CDR / DVDR Duplication

F.A.Q

What is the quality guarantee of your CD DVD Replication and Duplication product?We will state one more time that no product we have shipped in the last 7 years has been returned.

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Duplication Versus Replication

ISOMEDIA, Your full turn-key partner of media manufacturing!

For pricing information, please click Quick Quote, Monthly special and Online Quote. Same for DVD replication and CD DVD Duplication.

What's the difference between the CD and DVD that you burned on your home computer versus a commercial CD or DVD that are replicated by Isomedia or you bought from store? There are indeed significant differences!

The replicated 12cm plastic disc is about 1.2mm thick (We call 300 Micron) and also contains acrylic and aluminum. It is made up of an injection-molded piece of clear polycarbonate plastic with microscopic dents (we call it " Pits") in a circular series around the disc. Whether it is computer data or music being stored on the disc, it is that pattern of dents or pits that describes just exactly how the music sounds or every single bit of data that is stored. Basically, an audio CD is the same as a computer data CD and DVD Video. It is a matter of format.

For Duplicated disc that is the same as when you make a copy of a CD or DVD with your home computer, the software (such as Nero, Easy CD Creator, DVD Pro) is basically asking the CD or DVD drive to read the micro-dents and report back to your burner. The software takes that data, and stores it temporarily, then tells the CD or DVD burner to create micro-dents or pits into the blank disc, describing that data. You can copy digital media forever and never lose any sound quality if you are copying audio CD's, or never corrupt information if you are copying data CD or DVDs, given that your copying software is competent. You can create a copy of a copy of a copy theoretically forever and still end up with the same data of the same quality. Our commercial burner is same as your computer burner except it has more Drives.

For replicated disc, we call it " Glass mastered disc" which uses more advance technology LBR encoder that will replicate exactly the same size "pit" of your content into your disc, which will all be exactly identical, from the data down to the physical layout of the microscopic dents or pits in the plastic. Under a microscope, they will appear exactly the same. This is because CD and DVD Replication is the process of stamping data into an injection molded disc using a glass master.

The commercial discs are replicated using a standard industrial process which is initially very expensive to deploy, yet a cost effective system for creating runs of approximately 500 or more discs. Each stamped disc will be identical and have a longer shelf life as well as being of a higher quality than any disc created by duplication. The dents in the plastic disc created by the stamped replication process tend to be more precise than the dents put into CDR or DVDR blank media by any burning drive.

The replicated CD or DVD has a protective coating which is called sputtering or lacquer processes, at outer surface, there is a very thin layer of clear lacquer protecting your content against heat, moisture and scratch. In other word, your data is sealed. For duplicated CD and DVD, the pre-manufactured blank disc which must be open so that you can copy your content on the disc. After the content duplicated, its surface is still exposed to the harsh elements of the environment, because the duplicator does not have the capability to seal the surface. When time goes along, the outside factors erode the surface which will cause the dents or the pits change its form. Eventually, the disc will become unreadable by your computer or player. In some extreme cases, the disc aluminum or dye will come off. In trivial situation, the surface scratch will cause data loss. However, it is not very obvious for audio CD or DVD video, because a few bytes loss for a song or picture will not be detected by your eyes or ears. For CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, it will cause serious consequence when the disc is installed. The few bytes loss will not allow you to finish the installation process.

For a replicated Disc, there is a standard test procedure to insure the quality. There is a detailed discussion on our quality guarantee section on testing. For a duplicated Disc, the test method is very limited. There is no equipment to perform physical and electrical test. We can only perform a comparison test which measures the length or the size of your content, if it is an audio, a random listening test will be done, if it is a video or data, a random play test will be performed. However, for a replicated disc, all five tests procedures will be enforced. (Comparison test, Electrical, Listening, Playing, and Physical) The fascinating part of the replication is that the physical and electrical test must be performed in every single disc which is the default setting of our Singulus Replication Line.

The next question that people will ask why we use the duplication process since it is inferior. The answer is the economic aspect of the process. Consumers use the process of duplication as an alternative to expensive replication if they plan to create fewer than approximately 500discs in a run. It is cost effective to use a duplication process for these smaller runs. Another factor is the timing. If you need a professional and commercial grade disc done with simple packaging, it usually takes 4 days to complete. Some people have a meeting, conference or special event that require a disc to be done in two days. Duplication is the only solution. A professional duplication process typically involves a tower of many CD-R or DVD-R drives all chained together, attached to a PC with the master data. So basically, it does the same thing as you do with your home computer when you burn a copy of a disc, except it burns many copies onto media at the same time, using many drives.

Why you need to choose Isomedia Inc for small run?

Well, there are many things that a regular outfit or small shop can not do. Isomedia uses state of the art Silk-Screen printing technology which is industry standard for Compact Disc to print your disc art. Other shops or Outfits deploy Inkjet, Thermal, or label Sticker. First of all, these methods are Toner Based color which originally used for paper copying will not give you a true color of your artwork. Also, the color will fade or come off a few weeks later. Especially, the sticker label is more dangerous, because it increases the thickness of disc. We measure the thickness of the disc by Microns, the disc thickness is 300 micron plus /minus 10, and it is about 1.2 to 1.3 mm. The out of spec thickness will make the disc unreadable in your drives and also sometimes the disc will stock in your drives if you have a flat panel or Notebook Drive.


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