Disc Copying with Dacal PowerDrive DC-016 Media Changer

Dacal PowerDrive DC-016

Dacal PowerDrive DC-016

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Introduction

This feature is upcoming for My Movies for Windows Home Server version 1.10.

My Movies for Windows Home Server supports the Dacal PowerDrive DC-016 CD and DVD Media Changer unit as a bulk-loading device, allowing you to insert up to 100 CD’s and/or DVD’s, and let the My Movies Disc Copier, and the My Music Disc Copier copy the discs automatically from the changer.

This allows you to quickly and easily get your full collection of CD’s or DVD’s stored on your Windows Home Server. The feature is perfect for users with large collections, that cannot seem to overcome copying discs one by one, and wouldn’t like to send their entire collection of CD’s and DVD’s to a ripping service company, or if you live in a country where such companies is not available. A user account with minimum 2,500 contribution or purchased points is required to use this feature. Notice that as with the standard disc copier, due to legality My Movies does not copy protected discs, and users in countries that allow circumventing copy protections can install AnyDVD to remove the copy protection.

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Getting started

Connect the CD-016 unit’s power adapter to a power outlet, and connect the power cable to the back of the unit, and connect the one end of the included USB cable to the back of the unit also. Insert the other end of the USB cable into a free USB port in your Windows Home Server, and wait two minutes for the unit to be automatically picked up and installed by the Windows Home Server software.

From a client machine, open the Windows Home Server console, and navigate to the “My Movies Disc Copier” section. If the unit is connected correctly, and picked up by the server, a “Media Changer Control” bar will appear in the bottom of the console window. If the bar does not appear, check the cables, reboot your Windows Home Server and check again.

Once the Media Changer control bar appears, you are ready to loading discs into your Media Changer.

Media Changer Control Window

Media Changer Control Window

Notice that the Media Changer control bar will appear in both the Movie Disc Copier and the Music Disc Copier section, but has the exact same functionalities in both places, and does not differ, meaning that you can load Audio CD’s, DVD’s or a combination of both into the changer.

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Loading discs into changer

Start by having the discs you would like inserted into the changer stacked in a pile to be ready to insert the discs.

Using the control panel on the front of the Media Changer, press the “1” button, and press “Enter”, the unit will now move to the first slot, and the number “1” will blink on the changer signaling that it is ready for you to insert a disc. Insert the first disc, with the label to the right side of the changer, the changer should feel that you are inserting a disc, and grab it from your hand. Once the disc has been inserted, the number “1” will stop blinking.

Should the unit not feel that you are inserting a disc, and therefore does not grab it from your hand, make sure that the number “1” is blinking on the unit, then lightly insert the disc into the changer until you can feel it stop, and press “Enter”.

Once the first disc have been inserted, press the “Right arrow” key on the changer, and press “Enter”, the number “2” will now blink on the changer, and you can continue the process from above. Continue to insert the needed amount of discs by following the same method for all of them.

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Copying discs

Once you have inserted discs into the changer, you are ready to let My Movies for Windows Home Server start the copy process of your discs. From a client machine, open the Windows Home Server console, and navigate to the “My Movies Disc Copier” section, or the “My Music Disc Copier Section”. In the bottom of the console window, the “Media Changer Control” bar will be available.

In the bar is a “Slot” setting, where you can set which slots for My Movies to process – if you have filled the changer, or is unsure which slots you have filled with discs, select from 1 to 100. If you know that you have only filled slot 1 to 25, select only the slots from 1 to 25. By not selecting all slots, My Movies will not have to go through all the empty slots just to confirm them as being empty. Once you have selected the slots to process, press the “Start” button. The copy process will now start, and you can see a status information in the bar letting you know which slot is currently being processed, and a process bar showing how many percent of the slots to process that have already been processed.

During the process, the processed discs will show up in either the “My Movies Disc Copier” section, or the “My Music Disc Copier” section, depending on which type of disc that is currently being processed. If a disc is inserted into the changer that either cannot be read, or is not an Audio CD or a DVD, the process will wait one minute for the copy services to identify the disc, and then move on to the next disc.

When the process is done, a green light, and a “Done” message will appear in the Media Changer Control bar, and you are then ready to start unloading the discs from the changer.

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Unloading discs from the changer

Once My Movies for Windows Home Server has finished copying the needed discs, it will automatically have ejected the last discs from the changer drive into the changer carousel. You can check this by ensuring that the green lamp next to the “DVD” button is not lit. Should something have failed, and the light is still lit, press the “DVD” button to unload the disc from the changers drive into the carousel.

To unload the first disc, press the number “1” button, and press “Enter”, the changer will spin to the disc, and eject it – grab the disc, and press “Enter” to confirm to the changer that you have removed the disc, and for it to lower the eject arm.