Use PC while burning?

[chiyoaiki]

Can I use PC to do other things while I'm burning DVD? Would it have any effect on the burning process?

Thanks.

[budz]

It is suggested to turn off any programs that are running in the background such as antivirus programs. It's a good idea to defrag your pc before you burn. Sometimes multi tasking while burning dvds may affect the burning process, meaning burning a coaster.

[richdvd]

it depends what kind of PC you have (RAM, CPU......)
i always do other things on my PC while I am burning and it has NEVER caused any issues at all.

[Kingnog]

Depends on how souped-up (ll) your PC is, what speed you're burning at, what programs you have running, and what "other things" you want to do. Surfing the web should be fine, playing 3D games that require full CPU power are not fine

[Thorn]

I've been burning CDs for so long that I don't really worry about burning 2 CDs at once and bogging down the HD. Plus I have burn-proof, where the CD will resume where it was when there was a buffer underflow. I'm still a little more careful with DVD media since it's newer and I still have problems with media sometimes.

If you think your machine is fast enough, test it out while burning RW media. You can always reburn if it fails.

[Thomas Davie]

As has been said, take note of your DVD burner's capabilities. If you have burnproof, go ahead and use your computer. I regularly read email, download from newsgroups, surf the web and watch avi movies while burning, and have yet to turn out a coaster on DVD.

Tom

[Kingnog]

Problem is that the buffer underrun prevention doesnt always work. I have burnproof and justlink (2 seperate drives), and when burning cd's they still fail if I bog down the machine too much (like if I try playing a game). Buffer underrun works when the buffer drops for a few seconds...not when it stops for a few minutes Anyway, thats my experience, I may just have bad media?

[sterno]

Another problem is that if you're writing audio CDs or video sometimes the burn-proof/justlink/etc. will leave you with a little hiccup where it had to stop and start because it's not 100% exact.

[lacywest]

it depends what kind of PC you have (RAM, CPU......)
i always do other things on my PC while I am burning and it has NEVER caused any issues at all.

How about taking some time to put some info in your profile about what kind of system you use ...

Operating system
Type of mother board ... Company and model
what kind and how much ram,
type of video card,
what kind of burner

This info would be helpful for other people.

As you can see I have my details filled in.

Please ... okay

... You might be tempted to post it here but then that would mean referring back to this post ... so filling in the blanks in your profile would be helpful.

[painkiller]

Actually, if you can afford it, you may wish to consider adding a second computer/cpu.

You wouldn't necessarily need a second monitor, keyboard and mouse. You can get what is called a KVM switch that allows you to share/switch the monitor/keyboard/mouse you already have between multiple computer boxes. Isn't that expensive (for a 2 pc switch and cables, maybe $50.00).

Then you can switch between the computers by pressing a button.

Just an idea. One that I use all the time. Its great.

[smithy73]

Just thought I'd add my 10c worth.
I've just had the opportunity to add a 2nd PC at home coutesy of a "power surge". EBay and especially some of the forum trading places provide excellent gear suitable for the purpose at hand.

In the next couple of days I'll have a second machine for doing my Home Video rendering while still safely using the internet, etc.

Also helps with keeping "less" fragged drives.

And a Belkin KVM is worth its weight in gold @ A$70.

[Thomas Davie]

The trouble with having multiple cpu's is that eventually you end up rendering video on all of tem at the same time, and so then you use this as a justification to buy yet another PC.

However, a good solution if you are going to go the second PC route is to buy a wireless router so that you can continue to surf or use the net while you burn video/etc on the first comp.

Tom

[mats.hogberg]

It's not so much processor as disc I/O - The burning process is not very processor intensive (we could write CD-R back in the 486 66 MHz days! (and even before)), but if the burning app can't get data off the HDD when it has to, because some other application is performing some heavy read/write operation, you end up with a coaster.
Most OSs handles sharing the processor between different processes fairly well, but dics I/O is a different beast...

/Mats

[Craig Tucker]

I have burned DVD's while, encoding with canopus procoder, authoring with DVDlab, downloading with overnet, norton antivirus running, and surfing all at the same time. It really depends on your system setup.