DVD Duplicator?

[Percy1983]

In short I am running a video business which mostly films shows and produces the DVDs.

So far I have been using 3 burners in my PC which has working fine but I am finding demand is going up and the burning is starting to take too long.

So I am looking at DVD duplicators as the next step.

The problem is prices vary, there is many different controllers etc.

I would be up for building one but can't find a case.

Is there any which can work off usb/sd card?

I am looking at burning 7 or 9 but may go further if costs aren't too different.

Any advice, suggested products etc would be great.

Thanks

[abaxas]

How about a robot?

They come in at £3.87 an hour is under 18!

[djblack]

Hi

I would be tempted to just buy a duplicator....you can get something for circa £300 that should do 8 concurrently...or if you have a grand spare you could get a basic robot...ie single drive that feeds itself blank disks.....

If its business.... its an expense...so the cost over time is written off hopefully.


David

[malfunction]

I'm not sure it's worth building your own to be honest - by the time you've factored in the controller, drives, case and PSU the cheaper pre-built ones are pretty much the same cost. The only advantages in building your own would be:

1) The ability to expand it later on if needed - but in reality the price of DVD burners is so low that you may as well buy all the drives at the same time.

2) The ability to do something 'exotic' like using laptop / slimline DVD drives (with suitable mounting frames / plates, e.g. http://www.digistor.com/Accessories/...ve-Black-Bezel)

Maplin have a case / controller with no drives for £180:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/7-in-1-sta...plicator-a59kj

Scan have a few that look kind of 'homebrew' (built by Scan?) for 3 to 7 drives:

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-...es/duplicators

At the high end you'll have to spend a lot more, e.g.

http://www.epson.co.uk/gb/en/viewcon...cms/index/1013

[GoNz0]

Epson PP100

set it running then go back to it when it's dumped 100 discs printed and ready to pack. You set the job going and get on with your day.

[Percy1983]

Thanks for the input.

The maplin one looks interesting as I do have 3 drives in the computer and 4 spares so could fill it and go, can't see any info on the controller but I guess they are all more or less the same at the disc to disc level.

It is going through as a business expense, but I am a sole trader and its a part time business so can't justify much more than £300.

Not ordering just yet but unless anybody comes up with better, maplin it is.

[g8ina]

If quantities are getting really serious, how about subbing the job out, maybe even get them professionally pressed ?

[Percy1983]

I have found time frames are too short to sub out and jobs vary from 30 burns to about 200 burns so not really cost effective.

If anything I found if my setup works well I may start offering duplication myself tapping into the lower quantities market.

[peterb]

Maplin one looks good value if you already have some writers, but you might find this site interesting

http://www.duplicator4all.com/Disc-Printers-c5.html

[Percy1983]

Is there any real differences in controllers? The maplin one doesn't state which model it uses.

Would I have to use matched drives? or is that dependant on the controller?

If I need matched drives it might be worth getting a few spares before the model I am using becomes hard to get.

[Percy1983]

Well I ordered the maplin one and it has arrived.

Not sure on the controller (its not branded but I think its an ily Athena) but is has full cd/dvd/blu-ray options and I could connect a hard drive (had an old 250GB 2.5" hard drive lying around) the case does have the mounts for a 3.5" hard drive (I have used an adapter).

Its come with enough cables to connect all 8 drives and the hard drive and they were various lengths.

Power supply is a 300w ily with most of the grunt on the 5v.

There is 4 80mm fans on the back, they are noisy but I can feel it sucking air between the drives and of course in operation the drives will make noise too, as it won't be running all the time this isn't an issue but is worth mentioning.

Overall I am very happy with what has arrived, thank you for all the input and hopefully somebody else may find this info useful at a later date.

[malfunction]

Thanks for the update

[Percy1983]

Just to confirm, I can burn a disc on the editing pc then put it in the duplicator and make an image on the hard drive.

From there I can use all 8 drives and burn 8 copies at a time.

All my drives are LG and there is no problems.

Forgot to mention it came with enough screws (a surplus to be exact) and some cable management clips etc.

Overall it has made me a cheap and very capable duplicator and I am happy I didn't go pre built (more so as I already had the 8 drives).