You’re on vacation in Europe, and in your travels you come across a discount store or a flea market, and find DVDs of your favorite movies for pennies on the dollar compared to your favorite local retail chain back home. You get excited, buy a couple and upon your return home, spend a rainy night on the couch ready to hunker in and enjoy a good flick. After starting your new DVD all you see is a mess on your screen. Read the rest of this entry »
Beware of Bargins. Choose the right standard.
May 26th, 2009
Backups are a no no
April 30th, 2009You bought some software on CD and you want to make a backup. You bought your kids some funny movies they love and watch over and over, putting a lot of wear and tear on the disc, and you want to make a backup. You’re best friend has loaned you her awesome exercise video and you want a quick copy to share. Read the rest of this entry »
Timing is everything
April 17th, 2009Timing and turnaround. They are big deals when it comes to project management for media replication.
When you submit a CD or DVD replication job, the project timeline depends on the quantity and the packaging. On a general note, discs that are packaged in custom printed sleeves take the longest because of the prepress, printing, cutting, and gluing that need to happen. Discs that are packaged in standard, in-stock packaging or that are bulk, obviously take less time. What kind of time are we talking about? Read the rest of this entry »
Handle with care
March 27th, 2009
We have a lot of clients that supply us with disc masters for CD and DVD replication and duplication. We have to admit, we’re sometimes surprised that we are able to make copies and glass stampers from these. What are you folks doing to these discs? We receive discs that are scratched, dirty, cracked and sent in wrinkled sleeves, cracked cases and sometimes in nothing other than a plain envelope. Read the rest of this entry »
Silk-Screened and Offset Printed Labels
March 19th, 2009
If you are replicating a large quantity of CD-Roms or DVD-Roms (1000 +), you will have a professional label inked directly to the surface of the disc. There are two types: silk-screened and offset print. What’s the difference and which should you choose?
- Silk-screened labels are labels where ink is literally pushed through a screen onto the disc. You can typically use up to 5 or 6 colors and each screen represents a color.
- Offset printed labels are labels where ink is placed onto the disc using special printing pads. The artwork will always be printed 4 color process over a flood of white ink.
Dressing DVDs
March 9th, 2009So you’re making DVDs and don’t know quite exactly how you want to package them? Most people assume they need to package them into a DVD box (those black cases you see DVD movies packaged in on the shelves in stores) with a printed wrap under the clear plastic outer covering. You can do that for DVD packaging, and very easily these days, even with small jobs (quantities of 100-500). With the current mainstreaming of digital print, we can indeed digitally print wraps and assemble your DVD to show it off looking current and professional and you can feel happy that you didn’t need to order 1000 to make it look that way! And if you DO have 1000 or more, we can offset print wraps and you’ll have your easy recognizable DVD packaged up. They will be ready to sit nicely in racks and on shelves, but is that where they will live once they leave your hands?
When It’s Time to Consider Media Archiving
February 23rd, 2009The longer a business or university has been operating, the greater the amount of data collected during normal operation. This information could be vital customer data, sales records, transcripts or catalog information, for example. Did you ever wonder just how safe this information remains as time goes by? You may be surprised how vulnerable you really are to data loss and how important information management really is.
The Matching Master Disc
February 18th, 2009A reminder out there to all of you getting ready to submit CD duplication and replication jobs. Make sure you send the master disc on the same media as you’re intending for the final product. In other words, send your master disc as a CD for CD replication jobs. Some folks in a rush, grab a DVDR to burn the info to, and although it works fine to save files and programs there because there’s so much storage space, we can’t use it to master from.
Plastic vs Paper - colors can change
February 4th, 2009This one is for all you graphic designers out there creating artwork for CDs and DVDs and corresponding custom printed cardboard packaging and print. Always remember to keep this in mind: printing on plastic vs paper is very different and if you use a specific color for the CD, it may not look the same on the cardboard or paper materials! You need to determine how important color scheme is for your particular product or client. If there are important colors that represent your company or client and that can have no variation, please take this advice: do not use the same artwork on the CD as the packaging!
Mini Discs; “downsizing” is not always the answer
January 29th, 2009So you’re sending out a CD or DVD to a group and want it to stand out. It’s a marketing piece and you want to grab your target’s attention. A common and quick idea that companies sometime use is the replication of a mini round or business card disc. Although these discs are eye catching and different, just remember to use caution when distributing.
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