Saturday, 2 February 2013

Before You Buy A CD Duplicator Follow These Helpful Tips

By Larry Finish


A CD duplicator is a major purchase, but if you are in the business of creating CDs on a large scale and quickly, you will find they are well worth the cost. Over time you will actually save money with a duplicator, your only ongoing expense will be blank CD's. Who or what type of company needs a CD duplicator. Bands who are just starting out are one, as are companies who distribute media to customers on a large scale. In either of these cases, a duplicator will make the process faster and much simpler. Do you need a CD duplicator? First, you need to answer a few basic questions. How many discs do you want to create in one sitting? What types of discs are you duplicating? How quickly do you need the copies?

Your first order of business is to determine what type of duplicator your need. Do you want one that connects to another computer or is a standalone unit more up your alley? Another major concern is the particular capabilities of each device. Will you be creating and duplicating DVD-R material? This requires a different type of technology, and you will need to know the difference. For straightforward disc, copying a standalone unit is a good option. It is easy to use, simply load the master DVD/CD, enter copy quantity and press the start button. In addition, a standalone device does not require tying up a secondary computer.

If speed is important to you, choosing one of the faster models on the market is necessary. When a CD duplicator copies media, it is not done instantly. It will take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to duplicate the media, depending on the size of the file and the speed of your duplicator. Generally, CD-R discs can be duplicated at a faster pace than DVD-R media. These are generally the things that effect speed: The number of target drives in a duplicator; each drive can copy one disc at a time. If your system comes with 8 drives it is going to be faster than one with 4. Drive speed; more expensive drives are normally faster. Blank CDs and blank DVDs quality; better quality, less duplication errors, faster writing time. It makes sense that faster duplicators will cost more.

The internet is a good source of information on CD duplicators of varying speeds. Generally, you want a device that can copy DVD-R with speeds of at least 24x while CD-R disc copying speeds should be at least 48x. If you are working at the industrial level, you may need duplicators with even more speed and the capability of producing multiple discs at one time. If you have a large company an industrial duplicator will be the best selection, albeit the much more expensive one! When choosing the best CD duplicator it is important to consider your media, video or audio?

You will be happy to know that CD duplicators have quite a few features not the least of which is the option to test, compare and copy your media before copying to multiple discs. You can also use the duplicator to mix audio tracks, which means any last minute changes are a breeze to complete. As if that were not enough you will be happy to know that once the machine is fully set up, you can walk away and return to collect your discs later.

Remember to look at the supported media types before you purchase a unit, especially if you are looking for more than CD-R discs. A good duplicator provides support for CD+G, ISRC and VCD, which makes it easier to create media in a number of formats and have your CD-R discs duplicated.

It should be understood that any major purchase of this nature deserves a healthy dose of research and a CD duplicator is no exception. Which unit you finally purchase will depend a lot on your needs and the size of your business. Along with a great duplicator you also want to focus on finding the best quality blank CDs and blank DVDs; why spend all that time and money only to wind up with a poor copy because of the discs? Moreover, many of your media discs are likely bound for clients or potentials, so spending a little money now could make you a whole lot more money later.




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