How many DVDs can my MBP burn without breaking?

[gjortega]

Hey everyone, I have a question that I can't find any info on. How many DVDs do you think I can burn with my MacBook Pro 15" (two years old) without causing any damage?

A non-profit I volunteer for wants to make DVDs to send to donors, but what do you think the threshold is before I need to tell them that they need to have them professionally copied? I don't mind helping out for a few DVDs, but I don't want to break my disk burner either. Thanks!

 

[Intell]

A lot, probably a few thousand. Just keep the lens clean and don't force the discs in, and it'll work for a long time.

 

[gjortega]

A lot, probably a few thousand. Just keep the lens clean and don't force the discs in, and it'll work for a long time.

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure that if I burned 20/30/50 at a time it wouldn't be a problem. I know that they weren't designed to mass produce DVDs, so just being safe!

 

[Intell]

If you feel like spending a small bit of money, you could get an external DVD burner. If you do, make sure it's a tray loading one, not a slot loading one. The tray loading ones can handle more discs between failures and can read/write discs up to twice as fast as your Macbook's slot loading drive.

 

[Bear]

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure that if I burned 20/30/50 at a time it wouldn't be a problem. I know that they weren't designed to mass produce DVDs, so just being safe!

With this quantity, get an external burner. And truthfully at quantities of 50+, it might make sense to send them out.

 

[heisenberg123]

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure that if I burned 20/30/50 at a time it wouldn't be a problem. I know that they weren't designed to mass produce DVDs, so just being safe!

i would not do 50 at a time

 

[/user/me]

If you feel like spending a small bit of money, you could get an external DVD burner. If you do, make sure it's a tray loading one, not a slot loading one. The tray loading ones can handle more discs between failures and can read/write discs up to twice as fast as your Macbook's slot loading drive.

Daisy chain them with thunderbolt!!!!! BURN ALL THE DISCS!!!!

 

[thundersteele]

It's a huge time sink. It would probably be better to send the job out if they want more than 10... also you can get a nice label and stuff, which just adds extra work if you do it yourself, and might look crappy.

I understand it's for non-profit, but I think you could do more useful things for them than sitting around for hours and reloading a DVD-R every 5 minutes.