I recently starting using the Bravo II DVD disk publisher. It is not for big jobs, but fits my needs well. It can duplicate and print upto 25 cds or dvds at a time. With an additional "kiosk" it can go up to 50. Software can burn from an image or from another disk.

I am really happy with it. It makes the process of duplicating and printing really easy!! Software is a bit awkward the first few times, but now that I'm used to it I'll never go back to the way I was doing it before!!

Galen

Thanks for the info. It helps a lot.

KH

Question for Jnskc or others with duplicator experience:

You mentioned assembling your own duplicator system.

Controllers I see advertised have 2, 8, 32, or 128MB buffers. What has been your experience with whatever you use?

Do you use a firewire or USB interface to allow burning from your computer to one of the drives in the duplicator?

Have you used a hard drive option as the source and does it have any advantage other than storing several disc images?

Thanks

I found this thread because I am looking to build a duplicator, but I haven't been able to find any plans on the net or any user opinions on which controllers work the best.

Jsnkc,

Which one did you end up buying?
Has it lasted without any problems?
Where did you get the plans to build it?

Thanks,

John

Also, do you have an answer to Ralph's question?

I use a DiscMakers ReflexMax 7, which is a stand-alone unit with a 120 gig drive and seven Plextor 716 burners. It works quite well and runs pretty much all day, every day. It costs $1,490.

ReflexMax 7 web site

John

Which one did you end up buying?
Since that post I have built quite a few duplicators. I built one for my home, 2 for work, and I just ordered the parts to build 2 more for work. I always buy the controller cards and case from shop.ily.com I order my burners through newegg.com

Has it lasted without any problems?
The one at home I don't use too often, maybe a few hundred discs a month. The ones I made for work easily see thousands of discs going through a month and I have had no problems at all.

Where did you get the plans to build it?
You don't really need any plans, just put all the drives and controller card in the case, set all the drives to Master, plug in the IDE cables from the controller card to each of the drives. Plug in power to all of the drives. Plug it in, turn it on, load it up and start copying! If you can install a Cd or DVD drive in your computer then you can easily build a system.

I always use the Pioneer drives in all of the duplicators becasue I feel that they are the most solid drives out on the market. The one I built for home use I used the Pioneer 108 drives, the 2 that I will be building next week I ordered the new Pioneer 109 drives.
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Controllers I see advertised have 2, 8, 32, or 128MB buffers. What has been your experience with whatever you use?
I believe the cards we get have the 128MB buffer (edit: I guess they are only 64MB) which works fine for us. We usually burn at either 4X or 8X and haven't had any problems

Do you use a firewire or USB interface to allow burning from your computer to one of the drives in the duplicator?
Nope, we just have 1 DVD-ROM only drive in the tower to read the source disc from and it just does a straight disc to disc copy.

Have you used a hard drive option as the source and does it have any advantage other than storing several disc images?
With all of the controller cards on that site you can hook up a internal hard drive if you want, we have used them on occasion if we have a problem with the source disc, but we mainly just do a straight disc to disc copy.
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use a DiscMakers ReflexMax 7, which is a stand-alone unit with a 120 gig drive and seven Plextor 716 burners. It works quite well and runs pretty much all day, every day. It costs $1,490.

Exactly the reason I build my own, you could build pretty much the same thing for about $900-$950
Also looking at the reflex system it looks like exactly the same controller card that you can buy from shop.ily.com it just has the Discmakers logo on it.

Thanks Jsnkc,

That was a REALLY helpful reply. Much appreciated. Which ones do you buy. The Wytron, ILY, or DVD3000?

And John, thank you for your reply as well.

Regards,
John

These are the ones that I use for the systems we have here at work....the ILY CoolCopyD7 1 to 7 DVD Duplicator Controller

Now THAT's a bargain.

Thanks again.

John

No problem, we originally bought a few pre-made duplicators from Microboards and had nothing but problems with them. We didn't want to buy all new towers because I had a big hunch that the controller cards were the problem. I did a little searching around on the internet and found the ily site, I ordered 2 new controller cards and replaced the 2 microboards cards and those 2 machines have been running great for years. So now when we need new duplicators I just build them myself.

Have you ever "mixed" the drives? Say a Pioneer 108 and some other model like a 105. I would think the different firmware in each would probably cause a problem.

John

"Exactly the reason I build my own, you could build pretty much the same thing for about $900-$950"

Yes, but time is money and it was cheaper (and quicker) for me to buy it assembled than eat into billable hours building it myself. Though, in the future, I may go the DIY route.

John

Have you ever "mixed" the drives? Say a Pioneer 108 and some other model like a 105
No, the drives all have to be the same model number and firmware.

Yes, but time is money and it was cheaper (and quicker) for me to buy it assembled than eat into billable hours building it myself.
I know at least for me when I have all the parts, I can have the system built and ready to go in 20-30 minutes. 30 minutes is definately worth the $500 you'd save :)

Jsnkc,
You had mentioned purchasing Pioneer 109s for your next duplicator. I was checking around and there seem to be an unusual number of complaints about that drive for a Pioneer.

For example

The NEC ND-3520A on the other hand seems to have very good user reviews. What do you think about those in a duplicator?

John

Bump.................Sorry.

John

Jason, will the ILY CoolCopyD7 controller allow you to copy CDs as well as DVDs? The website only mentions copying DVDs.

Douglas
Denmark

I guess I never saw any of the complaints about the Pioneer 109 drives, we just got our drives in last Friday and I have run a few test runs and everything seems to be OK. I have always loved the Pioneer drives so they are really the only ones that I have used or have much experience with. Any drive should work as long as they are all the same model number and firmware as mentioned above. So if you have a favorite brand or model of burner then you can easily go with those instead.
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You can copy Cd's if you use DVD burners and the DVD controller cards, they also have controller cards that are listed for just CD burners. I'm not sure what the diffrence is between the cards though.

If you go HERE you can select wether you want the DVD or the CD controller.

Jason,
I am sure I speak for the others when I thank you for devoting so much time to helping us out with this investment. Much appreciated.

Regards,
John