If you talk with me about making copies of CDs or DVDs, one of my very first questions will be, “How many?”  No, I am not immediately sizing up the commission (well, ok — maybe a little) — but what I am really doing is trying to determine right off what would be the optimum manufacturing process for your order.

You see, we basically have two choices:
For orders less than 1,000 discs, the process chosen will almost always be “duplication.”  In our industry, “duplication” refers to making copies of discs via a “burning” process, the same as you do when you ”burn” a disc on a disc drive in your home or office computer. 

     Duplication = “burning”

We just happen to have numerous”towers” with a lot disc drives that allow us to ”burn” between a total of 50 – 70 discs at a time.

If your order is for 1,000 or more discs, then we will likely be looking at copying discs via “replication.”  This refers to a full-blown manufacturing process that is almost completely automated.  First, a mold is made of your master disc.  Then that mold is used to “stamp” molten polycarbonate into copied discs.

             Polycarbonate crystals

          Replication = “stamping”

Discs can be made much faster this way than by “duplication.”  You can also start to see why it does not make economic sense to rev up this large manufacturing process for smaller orders.

Each process has its advantages and disadvantages:  For example, while “replication” is less expensive per unit, the orders can take longer to complete, between two to three weeks.  This is because there just are not that many replication plants, and they are usually all running at full capacity.  Keep in mind that the orders for 1,000 to 5,000 discs are run amidst the many orders that come in for 50,000+ units, so the plants require the longer turnaround time so as to give them flexibility in scheduling the many production runs on hand.  Think of it as a busy restaurant on a Saturday night.  If you really must have your order sooner, this can usually (but not always!) be accomplished with a sliding scale rush fee. 

While “replicated” discs  have a lower unit cost, that process does sometimes involve the matter of overages.  It’s akin to what occurs in the print world.  I encourage you to refer to my blog about overages:  http://tinyurl.com/5rkxvt

Speaking about printing, with Video Labs, you can get high-quality printing right on to the disc face for either “duplication” or “replication” orders.  Here is a summary blog of mine about that: http://tinyurl.com/59psy8

We use a thermal retransfer printing process http://tinyurl.com/6t5s66  for “duplication” and either a “silk-screen” http://tinyurl.com/7c4t6m or an “offset” printing process http://tinyurl.com/2egl6v for “replication.”  

While each printing process is high-quality, keep in mind that each has its own “look.”

One other thing to keep in mind is the packaging.  Although there are many options for “duplication” disc orders, ranging from paper sleeves with plastic windows to vinyl cases with wraps http://tinyurl.com/575fnr , there are more options for orders over 1,000.  Some of those advanced offerings include custom manufactured mailers, digipaks and fold-out wallets.

(above) Advanced packaging examples

As you can see, there are a number of variables in deciding what is the best process to use for your order.  Be assured though, that if your answer to “How many discs?” is 100 or 100,000, you will receive my utmost attention to ensure that in the end, your experience with Video Labs exceeds your expectations.

Feel free to share any thoughts you may have about this blog entry below.