Archive for April, 2008
I've seen a few CD and DVD duplicators in my life and the new R-Quest NS-4500i is one of the most impressive to date. The NS-4500i offers four multi format DVD Recorders in a user serviceable rack, Three RAID 1 Disc image hard drives in a user serviceable rack cage (accessed by removing thumb screws in the rear of the unit), a choice of the R-Quest FlashJet Pro featuring HP print technology (four ink cartridge, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) or the Teac P-55 dye sublimation and thermal re-transfer printer. The R-Quest NS-4500i is enclosed in a lockable enclosure that keeps the discs and other equipment clean and safe. A 100 disc mail slot is featured for this kiosk secure mode. The internal six rotating hoppers can be configured to ether input or output disc bins using the easy hopper & media setup wizard. Multiple media types can be simultaneously available and contain various types of media including CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD+R Dual layer. Blu-ray models are available to that are true multi format drives in they can handle recordable CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and BD-R.
OK big deal :D Another duplicator?
No! unlike all other duplicators this unit uses the new R-Quest TrueNet FX software to drive the entire process. Not impressed? Consider the very robust virtual duplication engine exists on 4.5Mb of storage. It's sole purpose is to publish discs.
It's accessed via a LCD touch pad in Stand-alone Mode which includes all core job functions including Copy, Compare, Audit and Print, without the need for network connectivity, giving completely autonomous and secure operation (masters can be loaded directly to the machine via dedicated onboard reader) or via a Gigabit Ethernet connection. Just log into the system manager via any browser and you can add jobs, monitor jobs, get update status on jobs, all via the Internet or local network. The administrator can easily add and configure users and other administrators using a role based user access and security. e-mail notifications for various system and job status can be configured with great ease.
The demo I saw was done across the Atlantic ocean between Minnesota and Great Britain. A disc image was sent over and the job started immediately...when I say the disc image was sent over it had started to transfer between the two locations but the NS-4500i is designed to do a fast start (selectable) which can start the recording as the disc image is being received. In the event of slow transfer the duplicator will throttle down the speed. Full system diagnosis can be accessed directly via built in LCD/Touch pad without the need to use any PC. Another nice feature is the Dual Firmware support for system redundancy which keeps the previous firmware in reserve in case something goes terribly wrong with a update. With that said no server software maintenance or anti-virus software is needed. The RS-4500i is operating system independent. If the power goes out the jobs are automatically restored and resumed when the power is restored.
On the printing side the easy import of standard graphic files and the ability to embed time and date tags to the labels as well as easy serialization (I mean really easy) was very impressive. My favorite by far was the dynamic 'mail merge' text to the jobs using a text file was amazing. You can set up a list of companies, contacts or any unique information and set it up in a text file and the system will print each line to a different disc. Along with WYSIWYG disc label editing.
R-Quest has been in the automated duplication for some time. They specialize in operating system independent network duplicator publishers that can be accessed by any browser be it Mac centric or Linux and of course PC. Anything that runs a graphical browser.
Very exciting release.
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Not sure if anyone noticed but Ritek, Prodisc and CMC (the big three of disc manufacturers in Taiwan) have not been paying Phillips royalties. It's been in the news lately; http://www.cdrlabs.com/news/byte/5720
Digitimes.com also had an article about this. There has been a lot of media coming into the U.S. from these companies at lower then normal pricing based on the royalty fee.
It's not that other brands are charging more it's they are paying the royalty. There was a new program called "Veeza" that was reducing the amount from .03 cents US to .025 US
Half a cent difference to get the three manufacturers to comply with licensing. They have have various reasons for not complying. Technically the media from these three companies is in violation in the U.S. and Europe at this point until this is settled. We have been staying away from it for that reason. I can remember several resellers being fined very heavily for selling un-licensed media before. That was a few years back now. Recently Phillips has become more serious about enforcing the fees.
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There are several different print technologies for on-demand CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs duplication and disc printing. Inkjet, thermal transfer and thermal re-transfer / dye-sublimation. This is a discussion on inkjet printing.
