Does a DVD Duplicator perform better with SATA drives as opposed to IDE (ATAPI)?

The simple answer is no.  There are very few advantages to a DVD Duplicator on a SATA bus.

SATA does not add any throughput speed to CD DVD recorders (or “burners”).  The only piece of hardware associated with a DVD Duplicator that takes advantage of SATA speed is the hard drive and that just does not matter ether: for a DVD duplicator

So why all the hype?

When CD Duplicators where first integrated the only bus that could support the drives was SCSI.  As technology developed and the DVD recorder was “born” the faster DVD drives (and CD) went to ATAPI or IDE (now called PATA). IDE has been the standard for many years with no “speed” issue.  The only bottleneck in speed is the media, not the drive (witness the ever increasing speed of drives vs. media which will not follow the path).  Recordable CD and DVD media can disintegrate at high speeds so there is a limit to how fast it can spin.  End of story.

The hype is actually around the hard drive and it’s technology changing from a strictly IDE bus to a SATA bus in a computer motherboard.  SATA is much faster in this configuration and certainly will be the dominate technology as far as hard drives go.  Also with the introduction of recordable Blu-ray drives SATA does increase throughput which the format requires.  As for DVD duplicators it does not add any speed and it costs more money.  Because of economy of scale the IDE versions will be phased out and the consumer will be forced to pay more for the same thing.

The only real advantage of SATA over IDE in a duplicator is the size of the cable (or width) IDE cables are flat and wide, SATA is thick and round.  Air flows better around a SATA cable then it does with a IDE cable.  So if the unit is assembled in a haphazard way in which the cabling blocks air flow then the unit will fail (or the drives will burn up from heat buildup). Of course this is all avoided with a effective cooling system that most high grade duplicators have (both IDE and SATA) so it’s not a real issue.  The cable is not going to make the difference between the unit being sufficiently cooled vs. the fans (and lots of them).  The consumer should be asking how many fans does the unit have (and power supply fan does not count) and not get caught up in the hype.  IDE or ATAPI is still less expensive to produce and thus demands a lower price then a SATA system.  SATA is new but it’s not “better” then ATAPI as far as CD and DVD duplicators go.  As to thinking it provides a upgrade path to Blu-ray recorders the person would be mistaken.  The controller used in Blu-ray is different then the controllers used in CD and DVD duplicators.  You would have to buy a new duplicator (or upgrade the controller and drives for more money then a new tower).

DVD Duplicators come in two types. Tower duplicators / Rack-mount and Auto-loading DVD Duplicators. DVD Tower Duplicators provide an inexpensive and fast means of duplicating discs. This is at the expense of labor: It requires more labor to manage a tower DVD Duplicator then an automated DVD Duplicator. Every burn cycle the trays open on the tower, one for each disc. The discs have to be manually removed and replaced with new blank discs.

DVD duplicator autoloaders on the other hand can have a stack of blank discs waiting for the next job. Some can even switch between DVD and CD (or Blu-ray for that matter). With a capacity of 25 to 1000 discs it’s hard to go wrong with DVD Recordable automation. Automated DVD Duplicators come “PC Attached” (or Mac) which use the computer to manage the functions of the automated disc duplicator. Standalone DVD Duplicators have a special computer or “Controller” that manages the operation of the duplicator. The last type of automated DVD duplicator is the PC embedded (or other OS, typically Linux). Automated DVD duplicators can also print discs with various printer technologies. Duplicators that integrate a printer are called “Disc Publishers”. Various printer technologies exist that provide for labeling your CD-R or DVD-R and DVD+R.

DVD Duplication Towers do not have the capacity for printing and must rely on a external printer for any labeling. There are several stand alone disc printer technologies that will compliment a tower duplication system. Inkjet, Thermal, dye sublimation and thermal re-transfer. Inkjet printing provides a quick and easy means of producing labeled recordable discs. Thermal disc printing provides a tough solid color graphic, fast and cheap. Thermal Re-Transfer and Dye sublimation provide a photo like reproduction of the disc label.

Automated disc printer auto loaders can keep up with the output of towers. You just stack in the printable discs and the automated printer does the rest. Depending on the technology employed it can go very fast with the automated disc printer solution.

Tower DVD Duplicators and automated DVD duplicators provide an excellent means of producing one master of many files or producing many copies of one master.