I had an interesting time the other week at Rimage sales training learning about the new introductions and system changes in the Rimage Producer III disc duplicator publisher line. The biggest change is the addition of Blu-ray recorders to the entire line. The Blu-ray recorders can be mixed with DVD recorders or you can have a system completely dedicated to Blu-ray. The drives support DVD as well as CD-R so you are not losing any functionality with the upgrade. Now you can have recordable Blu-ray in one hopper, DVD-R in the second hopper and CD-R in the third input bin.
Another big change (it's been developing) is the modular design built into the Producer III series. Drive replacement takes about 10 seconds as you can now slide out the drives without using any tools. Even the control center can be removed and replaced. This concept is very useful for Rimage's advanced swap so you can have the parts available within a very short period of time. This is all based around Rimage's commitment to industrial on-demand disc publishing.
Another great product feature is the web interface for the Mac client. It really makes things far easier for the networked Mac user. It actually has some features that will be exciting to see in the PC version. As the developer was showing this on his Mac laptop it was amusing to see him go back and forth between virtual machines, in this case a PC client.
A big change in product line-up is the discontinuation of the Rimage Amigo. The Amigo has been around a long time, discontinued and then brought back from retirement. At one time it was the entry level unit (it has one drive) but with the whole professional line of office publishers it's old position is somewhat obsolete. Rimage has replaced it with the 6100 series within the Producer III line. It uses the same robotics as the Rimage 7100n and 8100n and optional Prism Plus thermal printer or the Everest III and it's high resolution brother the Everest 600
No Comments »
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="166" caption="Microboards QDL 1000"][/caption]
Microboards Technology announced today the release of a new DVD duplicator autoloader called the QDL-1000
The Microboards QDL-1000 Quic Disc Loader features a single CD DVD recorder, standalone operation and a built in 160GB hard drive for disc imaging.
Disc loading is accomplished by a robotics arm that picks up discs in the lower input tray and places it into the recording drive. The QDL burns DVDs at 20X and CDs at 40X and can burn up to 25 discs before reloading.
Simple operation is achieved through a push button pad and a 20x2 LCD display. The menu can operate in three languages, English, Spanish and French.
The Microboards QDL-1000 Quic Disc Loader Measures in at just 9" high and 16" wide and weighs 19 Lbs. A perfect DVD Duplicator size for the office or any place you need to make some CD or DVD discs fast.
The QDL comes with a one year return to depot warranty
1 Comment »
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="198" caption="Acronova Nimbie DVD Copier"][/caption]
CD Dimensions is anouncing a newly released product line from Acronova Techology called the Nimbie. The Nimbie is a high performance compact DVD copier autoloader with single drive CD DVD recorder and capable of burning up to 100 discs without reloading. The Nimbie is completely self contained and protected from the environment...
The press release is here LINK
The Nimbie DVD Copier MSRP is $695
No Comments »
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?
•
Epson Discproducer disc publisher
•
One set of six Epson high capacity ink cartridges
•
One package of five Taiyo Yuden WaterShield CDs
•
CD-ROM containing application software, printer driver and User's Guide
•
Set-up Guide
•
USB cable
•
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.
No Comments »
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.
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.
No Comments »
