From: bwilliam@iat.holonet.net (Bill Williams)
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom
Subject: Re: Texel 5024 Mini Review
Date: 27 Jan 93 07:09:48 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: HoloNet National Internet Access BBS: 510-704-1058/modem

WARNING... This is a long rebuttal to read, you may want to 'skip' now.
 
 
I regret to have to resort to writing a rebuttal to a rebuttal but Rick
Horwitz
(a biased employee of Texel) has forced me to by actually resorting to a
series
name calling (unprofessional in its own right) and a style of writing that
implies that I do not know what I am talking about when it seems that I may
know more about this Texel than even He, an employee knows.
 
 
Fact 1 (relating to multisession not shipping with firm date)
==== For this matter Rick Horwitz seems to issue a coverup when I called Texel
myself just a day before and that is what prompted me to write:
    >Reason #1, the Texel is NOT CURRENTLY multisession
     compatible and no firm
    >date was given to me by their sales dept. when it would be.
     (As of yesterday)
 
 
He could have just agreed and cited his guess as to when it will ship. I was
not spreading any mistatements, it was the truth.
 
 
Fact 2 (Relating to the lack of two distinct led indicators) Again I spoke the
truth. Of course I knew it was a tri-state led, as most are, but I do not
like tri-state leds. That is why I wrote :
 
     >The Texel does not have a separate set of LEDs as the Toshiba
    >3401 does for activity and "on", it shares one indicator, I recall.
 
 
 
Fact 3 (relating to inability to adjust volume via SCSI commands as all other
existing SCSI-2 devices do) He concedes that I am right about this but I have
never heard of a multimedia card on a Mac in my life and doubt that one would
ever be a common device. Perhaps this Texel mechanism was crippled just for
use on IBM compatibles. Again I was 100% correct and not being misleading.
 
 
Fact 4 (relating to inability to set audio play modes as all other existing
devices claiming SCSI-2 compatibility (Sony, Toshiba) can do. WOW! I actually
investigated this calim of mine and discovered a horriying truth to it! I was
using the mode select page 14 correctly (same code used on other SCSI-2 
devices without modification) and discovered that the right audio source could
not be connected to either the right or the left speaker FROM THE HEADPHONE
JACK. I did not spend the time to try the Phono plugs, but an expensive test
audio CD confirmed that the Texel 3024 did not play stereo from the headphone
but instead was playing left audio out both speakers. I will investigate a
tiny tiny bit more in the future but not for a couple weeks. I am
convinced I
am correct and history may prove me right.
 
 
Fact 5 (Relating to improper implementation of SCSI PREVENT/ALLOW MEDIUM 
removal. No disagreement here between us, but am amused to learn about the
padlock feature for those with expensive CDs in a library setting.
 
 
 
Fact 6 (related to the following stement I made) :
 
    >Reason #6, The Texel does not support the "PLAY (12)"
     command. All other
    >SCSI-2 compatible CD-ROMs I know of support this very very
     useful command.
    >In fact, its lack makes it very very difficult for a novice
     to try and
    >play more than a few minutes of contiguous sound from the
     center of a large
    >classical music symphony movement (< 15 minutes or so?)
     using block
    >addresses. It mercifully does have the other limited version
     called "PLAY
    >(10)" but the SCSI-2 specification clearly states underneath
     the table
    >enumerated as "13-3" for CD-ROM.....
    >.... If any of the commands indicated by an * in the TYPE
     column are
    >implemented, THE PLAY AUDIO commands shall be
     implemented. ......
 
That statement is 100% correct as I worte it. Oddly, Rick Horwitz, does not
directly address this issue but instead talks about a vendor unique audio
command and a command that has nothing to do with the block addressing 
PLAY AUDIO command. Sure, one could write algorithms to work around the 
deficiency of a missing PLAY AUDIO (12) SCSI-2 command but why botther.
The math is not trivial. The block address needs to be converted into
minutes, seconds, and frames  (75ths of a second) and added to a 150 fram
offset. And there may not be a solid correleation between the two addressing
schemes. SCSI-2 I think is unclear about how to convert when the logical 
block size is not set to 2048 but instead is set to 512 requiring further
multiplication or division before poroceding. If you just read my statement
at face value you will see that it is correct and definitely not misleading.
I find it odd that he points a finger at Sony (Whose SCSI-2 compliant 
device does provide the valuable PLAY AUDIO (12) command (only 95% certain).
 
 
 
Fact 7 (regarding lack of SCSI EJECT command) I think it is quite distressing
that my fine reputation is smeared with such allegations that I am misleading
people by saying the following simple phrase:
    >The SCSI EJECT command is not implemented in
    >the device. This is present on all other devices I know off that
    >claim full SCSI-2 compliance.
 
I know of only two other devices besides the Texel that Claim to be fully
SCSI-2 compliant and those devices are the Sony-8003 and the Toshiba
3301 and Toshiba 3401. THESE DEVICES DO INDEED provide the eject command
but obviously I am not implying that the SCSI-2 specification claims that
supporting the SCSI EJECT command is a "MANDATORY" option. Of course not.
If it was a mandatory option I would have mentioned it. After all, I
am not a misleading type of person and do not try to put words in others
mouths that they did not type explicitly.
 
 
Fact 8 (regarding lack of insertion motor) No disagreements on this issue.
 
 
In summary. I like a legitimate flame war as much as the next Usenetter,
but I regard myself as an unbiased and non-misleading person and only
write from my personal experiences on any matter I discuss. I find the
sentence he wrote :
 
   > However, making unwarranted claims that are simply false or 
   > impartial will not be tolerated.
 
Totlerated? Tolerate what? The simple honest truth presented without any 
misleading or false statements?? 
 
That is incredible to believe!!! Its almost (but not quite) enough of a
reason for me to spend hours of time picking apart Texels latest offerings
to try and find even more significant shortcommings than the ones I listed
so far.
 
I am sorry for this longwinded rebuttal to a rebuttal but folks who know
CD-ROM technology and SCSI commands will undoubtably understand my viewpoint.
 
 
Bill Williams (rarley wrong)
 
 
Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom,comp.periphs.scsi