are two burners silly?

[lrmat]

my rig presently has an nec 2510a 8x burner. i was thinking of getting the 16x nec 3500a and have dual drives but is it necessary, should i just get a fast dvd reader instead? if so which one? advantages or disadvantages to either choice would be appreciated.

 

[Cheetah8799]

to burners is a waste. I once experminted with dual 4x SCSI drives back in the day. At the time, Nero was pretty new, but had dual burner support. Kinda neat burning two copies of a disc at once, but how many copies of something do you really need?

I currently do all my stuff with a single optical drive. It's a BTC 8x burner. If I rip a DVD, it rips to the hard drive, then I shrink it, then I burn it to a new disc. Same for audio and anything else.

Also, can you even get 16x media? 8x is hard enough to find as it is. I burn at 4x on my memorex media.

 

[lrmat]

the funny thing is i burn mostly cd's a few dvd's on occasion but mostly dvd's. i'd like two drives for unattended burning not necessarily for dual burning (though that would have it's uses). i had originally budgeted about $180 for a burner, i could get two and use one as a reader and if one fails, i still have a burner.

 

[Sheriff]

A faster DVD reader will not improve your performance as a player...it may read faster but I use 3 Burners (1 external) so when I make copies I can do more than 1 at a time. The minimal price difference is worth stepping up to a Burner as opposed to 1 reader and writer IMO.

 

[Cheetah8799]

Originally posted by: lrmat
the funny thing is i burn mostly cd's a few dvd's on occasion but mostly dvd's. i'd like two drives for unattended burning not necessarily for dual burning (though that would have it's uses). i had originally budgeted about $180 for a burner, i could get two and use one as a reader and if one fails, i still have a burner.

I've found that it's kinda hard to do unattended burning if you are doing something like backing up your DVD movies. Simply because you have to shrink them. DVD Shrink lets you play with the compression a lot, and letting it auto-shrink doesn't result in ideal video quality because it gives some of the space to the extras on the disc. Rather than for the main feature.

I'm not sure I agree with your backup burner reason, simply because it is so easy to buy a new one from Newegg for an excellent price. By the time your burner fails, the prices will be so low you'll wonder why the heck you bought two in the beginning.

If you really want the unattended burning. Go for a standard DVD reader instead of a 2nd burner.


On the other hand. If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, just buy the dual burners... Or mail me a check, I can use some extra cash.

 

[Richard98]

I have 2 burners, but had problems with DVD's when I tried to burn 2 at once. Now, I mostly use a Lite-On as the reader and the NEC 2500 as the writer. With both drives, DVDShrink is almost a one click backup.

 

[zodder]

With both drives, DVDShrink is almost a one click backup

It sure is.

 

[GT578]

Yeah.....I agree with Richard98.

I have a Lite-On (JLMS XJ-HD166S) 16x DVD-ROM and a LDW-811s burner.
The DVD-ROM reads everything I put in it quickly...no matter how scratched up the disc is....and the burner works well without any problems. I think a dedicated reader and burner is ideal.

 

[Richard98]

No question that Lite-On makes a great reader. I've had several scratched discs that the NEC wouldn't recognize at all, but the Lite-On read em without a glitch. I've read that the NEC is a better burner, but I can't really verify that from my own personal experience.

 

[Zepper]

I think having a nice DVD burner and a CDRW/DVD-ROM Combo drive would be ideal. Since CD burner Combo drives are so cheap, I don't even look at simple players any more.
.bh.

:sun:

 

[gotensan01]

I would do two burners for the most important reason...for sh1ts and giggles.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: GT578
Yeah.....I agree with Richard98.

I have a Lite-On (JLMS XJ-HD166S) 16x DVD-ROM and a LDW-811s burner.
The DVD-ROM reads everything I put in it quickly...no matter how scratched up the disc is....and the burner works well without any problems. I think a dedicated reader and burner is ideal.

I use the exact same drives in my main system (hey, great minds think alike). The Lite-on 16x DVD-ROM drive is extremely fast compared to a dual burner system.