Two desktops, one DVD burner. Help me decide which one to install the burner in.
March 18, 2008 1:34 PM
I have two separate Dell desktops: (A) one with dual CD burners and, (B) one with a DVD-ROM & separate CD-burner. They have reasonably equivalent CPUs (2.66-3.1 GHz) but B has twice the RAM of A (1 Gb vs 512 Kb). I just bought a DVD burner since they seem insanely cheap (yeah, I'm really with the times - what's Blu-Ray, duh!). Never having burned DVDs, I'm wondering if it makes more sense to install the burner on A, so that I have DVD read capability on both computers; or on B, under the assumption that the greater RAM & dual DVD units would make DVD-to-DVD copying more user-friendly/faster. Is that a BS assumption, or is it reasonably painless to copy DVDs using a single drive? Your thoughts?
It can be very painless to copy (back up) DVD's using only one drive - but having two drives will speed up the process. The biggest plus I see to having a unit with two DVD drives is that you don't have to be present to swap out the original disc and insert the blank disc.
I'm guessing from the specs you listed, it'd take about 35 minutes to copy a commercial DVD video using dual optical drives.
But the real issue here is whether or not you'll need a DVD drive in your computer A. Since it's still very possible to copy discs on computer B as is, then that will probably be your deciding factor.
Personally, I'd buy a bit more RAM for computer B and put the new DVD burner in it. You'd also be OK not even adding any more RAM. Instead of having 2 good computers, I'd rather have one mediocre (comp A) and one great computer (comp B).
Plus, if it comes right down to it, just shell out $20 for a DVD drive (read only) and install it in comp A.
posted by Detuned Radio at 1:44 PM on March 18, 2008
I'm guessing from the specs you listed, it'd take about 35 minutes to copy a commercial DVD video using dual optical drives.
But the real issue here is whether or not you'll need a DVD drive in your computer A. Since it's still very possible to copy discs on computer B as is, then that will probably be your deciding factor.
Personally, I'd buy a bit more RAM for computer B and put the new DVD burner in it. You'd also be OK not even adding any more RAM. Instead of having 2 good computers, I'd rather have one mediocre (comp A) and one great computer (comp B).
Plus, if it comes right down to it, just shell out $20 for a DVD drive (read only) and install it in comp A.
posted by Detuned Radio at 1:44 PM on March 18, 2008
I had to copy a home-movie DVD for a kids' school event and I found that copying DVD to DVD failed over 50% of the time. Imaging the original DVD to my hard drive and then writing that to DVD worked 100% of the time. I really don't know why but DVD to DVD copies seem to be unreliable.
posted by GuyZero at 1:46 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by GuyZero at 1:46 PM on March 18, 2008
If you ever have occasion to copy foreign DVDs it can be a big help to have multiple drives as it can be nice to set one drive to region 2 (for european DVDs) and the other to region 1, or 0. That's so you can make a region 0 DVD that will play on a regular (not multi-region) DVD player. If you have no idea what I am talking about, don't worry about it. :-)
posted by thomas144 at 1:54 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by thomas144 at 1:54 PM on March 18, 2008
DVD to DVD copying is something of a mythical beast. Pressed DVDs are usually multi-layered and much larger than the type of DVDs you can burn. So you cant just put the Matrix in DVD1 and a blank DVD in DVD2 and expect it to work. Most pressed DVDs are 8 or 9gigs and your burnable DVDs are 4.7 gigs.
What you normally would do is use a program like DVDshrink to get that DVD down to size. That may take an hour or more, perhaps 2-5 hours on old equipment. After that you would burn a new DVD.
If these are data dvds at 4.7 gigs or under then you should be able to do a dvd to dvd copy, but even on fast equipment that might be difficult.
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:18 PM on March 18, 2008
What you normally would do is use a program like DVDshrink to get that DVD down to size. That may take an hour or more, perhaps 2-5 hours on old equipment. After that you would burn a new DVD.
If these are data dvds at 4.7 gigs or under then you should be able to do a dvd to dvd copy, but even on fast equipment that might be difficult.
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:18 PM on March 18, 2008
When I was faced with a similar choice, I decided to put my DVD-burner in a USB 2.0 external enclosure. That way I can use it on my desktop, my laptop, at the office, whereever. The enclosures are getting really cheap now, and with USB 2.0 the burning and DVD playback speeds are fine. Even on USB 1 I can burn a DVD with no problem.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:28 PM on March 18, 2008
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:28 PM on March 18, 2008
Woah... damn dirty ape is spewing some awful advice.
Make sure that your new DVD writes dual layer discs and you'll be fine. Dual layer discs hold 8.5 gigs - that's about four hours of high quality video. I rip lots of complete discs to my server, I've seen maybe a handful that required more than 7 or 8 gigs.
You can use DVDshrink to rip and burn DVDs reasonably pain free.
You should install the burner in which ever machine is faster - probably the one with more ram. Also you should really consider upgrading the ram on each machine.
posted by wfrgms at 3:37 PM on March 18, 2008
Make sure that your new DVD writes dual layer discs and you'll be fine. Dual layer discs hold 8.5 gigs - that's about four hours of high quality video. I rip lots of complete discs to my server, I've seen maybe a handful that required more than 7 or 8 gigs.
You can use DVDshrink to rip and burn DVDs reasonably pain free.
You should install the burner in which ever machine is faster - probably the one with more ram. Also you should really consider upgrading the ram on each machine.
posted by wfrgms at 3:37 PM on March 18, 2008
Woah... damn dirty ape is spewing some awful advice.
Thanks.
Actually, you can go with dual layer discs if you like paying 10 dollars a disc. If youre rich then go for it.
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:44 PM on March 18, 2008
Thanks.
Actually, you can go with dual layer discs if you like paying 10 dollars a disc. If youre rich then go for it.
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:44 PM on March 18, 2008
Dual layer DVD-R blanks have dropped in price to the point that mere mortals can afford them.
I routinely buy spindles of 25 Ridata inkjet-printable dual-layer blanks for $35 shipped from Amazon.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:49 PM on March 18, 2008
I routinely buy spindles of 25 Ridata inkjet-printable dual-layer blanks for $35 shipped from Amazon.
posted by porn in the woods at 3:49 PM on March 18, 2008
DVDShrink is also really good at converting region 2 DVDs to Region 0 DVDs, especially if you have two DVD drives in the same machine.
posted by thomas144 at 11:13 AM on March 19, 2008
posted by thomas144 at 11:13 AM on March 19, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by box at 1:36 PM on March 18, 2008