Running two external DVD burners simultaneously...

[bsipe9]

As part of my job req I need to burn two copies of a whole lot of pictures at the end of each day. Previously, I'd burn one, then the other... but my boss has to wait until they're done to go home, and he's tired of waiting

Current setup is a XP laptop with 3GB of ram but an older proc (not in my hands at the moment... guessing P4) with a 18x burner in a external closure connected via firewire.

He's willing to upgrade the lappy which it probably needs anyhow, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to burn to a second external burner at the same time. If so, what would be the best way to accomplish that? One off of firewire, the other off of usb (always thought to stay away from usb burners, but there seems to be a lot of them available... with decent reviews too). Or is there a way to add additional firewire device support?

I know this might seem like a lot of trouble to knock 20 minutes of our time, but it's work that runs late into the evening... plus it's his wallet

 

[corkyg]

The problem would not be the burners. It would be the software used.

 

[bsipe9]

Care to expand?

Perhaps use Nero for one disc, and something else for the other? Also, if it's a new laptop, would I want to force each program to use a different core?

 

[Zepper]

Nero Burning ROM (perhaps only the paid version) is supposed to support multiple burners simultaneously. You'll have to look into what is required in hardware to support that. I seem to recall that Acard had a controller for CD/DVD dupe towers that was designed for burning to a number of drives at the same time. You'll also have to check that your PSU is up to it. I suppose that each external drive will have it's own power. Perhaps a two drive DUPE station would be the way to go. Some of those are fussy about which drive brands/models they support - so do your homework.

BTW, this thread probably belongs in the Peripherals section.


.bh.

 

[bsipe9]

If this is better suited in Peripherals, then I'm fine with it being moved (mod?).

As for the DUPE station, I'm not sure that suits my needs. Seems like it would still require burning one, then duping a second. Ideally I'd be burning two simultaneously... just not sure whether to go USB for the 2nd burner, or to get a Firewire pcmia car and add another firewire burner.

 

[Zepper]

Shouldn't matter whether the source is an image or files on a hard drive or a pre-existing disc in a reader.

.bh.

 

[wwswimming]

Originally posted by: bsipe9
As part of my job req I need to burn two copies of a whole lot of pictures at the end of each day. Previously, I'd burn one, then the other... but my boss has to wait until they're done to go home, and he's tired of waiting

Current setup is a XP laptop with 3GB of ram but an older proc (not in my hands at the moment... guessing P4) with a 18x burner in a external closure connected via firewire.

He's willing to upgrade the lappy which it probably needs anyhow, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to burn to a second external burner at the same time. If so, what would be the best way to accomplish that? One off of firewire, the other off of usb (always thought to stay away from usb burners, but there seems to be a lot of them available... with decent reviews too). Or is there a way to add additional firewire device support?

I know this might seem like a lot of trouble to knock 20 minutes of our time, but it's work that runs late into the evening... plus it's his wallet

might be cheaper just to buy a second laptop & have them both burning at the same time. if his time is worth $90 an hour (to make the math easier), that's $30 a day(20 minutes saved = $30), $150 a week - the second laptop pays for itself in less than a month.

considering what you can buy laptop-wise for $500 these days ...

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: corkyg
The problem would not be the burners. It would be the software used.

Nero from 6 up pretty much supports multi burners

Originally posted by: bsipe9
Care to expand?

Perhaps use Nero for one disc, and something else for the other? Also, if it's a new laptop, would I want to force each program to use a different core?

if using externally powered burners you shouldn't have an issue if you burn @4x and your laptop is modern spec(no 4200 spindle harddrives ). When I had my hp zv6000 (1.5gb of ram) I'd burn a CD(using the laptop's built-in unit @4x) and a DVD using a usb external(AC powered and @ a true 8x w/ a Benq 1655) macally enclosure but the harddrive installed was a 5.4k spindle and it was a bit taxed..installed a Momentus 7200.1 100gb and never looked or thought twice on it again. I just did a test run of both my desktop dvd burners set @8x file size 4472mb 2 different folders (sh-s203b and sh-s183L,2x2gb of ddr2 with vista x64 core2quad@3.0ghz using a 1tb Hitachi) burning concurrently from same harddrive as OS installed went from using 1.4gb of ram to 1.97 (never touched page file) but according to the resource meter never popped over 5% on the cpu but pulled upwards of 30gb/sec ..the 203 done @10minutes(closer to 6-7x) and the 183@14minutes .. As always ymmv

 

[corkyg]

Yeah - good to know about Nero. I have burned across my network - three computers and three burners, Using the LAN, I can burn in three places at once.