EXCLUSIVES

Duplicate Multiple CD/DVDs
By Bill Troop

August 2004

Primera Technology's Bravo™ Disc Publisher is an automated, all-in-one disk duplicator and printer. It's one of the most popular solutions for those who need to publish multiple CDs and DVDs in tens and even hundreds of copies but who (1) don't need to go to an outside duplicator to burn in the thousands and (2) don't want to pay the steep prices small-scale outside duplicating services charge. It costs $1,995 (MSRP) for the CD-only model, with a 52x burner, and $2,495 (MSRP) for the CD/DVD model with 4x DVD/16x CD burning (with 8x doubtless to come soon). Street prices are substantially lower.

The Bravo holds up to 25 disks (50 disks in Kiosk Mode) at a time. A robotic arm moves a blank CD into the recorder, then moves it into the printer, and finally into an output bin when finished. A 2400x1200 dpi inkjet printer is included to print directly on to the surface of inkjet printable media. No labels are needed with Bravo and the print-quality is very good indeed.

The duplicator needs both a USB and a FireWire® port, and there are versions for Windows® 2000/XP and Mac OS® X (Version 10.2 or later). The burning software is Charismac's Discribe but that is only used for the duplicating process. You can still use Toast® or Jam™ to prepare your master disks, as most Mac® users will prefer. If you don't have a master disc, just drag and drop the files from your desktop. The label making software, Magic Mouse Production's Discus, is also pretty basic. It is perfectly adequate for users without graphic arts backgrounds; others can use the usual Mac design tools to create images in BMP, TIFF, or JPEG format, among others. In addition, users can create graphics in Corel®, Photoshop®, and Illustrator® and print directly from those programs.

Duplicating DVDs usually takes 15 to 21 minutes; CDs are obviously much faster. Speeds no doubt will improve as faster burners are available. But the beauty of the Bravo is that you don't have to sit around waiting to put the next DVD or CD in. Just set it up, and everything is done for you. Primera® uses solid Pioneer® mechanisms-the AO6 in the Mac and Windows versions.

Printing is border-free and takes about 4 minutes, but the next disc will already be burning while the printer is working, thus, saving time. Primera's own Tuff-Coat™ White and Silver disks have excellent surfaces for printing. Many manufacturers sell inkjet printable surfaces like Maxell, Verbatim®, Taiyo Yuden, Imation®, etc. Bravo can also burn and print 3 types of business cards: 80mm rounds, hockey-rink style discs, and rectangular discs.

One caveat: if you're going to use the Bravo a lot, you'll do best to dedicate a Mac to it. That's because neither Discribe nor any other burning application is ecstatically happy with other applications that run while they're burning. I do not consider that a con but a professional and technological reality: if you want rock-solid, professional, reliable, repeatable disk burning, you really shouldn't use your computer for anything else while burning is going on, even if your burner has some form of BURN-Proof®, as virtually all burners do today. Sure, you can run other apps when you're burning-but sooner or later you'll get a coaster you could have avoided by being more prudent.

All ink jet cartridges are expensive, and Primera's are no exception at about $35 each for black and CMY. Capacity is about 130 CD/DVD labels per cartridge at the high-end, which comes to about 50 cents per disk, plus the cost of the disk. But that will still net you considerable cost savings compared to a small scale duplicating service.

In summary, the Bravo is a terrific time-saver and expense-saver for those who need to duplicate small batches of CDs or DVDs. It works exactly the way it is supposed to. Personally, I always expect the robotic mechanism to fail, but this one didn't and very wide user feedback has been positive. This duplicator is well designed and built to last. Overall, we were very pleased with this useful, innovative product, which showcases some very solid engineering.

By the time you read this, Primera should have also introduced the Bravo II™ Disc Publisher. Bravo II increases the print resolution from 2400 dpi to 4800 dpi and changes the interface requirement from USB 1.1 plus FireWire to USB 2.0-only. New AccuDisk Technology provides extra insurance to prevent the robotic arm from accidentally selecting two disks instead of one-a problem we didn't experience with the original Bravo. There is an increase in pricing for the new model [CD Version $2195 (MSRP) and DVD/CD Version $2695 (MSRP), with substantially lower street prices]. We've saved the best news for last: the Bravo II uses Pioneer's new A07 drive in the DVD/CD unit to record DVDs at 8x and CDs at 24x. If the original Bravo is any indication, Bravo II should warrant a standing ovation.

Primera Technology, Inc.
Phone: (763) 475-6676 / (800) 797-2772
URL: www.primera.com