DVD Replication & Glass Mastering

[James Darren]

Hi all,

I'm possibly doing a DVD production for release with a magazine late this year. I'm expecting to do about 1000 copies so replication seems the way to go. I've been thinking of using this company- http://www.diskmax.com.au/index.cfm?pageid=pg118687769edoras

Can anyone explain glass mastering & what it is & whats so important about it? Also can they copy protect the DVD's when they do this? Is there anything else I need to know regarding DVD replication?

Also can they replicate from my original DVD I produce which i'll be outputting using Canopus Procoder?

Any help & advice will be appreciated!

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

Essentially, glass mastering is a process where the DVD data is physically etched onto a piece of glass, which is then used to stamp out copy after copy of the DVD.

There is a charge associated with creating the glass master itself, but after that, production costs and speed per disc are much much lower than buring individual copies. Since the DVDs are stamped out, the whole DVD is duplicated in the fraction of a second it takes for the impression to be made by the stamping press. :)

Yes, glass mastered DVDs can be copy protected.
You will typically need to encode the copy protection into your master.

Many shops still require masters for glass replication to be authored to DLT cassette. More and more are beginning to accept a burned DVD as a master, but I'm not sure if copy protection is supported this way. Since this is different from shop to shop, you'll need to talk to your rep about the details.

Hope this helps.
Have fun.

[James Darren]

very informative..thanks.

now if I make a DVD master copy which i'm happy with the image quality of it & it plays in most DVD players, will the replications keep the exact same quality?

The reason I ask this is because I know when I do DVD copies on my PC (and i'm not talking about hollywood movies here, even my own 15 min long DVD movies) it loses quality. Althogh i understand i'm burning, not replicating & I assume my PC software plays a part in this.

[Eric James]

Hey James,

I would suggest using New Leaf Media. I've done 14,000 disks or so with them over the last year and the quality is second to none.

http://www.newleafmedia.us/

As far as the DVD's keeping quality: It's simply a digital transfer, it's data being copied. There is no loss of anything in the process. When you burn the master DVD-r off of your computer and watch it, that is exactly what all the DVD's will look like.

My 2 c,
Eric James

[James Darren]

some more questions....

whats a DLT, how much are they? How are they made?

also whats the difference between DVD-5, DVD-9, etc?

thanks...

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

DLT = Digital Linear Tape
These are large tape cartrigages traditionally used for backups of large servers. Back when DVD production was first emerging, this was the only practical, portable digital media for handling the MASSIVE (4 gig ;) ) amount of data needed to author a DVD. As a result, DVD production equipment was standardized on this as source media.

Only recently have production houses begun accepting anything other than DLT sources for stamping out new DVDs

DVD-5 = single layer DVD (4.7 gig ~ 5gig)
DVD-9 = dual layer DVD (4.7+4.7 = 9.4 ~ 9Gig)

Today's computer servers store TERABYTES of data and modern DLT drives and tapes are designed to have the speed and capacity for this volume of data.
Only a few gigs are really needed for a DVD, though, so older model DLT drives (DLT 4000) are just fine.
When they were new, DLT drives like this would cost upwards of $1000. Now, you can usually get a drive from eBay under $200. Since these things were designed to be failsafe backups for major IT installations, the drives (even used ones) are generally VERY reliable.
New tapes sell for $10-$25.
You'll also need a compatable SCSI card and cable. (same number of pins as the drive you buy)

Finally, you'll need software capable of authoring to DLT. Apple DVD Studio Pro, Ulead DVD Workshop, Adobe Encore, Sonic Scenarist etc. I don't think the current version of Sony's DVD Architect supports DLT authoring. Anyone "in the know" have info regarding this for the upcoming release?

To make a DLT master, you just connect the tape drive (current versions of windows and Mac OS should automatically recognize the drive), insert a tape and open up your software's DLT mastering feature. The software will then author the project to the tape (overwritting any pre-existing data in the process).

In regards to duplication quality, a true digital copy of a DVD will not alter quality at all. If your DVD copying software is re-encoding the DVD, though (to fit a two hour DVD-9 program onto a smaller 4.7Gig recordable disc for example) you will see a loss in quality as a result of the additional compression.
DVDs that are mass produced from a DLT are digital copies of the master and have zero quality loss from copy-to-copy.

[James Darren]

thanks for the help everyone...

no doubt i'll have more questions over the coming months once i finish collecting all my footage & need to edit & output it to DVD so when i'm ready i'll ask more quesions again!

[Peter Jefferson]

"Finally, you'll need software capable of authoring to DLT. Apple DVD Studio Pro, Ulead DVD Workshop, Adobe Encore, Sonic Scenarist etc. I don't think the current version of Sony's DVD Architect supports DLT authoring. Anyone "in the know" have info regarding this for the upcoming release? "

without going into detail, i can safely say that if ur in the market for a pro end (i mean PRO, not prosumer) dvd authoring app, dvda3 will be the way to go..
You can forget Maestro....no, im serious, when u see what DVDA3 will be offering, Maestro will be obsolete.. especially at its current asking price, i see no reason for anyone to purchase it once dvda3 is released...

[Nick Jushchyshyn]

So DVDa3 will be supporting DLT then? Cool.

Any idea if it will be offered as a seperate package instead of bundled with Vegas?

[Wendy Rubin]

Hi
My company, joe's production & grille, inc., has been brokering replication since 1992. To answer a few of the questions:

You can use either a DLT or a DVD as a master. The trick is that you will get back exactly what you gave, so MAKE SURE that your DVD is perfect. Test it on a variety of computers, dvd players etc. If it cross-platform test it extensively on both pc and mac. Some vendors will include 10 test copies for you to make sure that you are happy with the discs. If you then decide that your dvds are not right, there is an additional fee for the new master. Make sure you test, test, test.

As to the glass master- while it is true that the glass masters are an additional cost for the vendor, usually the price is not passed on to the client. Yes, reorders are cheaper, but that is a "thank you" as opposed to a real price difference, as my price is the same at 1000 units whether you run 1000 units of the same master 1x/year or 1x/month. The discounts come from doing higher quantities at one time. For example running 5000 DVDs at once as opposed to 5x1000 DVDs.

Copy Protection- you can get copy protection on any DVD project regardless of the master, but I personally don't think it is worth the money. It's somewhere around $.20-$.45/disc additional and its really not going to stop anyone from cracking your DVD if they really want to.

Feel free to email me any questions. Best of Luck.

Wendy
joe@joesgrille.com