Automated vs. Manual Duplicators

The first thing you should consider is the volume of the duplication jobs that you will be doing and, of course, your budget allowance. Manual duplicators require that you place the media in the burner drives and remove them manually after each burn. If you don't produce a lot of copies, or if you have the time to spend on exchanging the media, a manual duplicator will be adequate. An automated duplicator allows you to put in a stack of media, start the job, and go about your other business while the duplicator takes care of making the copies unattended. Automated duplicators are more expensive, so they are usually justified only if you do larger duplication jobs. Some automated duplicators will also print on the media surfaces, and they are referred to as "publishing stations." They are the ultimate in automation.

Number of Target Drives

If you decide on a manual duplicator, you have to decide on how many target drives you need. For example, if you are copying a CD with approximately 500 MB of data, a 7-target or 9-target duplicator will produce over 100 copies per hour. On the other hand, if you are doing small runs of 20 pieces or so, you might want to look at a 3-target or 5-target machine. Just remember that you can burn up to the number of burners that the unit has. In other words, with a 7-target duplicator, you can burn anywhere from 1 to 7 copies at a time.

Hard Drive or No Hard Drive

While you don't need a hard drive in the unit, you might want to consider adding one. Here are some advantages of using a hard drive:

• Safe storage of the master. You burn the master to the hard drive, and then you use the image on the hard drive to burn the copies.
• The duplicator will run faster and more efficiently, especially if you are making many copies. Without a hard drive, with each burn the duplicator has to read the master before burning the copies. With a hard drive, the image on the hard drive is used instead, which is much faster than re-reading the master.
• Using a hard drive will reduce the number of read errors, which you sometimes get when reading the master.
• Using a hard drive will reduce the number of write failures, resulting in fewer bad burns and less scrap.

Controller Pros and Cons

The controller is the heart of the duplicator. It reads from the master and sends data to the burners. Our competitors use what is known as a “house brand” controller. When you order from them you are in a marriage with them. If you ever need a firmware update you will have to go directly to them! We use only top name brand controllers, and the updates are readily available on the Internet.

A cheap controller usually results in high failure rates or incompatibility with various media. In fact, some proprietary brand controllers will work only with the manufacturer's media.

Athena controllers have a couple of options that Acard controllers don’t offer:

• They have the ability to partition the hard drive to the “next GB size.” This means that if you have a disc in DVD format at 2.7GB, it will partition the drive to 3GB. This saves 2GB from the 5GB that Acard will use as a partition.
• They also have the ability to mix and match compatible burners. If you are using (for example) a Pioneer 115 burner in your system, then the Athena controller gives you the ability to replace one with a different (e.g. a newer Pioneer 116) burner. Acard systems need to have all identical burners.

We use Acard controllers in all of our manual duplicators, with the Athena as an upgrade. They are very good, top name brand, and dependable controllers. They partition a hard drive in 5 GB partitions for DVDs, and 1 GB partitions for CDs. Our Acard controllers write to SATA burners and hard drives, which increases speed, reliability, and life expectancy. We have used Acard controllers since our beginning, and we have the utmost confidence in their ability to perform!

CD/DVD Writers

We use Pioneer SATA DVD burners in all of our manual duplicators, to assure that they perform consistently. If you can find a comparable duplicator at a lower cost, most likely the system uses lower-quality burners, which can result in higher failure rates. The only brand rated higher than Pioneer is Plextor. While Plextor burners are more expensive, they ensure compatibility with the most media and the lowest failure rates.