In This Issue:

• A Few Words from the President: "DVD vs. Paper "
• DVD CD Knowledge Center "The difference between CD Duplication and CD Replication"
• Specials: "Pioneer DVR-S201 External SCSI DVD Recorder $3,695.00"
• Question & Answer Forum
• Can I un-write-protect a CD?
• Can CD Duplicators record music?
• Can you burn MP3 files to a CD?
• Can I mix music and give it to my friends?
• Can I store images on a CD

A Few Words from the President: "DVD vs. Paper"

Space in business is always a premium. And a solid business strategy is ensuring the maximum amount of space is used to generate revenue. Minimizing dead space should be a key tool in the belt of any businessperson. Archiving records is a necessary beast that can be costly in many respects not including the amount of dead space that it will create. The old way of doing things was to place everything on paper and then store that paper in valuable costly space. A mid size company may create several thousands sheets of paper which require a room the size of a small office to store (wasted space and rather unsecured… Fire!)

Think of the cost of storing on paper and the risks that are taken. First off the equipment that must be maintained to store on to paper - a decent printer that is capable of keeping up with the demand. The cost of print quality paper is high. The cost of the space to store is high. Plus the untold cost of labor of managing the paper is high. Imagine how difficult it is to search back through old records looking for a given sheet of paper.

A single DVD can hold approximately 111,452 pages (depending on the graphics) or 222 reams (500 sheets per ream) of paper. All the documents can easily be searched. The space to store this can be placed in your pocket. It can easily be backed up and stored off site and placed in a safe. Anything can be stored - images, contracts, Pos, invoices, database files, worksheets, etc. It is a permanent record that cannot be changed or manipulated. Hand written documents can be scanned (and even indexed to be searched for later) using OCR software or simple image software that would store them as JPGs or GIFs. The cost of the paper will be more than the cost of a DVD recorder. It is a cost savings on three fronts: the spaced saved can be converted into revenue producing centers. The cost of the equipment is less than the cost of the paper. The cost of labour will be significantly reduced since the time to search out old documents will be minimized. The cost of losing valuable information can be insured against by keeping multiple copies on and off site.

Clearly a DVD recorder is the way to go. It is time to do the math and make the switch to a more reliable, convenient, cost effective method.

See our selection of DVD Recorders:

DVD CD Knowledge Center "The difference between CD Duplication and CD Replication"

Let's start with CD Replication. This involves making a die that molds all the 'pits' that represent 1's and 0's of a digital stream. The die is used to 'stamp out' a polycarbonate disk (i.e it looks like clear plastic). This disk contains all the information that is on either an audio CD or a data CD Rom. A silver reflective coating is then applied to the disk then a protective coating and finally a printed label which in this process is usually silk-screened onto the disk. That is how the audio disks you buy in a music store are made. They are read by CD players (as well as DVD players and CD Roms) by bouncing a laser beam off the pits (for 1's) no pits (for 0's). Thus a stream of data comes from the CD. This is translated by the circuitry of the device that is reading it and eventually ends up as music etc from speakers.

In the case of a recorded CD the process is somewhat different. A blank polycarbonate disk has a cyanine or phthalocyanine dye sprayed on it. This is covered with a reflective coating (that is either silver or gold) then a protective coating. This blank "recordable" CD is then ready to be 'burned'. It is these blanks that are put into a CD Recorder which has a laser capable of burning the pits into the dye. Once done then these disks can be played in regular audio CD players etc.

However recordable CDs only have about 70% of the reflectivity of stamped CDs. This is why they will not work in really old CD players and earlier DVD players. We have found that good quality CDR media will play in the majority of DVD players made in the last couple of years. The key is good quality. Now there are some that are called silver/silver CDR disks about and it is hard to tell the difference between those and stamped CDs. They use a special technique to make the disk look silver. However there is still a loss of reflectivity on this kind of disk.

Specials: "Pioneer DVR-S201 External SCSI DVD Recorder $3,695.00"

Pioneer's DVR-S201 DVD Recordable drive offers up to 4.7GB of data storage. Whatever your data storage requirements are; video, imaging, graphics
the DVR-S201 is an affordable way to record 4.7GB discs compatible with DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players. Non-rewritable feature for storing and distributing critical data, which should not be overwritten. $3695.00

Question & Answer Forum:

Q. If I buy a recorded CD, how do I change it so it won't be write-protected (like sliding the black tab down on the back of a floppy disk) and I can delete the information and record new information on it?

A. First, you need to understand that a CD-R is a 'write-once' device. It cannot be re-written - though under certain conditions (multi-session, for example) you can ADD to what has been previously recorded. So you cannot record onto a commercially recorded CD. There is no write protection in the form of a "tab" on commercial media. There is CD-RW media which is an erasable kind of CD-R that can be re-written.

Send any questions about the CD recording industry and its products to questions@octave.com and we'll try to answer them here.

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