO! is solidly built, featuring a top-loading design, a highly legible backlight LCD display, and an array of nine control buttons (volume, play, stop, pause, equalizer, shuffle, repeat, forward, back). In addition to the unit itself, the $399 RipGO! package includes the necessary USB interface cable, rechargeable battery pack, wall power adapter, comfortable (yet fashionable) behind-the-head neckband headphones, two blank 8cm discs. The package also boasts appropriate application software including Ahead Software’s Nero and J. River’s Media Jukebox.

Ripping and Going
Realistically, using the RipGO! as a recorder calls for at least a 200mHz Pentium II PC with a USB 1.1 port, 64MB RAM, 25MB free hard drive space running Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000, or XP. USB-equipped iMac and G3 or higher systems with 64MB RAM and 25MB free hard drive space running Mac OS 9.1 or higher are also supported.

For this evaluation, the unit was put through its paces using two computers, a 1.7gHz Pentium 4 PC with 256MB RAM running Windows 98 SE, and a 700mHz Pentium III IBM ThinkPad T-20 laptop with 128MB RAM, also running Windows 98 SE.

A little more expensive than their larger siblings, 8cm discs are available from most brand names and manufacturers including Imation, Verbatim, Sony, Memorex, TDK, Prodisc, and others. With smaller physical size, of course, comes reduced capacity. Compared to 12cm CD-R discs, which hold 80 minutes of uncompressed Red Book audio or 700MB of data (mode 1), 8cm discs hold approximately 21 minutes of Red Book audio or 185MB of information. Thanks to compression technology, 185MB is sufficient for many tasks. An 8cm disc holds as much as three hours of MP3 or six hours of WMA files. Discs used in the RipGO! can either be recorded by the unit itself or by many conventional PC CD-R/RW recorders which support 8cm CDs.

As a standalone audio player, the unit has a number of attractive capabilities including the ability to play MP3 and WMA files as well as Red Book CD “singles.” A key feature of a portable device, it also offers impressive eight-minute skip resistance that proved near bullet-proof during testing. Sound quality was excellent and the unit obviously proved much more convenient to lug around than an everyday bulky portable CD player. However, the RipGO! lacks a few features expected of products in its higher-priced class, such as a belt-clip or carrying holder or an in-cord headphone remote and volume control. Other quibbles include an awkwardly placed headphone jack and the absence of a disable option for the display backlighting.

Despite advances in other areas, battery life remains a problem for any portable device, and the RipGO! is no exception. The RipGO! employs a 3.7v lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack with an advertised continuous playing time of up to five hours and a life expectancy of 1,000 hours. Unfortunately, no external charger is available, so that the battery pack must be replenished in the unit itself, consuming an average of three hours for a complete charge and one hour for an 80% “quick charge.”

To help minimize power-drain while at the same time improving skip resistance, the RipGO! only accesses a disc long enough to fill its buffer. However, despite clever power management, in testing Imation’s advertised battery life proved overly optimistic. Over the course of a month’s testing, the RipGO! averaged an extremely disappointing 3.5 hours of continuous MP3 CD playing time.

Recorder Operation
While poor battery life and inconvenient recharging make the RipGO! a less than ideal choice as an audio player, the unit’s small size makes it attractive as a portable CD recorder. A great solution for backing up or distributing files from a laptop, or even as a support tool around the office, the RipGO! has pleasingly trim dimensions and enough capacity for many common data tasks.

Benchmark testing with the latest version of Nero CD Speed reveals that the RipGO! is by no means a speed demon, but still offers reasonable performance. Confirmed data transfer rates include a little better than CLV 5X for prerecorded and CD-R data and Red Book audio discs. The drive also posted a random seek time of 332ms and third- and full-stroke times of 391ms and 508ms, respectively. Since the RipGO! is not MultiRead-capable, it does not read CD-RW discs. As might be expected, CPU use is also high at 18% for 1X, 37% for 2X, and 76% for 4X operation.

During testing, the RipGO! operated reliably at both CLV 4X (600KB/sec) and 2X (300KB/sec) writing speeds, taking roughly seven and 13.5 minutes respectively to complete full 8cm discs using Imation, Verbatim, and Prodisc media. One feature lacking, however, is buffer underrun protection, often a valuable reassurance given the sometimes unpredictable nature of laptop operation and USB recording. Imation also doesn’t recommend recording when the RipGO! is operating under battery power.

The Bottom Line
The use of 8cm CD-R discs in this unit shows a lot of promise for personal entertainment applications. However, while the idea of combining a compressed digital audio player and CD recorder is novel, the RipGO! doesn’t quite qualify as an ideal personal entertainment solution, due to its relatively high price and short battery life. On the whole, consumers looking for audio products might be better off investigating any one of the dedicated 8cm audio players on the market, such as TEAC’s MP-330 Mini CD/MP3 player, Philips’ eXpanium eXp401, or even TDK’s forthcoming MOJO 88 CD-MP3 digital jukebox. That said, the RipGO! has a lot going for it as a portable external recorder for laptop use. Road warriors currently lacking CD-R capability should give it serious consideration as a convenient, lightweight traveling companion.

Imation Enterprises Corp.
1 Imation Place, Oakdale, MN 55128-3414; 888/466-3456, 651/704-4000;
www.imation.com

Infinite Data Storage Limited (IDS)
1 Pitreavie Court, Dunfermline, Fife, United
Kingdom KY11 8UG; 44 (0) 1383 62730

UnitedBox Pte Ltd.
allang Avenue #06-09, Singapore 33941;
(65) 2916128; www.unitedbox.com

About the Author
Hugh Bennett, editor-in-chief of Hugh’s News, is president of Forget Me Not Information Systems, a reseller, systems integrator and industry consultant based in London, Ontario, Canada. Hugh is author of The Authoritative Blu-ray Disc (BD) FAQ and The Authoritative HD DVD FAQ, available on Hugh’s News, as well as Understanding Recordable & Rewritable DVD and Understanding CD-R & CD-RW, published by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA).