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Bravo II CD duplicator – The lowdown on cost and quality - Part Two
“We received a ton of email for our first part of the Primera CD duplicator, Bravo II review. Much of the email seemed to agree that this was an excellent product, they were happy to see the OS X support, but it appeared to be an expensive alternative for CD duplication. In this follow-up we’ll take a look at our actual experience with the product and how it stacks up against the cost ‘per disk’ compared to sending your projects out to be duplicated.”
By Lisa Swanson
To be perfectly honest, we have always known that many of our readers are graphics and video pros, and that a review of a good CD/DVD duplicator would be of great interest to them. However, we certainly didn’t expect to receive over 400 emails related to the review. An expensive duplicator is not something every Mac user wants or needs, but for those that burn multiple copies of projects onto CD’s and DVD’s this product has proved to be something of great interest. I am very happy with the response to the review, and this follow-up review will hopefully answer all the many questions that were raised in the email we received.
A No-Hassle Solution
Many of the people who responded to the previous review agreed that having a CD or DVD duplicator that was supported on OS X was a godsend. It seems that sending out a project to a service center is not as painless as one might think. Several people pointed out that costly mistakes are common when you outsource a project, and that owning a product that allows you to have complete control over the duplication process is worth its weight in gold.
There are several companies around the country that specialize in CD or DVD duplication. Some companies do their utmost to make the process painless, and some succeed. However, for short-run duplication every CD duplication company we looked at showed that the cost is more than 3 times the cost of doing it yourself. Even runs as high as 500 or more are much more expensive than owning and using the Bravo II.
While some companies do manage to minimize the hassle, the process can be somewhat demanding. On the surface, using these companies seems quite easy. You upload your content to their servers; choose a quantity, and a few days later your CD’s show up at the door. On closer inspection it’s not really that simple. After you upload the content to the server it must be inspected to make sure it transferred correctly. If it didn’t you have to spend the time to upload it again and hope for the best. If you are on a dialup modem your chances of getting a clean upload aren’t good, and the time it takes to upload 700MB (or 4.7GB for a DVD), can take hours, if not days.
Once you manage to upload your content, including the graphics files, the company produces a one-off for your inspection (if your lucky). If there are mistakes they need to be corrected, if your one-off doesn’t look as good as you thought it would, you have to start all over and resubmit your project. There is no way around it, the process of sending out your project for duplication is far from simple. It also takes more time than you think, and mistakes happen. Owning your own duplicator begins to make sense.
The Primera Bravo II gives you complete control over your project. There is no wait time, no confusion over what you want, and no turn around time. You can start from scratch and have a finished project on the same day. You can make your own one-off, test it, and proceed from there. Anyone who has ever printed a CD label and burned a CD can use the Bravo II. Simply put, the Bravo II eliminates the need to outsource. So, if the quality and cost show that you can get professional results on your own why would you outsource it?
Quality
Several readers wanted to know if the full-color printing was smear proof. Some complained that ink-jet printing was not waterproof so the Bravo II was not an option for them. We addressed those concerns directly to Primera and I found out some very interesting things.
First, no ink-jet CD/DVD printers produce water proof results. However, there is a thermal printing solution that is waterproof but has one major fault, thermal printers will only print up to 300dpi, whereas the Bravo II can print up to 4800 dpi, for a truly beautiful full-color label of even the most intricate detail. For me there is no comparison. Also, thermal printing is much more expensive. Our results also showed that although the ink-jet was not completely waterproof we didn’t have any issues when handling the CD’s with wet hands. I wouldn’t suggest submerging them in water, but if you are worried about handling them with sweaty hands it’s a non-issue.
So, how to do overcome the waterproof problem, if it is indeed a problem? Well, Primera offers a great solution, on more than one level. Primera makes a product called the “Accent Disc Laminator” that provides a clear laminate protection to your CD or DVD. This not only makes your CD/DVD waterproof, it gives your CD/DVD a glossy finish that screams quality and is scratch resistant to boot. If water proof CD/DVD’s are a must for you I highly recommend the Accent laminator. The Accent is a bit expensive, but if you have the need you can’t go wrong.
Cost issues
Without a doubt, the Bravo II is the least expensive solution for CD/DVD duplication. Some readers have complained that the cost per disk with the Bravo II was prohibitively expensive. So, we did some research and found the opposite to be true.
A typical CD/DVD duplication company charges far more than the cost of using a Bravo II. As an example, we took a look at Mixonic, as well as a dozen other companies and discovered that the cost of duplicating a CD is extremely expensive when compared to producing your own with a Bravo II.
Mixonic offers a simple process for submitting your project for duplication. Quite frankly, if we did not own a Bravo II we would use Mixonic for our upcoming music CD. However, if we did so we would have to charge quite a bit more for the CD than we wanted to because the cost per disk was many times higher. Let’s take a look at Mixonic’s basic price structure. (Note that Mixonic does not charge for Set-up costs, while most others do)
If you wanted a short run of 1-4 CD’s the basic price is a whopping $5.78 per disk. 5-24 disks are priced at $4.28, 25-39 run $3.78, 50-99 run $2.98, and even the best price of 500+ runs a staggering $2.15 per disk. For companies like ours this is way too expensive for any size project. The base price does not cover the cost of a simple sleeve (add 15 cents per disk!), a slim case will set you back 35 cents per disk, and a simple jewel case adds a whopping $1.25 per disk. It is important to remember that even at these high prices Mixonic prints CD labels at 300 dpi, not the incredible 4800 dpi that the Bravo II can do.
Now, let’s take a hard look at the cost of producing CD’s with Primera’s Bravo II.
First, let’s be honest; the major cost of the Bravo II solution is the cost of the Bravo II. Makes sense, right? At the end of this exercise we’ll do the math and see how fast you can cover your initial outlay for the Bravo II.
Naturally, the second highest cost for your projects is going to be the media, whether it’s a CD or DVD. Since we are reviewing the CD duplicator we’ll use the cost of CD’s, but be aware that the cost of DVD’s are plummeting.
You will need media that allows for direct printing. You don’t want to try to print a full color label on a CD that has a laser engraved logo from the manufacturer.
You can find printable blank CD’s just about anywhere, including stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. However, we wanted to be more than fair in our evaluation and decided to find the highest quality media we could use. After all, the Bravo II can burn at 52x, so why cheap out and buy blank media than is certified for 16x or so?
We found a company that produces a “pro” line of blank, printable, CD media that is certified for 48x burners (but we burned them at 52x without a problem) and will produce an extremely high quality music/video CD. The company we found is Caloptic, and you can find it here.
There top of the line CD media is called the ProDisk Ink-Jet White (or silver) CD. You can order in quantities as few as 100. The cost for 100 disks on a spindle is $30 (30 cents per disk). You can order 1000 disks for $280, or 28 cents per disk. Add a sleeve for 3 cents, or a jewel case for 43 cents. As you can see, the media alone will save you a ton of money over Mixonic.
The prices above are far from the lowest you can find, and if you are on a tight budget it might be worth buying media that burns slower than your burner in order to save money. But, even if you chose to use the very best media you can expect to spend no more than 30 cents a disk.
Printing costs
This is the area where most people who wrote in had concerns, but as you will see, it is far less expensive than outsourcing your project.
Primera informed us that we could expect to get between 130-170 full color photo quality CD’s from a cartridge of ink. Our results on a 100 run project proved that our Bravo II would produce over 150 full color CD’s before we need to change out the ink cartridges. The cost for the Ink from Primera directly will run you $42 each, one for CMYK and one for Black. Using these figures you can expect to pay 56 cents for each full color, photo quality CD. If you are printing black text the cost goes down to next to nothing, but worst case scenario is a mere 56 cents. Primera sells their ink for a few dollars more than other places, and we found their ink at TheNerd.Net for a mere $29, pulling your cost down even further to 29 cents! If you own the Accent Laminator add 13 cents per disk. (These numbers are based on printing 150 CD’s)
Adding it all up
A 100 CD run
Ordering a 100 CD run from Mixonic, after all the hassles of uploading files, inspecting your first disk, and then waiting for delivery will cost you $278, add a sleeve and the cost goes up $10, add a slim case and the cost goes up $35. Considering that you will at least require a paper sleeve we’ll set the cost at $288 plus shipping, or $2.88 per disk.
The cost of producing the same 100 run project on the Bravo shapes up like this.
100 Blank Media (pro level media) - $30
100 paper sleeves - $3.00
100 full-color photo quality printing - $38 - $56
Total cost: $71.00 (71 cents per disk) – 89.00 (89 cents per disk)
Using a Bravo II for your 100 run project versus outsourcing it to Mixonic will save you $199, plus the cost of shipping. The absolute maximum amount of runs that you will need to make in order to recover the cost of buying the Bravo II? Just 10 100-run projects, or a single 1000-run project. And that is if you purchased the Bravo II for full list price. The math doesn’t lie.
The final word
Make no bones about it, no matter if your project is a 10 disk run or 1000, owning a Bravo II allows you to print and burn the exact number you want, when you want, and how you want. There is no wait time, no shipping costs, and no crossing your fingers hoping the project looks (and sounds) like you want it to.
The math, and the actual companies used in this review, show that the cost of producing your own custom CD’s are a fraction of the cost of outsourcing it. The cost on a simple 100 run project shows that you will save more than 2/3 the costs by doing it yourself, if you wanted to produce just a 10 run project the cost skyrockets to $5.88 cents a disk from Mixonic, while the Bravo II remains at 89 cents, a saving of $5.00 a disk.
Putting the Bravo II through its paces was a real pleasure, and it proved once and for all that producing your own custom CD’s and DVD’s makes economic sense, and will produce a superior product. We were stunned with the quality of the CD’s we produced, we truly did not know that you could print a finely detailed, full color photo onto a blank CD, and we certainly didn’t think the entire cost would be less than a dollar a CD. |
