CD Replication vs. Duplication (1 Viewer)

[Agee Bassett]

I work for a small, non-profit organization that is looking to issue some of their publications on CD. The issue is whether to go for replication or duplication. The service they've been leaning towards only does duplication, but I've read that replicated CDs are much more reliable in that they are more likely to play in several different machines.

I've tried searching on the web for further information contrasting replicated vs. duplicated, but came up with little useful info. I'd appreciate any feedback or education our HTF faithful could give me regarding the difference between the two, or recommendations on individual companies.

 

[Bill Harada]

Essentially, replcation is the process of pressing CD using a mechanical master. This is the way commercial CD are produced is quantity. The fact that the pits are physically embedded into the material give it its readability/reliability.

Duplication would be burning CDs using CD-R blanks.

 

[Bill Harada]

Just to add, there are hundreds of facilities in the US that do replication/duplication. My company uses a local firm (bay area CA) that does a lot of media production for local software/hardware companies (Adobe, IBM, 3Com, etc...). We pay ~$1.25 per replicated CD in a 1000 CD order (their minimum order quantity). The per unit cost drops considerably when the quantity starts going above 2500.