FAQ: Media Technology

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

You might find the answer to the question you didn't know you needed to ask. If these don't provide the information you need, then please contact us.

Do you have any packaging samples?

We sure do. To see our range contact us to arrange to come visit us or have someone visit you with samples. Also check out our Packaging Ideas.

Can you produce the CD label, booklet film and proof for us?

Yes, absolutely! All we require are your digital art files with laser proofs. Include details of all PMS colours used and any relevant information.

How many colours can you print onto the CD top surface?

We can print up to 5 individual colours. 4 colour process (white base + CMYK) should only be used for continuos tone colour (photographic) prints and not solid colours. CMYK does not achieve high quality solids. Far superior results can be obtained using PMS colours for areas of solid colour. Be aware that in most situations, in order to hold colour, we will need to print a white base first.

Can we see some examples of you artwork and packaging design?

Sure...take a look at our Packaging Ideas or contact us and come in for a visit where we can show you 100s of samples and discuss your project.

How can our designer submit artwork to you?

We accept files from your designer via CD, FTP, or email. The software formats we prefer are Macromedia Freehand, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, Quark. To assist your designers we have downloadable artwork templates available in our Downloads section.

What is finished print film (or final film)?

Print film is used to transfer individual colour printing information to printing plates or screens. It is a clear polymer film coated with emulsion that has been exposed to light to create a negative or positive representation of where the particular colour is printed. Each piece of film has registration marks to ensure each colour is laid down in an accurate relationship to each other.

What are finished print film separations?

When full color printing is done, the colors are able to be divided into 4 colors. This is called color separation. (Process colors: Cyan, Yellow, Black, and Magenta.) The combination of these four colors when printing occurs will result in a full-color, photo type of printing, like what you see in a magazine picture. A graphic artist must do the color separations and output 4 pieces of film, one for each process color. The resulting film is used for printing your covers and tray cards. You may also hear the terms "composite film", "film seps", "color seps", or other similar names. Note that one color printing only requires one piece of film, and "Black and White" is actually a one color process only using the color black. However, when dealing with the CD label, black and white count as 2 colors, since the CD surface is silver and we need to lay down a solid white first.

What if I do not know how to get finished film?

No problem. Just supply us your completed design, matching our artwork specifications and we will do it for you. We output the film after sending you a color proof for approval.

Do you do graphic design?

Yes. We have graphic designers who will design your project from scratch or from your supplied artwork and text.

Can we use the CDs silver reflective surface in the artwork design?

Yes. We have created some sensational designs by leaving a window in the coloured printing, using duotones, matt finishing and overprinting to create a surface texture.

Does it matter if our design covers the center or the edge of the CD?

Yes it does. We use silk screen printing as the process for printing on to our CDs. If any of the design (no matter how small) covers the stacking ring or the edge of the CD, ink will build up in those areas and will very quickly upset your production process, and possibly tear the screen.

How can I colour match my CD to my paper parts?

Rarely do two different print processes produce identical results and exact matches can be difficult. Offset printing of paper parts offers a wider range of colours over screen printing of CDs, whereas screen printing offers superior intensity of colour. Therefore matching the output of these processes requires designers to understand the constraints of each process and skilled printing technicians to create the results. We have these people and we are happy to help you.

Are the screens like plates from an offset printing press?

Not quite, but similar. CD label artwork is printed using a screen printing process. We prepare new screens each time the job is produced. Whereas, plates for printing your paper parts can be re-used for a couple of years after initial production.

Do you actually make CDs from scratch?

Yes. We have our own in-house replication plant.

How long does it take to duplicate a CD?

Duplication time depends on the amount of content and the writing speed used. A full (73minute/640MB) CD will take about 8-9 minutes on our 12x writers whereas 1x writers will take the full 73 minutes.

What is the difference between CD duplication and CD replication?

