Can I build my own dvd Duplicator?

[thotholicious]

There seemed to be some confusion with this question last time. I want to mass copy a dvd set that I have that as no encryption and is on a 4.7gig dvd. Can I just use my computer and put burners in all the bays? I have four bays on my PC that I can stick burners in. My question is, will my computer be fast enough to do this? I have a 1.53Ghz and 512mb of DDR ram. Do I need to upgrade anythign?

[tito13kfm]

assuming these are all SCSI devices, and you up your ram to 2 gig this might actually work.

Or maybe if you burn at 1x settings with all ide devices it might work as well.. all I can say is try it with rw's, save your reciepts and pray.

[The village idiot]

Sure it is fast enough, but the question is really this.... Do you have enough powersupply to support all the burners? I would go with external firewire connected burners myself. But to each his own. You should at least make sure you have a great huge power supply, like a 550 watt or larger.

[overloaded_ide]

I agree with Village.
Power supply is very important! Make sure you have a good high power one if you install alot of burners. Is this something your planning to do alot!

I'll be building a duper myself and asked questions here before also.

I'll be doing one (or more) of 3 things.
Either install a bunch of burners into one large case, along with a IDE controller card for the extra burners and a high power supplie (maybe 2).
This all in one case would make it very portable easily! Some of my work may often be about 150 miles from home. I don't want to get there and find out I forgot the cables
Course also all those extra drives will probably create heat also, so better cooling might be needed.

Or use external firewires, with their own power supplies. No heat or power problems and expandable! Larger system power supplie not needed, nor extra IDE controller. Limited drive bays not a problem.

Buy a Dup controller card for about $200, install into a tower case with 7 burners and have a one button solution. I don't know what all extras are needed or might be included with the controller. I e-mailed, but they never answerd! Makes me question if I want to buy from them also!
I think the controler is basically just a system board and CPU, everything else needed to build a computer might still be needed! Cables, Ram, ect..
Though this is a one button deal like a paper copy machine! Load disks, press button. So no video, keyboard, mouse is needed.

At $100 (or less) a pop for 2x burners now, and some 4x not much more, I think I will be adding internal IDE burners and monitoring my power closely. If I see a problem starting to occure, I will buy external firewire enclosures and move the drives out of the case. For my goals, portability is important also. Less pieces I have to move around the better.
Course I have also thought of building a custom case to mount external firewires in, that would work well, and also keep them bunched together as a unit instead of abunch of individual pieces. Mount a power strip in the case so there is only one wall plug external, and make a bracket to wind the fire wire cable/s inside the case.

As for Software to burn 7 drives at once, I don't know what all suports mutiple burners. Nero is supposed too, but I am starting to not like nero I think.

[waxman]

There seemed to be some confusion with this question last time. I want to mass copy a dvd set that I have that as no encryption and is on a 4.7gig dvd. Can I just use my computer and put burners in all the bays? I have four bays on my PC that I can stick burners in. My question is, will my computer be fast enough to do this? I have a 1.53Ghz and 512mb of DDR ram. Do I need to upgrade anythign?

THE EASYEST THING TO DO IS TO BUY A DUPLICATOR PRESS ONE BUTTON AWAY YOU GO SIMPLE AS THAT EASY TO BULID YOURSELF
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT PROBLEM SORTED WAXMAN

[The village idiot]

Just for fun, I typed DVD duplicator controller into google and this was the first place that came up:

http://shop.ily.com/default.htm

They seem to have a lot of stuff, and the prices are pretty cheap, don't know if it works though.

[Savant]

I guess it depands on what you mean by 'mass copy'. Are we talking 40, 400 or 4000? If you need mass quantity and can afford it, the Primera Bravo DVD copier/printer is the way to go. It will handle 25 at a time and then burn, colour inkjet print, and stack them, all automated. It uses a Pioneer DVD burner and an Epson print engine. They run about $2500, but you can get them for $1000 less if you don't mind factory refurbished. (which comes with the same 1 year factory warranty)

If that is too expensive, you may want to go the firewire route.

Regards,

Savant

[overloaded_ide]

I want to mass copy a dvd set that I have that as no encryption and is on a 4.7gig dvd.

Ya, it would help to know what Mass Copy means to you?
For my plans, to me it will mean about 100 copies of hopefully 10-20 diferrent disks on a somewhat permentant basis for businesses with their own VHS movies.

First I have to get into business on a smaller scale, then as I get contracts and profits, expand into the REAL diplicators, like robo's latter.

For now I am looking to do 100, here and there to get started.