Archive for the ‘Duplication Systems’ Category
Epson has introduced a new auto-loading duplicator and printing system that promises lower cost per print and better disc picking technology.
The Epson Discproducer PP-100 is a fully enclosed DVD publisher which features 2 multi-format drives for CD and DVD duplication. The Discproducer holds up to 100 discs in it's multi bin input/output disc caddies. Three bins hold 50 discs each (and can be configured in just about any configuration including CD and DVD bins) and also features a Kiosk bin that allows access from the outside of the Epson Discproducer for single disc (up to five discs) output.
The Epson Discproducer features a Epson patented "AcuGrip" robotics disc picker technology that makes sure only a single disc is placed into the disc drive even if two discs are stuck together. the AcuGrip arm has a guide that inserts the picker in the center of the disc and then three independently powered gripers extend to separate the disc on the top from the rest of the stack. A kicker lever lifts the top disc for placement into the drive. If more then two discs are lifted, the PP-100 senses this and removes the discs and places them in the reject stacker. This helps protect against interruptions in unattended production runs due to sticky discs.
Another major feature of the Epson Discproducer is the ink-jet technology that Epson has incorporated into the system. Instead of using the standard thermal ink-jet technology that heats up the ink in the cartridge to create a bubble of ink (creating an individual dot) Epson uses a patented technology called MicroPiezo®. MicroPiezo (somewhat like the joy buzzers at novelty stores) uses crystals that vibrate tens of thousands of times per second. This forces the ink droplet out of a tiny nozzle in a very controlled manner that creates a perfectly round dot. MicroPiezo technology ensures uniform, stable ink droplets with virtually no satellites or misting. Thermal inkjet technology tends to create an oval or in the worse case a teardrop shaped dot.
The Epson Discproducer has three publishing modes, External output, Standard output and Batch mode. External output can produce up to five discs of ether DVD or CD. Two of the internal stackers are used to hold the discs (50 discs per stacker) which can be DVD or CD or one stacker of each. Standard mode can output up to 50 discs using the two input stackers to hold CD-R or DVD-R/+R blank discs. Batch mode can output up to 100 discs.
The disc mastering, duplication and label printing software is developed as a single application although third party label software can be used also.
How much does the Epson Discproducer cost? A street price of $2995 which includes a set of full ink cartridges.
What's in the Box?
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Epson Discproducer disc publisher
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One set of six Epson high capacity ink cartridges
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One package of five Taiyo Yuden WaterShield CDs
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CD-ROM containing application software, printer driver and User's Guide
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Set-up Guide
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USB cable
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AC power cord
Discproducer Specifications
Publishing Speed
(burn and print)
CD
Up to 30 discs/hour, Epson specified CD-R
600 MB data volume, writing speed: Drive max speed 40x
DVD
Up to 15 discs/hour, Epson specified DVD-R
3.8 GB data volume, writing speed: Drive max speed 12x
Publishing Modes
External output
1-5, 2 stackers & pick-up tray used
(number of copies)
Standard mode
1-50, 2 stackers used (autom.)
Batch mode
1-100, 3 stackers used (autom.)
