Support for 16+ drives

[stvnsn]

Any chance MakeMKV could be updated to support more than 16 drives anytime soon?

I currently have a confirmed working setup, with a mix of 20 dvd/bd drives, and currently use the command line to convert discs in a single swoop (sequentially of course).

Suggestion; support for additional drives could initially be added using a simple registry key, so that users with large setups can fool around with it at their own risk, before a potential wider release.

I would be more than happy to leave any required feedback on the results. I could also potentially test more than 20 drives on request, as I already have all the required hardware necessary to do so.

Thanks so far!

[stvnsn]

I have now added additional units and have a total of 25 drives confirmed working in Windows. I use MakeMKV in command line only, but even in command line, MakeMKV can only see and utilize the first 16 drives it finds in Windows. Would really appreciate an update in a future version to support > 16 drives. I would be more than happy to help out with any testing/debugging scenarios requested. Thanks again.

[dcoke22]

I'm curious why you have 25 optical drives connected to a computer? I feel like I'm in a rare group of people with 3 optical drives connected to a computer in 2023. While I can imagine why I might have a 4th or 5th optical drive, I seem to lack the imagination for 25.

The best I can come up with is you're testing the drives by ripping with MakeMKV?

[MartyMcNuts]

I'm curious why you have 25 optical drives connected to a computer? I feel like I'm in a rare group of people with 3 optical drives connected to a computer in 2023. While I can imagine why I might have a 4th or 5th optical drive, I seem to lack the imagination for 25.

The best I can come up with is you're testing the drives by ripping with MakeMKV?

Yeah, I have 4 connected at all times and I find that to be more than enough!!

[Billycar11]

6 at a time is nice or is it 12 double stacked?!

[stvnsn]

I'm curious why you have 25 optical drives connected to a computer? I feel like I'm in a rare group of people with 3 optical drives connected to a computer in 2023. While I can imagine why I might have a 4th or 5th optical drive, I seem to lack the imagination for 25.

The best I can come up with is you're testing the drives by ripping with MakeMKV?

Fair enough question!

I'm about to digitize my disc collection of several thousand discs. The more devices I can hook up to my computer, the more efficient the whole process becomes. I load all of the devices once in the morning, and then once again in the evening. The difference between 16 and 25 discs per conversion session becomes very noticeable even after just a few days.

[MartyMcNuts]

I'm curious why you have 25 optical drives connected to a computer? I feel like I'm in a rare group of people with 3 optical drives connected to a computer in 2023. While I can imagine why I might have a 4th or 5th optical drive, I seem to lack the imagination for 25.

The best I can come up with is you're testing the drives by ripping with MakeMKV?

Fair enough question!

I'm about to digitize my disc collection of several thousand discs. The more devices I can hook up to my computer, the more efficient the whole process becomes. I load all of the devices once in the morning, and then once again in the evening. The difference between 16 and 25 discs per conversion session becomes very noticeable even after just a few days.

If you have a second computer you could split your 25 drives between the 2.

[Billycar11]

plus you need to be writing to at least 4 HDDs to get full speed i have been writing to ssd since i got beyond 4 testing at once you would even need to sata ssds with your current amount of drives 1 nvme could do it.
yes i know im a ssd abuser constantly writing to it lol
you could also do it with vms if you fully pass through the drives in your case probably a whole sata card

[Woodstock]

Speed writing isn't an issue, though - the disks get loaded twice a day, so even if it takes several hours to write the files, it's ready when the next load gets done.

[stvnsn]

plus you need to be writing to at least 4 HDDs to get full speed i have been writing to ssd since i got beyond 4 testing at once you would even need to sata ssds with your current amount of drives 1 nvme could do it.
yes i know im a ssd abuser constantly writing to it lol
you could also do it with vms if you fully pass through the drives in your case probably a whole sata card

As I originally stated, the discs will be converted sequentially, using a customized command line script. No issues with drive speeds when converting discs one at a time. The whole setup is basically to fire-and-forget in 12 hour intervals.

[stvnsn]

If you have a second computer you could split your 25 drives between the 2.

Yes, but that would require more resources and additional space at my end. Not a deal-breaker, of course, but only if I become desperate enough.

In the end, I was hoping that the current hard limit of 16 devices, was just an integer within the program, and that the developer could expose the value as a registry key, so that advanced users could fool around with it at their own risk.

[stvnsn]

Speed writing isn't an issue, though - the disks get loaded twice a day, so even if it takes several hours to write the files, it's ready when the next load gets done.

Exactly this!

[stvnsn]

So, in order to get around the 16 device limitation in MakeMKV, I installed AnyDVD and ImgBurn, both of which support > 16 devices. Now, I can create ISO files from all 25 devices on the computer using ImgBurn, and then convert the ISO files to MKV files using MakeMKV. As the last step, I just delete the original ISO files. This may seem like an excessive workaround, but at least it works, and can all be done in one swoop using a single script file.

[StanC]

So, in order to get around the 16 device limitation in MakeMKV, I installed AnyDVD and ImgBurn, both of which support > 16 devices. Now, I can create ISO files from all 25 devices on the computer using ImgBurn, and then convert the ISO files to MKV files using MakeMKV. As the last step, I just delete the original ISO files. This may seem like an excessive workaround, but at least it works, and can all be done in one swoop using a single script file.

Do you mind sharing your script? I find it interesting and would like to do a similar setup, since I have a very large library myself and I a looking for a quicker way of getting it digitized. Thanks.

[eksine]

I'm also curious about how you scripted it and set everything up, please teach us, we want to know. maybe even a youtube video? it seems like you could use Arduino or some kind of robot or even a automated disc exchanger to swap out each disc using just disc drive instead of having so many. that would be the best automation