Imation's Disc Stakka is an automated carousel that stores, protects and retrieves your 12cm optical discs, including data CDs, DVDs, music and game discs. Each unit holds up to 100 discs and connects to your computer via USB for both power and data. You can even stack units up to five high to create a tower that holds up to 500 discs without requiring additional cabling or desk space. However, £99.99 (ex. VAT) is a lot to pay for a storage box that can't read discs, especially as there's great free cataloguing software. The device could be ideal for businesses and individuals inundated with optical media, but it's a real shame it can't be used a disc jukebox. Having said that, this functionality would increase the design and price of the unit. If you're looking for a high-tech way to store, manage and protect your discs from dirt, UV, loss, theft, and improper handling, the Disc Stakka should fit the bill. Just don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.

Pros: Protective storage for 100 discs; intuitive management software
Cons: Can't read/write discs; 8cm discs not supported; no manual eject


The optical disc is probably one of the most commonly used multimedia medium in the world today. Besides being used for distributing music, games, movies and software, it is also a popular data storage solution among PC users for backing up and sharing data. However, it can be quite a time-consuming process having to search through hundreds or even thousands of discs to find a particular title. Imation's Disc Stakka aims to solve this problem, but not without some crippling limitations.

The Disc Stakka is an innovative device that stores, protects and retrieves up to 100 optical media including CDs, DVDs, music or game discs. Essentially a gloried case with an ID tagging system (it can't actually read or write to discs), the Disc Stakka has one neat trick up its sleeve - it connects to you computer via USB and allows you to search for discs on your computer. Once found, the disc is then ejected ready for use in either your computer or a regular A/V device.

There are many types of CD/DVD jukeboxes available, but they tend to be big, bulky and expensive. The Disc Stakka however, is relatively light and compact (340x350x172mm, 1.8kg when empty) and stores up to 100 optical discs in a carousel design. If you need more capacity, you can connect another four Disc Stakkas to manage up to 500 discs without requiring any additional cabling or desk space - each Disc Stakkas has five coupling pins on its underside.

If that's still not enough, it is possible to connect over 100 Disc Stakkas, equalling over 50000 discs, to a single computer using powered USB hubs - you'll need a whole room to store them though! The unit is powered by the USB port, so at least you needn't worry about having to source another power supply.

The Disc Stakkas works with 12cm optical discs (8cm discs not supported), without cartridges or shells, and hooks up to either a PC or Mac via USB 1.1 or USB 2.0. However, what it can't do is directly access content on the optical media via your computer. Instead, the bundled OpdiTracker content management software includes a database and search engine which finds and ejects a chosen disc within seconds, thus eliminating the need to search for discs amongst an untidy workspace.

Its fully motorised slot-loading disc mechanism helps protect discs by hiding them away, but it's a real pain that you have to operate the software in order to get access to a disc. Unfortunately, the lid doesn't lift and there's no manual eject button to retrieve the last-accessed disc. There's no LCD or on-board menu system either, so the Disc Stakka is completely useless without your computer.

OpdiTracker is a relatively rudimentary content management software that 'captures' disc content by automatically recognising whenever a new data disc is inserted into the Disc Stakka. The software then uses this ID data to populate a searchable database. Once the disc data has been entered, the disc is then housed in the Disc Stakka until it's needed. Alternatively, you can order it to spit it out for use in another device. It's a big gripe that discs can't actually be used whilst they're in the Disk Stakka, and that discs have to be ejected individually.

OpdiTracker is integrated with Windows Explorer, which means you can browse the discs stored in your Disc Stakka units 'virtually online' in the same way as you browse folders and files stored on your computer's drives. From the database you can search stored discs by title, keyword, directory or file name, or comments (useful for storing software serial numbers or tracking who has borrowed a disc). The OpdiTracker software is simple to use and there's even a password protection feature for added security, allowing you to set full control and read or write privileges.

Two versions of the software are available. The Standard edition is bundled with the Disc Stakka and is designed for those with one to three Disc Stakka units, whilst the Pro edition upgrade further enhances the Disc Stakka's functionality by adding extra search criteria, additional levels of password protection, and advanced reporting capabilities - a more efficient way to manage multiple Disc Stakka units. When upgrading to OpdiTracker Pro, you require a single copy of the upgrade for each computer running the OpdiTracker software. You do not require an additional upgrade for each Disc Stakka unit.

If you are using the Pro edition of the OpdiTracker software, you can also add titles to your database. This is called bulk loading. Bulk loading is useful when you want to load a large number of discs into the Disc Stakka without capturing a detailed description of each one. For example, you might want to store blank discs from a spindle, or you might have a large number of discs for the same software application. In most cases, however, it is recommended that you add discs one at a time.

To help you locate files you can even scan an index print of the contents of each CD and store that in the database. You can also print off a report of the disc title, type, status and which slot it's in as a disc inventory, as well as associate a different image with each CD (album covers for audio CDs for example). The Disc Stakka's features are relatively comprehensive, but you've really got to ask yourself whether you have a need for it given its inability to read and write to discs.

BIOS, Mar 03, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Miscellaneous