Fundamentally there are two different processes for recording and storing digital information, fortunately both can be read and interpreted by the same readers. CD replication is a physical plastic molding process, which results in a spiral track of microscopic pits and bumps. This is then backed by a reflective aluminum layer. CD replication requires millions of dollars worth of equipment, a specialized dust free environment and highly trained technicians. Because of the initial set up cost this method is best suited to runs of 500 or more.

CD duplication is the process that uses pre-molded CDs which have a laser sensitive organic dye layer embedded under the reflective layer. When it is recorded the laser "burns" the vegetable dye so that some parts reflect light and some parts absorb the incoming light. We only use professional grade CDs for our duplication.

What is the difference between a pressed CD and recordable CD?

Pressed CDs are manufactured in the CD replication process from raw polycarbonate plastic in our CD pressing plant. The process involves production of a metal stamper from your CD master, from this metal stamper we press the CDs. Recordable CDRs on the other hand are a pre-manufactured disc to which we duplicate your CD.

Our replication project is behind schedule, how can we reduce initial supply lead times?

Initial time pressures can be de-fused by using our duplication service to duplicate the first minimum number of CDs. Then complete the volume supply in the normal manner of replication without compromise to quality or impact to your customers.

What is a Master?

The diskette, CD or DVD that contains the original electronic data for your project. Every single replica made will be directly affected by the quality of your master.

Why does my CDR master need to be tested, the CD works fine in my machine?

The two mains reasons are interchangeability and lastability. Interchangeability simply refers to the CD being able to be read in any disc drive. Lastability is the life of the CDR master. How long it can physically be read. A good quality CDR master that has been stored and handled with care has a lifetime of many years. But one that has failed the analyzer test with severe errors like E22, E32, UNCR and Burst errors may be able to be read initially but after a short period of time may become unreadable after normal use. Another governing factor in interchangeability and lastability is conforming to disc standards, such as CDROM - yellow book or CDDA - red book. There are also complex error correction capabilities present in every CD. Not all Disc drives are able to fully utilize all these functions and capabilities. This also causes discs containing large errors to be readable in some drives and not others. Proper testing confirms both lastability and interchangeability to identify high quality discs which degrade gracefully after surface defects are created through normal handling.

What does it mean when a master fails?

It may play on your player at home but we have to replicate it so it plays on everyones player. We test it on a CD Analyser to ensure that all the data can be read. If it fails our Quality Assessment tests it is possible that it may not be able to be read on all players. Everyone can read their own handwriting (most of the time!), however unless you are an exceptional individual it is unlikely that everyone else will be able to read it. Similarly, with writing and reading CDRs. Often CDRs burnt in basic desktop PC drives are unreadable by other machines. We test the readability of our CDRs and guarantee our work.

What kinds of CD does the CD analyzer test?

The CD Analyzer is capable of successfully analyzing CDROM, CDDA and CDI formats.

What are the causes of high error rates on a CD master?

There are several important factors that need to be taken into account before, during and after CDR mastering.

Keep the CD writing machine and burner in a clean environment. Dust and debris can mask the writing laser during writing and can cause permanent defects in the CD master.
Make sure the master is being generated from files located locally not from a local network, CDROM or other hard drives. It is always better to generat a CD from a single local location.
Burn the master at the slowest possible speed. CD writers are capable of writing at very fast speeds. Most CD writing software gives the user the option of burning at a slower speed. We suggest writing the CD at 2x or even 1x to be safe.
Make sure there are no open applications in the background while creating a CD master; say for example your email program. Its always best to just have your CD writing program open by itself.
It is very important to use high quality CDRs; some good examples are Kodak Gold, Verbatim Blue, and Mitsubishi Blue. Check to make sure that the CD that is to be used is free of dirt and fingerprints.

What is the postgap, and why is it needed?

The postgap is the 2 second gap after every data track. The postgap occupies 150 sectors on a CD ROM. A CDR disc that does not contain a postgap can still be read in most drives. There are several reasons why a postgap is used and required. On occasion it has been impossible to create a glass master from a CD that has a failed postgap. Many replicator machines expect a postgap at the end of every data track and may strip out data sectors if they do not find one. Another reason is that it serves to protect data being placed in areas of the disc that the drive may have difficulty seeking, such as the very edge of a CDROM on very full CDs or after the data track in a mixed mode CD where audio tracks follow.

