• DVD Authoring

  Creating efficiency in a small business – auto burn/print and slick printing

  Posted by Chris Huggett on October 25, 2005 at 10:26 pm

  Hi guys

  I run a small part time DVD production business that it is doing very well. I currently work full time doing my other favourite thing in life, creating graphics for a TV station.

  I love doing both jobs, however my FT one does not allow me the time i would like to spend producing large run DVD projects.

  So i need to be smarter and more efficient in my practices. Im looking into auto burn and print machines to work (Rimage)whilst i am in my other job. The costs are quite expensive for a 2 burn/print machine, however i do not employ any staff so this could be my first. Does anybody have any experience with a burn/print machine and could you give your experience with them beit go or bad.

  Is it advisable to purchase seperate auto print and burn machines? Like a washing macnine that doubles as a dryer, or a VCR player that doubles as a DVD player, if something goes wrong with one, the other is useless…..

  Should it be a standalone or pc connected?

  But i am spending alot of time at the moment cutting DVD slicks to fit the cases.

  We have a laser printer that uses A4 normal paper to print on, then I use a guilotine to cut the 4 sides into shape and then insert.

  Now the paper i use is fine, however it is not the nice glossy stuff that comes with holywood DVDs. What might this typ of paper be called, and is it possible to print exactly onto the right sized paper with a laserprinter without cutting?

  Any advice is greatly appreciated.

  Cheers
  Chris

  John Beale replied 20 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Chris Borjis

  October 26, 2005 at 4:19 pm

  any of the rimage products will do you well.

  You might look at getting an older model used on ebay.

  You could save thousands of dollars that way.

  One of my DVD duplicator/printers cost about 5 thousand new
  and I got it used for 1,500 last year and it was only 2 years old.

  I would also recommend you get one with a minimum 100 Disc capacity.

  Don’t worry about one part breaking and being useless like a combo vcr.
  It’s not really the case, because the printer can be removed and sent
  in for service. One of my printers had to go in finally after I’d printed about 40,000 CD’s and the company was surprised because they normally
  need the overhaul at 30,000.
• 

  John Beale

  October 28, 2005 at 6:16 am

  Commercial DVD case cover art is printed on coated paper using an offset press. This is normally economical only for very large runs, due to setup charges. I have experimented with coated paper in laserprinters, with poor results. You can get very nice paper for color laserprinters, but it costs quite a bit, as much as $0.50 to $1.00 per page depending on quantity.

  You can buy die-cut paper for many things, and I’d assume there is an A4 size sheet with the cuts pre-scored so you can get the correct size for the DVD cover insert without using the paper cutter. Such sheets are often more expensive than you’d like to pay, though.

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