DVDs In A Day – How The Downturn Has Helped The Bureau DVD Duplication Industry

In the good old days when marketing departments had plenty of human resources to devote to managing their run of promotional DVDs or CDs, there was usually plenty of time to plan and schedule the project to allow for DVD replication. Although this usually meant minimum run sizes dictated the quantity of discs ordered, the cost savings of a project being manufactured rather than duplicated meant budgets went further. Some irony that in the current climate of stretched marketing departments the last minute nature of these projects is often increasing costs.

Thankfully the DVD duplication industry has stepped up to the breech and is well placed to cope with the demands of high specification, low run and tight deadline CD or DVD duplication runs. Most duplicators of any size are now capable of turning around a few thousand discs during the course of a day with the latest generation of UV cured digital DVD printers. And with the growth in capabilities of digital paper printing it is possible to turn around high quality paper parts in 24 hours or less.

In addition a very important shift has happened in consumers of optical media in that a recordable DVDR is now not seen as inferior to a replicated DVD. Although there is no denying that a DVDR is more fragile, the lifespan required for a typical DVD run means that by the time a DVDR becomes unplayable the data will likely be well past its use by date.The increase in compatibility between DVD players and modern DVDR media has meant that with professional printing a recipient of a DVDR may not even be aware that the disc they hold in their hand is not a replicated DVD.

The cost of blank media steadily fell up to around 2008 and this has meant that the point at which a DVD duplication run becomes the same as the cost of a minimum replicated run (usually the point where projects are re-planned) has risen from a couple of hundred to several hundreds..

When it comes to Blu-ray we are at a point in the lifecycle of this format where a Blu-ray duplication run of even over a thousand actually costs less than the minimum run of replicated Blu-ray discs. This is partly down to the high cost of the mandatory copy protection (but that’s a whole new article!).

The fast turnaround DVD duplication has meant too that suppliers need to be closer to their customers. Often there is no time to courier masters to a distant location and wait for discs to be freighted back. It’s “just in time” taken to extreme with master content preparation sometimes being completed an hour or two before delivery of the final product. A DVD replication plant’s advantageous location in a distant corner of Europe (with cheap labour) does not fit this last minute DVD duplication model and it is vital for these fast turnaround suppliers to be in close proximity to their customers .

Packaging is another area of development that has helped this change. Digital printers are now able to offer low volume runs of paper parts and even card wallets and other board packaging in short lead times. Finishing (the process of cutting, gluing and folding) will always be the limiting factor especially with card wallets and boxes but paper parts for plastic DVD and CD cases can now me run off in a few hours at a print quality approaching that of offset.

DVD duplication has come of age, and although there are still cost implications with going down the recordable route, it’s a comforting thought for the marketing department under pressure that it is still possible to turn around rush disc production in time – Discs in a Day can really save your bacon.