CDROM2GO Duplicator Technical Support
CDROM2GO Duplicator Technical SupportWhat does “Stand-Alone” mean on the Accutower duplicator towers?No computer is required to make copies of DVDs or CDs. Plug it in, power it on, and you are ready to start making copies. All Accutowers can have a USB connection added, allowing you to use the bottom burner as an external device. This will help you if you don’t have a burner in your computer but it is totally optional. All Accutowers are designed to be stand-alone, so you can duplicate without tying up any computer resources.Can DVD Duplicators also duplicate CDs?Yes, all DVD Duplicators can all copy CDs as well.Is the speed of the CDR media important when copying with Accutower duplicators?When choosing media it is important to note the speed of the drive and media you will be using. It is important to understand that you can only burn at the speed of the lowest rated component. You can burn on 52x media with any drive, but you are limited by the speed of that drive. Similarly, you cannot burn any faster than the rated speed of your media, even if your drive is capable of higher speeds. For example if you have an 32x drive and 52x media, you can only burn at 32x, or the same 32x Drive with 16x media will only burn at 16x. You need both a top speed drive and top speed media to take advantage of the blazing fast speeds available today. The same is true for DVD burning as well.What blank media can be used in CD and DVD Duplicators?All of the CD and DVD media we sell can be used in our towers, drives, and autoloading duplicators as well. The Duplicators do not require special media for copy jobs. When making copies at any speed, media appropriately certified for that speed or higher should be used. USDM Professional or Supreme media or equivalent is recommended for best results.How do you make DVD copies?There are two different methods of copying discs using duplicators. Disc to Disc and Hard Drive to disc. Disc to disc duplication involves reading your master disc and copying simultaneously. Hard Drive to disc duplication involves loading your master onto the Hard Drive and then copying to the blank discs. When duplicating DVD’s using a duplicator tower it is strongly recommended that you use the HARD DRIVE to disc method. The hard drive can store many different projects and recall them at a later time, providing easy management for multiple masters. Using the hard drive also reduces bad burns.Can I connect the Accutower to my PC or Mac?Accutower duplicators are designed to be stand-alone, however we do offer USB and combo USB/Firewire connection options for the bottom burner. It is important to understand these connections are only for using the bottom burner as an external burner, not to control the tower. If you have an 11 drive Accutower that you connect to your computer(Mac or PC) the bottom drive in the duplicator will work as a SINGLE external USB/Firewire burner and the tower can continue to function as a duplicator with 10 drives. Simply disconnect, reboot the tower and you will be back to 11 drives.Can I copy DVD movies with the Accutower DVD Duplicators?No, most commercial DVD movies are copy protected and cannot be copied with the DVD Accutower. DVD movies can contain CSS encryption or Macrovision, which prevents the Accutower from duplicating any protected discs. However, you can copy your own DVDR Backups or Video creations.Can I copy DVDs to CD or vise-versa in a DVD or CD Accutower?No, DVDs will only copy to DVD Media, and CDs will only copy CD media.Why is the DVD write speed only up to 16x?The industry is always pushing the capabilities of technology, and this may be most evident by the progress of burning speeds. The “x” speed associated with CDs and DVDs is based on the original purpose for each format. 1x on a CD is 150KB per second, the data rate for stereo music. 1x on a DVD is 1350KB per second, the data rate for digital video. So 16x on a DVD would be the equivalent to 144x on a CD. Reliability and cost have been the two biggest factors in the current standard of 16x. At the time this article was written 18x DVD burning is available with special drives and media, but the looming debut of new technologies will probably limit burn speeds to 16x DVD and 52x CD.The DVD Accutower Duplicator is based on DVD±R/RW recording technology, can I copy discs created on DVD±RW drives?Yes. However, it is NOT recommended to use Re-Writable discs as masters because they are harder to read than a write once disc. As with all optical disc duplicating, there are discs that will not copy for a variety of reasons, for example copy protection, quality of the source disc, etc.Can I make just one copy, or do I have to fully load all of the recorders in my Accutower?Yes, you can make as many or few copies as you need. Just load as many blank discs as you need. Accutower duplicators will copy to the number of blank discs it detects and ignore the recorders that do not contain discs. When the tower is loaded fully it will start automatically.The Accutower comes equipped with a Hard Drive, does the Hard Drive allow the tower to perform other functions?Yes, the primary function of the hard drive is to store projects (CD and DVD) that can be recalled later. The hard drive can also be used to make custom audio CD compilations with the “Track Edit” feature. This function can combine tracks from different audio CDs into a single mixed audio CD. What copy speeds does the DVD Accutower copy?You can burn at any supported speed. DVD Accutowers can burn up to 16x and CD Accutowers at up to 52x. You can choose a lower speed with the controller, provided the media supports it. You can see the supported speeds for any discs loaded by going to the “Disc Info” option in the controller’s “Utility” menu.The speed of my new DVD Accutower is 16x, how fast will it copy a DVD?The time necessary will depend on the amount of data to be copied and the speed selected. Typically a DVD Accutower can burn a full 4.4GB DVD in around 6 minutes. A full dual layer disc would take more time because it contains much more data and burns at a lower speed. The times will be the same for one copy made on a one to one tower, or 11 copies made on an 11 drive tower, which is why a larger tower is more productive.If the duplicator is having trouble reading a DVD, what can be done?Check the disc for scratches or defects. You can load the master with one of the burner drives, in fact a burner tends to be a better reader than any ROM drive. IF the problem persists, you will need to make a new master. Be sure to ALWAYS use high quality media, especially for masters, most problems in the duplication process can be attributed to poor quality media.Who would need an Accutower Duplication Tower?The Accutower line consists of cost effective, easy to use CD and DVD duplicators aimed at ALL users, with low or high volume requirements. They are designed for anyone who needs to duplicate music, data, video, or documents and have the need for making quality copies quickly. Accutowers contains the latest DVD and CD Recorders and are designed for speed, control, and convenience. The uses of the Duplicators truly are unlimited. A few uses for a CD/DVD Duplicator: Music/Audio tracks, Church Services, Brochures and Catalogs, Interactive Training Videos, Software and Firmware Updates, Sales and Accounting Data, Software Backups, Websites, PowerPoint Presentations, Photos, Books, Games, and anything else you can burn to disc.*Please note, the DVD Accutower will not duplicate copy protected materials such as commercial DVD movies.
