DVD Duplication vs Replication

By Sandy on September 18, 2009 12:57 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Once you've finished your DVD Studio Pro project, you have to decide how you're going to deliver your final disc. First of all, how many discs do you need to deliver? Is your project a wedding video where you might need only 5 copies, a high school football team highlight video of maybe 50 copies, or is it something on a much larger scale like producing training videos for every firestation in the state? Usually the more common way to go about it is by duplicating a disc with the recordable DVD drive on your computer or a separate stand-alone DVD duplication tower. The main difference between using the burner on your computer and using a duplication tower is that the tower is a standalone unit that doesn't need software or be hooked up to a computer to make it work. Using a duplicator is most effective when you are producing quantities of discs of up to about 300. However, one downfall to using this method, is that not all the discs you produce will be compatible with every DVD player there is out there.

Once you realize you need to produce more than about 300 discs, you will want to consider Replication. This method is more effective when you're producing large quantities of discs, not to mention that by using replication, you will be guaranteed that your discs will work on any DVD player. That's because replication uses a glass master process at a special facility. Replication is the highest-quality and most reliable method for producing DVDs, plus the fact that it's really the only method of adding copy protection to your DVDs. But in most cases it's just impractical since the price per disc is so high.