Why more than 1 DVD drive?

[thespeakerbox]

I dont understand why people have more than 1 DVD drive in a system. The ONLY advantage I see is copying a cd/dvd while reading another. Are there any other benefits.

 

[Joe Average]

That's pretty much the benefit, yep. Real-time disc-to-disc copying if needed, or copying on-the-fly as it's named.

A secondary benefit could be to use one drive for reading only, one drive for burning only, then switch roles after a period of time to sortakinda keep the wear on the mechanics even, I suppose.

Also, some DVD-ROM drives are actually better at reading some types of media than a DVD burner is so, if you encounter some particularly nasty disc that simply won't read in a burner, more often than not a decent dedicated DVD-ROM which only does reading of such media turns out to have better read capability too.

 

[silent-circuit]

I personally run a DVDRW and a DVDROM / CDRW combo drive, because I found at the time that the DVDRW didn't write CDRs as well as a dedicated CDRW, but I wanted to be able to read DVDs from the secondary drive for on-the-fly copies as mentioned above.

This is pretty much irrelevant anymore, as DVDRW drives have become much better at writing CDRs more recently. I don't buy new drives often.

 

[engiNURD]

That's pretty much the benefit, yep. Real-time disc-to-disc copying if needed, or copying on-the-fly as it's named.

A secondary benefit could be to use one drive for reading only, one drive for burning only, then switch roles after a period of time to sortakinda keep the wear on the mechanics even, I suppose.

Also, some DVD-ROM drives are actually better at reading some types of media than a DVD burner is so, if you encounter some particularly nasty disc that simply won't read in a burner, more often than not a decent dedicated DVD-ROM which only does reading of such media turns out to have better read capability too.

Took the words out of my fingers. Actually, I would have generalized that last paragraph... not limiting it only to DVD-ROMs.

I personally run a DVDRW and a DVDROM / CDRW combo drive, because I found at the time that the DVDRW didn't write CDRs as well as a dedicated CDRW, but I wanted to be able to read DVDs from the secondary drive for on-the-fly copies as mentioned above.

This is pretty much irrelevant anymore, as DVDRW drives have become much better at writing CDRs more recently. I don't buy new drives often.

me too! lol.