We will now be focusing all of our manufacturing efforts on USB Flash Drives, DVD duplication and Replication, CD Duplication and Replication and Blu-ray Duplication and Replication services.  We could not be happier with the current progress of this considerable effort.

New to the site will be the ability to place an order online via e-commerce along with an additional 25% more products and many more pricing options and turn times.  If you have any questions about our transition to the new site, or have comments about the new look, please let us know.  We would love to hear from you.

There are a few distinctions between PAL DVDs and NTSC DVDs.

NTSC DVDs have a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second and have a screen resolutions of  720 X 480.  NTSC is the more widely used and accepted format for DVDs.

PAL DVDs have a frame rate of 25 frames per second and have a screen resolution of 720 X 576.  All PAL DVD players can also play NTSC DVDs, however, the converse is not true.  Most NTSC DVD players cannot play PAL DVDs.

It is for this reason that the best format choice to distribute your DVD project would be NTSC.

Most authoring platforms will author both NTSC and PAL DVDs, however, it is very difficult to convert one to the other once the format has been chosen.  The reasoning behind this is that the vertical resolution of an NTSC to PAL comparison is 480 to 576, so if conversion was to occur between the two formats, there would be some vertical squeezing or stretching of the video depending on which way the conversion went.  So you end up with people and objects that either look unusually tall or unusually short, or you will have to cut of some of the screen, all are un-natural looks.

So if you are deciding whether to create a project in PAL vs NTSC, your best bet is to shoot, edit and author all in the same format.  Mixing format, example: shooting in PAL and editing and authoring in NTSC will still result in a skewed perspective.

So know your format, your target audience, and choose accordingly.

DVD Masters:

The Basics :

DVD Masters need to be submitted as an authored DVD.  This means that if you have been through editing, you need to get your edited project on an authoring platform and create your menus, compression, and final DVD.  Some common authoring platforms are: DVD Studio Pro, iDVD, Sonic Scenarist, Nero, Adobe Encore.  If you are not sure that you have authored your DVD just give us a call and we should be able to determine the state of your project.

Once your project is complete and you have an authored master, in most circumstances we recommend that you submit a fully working DVD-R master that you have thoroughly watched, have checked all menu functionality and are completely satisfied with the quality of your final master.  Once we receive your master we guarantee to give you exact copies of your project back, so be sure you are happy with your master before you end up with 2000 discs you don’t like or cannot use.

Electronic Submission of DVD Master:

Some times we have clients that would like to save a day or two of snail mail and submit their DVD disc image master electronically.  We typically discourage this as in most circumstances we would charge to create the DVD master from a disc image, then, to insure the content and integrity of the master, would typically send that master disc back to our client for final approval on the master.  Ultimately this would result in longer approval time.  The best way to ensure we do a great job on your project is to submit a hard master that has been thoroughly checked for functionality and quality.

The only caveat to this method of master delivery is if you would like CSS copy protection on your DVD video.  In this circumstance, you will need to submit your master as either a DDP master or a DLT master.  You can read the ins and outs of applying DVD CSS encryption here on this blog post.

CD Masters:

CD Audio Master Basics :

For submitting CD Audio masters, the best standard to submit you master under is the “Red Book Audio Standard”.  Particularly when replicating your disc, if you want your audio to be flawless and manufacturing to go smooth.  If you would like to address things like having the text show up on your CD, embedded metadata and ISRC codes, look up the Red Book Audio Standards, have your music mastered at a credible mastering studio with an experienced audio engineer.

If you are working on a budget and cannot afford an audio engineer, you can create you master with any number of commercially available audio programs.  This method is often very successful, particularly if you have limited requirements for you CD,…ie. do not need CD text to show, do not need metadata or ISRC codes embedded in your music.

Electronic Submission of CD Master:

On occasion we do receive requests from clients who would like to upload their tracks to us and have DVD Copycat create the master.  Again, we usually recommend that you submit a hard copy CD-R master according to Red Book Audio standards.  If you would like us to assemble your master, we can drop your tracks on a CD, but this often times is problematic, as mistakes can be made or preferences can be set not according to the expectations of our clients.  ie, time between tracks is to long or short, track order is not correct, etc.  For these reasons, when we do create audio masters, we do send that master back to the client for approval before manufacturing.

Data CDs and CD-ROMs:

In most circumstances Data CDs and CD-ROMs must be submitted as a hard master on CD-R.  Data CDs can often have auto executable files or complex software  applications, or too many files to accurately transfer over the internet.  So when submitting this type of master, we recommend sending us a fully functional CD-R.  In some circumstances we will create a master for you, but in this exception we will need to send you a copy of the master we created for your approval.

I suspect that in one more year authoring systems will be much more robust and cost effective.  This will be the real key to seeing more Blu-ray duplication business.  We are seeing BD Duplication orders steadily rising this year and strongly suspect that delivering high def video on Blu-ray for the ordinary video or film maker is only about a year away from really starting and about 2-3 years to go mainstream.

