Blu-ray Dimensions

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.

TDK 25GB BD-RE Blank Disc in Jewelcase

Blu-ray Disc Rewritable recordable discs make it possible to back up large data directories, record HD video, and store large amounts of data, music and video all on one disc. Like other recordable discs BD-RE uses phase change recording technology to make it possible to erase and write again.  A special phase change metal alloy can be switched back and forth between a crystalline phase and an amorphous phase, changing the reflectivity, depending on the power of the laser beam.  Data can thus be written, erased and re-written.  Some companies claim on upwards of 10,000 rewrites per disc with little degradation. Rewritable recordable  Blu-ray discs use the same 405nm blue laser that write once read many (WORM) recordable Blu-ray discs use. Data capacity for BD-RE is currently 25GB or 50GB.

Currently TDK and MAM-A are the only manufacturers of rewritable Blu-ray discs.  TDK is much more common and the leader in production (currently).

There are several other manufacturers of BD media including Ritek and FTI.   TDK  does OEM work so there are many “brands” out there.  Rewritable Blu-ray discs are specialized and cost more then standard recordable Blu-ray disc media.  BD-RE discs provide far greater rewritability then CD-RW and DVD+RW that top out at one hundred rewrites.

Blu-ray rewritable recordable discs offer large capacity storage for data backups and HD recording and rewriting.