Blu-ray Dimensions

When considering a blu-ray publisher or Blu-ray duplicator MF Digital is a manufacturer who has built CD,  DVD and blu-ray duplication equipment for some time.  The entrance of Blu-ray duplicators,  copiers and publishers has placed a high demand on the existing systems and a rapid deployment of new SATA driven Bluray copiers and more increasingly Blueray duplicators and Blue-ray Printer Duplicator Publishers.  MF Digital has two automated Blu-ray duplicator lines: The Bluray Director series and the Bluray Scribe series.  Both the Director Blu-ray Publisher and the Scribe Blu-ray duplicator have been MF Digital’s heavy hitters for many years in the CD DVD arena,  providing trouble free operation and lights out production.

The MF Digital Bluray Scribe PC Blu-ray duplicator & publisher provides standalone operation using it’s built in PC to run the Blu-ray duplication and printing.  The Scribe can be configured with several different print technologies including Inkjet printing with the MF Digital PicoJet, thermal printing with the Rimage Prism or dye-sublimation printing with the Teac P-55 disc printer.  Blu-ray recordable technology  meets advanced storage needs from high definition broadcast and video content to large data storage needs.

MF Digital’s Bluray Director disc Publisher series is designed for unique Blu-ray disc on-demand applications.  Publishing 4 copies of one video and 2 of another with unique labeling for each disc is an easy task for the Director.  Offered in 2 drive and 4 drive models in the 300 disc  Blu-ray drive configuration it is  also available as a CD and DVD duplicator with 300 disc capacity also.  The Bluray Director  is capable of publishing to all three types of media so the Bluray Director  is a perfect solution for changing between high definition and standard definition video streams.   Completely network accessible the Bluray Director  allows network users to create unique one off discs or 100’s simultaneously. As with the Scribe blu-ray duplicator the Director can be configured with several different label print technologies including fast printing thermal printing with the Rimage Prism ,  photo realistic  image quality dye-sublimation printing with the Teac P-55 disc printer or economical full color printing,  Inkjet printing with the MF Digital PicoJet.

Blu-ray duplicator auto-loaders provide a means of recording a large number of recordable Blu-ray discs unattended.  In most cases the disc duplicator has the ability to reject discs if they fail to record.  One or two systems do not have a means of dealing with rejects and they just stop working.  Some have a buzzer to alert you.

MF Digital Director 2602 PRO 2 Drive Blu-ray Duplicator Publisher

There are two classes of duplication equipment.  Blu-ray duplicator autoloaders are systems that run in a duplication “burning” mode.  They do not have the ability to print on the disc.  This is not necessarily a disadvantage.  It depends on the amount being reproduced.  Using a separate printer autoloader is a good bet for efficiency.  Duplicators and printers run a different speeds and in a larger job this costs time.  Auto loader duplicators employ robotics to move discs around from the input spindle to the recorder tray and then removing it to place it in the output bin or printer tray if so equipped.

The second type of Blu-ray auto-loader is the printer equipped model called a “disc publisher” or just plan “publisher”.  The disc printer is integrated, or “attached” to the duplicator autoloader to keep it calibrated so when the robotics drops a disc into the printer it goes in right or not on the floor. This also goes for the unloading process.  There is nothing worse then dropping expensive recordable Blu-ray discs on the floor. The Blu-ray duplicator publisher provides a complete method of recording and printing CD, DVD and BD-R,  BD-RE

Blu-ray printers include:

Rimage Prism thermal Printer:The Prism Plus uses direct thermal printing to apply a resin/wax based coating down in various colors.  Multi-color printing is possible with the Prism but it has a dithered appearance that many people find unacceptable.  It does bold graphics well and text looks very sharp and crisp.  Much like silk screening.

MF Digital Picojet:The Picojet inkjet printer uses ink to apply a dye to the surface of the Blu-ray disc. Inkjet printing uses a special surface that has been applied to the surface of the printable BD-R which also gives It gives an excellent print quality with the one exception that it is not “waterproof”.  That is the ink will run on the disc after being exposed to moisture.

With the proper disc coating techniques we are sure to see the thermal retransfer and dye sublimation discs in a very short while.  This would then include the Rimage Everest III and Everest 600.  The Teac P-55 dye sublimation disc printer from Teac is also included in this category.  The P-55 can print in thermal retranfer mode and “photo” which uses dye sublimation.  Dye sublimation vaporizes the ink and directs the pixels in a very fine resolution.

So as you can see there are many things to consider when choosing a Blu-ray duplication system. In some of our upcoming posts we will discuss the different methods used to move the discs from point A to point B.