Building a 9 Bay DVD Duplication Tower...

[Mike Cornett]

I've been searching online for any recommendations, tips, techniques, and stories about building a 5 to 9 bay DVD duplication tower.

There are a few different DVD controllers out there. Wytron, Vast, U-Master (which I like), BSA, and Acard to name a few. The cases and DVD drives are easy to find, but I'm always looking for a good deal if you know of one.

Here are a few concerns. I'm using FCP and iDVD to make my DVD. That means that my media is DVD-R. So I have to find both a controller and a DVD drive that is compatible. Next, a lot of the companies that are selling these products (i.e. Tiger Direct and other smaller companies) have a horrible rating with the Better Business Bureau. That's kind'a scary! I'm also on a time crunch and I can't afford wasting money of crappy products, bad customer service or just getting flat out scammed.

So, if anyone would like to share any advice, stories, reputable companies, and/or products-I would greatly appreciate it!

I really don't want to buy a pre-made tower or automated unit. I don't have a huge budget and would prefer to build one right now.

Thanks.

[George Ellis]

Newegg has some prebuilts that are a good price, but do not know the models. They do have a 1-7 Vinpower using Pioneer A-09s for $1099. Newegg is one of the best online retailers. Only folks I have had as good an experience with or better, BH Photo Video.

Resellerratings.com is fairly reliable for looking up vendors.

[Mike Cornett]

Thanks for the input and advice. Newegg had some pretty competitive prices.

Once I build my duplicator-I'll report back with the details.

[Felix Valeri]

I build them all the time
Here is what i just built for a customer

7 bay case from tigerdirect.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...c.asp?CatId=92

bsa 1-9 controller from tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...74356&CatId=92

5 samsung dvd-+rw with dual layer from tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...26535&CatId=89

and a samsung dvd player from tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...226534&CatId=0

burned everything i threw at it, so far.

[Vic Owen]

I've been considering the Promax 1:3 duplicator. Currently, I'm getting 100% reliability doing singles on Riteks with the LaCie D2 FW burner connected to my G4. Is it reasonable to expect accurate duplication from this unit (or similar)? Anyone had any experiences, good or bad?

Thanks

[Mike Cornett]

Well, I built first my duplicator this weekend. I spent a little over $700 and the set up was a snap. I easliy saved $400 or more by building it myself.

The hardest part was the research. I had to first figure out which dvd controlled had the options that best suited my needs. Second, was what drives to buy- preformance, price, reliability and compatibility with the duplicator controller were all issues.
And third, wass to figure out what companies to buy from- who had a good Better Business Bureau rating and of course, experiences from other collegues.

So, if you're pondering about building vs. buying...I recommend building your own DVD Duplicator Tower. It was nothing more than plug and paly!

Specs: West Digitial 40g HD, LiteOn DVD-ROM, X-Case 9 bay w/500 watt power supply, BENQ DVD-Writers, and an ACARD 2033P Copy Controller.

Companies: TigerDirect, Systor Systems, Inc.-esystor.com, Ebay and Circuit City. I was shocked with Circuit City's online deals! I'm ususally a Best Buy kinda' guy.

So I can now handle small duplication runs without bogging down my computer.

The only bottle neck is printing. My epson R200 will be getting quite a work out!

I'll have to start researching printers, printing techniques, and ink costs next.

If anyone has any related stories, experiences, or news I'd be interested in reading about them. Thanks for the help.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Mike Cornett

Well, I built first my duplicator this weekend. I spent a little over $700 and the set up was a snap. I easliy saved $400 or more by building it myself......

How many drives did you install. I only ask because the Lacie 5 drive duplicator is around 700 bucks. I'm pondering buy or build.

[Mike Cornett]

I have 6 burners in the case. I could have put more in, but I wanted to be able to burn the image from a Hard Drive (It helps prevent burning errors).

So, I had to install a DVD-ROM Drive and Hard Drive. Here's the order in the 9 bay duplicator case starting from the top.

HD, DVD-ROM, 3 DVD Burners, DVD Duplicator Card, and 3 more Burners.

I hope this answers your question.
-Mike

[John Colette]

I have a Wytron with 9 pioneer 108 frives, and it is faultless. It's a really reliable controller - and make a bigger bay - you always need the extra capacity sometime :-)

DVD usually spits out in 4 minutes.

[Giroud Francois]

for about 1600$ you can get a primera robot that can burn and print 50 DVD in a row.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by John Colette

I have a Wytron with 9 pioneer 108 frives, and it is faultless. It's a really reliable controller - and make a bigger bay - you always need the extra capacity sometime :-)

DVD usually spits out in 4 minutes.

Hey John, what wyntron do you have, I see very few places that look legit to get the wyntron from?

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Mike Cornett

I have 6 burners in the case. I could have put more in, but I wanted to be able to burn the image from a Hard Drive (It helps prevent burning errors).

So, I had to install a DVD-ROM Drive and Hard Drive. Here's the order in the 9 bay duplicator case starting from the top.

HD, DVD-ROM, 3 DVD Burners, DVD Duplicator Card, and 3 more Burners.

I hope this answers your question.
-Mike

I think I am going to build. I just called TigerDirect and they no longer carry any dvd controllers.

[Bryan McCullough]

I built an 11 bay about a month ago.

I've got a Wyrton 399 controller and Pioneer 110D burners. I've got a Lite-On DVD-ROM reader drive and a 160 GB hard drive.

Currently I've only got 3 burners in, but the card is expandable to 9 so I'm adding one at a time when I get significant orders. Should be at a full 9 by the end of the year.

It's great, works flawlessly.

The only issue really to plan for is the hard drive. It partitions the drive based upon either CD, DVD or Dual layer DVD. So the partitions are either 800MB, 4.7 GB, or 9 GB. This is important because on my 160GB drive I get 24 partitions. I can load 24 different images onto it. So a 200 MB CD image takes a 4.7 GB partition.

So you end up needing a bigger hard drive than you might think to hold all your stuff.

[Mike Cornett]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

I think I am going to build. I just called TigerDirect and they no longer carry any dvd controllers.

I bought my DVD control here:
http://www.esystor.com/shop/Index.as...sNM=Controller

I had a great experience with them. No problems. Although, I have been looking at the BBB website more often to check businesses out. It seems there have been problems with this company. I didn't have one though.

Good luck!

[Steven Davis]

Well, I built my duplicator. This is where and what I used.

Controller: http://www.amamax.com/wydv1ta16xdv.html

Case: http://www.amamax.com/pomaxcblp79b.html

[Note] Amamax shopping cart was a little odd looking, but no concerns with the product.

Rom Drive : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152047

Burners: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827131410

[Note] This is the first shipment that ever concerned me from Newegg. My box looked like a Sumo wrestler had sat on it. But the price was right for what I bought.

Overall I spent 500 bucks. So far so good, I duplicated some cd's (Photos) last night and I was instantly in love. I put the thing together in about 30 minutes. It's much easier than building a computer, but if you have built a computer, this is easy. I encourage anyone to build thier own if they need to get time back, a duplicator is the way to go.

I have been doing some corporate work and each copy is 4 dvd's, so doing even 10 copies can take forever using one burner.