How to determine the Source drive and Destination drive?

[coody]

If two DVD drives speed is not same, 18x versus 16X, how to determine the Source drive and Destination drive? Should the better 18X drive be chosen the Source drive or Destination drive and why? Thank you for your answer.

[TJohns]

I'm one of those who'd never do a direct disk-to-disk copy anyway, but I'd suggest putting the faster READING drive as source, the other as destination, and only burning at around half speed!

Trev

[redwudz]

I'd agree with TJohns. Also, I wouldn't risk a corrupted disc by trying to do direct disc copying.

[coody]

The disk-to-disk copy will let you leave and come back to get the finished disc while you have to wait insert a blank disk in the middle of the processing with one DVD drive recording. By the way, if putting the faster drive 18 X as the Destination but 16X drive as the Reading Source, what will the potential problems be? The 18X drive features the buffer underrun protection while the 16X drive does not.

[SLK001]

Do a disc-to-disc copy at reduced speeds. Instead of 16x writing, use 8x or less. This will give the buffers more time to respond to the writing drive's needs.

[oldandinthe way]

When using two different drives, I do not do disk to disk copies. I do use one drive to read and another to write. That way I can walk away and not change media. There is too much crap software protecting me and my system that may decide to run during the burn process for me to risk disk to disk copying. Many software packages will cache to hard disk even when provided with differing source and destination drives. Take advantage of these capabilities.

Use the better burner, the one which is unlikely to give you coasters when you burn at full speed. This is a function of your burners and of the media YOU use.

If your 18x drive is reliable and media tolerant you can use it to write to reduce the time spent.

Your drives may not differ at all in rip speed for a variety of reasons so write speed may be the only advantage.

[coody]

So you guys suggest always using the better DVD drive with higher speed and buffer underrun protection as the Destination drive, correct? Or, the better one should be used as the Source drive. Please write your conclusion. I have two DVD/CD drives. One is 18X featuring buffer underrun free/protection technology and the other is 16X only.