Print Specifications
Print speed
Speed mode up to 60 discs/hour, bidirectional
Quality mode up to 40 discs/hour, bidirectional
Print head
Black ink 180 nozzles, color ink 180 nozzles x 5 colors
Print direction
Bidirectional or uni-directional
Print resolution
Speed mode 1440 x 720 dpi
Quality mode 1440 x 1440 dpi
Ink pad life*
Approximately 30,000 discs
Ink Cartridge
Ink type
Dye ink
Colors
Cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, light magenta, black
Yield**
1000 discs or more 45-116mm, 16.7% color sharing, continuous printing, mode setting: quality
Print Area
Standard setting for outside diameter: 116mm
Outside diameter setting range: 70-119.4mm
Standard setting for inside diameter: 45mm
Inside diameter setting range: 18-50mm
Guaranteed print area: 45-116mm
CD/DVD Drives
CD/DVD drives
2 drives
Writing speed
CD: maximum 40x
DVD-R, DVD+R: maximum 12x
DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL: maximum 8x
Supported Media
Size
Outside diameter: 120mm ± 0.3mm
Inside diameter: 15mm +0.1/-0mm
Thickness: 1.2mm + 0.3/-0,1mm
Form
Supports common 4.7 inch (12cm) discs
Does not support specially-shaped discs
Type
CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL
Surface
Inkjet printable
External Dimensions
Width 14.84 inches (377mm), Depth 18.30 inches (465mm), Height 13.70 inches 348mm) excluding AC and USB cables
Weight
Approximately 52.9 lbs (24Kg), including stackers and ink cartridges, excluding AC cable and discs
Software
Total Disc Maker - Installed to user's PC to publish discs
Total Disc Monitor - Displays status of jobs and devices
Total Disc Setup - Installed to user's PC to make settings of Discproducer PP-100
TD Bridge System - Incorporation tool to use with other companies' applications
Adjustment Tool for PP-100
System Requirements
OS: Windows XP Home/Professional SP2 or later
Windows 2000 Professional SP4 or later
CPU: Pentium 4, 1.4 GHz or higher, Memory: 512 Mbytes or larger, HDD capacity: 10 Gbytes or larger, 7200 rpm or more
Graphic environment: XGA or more, 65536 colors or more
Sound environment: a sound device and a supported driver must be installed for music media
Interface
USB 2.0 (High-speed)
USB port: This product cannot be used in a USB port of a PC equipped with some ATI chipsets as follows: ATI's Southbridge IXP (SB)460 or earlier
Expected Lifetimes**
Ink pad life
Approximately 30,000 discs
Burner life
Approximately 16,000 to 40,000 discs
Warranty
1 year limited warranty
* The printer's ink pad is estimated to become saturated and need replacing after about 30,000 discs. Based on printing 2,000 discs per month, bi-directional. Actual results will vary based on such factors as images printed, print settings, media type, frequency of use and temperature.
** Cartridge yields vary considerably based on images printed, print settings, media type, frequency of use and temperature. For print quality, a variable amount of ink remains in the cartridge after the "replace cartridge" indicator comes on. Discproducer ships with full cartridges and part of the ink from the first cartridges is used for priming the printer. See discproducer.epson.com for more information about cartridges.
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DVD Duplicator Tower:
What is a DVD duplicator anyway? It consists of a enclosure that can hold from 1 to 15 CD-R, DVD and Blu-ray Recorders, a power supply, a drive controller and fans. Optional features can include USB 2.0 and or Fire-Wire connectivity to one drive. This allows for mastering a disc using a PC connection via USB. For the added cost it's just as wise to buy a drive specific to your mastering needs and keep the duplicator to doing what it's made for. The USB connection does not provide a means of connecting the hard drive. That would be a cool feature. There are duplicators that can copy a USB flash drive or several other flash memory cards. There are some hybrids, specifically the OS based units that offer greater mastering features as offered by MF Digital.
Controller Based:
Disc Controllers are the brains of the DVD duplicator tower. It controls all the drives including the hard drive. All models present some kind of interface. Typically a LCD screen is used that has two lines of text. You simply use a push button keypad to scroll through the options. Options such as password protection, disc count, track extraction, dynamic partitioning and many other features make a DVD duplicator a great choice for production and office needs. One of my favorite is the CD Dimensions Disc Commander which has all the features of the other CD Dimensions DVD duplicators and the ability to be daisy-chain connected so one tower DVD duplicator can control 20 or more units.
OS based:
There are some DVD duplicators that use an operating system based controller using Windows XP home or pro. Specifically the MF Digital Live Event rackmount duplicator. this system is the only network DVD tower on the market with the ability to link together DVD towers on a network. With live event recording ( Record directly from mixer, console or any analog / digital source) for both audio and video and disc spanning the MF Digital Live Event rack-mount duplicator has a lot to offer beyond duplication
Rack mount:
Rackmount DVD duplicators provide a more compact footprint then tower duplicators. They are designed to fit into a standard rack or you can just stack them up. They are also excellent for mobile applications like duplicating at concerts or conferences.
The critical components of any DVD duplicator are the drives, controller, power supply, hard drive and cooling fans. One or two fans is not sufficient in tower DVD duplicators over 5 drives especially when one of the fans is for the power supply: Heat kills drives. The more air that can be pulled through the duplicator the cooler it runs. It's important to note that the DVD duplicator needs a way of pulling in the cooler air. Vents on the front of the duplicator help and keep the drives from being the main vents drawing in dust in the process. to learn more about DVD duplicators please follow this link to CD Dimensions article about Tower DVD Duplicators
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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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Duplicators come in three basic configurations. Tower duplicators, Rack-mount duplicators and automated duplicators.
