One of the most common questions I get is, “What’s the difference between Duplication and Replication?”
DUPLICATION
A duplicated disc is one that just has the data “burned” onto it. This is the same method as what you do at home on your computer. You buy the blank CD-Rs or DVD-Rs at Target or Walmart or wherever you buy your media and you “burn” the discs. A duplicated disc will have a blue dye or green dye or some even have a silver dye to resemble a replicated disc. More often then not you will be able to see the burn mark (the outer most point to where your data is on the media) on the recordable side.
You may experience compatability issues with a duplicated disc as they will not play in all players. This is caused by the media, the se top you are using to play the disc or a combination of the two. The drives on an older CD/DVD player may not be able to read a a newer model discs unless a firmware update has occured.
Duplicated discs are best for “short runs” (orders of 300 or less) and are most commonly printed through a thrermal transfer, inkjet or even label stickers applied.
REPLICATION
A disc that is replicated is one that has been manufactured at a plant. The process for creating a replicated disc is quite simple nowadays. A
master CD-R or DVD-R of your content is physically mailed into a plant and a “Glass Master” is generated from it. From the glass master a stamper is created a
nd the glass master is recycled. The stamper is what is placed in multi-million dollar injection molding equipment and discs are “pressed” from poly-carbonate. A replicated disc will perform 99.9% of the time.
While major studios and larger companies are always replicating media, the process has become readily available for consumers at around the 1,000 quantity (call for availability of lower quantities). Once the disc is pressed it is most commonly silk screened or offset printed.
