CD replication & DVD replication services
Amstore offers a complete service for your replication requirements, supporting all key formats, including:
| CD audio | DVD audio |
| CD Rom | DVD Rom |
| Enhanced CD | DVD Extra/ DVDplus |
| Hybrid CD | DVD5 |
| CD Extra | DVD9 |
| DVD10 | |
| DVD18 |
What is replication?
Replication is the process of making an exact replica i.e. exact copies of your master. It’s the most cost effective manufacturing process for high volume requirements for the CD Rom/ Audio – DVD Video/ DVD Rom market.
The replication process for CD and DVD consists of the following key stages:
- Glass mastering
- Stamper creation
- Injection moulding
- Disc printing
From receipt of your Master, we create a Glass Master, which is basically a piece of glass substrate from which Stampers are created. The Glass Master is placed in baths where nickel Stampers are grown on to the Glass Master through a galvanics process. The first stamper to come off the Glass Master is called the Father and from this Father Stamper, a Mother is grown and a further family of Stampers.
It's these Stampers that are used on the injection moulding lines to physically press (or Stamp) your replica discs. As the discs are injection moulded and Stamped, they pass down the injection moulding line where each disc is individually metalised (to make it reflective) and coated with a protective lacquer, finally its UV cured and then tested for physical imperfections.
When the discs come off the line, they appear silver on both sides, so next, the artwork needs to be printed onto the disc. The two common print methods used in CD & DVD printing is the Screen printing process and the Litho printing process. The look and nature of your artwork will depend on whether the disc is Screen or Litho printed.
Typical Run sizes
The entry quantity for CD and DVD replication is 1,000 units or more. This is because the machine set ups and the process involved, makes it's not economically viable to produce a lower quantity. Due to the set up costs, the higher the quantity ordered, the lower the price becomes. At a certain volume the unit costs for a CD or DVD will bottom out and at this point, you are down to royalty, raw material and machine running costs. If a run of less than 1,000 units is required, we offer a highly competitive and quick turnaround CDr and DVDr duplicaiton service.
There are no maximum run sizes for replication as this purely depends on your requirements. It's not uncommon for us to process production runs of over 1million units, however the average run size tends to be around 10,000 units.
Lead times
Our standard CD & DVD replication service lead time is 10 working days from approval of proofs. This assumes that we have also received your Purchase Order, appoved content master and payment terms have been agreed. When special disc packaging is required, this may extend the lead time.
Although 10 working days is our standard lead time, it is not uncommon for us to reduce this slightly when needed. If you need a replication lead time of less than 10 working days, please speak with your Amstore Account Manager or contact us to talk through your project. When achieving quick lead times, it is critical that your job is planned into the production schedule as far in advance as possible, as the Glass Mastering process, stamper creation, injection moulding and disc printing process physically takes quite some time. We need to carefully plan the manufacture of your job around your delivery date, whilst allowing for manufacturing contingency. During the high season September-December lead times are under more pressure than usual, so the more notice given, the better it will be for production planning.
ManufacturING Quality Checks
Our Replication process for CDs and DVDs has very stringent quality checks. The Glass Master undergoes a very thorough 'bit for bit' test to ensure that your Master data has copied over 100%. Similar checks are carried out on the Stampers and the first off production units.
There are various in-line checks that monitor the disc during its manufacturing cyle. 'Bit for bit' tests are carried out on the first production units and on a batch sampling process there after to ensure that the replicated discs are a 100% identical match to the original Master.
Copy Protection
We offer various copy protection options for CD & DVD, including:
- Macrovision, Safe Disc and Star Force for CD
- CSS and Macrovision for DVD
Please contact us for more information on Copy Protection for your Discs
CD DVD replication Vs Duplication
- Longevity of the disc - This tends to be greater with replicated discs than burnt Recordable discs. There are no real statistics to support this as the length of time depends on use and the quality of the CDrs/ DVDrs
- Disc quality - Due to the variances in the quality of CDrs and DVDrs available in the market it’s certainly possible to have a lower quality sound or performance. However if high quality CDr or DVDr media is used the result is very comprable if not impossible to tell apart. As standard Amstore uses Sony professional grade CDrs (audio) and DVDrs
- Playabiltiy – you typically have a playability of around 98%+ on pressed / replicated discs. Due to the variability of the CDrs DVDrs these tend to be lower. In order to reduce risks of playability we only use high quality Grade A media.