Tower duplicator
CD, DVD and Blu-ray Tower duplicators hold between 1 and 15 drives in a single enclosure. There are systems that use a "daisy-chain" cable which allows additional towers to be connected and operate off one disc image across 200 machines (the highest tested was 2000 drives). Another method of connecting towers (or rack-mounts) is using a network as the means of connectivity between towers.
Tower CD, DVD and Blu-ray duplicators contain a Power supply, fan(s), recording drives, reader*, hard drive* and a controller. They can also have a USB/Fire-wire connection depending on the configuration.
The Controller is really the brain of the standalone duplicator, be it tower, rack-mount or automated duplicator. The controller has a 2 line LCD screen (or LED indicators) with a keypad for inputting instructions to the controller. The CD, DVD and Blu-ray duplicator controller has built-in memory to store configurations and to buffer the read / write stream. This is not to be confused with a built-in hard drive.
Hard-drives offer two important features: buffering the read/write stream by copying the disc image to hard drive. This eliminates issues with the read/write stream being interrupted by speed differences between the reader and the writer. The second feature is disc images can be saved and labeled using the keypad. This allows for pulling up different disc images and burning them over to endless amounts of discs. No reader required. The catch being the image has to be loaded into the hard drive and then recorded to the disc. This cycle only happens once. After that it burns at the same time or faster demanding on the size of the files.
Some other features include track extraction, this feature allows you to extract tracks and store them on the hard drive, building a music compilation. Most support multiple language support ( Spanish being an important feature in many parts of the world).
Cooling is important for high cycle recording. The more fans the better. The power supply has a fan (or should) but that fan does not really count in overall cooling. It's job is to cool the power supply which creates it's own heat. At at least one additional fan as a minimum for a low volume system (5 drives and less) 4 for high volume (7-11). Drives start to malfunction without excellent cooling.
USB and Fire-Wire connections provide means of using a single CD, DVD or Blu-ray drive to master a disc connected to a PC or Mac. It does not provide a connection to the hard drive. It's of limited use in most applications.
Rack-mount CD, DVD duplicator
Rackmounts are essentially a CD, DVD, tower duplicator turned on it's side with the drives re-oriented. They provide a means of grouping a large number of duplicators together stacked one on top of another. They require special rails (usually not included) and a rack enclosure. There is some variations in racks so the idea is you match your racks rails to your unit and not the other way around.
Besides the standard rack-mount there exists a class of "live" recorders that can record audio and video to a hard drive (or directly) to CD or DVD disc. several are networkable or daisy-chainable.
You pay a premimum for rack-mount enclosures: they are specialized. They become higher when additional drives are added (2U-8U) 9 drives is a big system.
Automated CD, DVD and Blu-ray duplicators and publishers
Standalone CD, DVD and Blu-ray duplicators and publishers (Controller Based): Controller based duplicators are the most simple of the automated duplication systems. Like their tower duplicator brothers they use a special controller (mini computer) that manages the duplication process. Some even incorporate printer systems into the duplicaton process to create a complete duplication-printing system called a "Publisher" One of the most convenient systems is a networkable system like R-Quest. All the advantages of standalone and the features of PC connect. Essentially the automated duplicator appears on the network under it's own IP address like a network printer and you send jobs to it. Cabled or wireless (you would have to set up the network). The faster the better. Of course the system caches the file locally so it's not trying to pull it at the same time as recording.
PC connected (some support Mac): PC connected systems use the PC (or Mac) to control the robotics, recording and printing. PC connect are sort of the poor man's auto duplicator. It's not that they are inexpensive but they rely on the other part of the system that makes or breaks it.
Embedded PC: Embedded systems are true turn-key solutions. They have the software and optimized hardware for the purpose of running the CD, DVD and Blu-ray duplicator and printer. Usually they are networkable. Almost all are running on a Microsoft OS so that adds to the cost of the system. Controller based systems do not have this limitation. Licensing actually costs more then the hardware.
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