Is there any way to reliably use 2 DVD recorders in one computer and run them simultaneously? I want to do some relatively high volume (dozens) duplication but would like to do it myself if possible, and am planning to have the Sony DRU700 soon in addition to my DRU500A.

I do know Nero can use more then one CD burner, but not sure
if it can do the same for DVD drives, it might.

Do you have some money to invest? You could try something like this:

http://www.discmakers.com/duplicators/dm/reflexpro4.php

I'm not necessarily recommending that brand, it was just the first example I found -- but something like a dedicated duplicator will do a good job of burning multiple copies at once, without tying up your PC. Depending on how much duplication you need to do (and how often you'll need to do it), this might be a worthwhile investment. The one in the link burns 3 at a time, but there are other, more expensive ones that will burn even more simultaniously.

In regards to your specific question, though, it comes down to 1) having a fast enough computer to keep up with two burners and 2) as Rob stated, finding a program that will burn to multiple drives (I think Nero will do it for DVD, but I'm not positive). I would also think that you would want them on separate IDE chains -- you might even want to install a third IDE connection via PCI card, so that both DVD drives, as well as the hard drive, are on separate chains.

Actually it just so happens that I'm going to have two. I'm not really interested in buying a duplicating machine in particular. But anyway, if Nero supports two burners simultaneously then I'll be sound as a pound. I'm sure my computer can handle it, but I should indeed use separate IDE channels for them.

I had a lot of trouble with multiple IDE DVR-RW and DVD-ROM devices until I installed a Promise two port IDE card.

i would kill to be able to run two dvd burners at once!!

firewire is where i envisioned it happening... i run the dru500a out of an el cheapo firewire box, but i have not seen any software that could handle simultaneous recording via firewire.

As long as Nero can see your drives I think it can do double
burner burning. At least that is what I would think. But perhaps
you guys need to do some searching around the net to see how
this works in real life.

Well I'll find out soon enough. ;) Whenever the DRU700 ships...

I'v done it with NERO.

Just make shure the data that it's going to be fed to the burners isn't on the same HDD as one HDD could run into trouble feeding the two burners.

Launch NERO with one burner and another NERO with the other burner.

Best regards
Arnaldo

Same HDD as what? From my understanding nero burns the
EXACT same thing to the amount of burners you have. So the
data stream coming FROM the harddisk should not increase.
It reads a block and just sends that block to the 2 (in this case)
burners. The data on your PCI bus will increase due to having
more data going to the burners (combined), but the reading
should not be any different in my point of view.

i think that arnaldo is talking about having two seperate installations of nero, each of which is on a seperate hard drive... with one dvd burner dedicated to each hard drive.

the computer would have to be running both instances of nero at once, and the bandwidth demands would be steep... the problem with trying to run one instance of nero to control two burners at once is that the program probably needs feedback from the burner before it sends out data each time... so the software would have to be able to both handle the feedback from two burners at once, and be able to address both burners seperately and simultaneously... i think :-)

there may be a better way?: http://www.emedialive.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=8544

Well I know for sure it can do this with CD burners. And I think
I've also seen the option when burning a DVD. It's called use
multiple burners.

One Nero installed.

Launch Nero and put it to burn on one of the burners.

Launch Nero again, it will open another Nero session, and burn on the other burner.

Since both burners would be accessing the same file, and the HDD could be in trouble feeding the two burners, it's safer to have a copy of the files/image on another phisical HDD to feed the second burner. But again, if your burners are slow and your HDD is fast, maybee you can get away with it.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

That is a second option indeed Arnaldo. You can use two instances
of Nero. Again, it should also support writing to multiple burners
within one instance.