We are now located at:

300 Broadway Street, #23

San Francisco, CA 94133

Phone numbers and emails have remained the same.

We planned for, and accomplished, a seamless transition.    Already we have realized improved delivery efficiencies, production accuracy, and the overall quality of our work with the additional space.

Our continuing goal is to make it easy to do business with DVD Copycat.  We are here to provide you with great DVD and CD Duplication and Replication products, delivered on time.

If you need to contact us or have an upcoming job, you can response to this email or give us a quick call!

Ask for Brian or Stella

415-929-1581

For More Information take a look at our website here optical disc manufacturing.
Or give us a call at 1-866-210-8768

I strongly believe that choosing a quality model over price will always give the strongest long term benefits to both our clients and our bottom line.  When choosing price over quality, there is a cascade effect on all services and products.  You cannot provide both quality and low cost.

As I have developed this business we have chosen to try to avoid the “Low Cost Provider” business model.  It is my business philosophy to provide and instill trust, expertise and quality mindedness in our workforce and customer relationships.

I have chosen this philosophy because I have found with the “Low Cost Provider” model what eventually happens to a business is that customer service and commitment suffers. As margins are cut, so is quality of work staff, enthusiasm and moral.  Carelessness and poor work result.  I’ve seen this in our industry with many companies over the past 6 years.

At DVD Copycat, we try to maintain standards of service and expertise well above the industry norm.

My point to all this is that DVD Copycat is poised to add value to our clients.  We can chase down the things you need and make sure you a being taken care of beyond the lowest common denominator of cost.  That is what I have organized our business to do.

So when choosing to Replicate your DVDs, CDs or Blu-ray Disc, you can count on DVD Copycat to provide you with the best quality out there within a reasonable cost.

For more information about Duplicating your DVD project contact us at 1-866-210-8768

Unfortunately, a knee jerk reaction to this economy has been for many of the leading CD and DVD manufacturers to drop prices quite quickly.  We have seen an average of about a 10-20% drop in many national packages.  I suspect that with such aggressive pricing, compounded with a stagnant or shrinking industry, there will be some shakeout.  We have been seeing used DVD and CD printing and manufacturing equipment auctioned fairly regularly at bargain prices.

At DVD copycat we continue to strive to provide excellent customer service and top quality manufacturing during this downturn.  We have seen sales increases in our Standard line of products that were released early this year to provide a lower cost alternative to our conventional premium line of CDs and DVDs.  Our clients are choosing price over quality, and I suspect this trend will continue until early 2010.

I do hope that there is a shift back to quality over price.  In the long run, my personal feeling are that quality will always pay bigger dividends in the long run, and that is why DVD Copycat will always be poised to provide quality over price.

If you need more information, you can also look at our sister site devoted specifically to DVD Duplication here.

Secondly, most people don’t know this, but when you burn an audio CD there is no self correction to the data writing.  This means that you have to be careful not to burn your discs while you have too many applications running.  Other applications will eat up memory and potentially cause a hiccup in you disc.  Also, you should burn your discs at 16X.  If you burn them at the default 48X or 52X you may burn them faster, but you run the risk of having a data error on you disc.

Following these simple steps should ensure that you have a robust, quality CD to play time and time again.

If you need more information on CD Duplication or DVD Duplication Services give us a call at:

DVD Copycat

300 Broadway, #23

San Francisco, CA 94133

1-866-210-8768

415-929-1581

www.dvdcopycat.com

Currently we are seeing AACS costs at a one time fee of $1500 and a cost of approximately $3.00 per unit for 1000 retail ready Blu-ray units.  Overall compared to last year this is about a 50% reduction in cost to our clients.

In contrast to this are standard definition DVDs which have no mandatory encryption fees and are approximately $1.29 per unit for 1000 retail ready DVDs.

So Blu-ray Replication is about $4.50 per unit for the first 1000 units and $3.00 after that per 1000.

DVD Replication conversly is still much more affordable at $1.29 per unit, but the general cost trends are coming down for Blu-ray Replication.

As Eric Manning pointed out to me in a previous post about the mandatory AACS fee, the Blu-ray Association has required all manufacturers to pay a mandatory AACS fee for every new title produced.  If the Blu-ray Association were to consider an AACS waiver for small producers it would open the flood gate for small producers to go Blu-ray (BD).  This is the only way that I can see Blu-ray Replication truly replacing DVD as a mainstream video medium for ALL video and film producers, not just the big studios.

However, I do feel that we are headed in the right direction. Costs are coming down and the 5% of our clients that can afford Blu-ray Replication can now realize their Hi-def vision.

More information about our San Francisco Bay Area Blu-ray Duplication and Replication can be found here.

If you have questions about standard def, Video Disc Manufacturing and DVD Duplication and Replication, contact us at 1-866-210-8768.

Ask for Amy or Brian