How Would You Like Your Video CD Done? Burned or Stamped? by Adrian Lee

How Would You Like Your Video CD Done? Burned or Stamped?
by: Adrian Lee

The real question is... Do you know the difference between the video CDs that you burn yourself with your PC and the video CDs that you buy from video shops?

The answer is... a world of difference!

In this article, I will attempt to answer in layman terms so that non-technical people might understand.

First, they are manufactured differently. One is BURNED and the other is STAMPED.

CD Burning is also known as CD Writing. This is what you do on your PC if you have a CD writer. You use blank medias called the CDR where R stands for Recordable. The process of burning or writing takes a few minutes as the video data is burned onto the CD track by track. Your PC can only burn one CD at a time. If you need to make more copies of the same CD quickly, you will need to use a CD Duplicator. A CD Duplicator machine is about the size of a desktop PC or bigger and can burn seven or more CDs at a time in a few minutes. CD Duplication is suitable for creation of small quantities of two to 500 CDs.

CD Stamping is also known as CD Pressing. These are the Video CDs you purchase from the video shops. If you turn them around you will notice they do not look the same as the CDs you burn yourself. Stamped CDs have no noticeable tracks. They do not use the same blank CDR media. Your blank CDR media cannot be used for stamping. The process of CD stamping or pressing takes less than one second for each CD as the video data is actually stamped, physically pressed, all at once onto the CD, not track by track. You cannot use your PC's CD Writer nor a CD Duplicator to stamp CDs. You need a CD Replicator. The CD replicating machine is about the size of three wardrobes, costs six figures and can replicate thousands of CDs in a few minutes. CD Replication is only suitable for creation of larger quantities of more than 1000 CDs and not economical for anything less.

Here are the definitions from Google Search:

What is CD Duplication: Creating CDs by 'writing' (burning) blank discs using a CD duplicator.

What is CD Replication: The process of 'pressing' or 'stamping' video, audio or data onto a CD from a master disc.

Adrian Lee http://www.videolane.com/?CD_DVD_Duplication

About The Author

Adrian Lee is a recognized authority on the subject of videography. His web site, http://videolane.com/, provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you'll ever need to know about Creating, Converting and Copying DVD, VCD and Other Video Formats.