Re: [ARSCLIST] High speed CD duplicating

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Andy Lanset wrote:
> For those of you who are using PCs to make high speed copies (4x to 16x)
> of CDs, what software do you recommend and how much processing power is
> satisfactory for 1:1 copies and/or multiple drives?  Thanks for your
> time and consideration.   

For processing power, I recommend at least an 80386; in a word, the CPU 
has almost nothing to do when copying CDs.

The program is also incidental if you are speaking of convenitonal 
(unprotected) discs. If you mean copyrighted discs with anti-copy 
mechanisms, others will have to advise you, but the answer may depend on 
the particular scheme you are trying to defeat. (For such effort, I feel 
obligated to point out that it is probably illegal in the U.S.)

The only issues that matter in practice when copying an unprotected CD 
are the method used, the effective speed of the reader, and the 'fit' of 
your writer, speed and medium. The last is the usual issue of minimizing 
errors by choosing the right blank and the right speed. The method issue 
is basically whether you choose to buffer the write to the hard drive 
either explicitly through an image or implicitly through a program option.

Read speed for on-the-fly copying is not as critical as it was before 
buffer underrun protection, but if there is a substantial part of the 
write where the reader cannot keep up, that protection may be invoked so 
often that the burn will fail. Long before that, the effective speed of 
writing will be slowed substantially. In most circumstances, the 
quickest copy will come when buffer underrun protection is not invoked 
at all, which means a consistently fast reader to achieve 4-16x copying.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/