How do I write a CD master without postgap errors?

Postgap errors can only be tested on specially written programs and CD analyzers. While writing a master, most CD writing software programs will add required postgap lengths where necessary. If your master fails, simply remaking another master may eliminate postgap errors.

What do all of the errors mean, E22, Burst UNCR etc?

CDs contain complex error correction capabilities. There are 3 levels of error correction. The errors that the CD analyzer tests for are: BLER, E11, E21, E31, E12, E22, E32, BURST and UNCR.

E11 - is the number of blocks out of 7350 per second of data that contain one erroneous byte at the first decoder.
E21 - is the number of blocks out of 7350 per second of data that contain two erroneous bytes at the first decoder.
E31 - is the number of blocks out of 7350 per second that contain three or more erroneous bytes at the first decoder.
E12 - is the number of blocks out of 7350 per second that contain one erroneous byte at the second decoder.
E22 - is the number of blocks out of 7350 per second that contain 2 erroneous bytes at the second decoder.
E32 - is the number of blocks out of 7350 per second that contain 3 or more erroneous bytes at the second decoder.
BURST - is the number of blocks in a row with 2 or more bad symbols at the first decoder.
UNCR - Uncorrectables are erroneous bytes that cannot be corrected by the first or second decoder.

What does multi-session mean?

A multi-session CD is a CD that has been written to more than once. The reason why this is not appropriate for CD masters is that many CD drives either only read one of the sessions, or they only read the last session.

What is an open CD?

An open CD is a CD that has not be closed by a CD burning program, and can be written to again. When you are creating a multi-session CD, you leave the CD open, to allow more data to be written at a later time. Some older CD drives cannot read open CDs.

What is glass mastering?

Glass mastering is the process of creating a metalized glass master from which a CD stamper is produced. (We use stampers in our injection moulding machines to press your CDs). The production of the glass master is done at a mastering facility. Your CD data is laser etched onto a special piece of glass. Each glass master takes several hours to produce.

What happens to my glass master after the job is done?

A stamper is created from the glass mastering process and is what we mould the CDs from. This stays with us ready for your re-run.

What is the maximum length you can have on a pressed Audio CD?

Generally 74 mins. However during the mastering process we can change the track pitch to minimum spec and squeeze another 6 -8 minutes on, however the trade off is that older, cheaper or poorly maintained CD players may not tolerate this pitch. There are some extra costs to achieve this.

Can you actually play/use the business card CDs?

Yes. Our shaped CDs can be played in any tray loading CD player by inserting it into the small (80mm) circle or onto the drive hub. Note: Shaped CDs are not designed for slot loading drives (e.g. not in your car stereo!).

Can you get my CDs to me on the required date?

Yes that is the business we are in! Our success comes from your success. You just have to do your part.

When is it safe to schedule our release party?

We urge you to not schedule any events based on your project until after you actually have possession of your final product. We are as excited about your project as you are and are anxiously anticipating its arrival, but even the best plans get laid to waste by reality. Any number of things can wreak havoc with a pre-determined schedule.

How do I best mail a CD?

This is a very good question, do it wrong and it will cost you time and money. The reason for this is that in their normal packaging, CDs do not run through the automatic sorting equipment at the post office. They get put into the slower manual sorting process. You can avoid these pitfalls by using packaging technology we created, our Post Approved Mailer. With our Post Approved Mailer, you will be able to keep both your postage cost and delivery time down to a minimum. If you have large or regular mailing volumes we can assign, print, pre-sort and lodge by postcode or the new DPID barcode systems. Get more information about CD Mailing.

How do you normally ship the finished product?

Usually by overnight courier. We generally use StarTrack in Australia, CourierPost in New Zealand, and DHL globally. These are not exclusive, just ones that work well for us. If your organisation wants to use another system, we also use post and express post if you prefer.

Media Technology

FAQ