Building DVD Duplicator

[Bronx]

I want to build a simple DVD duplicator 2 drives.

I did a Google search, could not find a straight answer.

Your help will be appreciated.

Thanks

[Krispy Kritter]

I assume you are talking pc based. Some software, Alcohol 120% for instance, will let you burn an image to multiple drives. The recording speeds are much slower however, as the pc has stream data to multiple devices. In my experience, burning 2 copies at once of a CD image, took almost twice as long as a single burn.

[Bronx]

Thanks for your responce.

Yes, it would be pc based. I know Alcohol 120 and Nero will let you burn an image to multiple drives.

Do you have any sugestions?

[Krispy Kritter]

Only that the speed of your burns will be affected by the throughput the pc can handle. I would expect the best way to handle all the data would be to use SATA based burners. If you have to use IDE drives, I would expect the best speed would be with only 2 drives, each on a seperate IDE channel.

[Bronx]

I would prefer to just two drives. Which one would be affordable IDE or SATA based burners?

[Bronx]

Would it be just easier to have to external dvd burners with IEEE 1394?

This is the pc that I own.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00389437

[redwudz]

SATA burners are a little expensive yet. A Plextor PX-716SA SATA DVD burner is about $130US at present. What you are thinking about building is not really a duplicator, it would just be a computer with two burners. A duplicator would be more of a stand alone box.

If you just want to burn with two drives at once and you have the drive space in your computer, just install the extra drives. You can use a PCI ATA controller for the extra drives if needed. As stated, it may not be any faster that burning the same disc twice. Using a PCI ATA controller may help there. Make sure the controller can be used with the slower ATA 33 and 66 devices. A ATA 133 only controller won't work with DVD or CD drives. I use a Promise Ultra 133 TX2 PCI Controller Card for extra drives and it does work with the slower drives also.

If you need to use an external box, I would recommend Firewire over USB.

[Bronx]

Thanks.