Inkjet CD Printers can be used for DVD and Blu-ray discs that have a special inkjet printable surface applied. Inkjet CD printers use print engines primarily from HP (Hewlett Packard) and several from Lexmark. This means for the most part the ink cartridges are off-the-shelf. Several manufacturers use modified cartridges that require the purchase of ink from the manufacturer's sales network which increases the cost per print. Inkjet CD printers come in Single print PC connected models and autoloading print stations that can output a high volume of printable CDs , printable DVD and printable Blu-ray discs.
The resolution of inkjet printers is 4800 dpi (dots per inch) which produces an excellent print image. Inkjet CD printers use a liquid ink that is sprayed onto the inkjet printable surface. It mixes Magneta, Cyan and Yellow to produce color and black is usually produced by a second cartridge. This makes it a "wet" process. Ink application can be controlled by setting the software driver between photo quality and draft on the printable CD. The less ink the faster the job is completed. The less ink the more washed out the color is and horizontal print lines show up on the finished disc.
There are some systems that use separate CMY inks, the Microboards Print Factory Pro is an example of this technology. The Print Factory Pro is a automated Printer system that can be loaded with 100 discs. It is PC and Mac connect via USB 2.0 The Microboards Print Factory Pro relies on a singulator with stacked discs instead of a robotic arm. Designs vary for several different reasons but the most important is speed. The closer you can get the disc to the print head the faster the job goes. Also reliability is a big factor.
Disc print design software for printable CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs comes in several different versions. SureThing and Discus seem to be the most popular. These programs allow you to design your CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs and save the print file for future use. Some rely on special print files that can only be used with the specific model so make sure you know what you want. .prn files contain all the print meta data for a specific printer and can not be shared with other printer models. Recently there has been a move away from this with some systems. Usually Discus can support this feature. One of my favorite inkjet CD printers is the Recordex StudioJet 50 . This auto-loading CD printer uses off the shelf HP ink cartridges for a great print job. Fast and efficient. I believe it's the cheapest per print. Very easy to set up and calibrate.
There are some Epson inkjet document printers that have a little disc caddy as a means of printing on a printable CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc. They do work for an occasional disc. Bad idea for any quantity of discs. The caddy wears out along with the rollers in the printer.
Drying time is a critical issue in choosing printable CDs for your CD printer. If you are laying down any amount of ink drying time is important to keep the ink from getting on your other discs. The idea is to use enough ink to do the job and not over apply for economy and quick drying. Printable CDs, Printable DVDs and Printable Blu-ray discs all have different formulas specific to a manufacturer. Taiyo Yuden and a new brand, FTI or Falcon have great surfaces and quick drying. Taiyo Yuden also offers a Watershield printable CD and a Watershield printable which give a glossy finish and water-resistant properties. Other excellent surfaces include Falcon premium white inkjet printable DVD-R
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If you want to move beyond magic markers and labels for labeling your inkjet printable CDs then it may be time to consider a printer that is designed for printing on recordable CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs. There are some inkjet document printers that provide a means of printing on a disc or two but they are not up to the task of printing on any quantity of discs. They typically use a plastic template that holds a disc and it slides through like a piece of paper...until the rollers give out. We used to carry such document and CD printers but customers complained about the lack of durability (in fairness the document printers were not designed for production CD printing). Printing 10-15 discs a day, or even more then one really falls into a production grade CD printer.
CD Printers come in 3 flavors.
Inkjet CD Printers: Inkjet printable cd-r printers use existing ink jet technology in a specially designed printer housing that usually has a automated tray (not to be confused with robotics that moves the disc out of the tray) to move the disc in-line with the print head (s). Inkjet printers are excellent for full color printing and can print to the hub of printable recordable CDs and printable DVD. Inkjet CD printers have between one and 6 ink cartridges. The more the better. Something to be aware of is some printers use off the shelf ink and some use proprietary ink even though they all use the same print engine as the off the shelf cartridges. Two reasons is product branding and to provide a feature like showing the operator how much ink is remaining. Of course the units with off the shelf ink can do the same thing ;)
Depending on how much ink you use on your printable CDs it would be highly advisable to consider the cost of the cartridges when looking at any unit. Same advice goes for any inkjet printer. In the consumer world the printers are given away so you have to buy the ink. Similar to the free razor holder to get you to buy the razor blades. A consumer actually has to pay more for a unit that uses more cost effective ink cartridges. Unfortunately we don't control the manufacturers decision to have open cartridges or not. A unit I really like for a great price is the Recordex StudioJet50 Pro. It uses a singleator to drop the disc into printer and then when the tray comes out there is a spring-loaded bumper that pushes the disc onto the output spindle. This unit uses off-the-shelf HP cartridges so it's cheap to print. Really cheap. :) Discus CD printing software.
