February 4th, 2006

I’ve been involved in the duplication industry for quite some time now, 5 years this month to be exact. When a client needs to have CDs or DVDs duplicated for a small run, the biggest consideration today is if you should hire another company or do it yourself. Let’s examine the pros and cons of these two options, and hopefully the conclusions derived will help you when deciding how to handle your next CD or DVD duplication project.

Back when I started in the business in 2001, the equipment needed for duplication was quite expensive, unless you wanted paper labels or simple labeling via nothing more than a sharpie. If you wanted direct-disc printing of a decent quality resolution, the options were extremely limited. Outsourcing the project to a duplication house was pretty much the only choice unless a client wanted to invest thousands in a duplication system that included on-disc printing, and even then the dpi was under 300. This was fine for simple text or some logos, but if a client wanted photo-realistic coverage it just wasn’t available in a do-it-yourself machine.

These days, the cost of printing on disc at very high resolutions has dropped tremendously, just like anything electronic tends to do over time. CD and DVD duplicators now include fully robotic controls with multiple drives, and printing that rivals or in some cases surpasses that of traditional silkscreen printing (normally used on large volumes orders known as replication where the disc quantity exceeds 1000). The prices for these very impressive machines range from $500-$5000, so it’s important to identify exactly what your requirements are before making a purchase.

With the cost of automated, all-in-one CD and DVD duplicator printers being so low these days, why would anyone outsource their project?

The answer isn’t quite that simple, and depends on your exact business needs. Considerations include:

• Do you have the personnel necessary to operate the duplication equipment, or will you do it yourself if this employee has a day off and you need your discs duplicated?
• If the duplication equipment should fail, how will you still meet your deadlines? Repairs take a few weeks if not more in most cases and bring your operation to a screeching halt.
• Will the lower print resolutions and quality offered with duplicators and printers suffice for your job? If you’re looking for the absolute highest quality and consistency, outsourcing to CD and DVD duplication companies is your best bet due to the advanced equipment most facilities complete jobs with.
• Duplicating and printing your disc is only half the battle. How will packaging for the CD and DVD be handled as far as printing, assembly, insertion, and shrinkwrap? The equipment used for creating packaging is extremely expensive and complicated. Let the pros handle this for you.
• What about fulfillment? Most duplication companies also offer mail services for your completed project, leaving you to focus on your business and not delivery issues.

These are just a few of the things to take into consideration when trying to possibly save a few bucks and buy your own duplication system to complete your project. While there are circumstances when doing it yourself makes sense, for the most part CD or DVD duplication isn’t one of them when printing AND packaging is involved.