Dvd duplication machines

[FCPguy]

I have talked to some of you about how I work at a small video company sometimes (and love it!) and we have run into the "problem" of old customers coming back and ordering 23- 50 copies of their wedding or graduation or whatnot. And we just don't have the burners to do that. I have seen dvd duplication machines with 3 or 4 dvd burners built in for anywhere from 500- 2000 dollars.
(1) Does anyone know anything about them? A good brand?
(2) Do they plug from the computer to the burner? do you put the finished product into the top tray then it dups?
(3) (Sometimes we put copy protection on the disks to prevent copying, could I put this finished disk into the top and copy? or would I have to copy from the computer to the 3 burners (or 4)?

Thanks to anyone with experience in this aspect Peace

[WiseWeasel]

I'm pretty sure you can't duplicate DVDs with copy protection (CSS encryption). How did you guys master the copy-protected DVDs in the first place? Are you referring to Macrovision protection? If so, that shouldn't be a problem for duplicators. Else, you might have to use ripping software, such as MacTheRipper, then burn it to DVD-R, and then use that as a master for duplication (which will also be unprotected), but I'm not positive. If you want copy protected duplicates (with CSS encryption), you need a commercial DVD press, and those are only economical in very large runs of at least tens of thousands of discs (or outsource to a commercial duplicator for you, which might not be economical in small runs like that). There are some standalone DVD duplicators (for DVD+/-R(W) media) that don't require a connection to a computer at all, like these:
http://www.esbuy.com/8xdvddu.html
http://www.esbuy.com/4xpidvdu.html
http://www.esbuy.com/4xpidvdu1.html
If you're looking for something more professional, take a look at this:
http://www.machinerunner.com/Standalone-Autoloading-Duplicator-Systems/Condre-Stylus-S...on-System.html

[FCPguy]

Can anyone help?
Ok, I just called the guys from the link above, what I need to do is make copies of (weddings, grad, ect ((which we do macrovision protect)) and make duplications of it (either via firewire to burners, or by burning the original and making copies of that)).
They said that they have no way of doing this, that the burners can only burn un protected content. (I figured there'd be a way to firewire my apple to the chain and have them all burn at once (since it all works off of the internal hd in the tower for duplication).
Does anyone do this type of duplication? I can't imagine that when people buy 20 or 30 copies of their dvd that they aren't copy protected. (Not that it matters to people like us - but that's a service we sell!
If anyone has any advice please help - Thanks

[WiseWeasel]

That's strange. Did you tell them they were only protected by Macrovision, and not CSS? I'm pretty sure you can just duplicate Macrovision-protected DVDs, and they will be perfect duplicates of the original, with Macrovision intact. Macrovision doesn't prevent digital duplication, but merely analog recording, like VHS recording, causing wavy lines. Duplication shouldn't be a problem at all. Maybe they thought you were talking about CSS encryption, which does prevent digital duplication without first cracking the encryption. I'm pretty certain those standalone duplicators will work just fine with Macrovision-protected DVDs. You might call again, and make sure you get that clear, that these are not CSS-protected DVDs you're trying to duplicate, but are on DVD-R media, and are only protected by Macrovision.

[tgpo]

We ahve two different types of duplicators at work. I don't have the exact name here, but I'll post the info tomarrow when I'm at work. For now though I'll post pictures of about what they look like.

The main one we use looks about like this, except ours has a printer on top.


It burns 4 disks at once and prints them as well. It's very fast and great at what it does.

We also have a smaller one that looks about like this


The one we have tends to be very slow, esp on short disks, while writing the lead out.


Again remember that the pictures are not of our exact ones, but resemble what we have. I'll post the real product names and more info tomarrow.

[FCPguy]

Much thanks you guys,
I did mention that they wouldn't have the CSS encryption, but we protected them with Macrovision. The sales guy called his boss (who he said programmed the machines) and got back to me saying "Boy it's a good thing you had me check, they don't copy anything with copy protection- but then told me that they would work fine if I wanted to backup playstation 2 games!) (Don't they have encryption of some sort?) Anyways, I was disappointed-but figured I'd have to find something else. (like if I hook it up to my firewire and put the info on the internal HD? why couldn't they copy w/ macrovision? is it part of macrovision? (I can do that computer to computer, it's funny he said I couldn't do that ) - Thanks again for helping me out! Peace

[WiseWeasel]

The Macrovision limitation sounds fishy to me. Macrovision is embedded in the NAV packs of the MPEG2 video stream, and shouldn't prevent duplication from working. I'd be willing to bet money that they would in fact work with Macro-protected DVDs, and the duplicates would also have the Macrovision intact. It's embedded in the data stream, and data is data, and should all be copied just fine by the duplicator. I can't help but believe the guy you spoke with is confused about the kind of protection you were talking about, or about what Macrovision is. If tgpo or someone with access to a duplicator could try this out, we could put the issue to rest. Regardless, it's always possible to remove the Macrovision using ripping software, and then use that as a master for duplication, if the Macro-protected ones don't work (which I'm pretty certain they will). I'd say to go for a duplicator, and worry about it afterwards.
As for PS2 games, it's true they are unprotected, and even Toast in Copy mode works fine. The PS2 would need to have a MOD chip to play them, though.