Burning 5x discs at the same time.

O

onetrueday

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2001
Messages
1,328
I know that nero supports burning multiple discs at the same time.

I'm curious what would happen if I burned 5 at the same time. I'd be using my internal dvdrw and 4 external dvdrw's connected via a usb hub.

Would this be possible? My opinion is that burning the same thing via multiple drives wouldn't be an issue, since it's the same data. Am I correct in this assumption?

Or, would it be too much for the controller to handle? Specs in sig.

thanks
 
You can indeed write to multiple writers at the same time, but I'd be worried about having four drives on one USB hub. Although it's the same data, I don't think USB has a multicast function. In other words, it would have to send the same data over the USB bus four times. It's a USB2.0 hub, I assume. USB1.1 definitely wouldn't work at any decent speed. Go ahead and try it, though, and let us know how it goes. CDRs are cheap.
 
I seriously doubt USB's gonna supoort 5 drives all at the same time.

This is what you want:

CDduplicator001.JPG


DVDduplicator002.JPG


More detailed pics can be seen here: http://www.sarversystems.com/projects/CD duplicator/ and http://www.sarversystems.com/projects/DVD duplicator/
 
SarverSystems said:
I seriously doubt USB's gonna supoort 5 drives all at the same time.

This is what you want:

[IMhG]http://www.sarversystems.com/projects/CD%20duplicator/CDduplicator001.JPG[/img]

[IMhG]http://www.sarversystems.com/projects/DVD%20duplicator/DVDduplicator002.JPG[/img]

More detailed pics can be seen here: http://www.sarversystems.com/projects/CD duplicator/ and http://www.sarversystems.com/projects/DVD duplicator/
Click to expand...

I have checked into those, but they are rather expensive.

perhaps if I ran 2 through usb2 and 2 through ide? Would that be a more probable solution?
 
I believe it's more like $300 if you put it together yourself. Buy the system board and control module, and the optical drives of your choice, put them into an enclosure, etc. etc.
 
There is no system board.

CDduplicator006.JPG


That is a completed system, ready to be packed up. There is no board inside it.
 
The controller is about $180 for a 1-7 duplicator. It uses standard CDROM and CDRW drives of your choice. I recommend LiteOn. A 9-bay case is about $120.
 
How does it work?

Put in original CD into CDROM. Close drawer.
Put up to 7 blanks into CDRW. Close drawer.
Push green button.
90 seconds later, 7 drawers open. Remove CDs.
Return to step 1.
 
The ACARD controller will allow you to add a HD as a source drive. That way you can burn CDs without the original CD.
 
onetrueday said:
Would this be possible? My opinion is that burning the same thing via multiple drives wouldn't be an issue, since it's the same data. Am I correct in this assumption?
Click to expand...
I don't think that USB supports multicast.
 
perhaps a dumb question...

Does it use standard 40/80 pin IDE cables, like the ones I can commonly purchase for $1 apiece?
 
Aside from the above mentioned duplication system, I can tell you that the current version of Nero 6 will only write to 4 recorders at a time. They do have enterprise versions that will write up to 32 drives (iirc) at once, but the software will cost you a coin or two.

If your drives are mix and match you just need to enable buring to drives of different types (one of the options), and it will burn at the highest common speed. With USB 2.0, you (in theory) have 60MB/s to work with, so running through a hub should be fine. You will want it to be a powered one, though. If possible, I would connect as many as possible directly to a host adapter instead of a hub. Something like this for $20 wouldn't be a bad buy if you have the drives already. As for the 2 IDE / 2 USB option, that would be another viable way to go if you don't have enough USB 2.0 ports to go around, and don't want to get another controller or risk the hub.

What burners are you using, anyhow? Do they support Firewire? If so, I might lean towards firewire over USB as an interface choice (cheap host adapter here, if needed)

In any event, assuming all of the burners are somewhat modern, their buffer underrun protection will make sure that they don't pop coasters due to bottlenecking - it will just take longer to burn. As long as you have a decent cpu and enough system memory, Nero's multi-burn option is actually fairly robust/rugged and tolerates with rickety equipment and suboptimal setups amazingly well. Hope this info helps, and I hope (as dorky as it sounds) you enjoy watching your piecemeal "duplicator" eject all four drives at once after the burn...I know I did. :D

BTW, what will you be using as your source?

 
I took that big boy to a LAN party, and wowed the crowd when I duplicated 7 Q3 CDs in 90 seconds. A unanimous "whoah!" was heard all around.
 
My school has a rack of about 100-150 cd-rom drives sitting in the basement. They threw it away as junk.. I wonder if you could use something like that.
 
Tman said:
can anyone link me to the dupicator?
Click to expand...
What type? A sandalone tower? a host controlled system? DIY? CD/DVD or just CD? Do you need a printer? Autoloader, so it loads, burns, unloads, and prints without intervention? Budget?

There are quite a few options out there depending on what, exactly your requirements are.

 
serbiaNem said:
My school has a rack of about 100-150 cd-rom drives sitting in the basement. They threw it away as junk.. I wonder if you could use something like that.
Click to expand...

You aren't going to be burning any discs with CD-ROM drives.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top