Most inkjet CD printers print at 4800 dpi (dots per inch) although there are several with lower resolution. The ink medium provides excellent color reproduction with little effort from the operator. Inkjet printing is Dependent on special ink jet printable CDs and DVD blank discs. The surfaces come in white, silver and gold. I have seen some strange pastel colors but they did not last very long in the U.S. market. Like paper the surfaces have certain characteristics like the shade of white (there is a trade off in pure white color and drying: the more pure the white the slower it drys). Silver is also problematic in shades of gray and silver white to a pearl white. Really the key thing with silver inkjet printable CD and DVDs is the iridescence and almost three dimensions of the print. It can be very striking if used correctly (that is not trying to print a white background over the silver...better off using white ink jet printable CDs then).
The primary objection to inkjet printable media is that it is not water proof nor glossy. Currently there are some new products in the market that address this drawback: Taiyo Yuden's WaterShield, Imation's Aquaguard and Verbatim's glossy white inkjet printable surface. There are other substrates (what I call an applied label, like AquaGuard) but most are actually applied to the disc as a coating. Taiyo Yuden WaterShield CD and WaterShield DVD is by far the most popular surface. It is more expensive to produce and so it costs more per disc to the consumer.
CD inkjet printers come in manual versions that require being connected to a PC. Automated versions come in PC connect (and Mac in this case), Standalone and PC embedded CD printers. Automation let's you to print a large number of discs unattended. PC connect and embedded PC systems allow you to design your label, specify how many discs you want to print (or even set different print jobs).
Thermal CD Printers: Thermal CD printer technology uses a special ribbon that is a wax-based resin material that when heated transfers the resin to the disc's surface. It uses a single ribbon which the print-head directly imprints the image onto the printable DVD or printable CD. It's fast and cheap. Up until recently the hardware was very expensive as there were no cheap models. Rimage makes several excellent printers including the Rimage Prism Plus thermal printer. The Prism Plus is costly and when you combine the Rimage robotics it's around $8413 The Rimage Prism Plus AutoprinterII is a very durable print station. Combining Rimage engineering and reliability. There are other auto-loaders that use the Rimage Prism Plus, although it is a more expensive "OEM" version.
There are several consumer thermal printers, one "made" by Teac, Casio has a line and there are several other brands. They have limited print area and a higher per print cost (compared to a commercial unit like the Rimage Prism Plus) but do provide a good print quality. For the cost they can be an excellent solution for small labeling jobs. The Teac P-11 CD printer is a good choice.
Thermal printing has several drawbacks. It has limited resolution, 600 dpi (dots per inch) and no capacity for mixing colors. Thermal printing can print in multiple colors with the correct media but it does not mix. The thermal CD printers work best for graphics and text. It's not something you would want to print your digital images with.
Thermal Retransfer CD Printers: Thermal Re-transfer uses ...
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I know it's a recordable disc and duplicator blog. Being a data storage geek I do have to make mention of this rather interesting development. For all you that don't know EMC is a Enterprise Storage company, entrenched in the storage systems costing millions of dollars. So with some surprise I read that EMC had purchased Iomega. Iomega makes various consumer level storage devices including a DVD recorder. Some of you older folks might remember the Zip drive (I know it's still around: I have three SCSI and two ide in a box somewhere, sell you the lot ;) )
And yes Iomega makes some low end network storage. Not trying to knock them. Just funny how EMC is looking at a consumer product storage company as an acquisition.
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