Burner(s) setup quick question.

[GAMER101]

Hi, I currently have a old pc here just collecting dust and I want to turn it into a burning machine. What I was wondering was:

Ok, I have a dvd-rom drive on the top bay, and a cd burner drive on the bottom bay, what i wanted to know was that if I took out the cd burner drive (bottom bay) and put in dvd burner in there, would I still be able to burn on the fly? I can already burn on the fly with my cd burner, but I just wanted to know if i put in the dvd burner, would there be any difference? any help would be appreciated. thanks and :merry:!!

[Ogs]

well you would need to have a dvd-rom drive / writer in that top bay mate ;)

[GAMER101]

I do. dvd rom drive in top bay, and cd burner in bottom bay. If i were to take out the cd burner from the bottom bay and put a dvd burner there, I would still have the dvd-rom in the top bay and the new dvd burner in the bottom. lol

Thanks

[Elaine]

I suppose that it would depend upon the specs of your computer, and the read/write speeds of the dvd-rom drive and dvd burner. So please give us some more information. :)

[GAMER101]

Sure.

P4 2.4 GHZ
512 RAM
80 GB HD
Sony 16x DVD Rom (Top Bay)
Sony 48x CD Burner (Bottom Bay)

Im thinking of taking out the cd burner and putting in a dvd burner in its place. Now I already can burn cds on the fly, just wanted to know if there was anything else I should take into consideration for burning dvds on the fly. The DVD Burner im thinking of getting is a Pioneer 16X 108 Dual Layer.

I know, I know, this comp may not seem that old, but I just got a 3.2 GHZ and i havent used this one in a while so I wanted to have another burning station to get everything done faster. If you need any more info, just let me know. Thanks guys!

[Zac]

You shouldn't have any problems just make sure that the drive is set up the same as the CD burner, ie the master/slave jumpers

[PhilEnfield]

Ideally you need to have the DVD-ROM drive as Primary Slave & the DVD Burner as Secondary Master ..... you will need to check your current configuration.

This isn't vital for normal burning, but for on-the-fly it's a better setup, as it spreads the load over 2 x IDE channels.

[GAMER101]

Stupid question here, but how would I find out my current setup (Master, slave, Secondary master, etc...)?

:cheers:

[GAMER101]

So basically I should be okay if I install it the same way the cd burner is installed, correct?

:D

[Ogs]

ok, but maybe not optimal

[PhilEnfield]

You will need to take the case off to install your DVD Burner, so just look at your current configuration.

The IDE Ribbon cable that goes to your Hard Drive is the Primary Channel (IDE 0) and the Hard Drive is always the Primary Master, so anything else connected to that channel will be the Primary Slave.

The other IDE Ribbon Cable is the Secondary Channel (IDE 1).

The Master drive is connected to the end connecter of the ribbon cable and the slave, to the middle connector. Obviously you need to set the jumpers correctly on the drive(s).

What we dont know is what your current setup is, so just trace the cables and you're away ;)

HTH

[aaronjon]

imho,
you will be very lucky to get good consistant results from 4x or over on the fly (if any) dvd burning, much better and probably quicker from hdd.

[PhilEnfield]

Yup .... anything over 4 X on-the-fly will be iffy. Burning from HDD is much safer, as it eliminates the possibility of read errors.

I get good results at 4 X, using Riteks, but the masters need to be good quality, otherwise you'll end up with coasters.

One other point I forgot to mention .... make sure both channels are set to DMA, not PIO.