Burning 2 dvds at the time

[Konrad Czystowski]

Hi
From what I know, there is a way to burn dvds at the same time from two superdrives.
I am using DVD Studio Pro and want to burn let's say 100 discs.
By using 2 burners at once I can do it twice as fast.

Does anyone know how to do it?
And is there a way to set the program for multiple dvds burning that it just asks for new discs by itself instead of going through the same process all the time?

I hope somebody can help

[Daniel Ross]

Don't use DVDSP for that. Make a disc image, then use a more efficient application to burn as much as you want. You can also then take that image to another workstation, etc., as well as back it up for easy duplication later.

I haven't used DVDSP much, but that will also save rendering time, whatever there is of it when burning multiple copies; I'm not sure if it stores the compressed date, or for how long, but, regardless, it'll save any time taken up by that, if any.

[Konrad Czystowski]

Thanks for fast responce.
But how do you do disc image?
And what application are you talking about?
Can you explain a litte more since I'm still learning and it's all new to me?

Thanks

[Paul E. Coleman]

Once you've burned your first DVD, pop it back in and open Disk Utility (Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility). Your disk will be on the lower left, below your internal/external hard drives, select it. Then choose: New Image. This will create a copy of your disc, menus and all, my Leopard version shows it's location/path at the bottom. Then use the burn button at the top to copy this image to the blank media in your top and/or bottom Super Drive to burn as many copies as you wish.

It still takes time, but nowhere near as much as the initial burn took.

[Konrad Czystowski]

Thank you
I'll try it in the morning
I'm just finishing a project, will render over night and I have to start burning tomorrow.

Thanks again

[Ivan Snoeckx]

Originally Posted by Daniel Ross

use a more efficient application.

Can you tell us what application that is? On my Windows systems I always have been doing this with Nero Burning ROM.

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Before I purchased a stand alone bunrer I used Toast to accomplish this. Here is what I did:

1) I duplicated the application and renamed One Toast A and one Toast B
2) This allowed me to have both open with different target drives.
3) From DVDSP I selected build disc, which created my VideoTS folder.
4) From Toast select the Video TS folder and tell it how many copies you want.

The best part about this setup is that you can still work in DVDSP while your discs are burning. I hope this helps. (Though I will tell you that a stand along unit 1-5 can be bought for about $500.00 and is well worth the investment!)

Jonathan Schwartz
Owner, CA Video Productions

[Daniel Ross]

You should be able to make a disc image directly from DVDSP. File>Make Image, or something.
Hmm... looks like File>Advanced Burn>Build, perhaps.
Or just go with the Disk Utility method. Odd that DVDSP doesn't seem to have an easy disc image option like iDVD, though.
Then I'd agree that Toast is a good option. Or you can just burn a disc image (dmg format) directly from Disk Utility. Pick the image, then choose burn, and it'll work.
Easy, and free. Toast gives a few more options, though, as some other apps might too, though I'm not sure what else to recommend.


EDIT: It looks like Jonathan already said Build Disc works, so that should be helpful, though it sounds like a folder, not a disc image. You could then make a disc image from that in Disk Utility.

[David W. Jones]

Originally Posted by Konrad Czystowski

Hi

I am using DVD Studio Pro and want to burn let's say 100 discs.
By using 2 burners at once I can do it twice as fast.

I hope somebody can help

And by purchasing a multi-drive DVD duplicator you could burn many more at once. Revenue from the project would cover the cost, and then you would have a proper duplicator for future projects.

[Konrad Czystowski]

Thank you all for help.

"And by purchasing a multi-drive DVD duplicator you could burn many more at once. Revenue from the project would cover the cost, and then you would have a proper duplicator for future projects."

Actually I want duplicator badly, but I was hoping to wait a little bit for HD DVD duplicators or Blue-ray (wchichever wins the battle). I understand that it can still take a while.

Maybe I'll get the duplicator for the next project.
It's too late right now.

BTW

Since compressor is still processing the project, can I start printing on the faces of the dvds with the dvd printer and burn them later?
Maybe it's stupid question and the answer is probably yes, but I want to know for sure. Maybe there can be some problems...

[Konrad Czystowski]

Originally Posted by Paul E. Coleman

Once you've burned your first DVD, pop it back in and open Disk Utility (Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility). Your disk will be on the lower left, below your internal/external hard drives, select it. Then choose: New Image. This will create a copy of your disc, menus and all, my Leopard version shows it's location/path at the bottom. Then use the burn button at the top to copy this image to the blank media in your top and/or bottom Super Drive to burn as many copies as you wish.

It still takes time, but nowhere near as much as the initial burn took.

Ok

So it worked, however it took longer to burn from disk utility than to burn one from DVDSP.

It was slower about 50%.

But because I was burning 2 at the time it was faster 1.5x than burning just one...

Fortunately, I also have imac, so I used it too, and than together I achieved 2x the speed.

I hope this makes sense. :)

Go ahead duplicator owners, laugh at me :) I know it's nothing for you. lol

Thanks again

[Robert Lane]

Konrad,

When you consider the cost of a multi-disk duplicator you might be better off just having a replication order done for 1000 units instead. Replicated disks have near 100% playback capability and can use CSS encryption (which doesn't amount to much these days with programs like Mac the Ripper) and don't look like a home-burned disc.

The best way to burn simulaneously on the Mac is to have DVDSP4 make an "img" of your finished DVD and save it to a HDD. Then use a program such as Dragon Burn from NTI which can burn the same image simultaneously on two drives on the same machine. Unfortunately Toast 8 can't do simultaneous burns - a feature I wish they'd add.

With respect to small HD-DVD or Blu-Ray duplicators, it's going to be at least a year or two before those make it to market. Right now even the major replication houses that burn HD discs have 5000 unit minimum orders because the demand isn't there yet. Not to mention that stable, reliable drivers for HD-DVD & BR burners haven't even made it to the PC level yet.

Food for thought.