One of the extremely important things is to use some kind of printing method outside of using labels.  Stick on labels are just bad for DVD.  A misapplied label unbalances the disc (it does not take much) making it prone to errors and the possibility of the label coming loose in the recorder.

The choices for printing in a DVD recordable disc are based on several factors.  Budget, how much money do you want to spend?, What is the usage you expect from the printer? and how involved to you want to be in the printing process?

The technologies that are available fall into 4 categories: thermal transfer, thermal re transfer, dye sublimation and inkjet printing.

Thermal print DVDs are the least expensive to label both on the low end home user thermal printer and production printing with the Rimage Prism Plus. It’s strength is in text printing and simple graphics.  With a three color ribbon the Prism Plus can print multiple colors but in a very simplistic manner. thermal printers have printer ribbon consumables and print-heads which are also considered consumable. On a low end unit it’s not replaceable.  Larger units like the Rimage Prism Plus can be replaced in the range of $400 for the print-head.

Inkjet disc printing provides excellent color blending and higher resolution.  DVD inkjet printing also provides an excellent means of reproducing images and with the right DVD media you can get printing that is better then silk-screen printing. One of the major things to keep an eye on is the price of the consumables like printer ink cartridges.  Depending on the printer one can have between 1 and 4 cartridges.  The more the better for color ink efficiency.  Another factor is if the cartridge is available from specialized resellers (that is a proprietary cartridge) or does it use a standard ink cartridge that is available for a wide range of printers. Print-heads is another expense with all printers.  Inkjet is usually built into the cartridge but many of the 4 cartridge printers also require 2 print-heads that need to be replaced every 20,000 prints.

Thermal re-transfer and it’s close cousin dye sublimation are similar to thermal printing except they have a transfer ribbon as an intermediary print area before the multi color print is transferred to the disc.  this allows for higher temperatures and a one time pass on the optical disc.  Thermal transfer liquefies the ink and dye sublimation creates a gas.  Both create a indelible color print that is glossy and appears to have a high resolution.  Dye sublimation (depending on who is advertising which technology) tends to have a better print but at the cost of speed.

As you can see there are a few variables involved in choosing the right DVD printer.  This is why it is important to purchase from a company that can educate you so you can make the most informed decision.  No one is being done a favor in being oversold or undersold on a specific piece of equipment.  Each one has it’s place.  Your supplier should be able to explain each technology and it’s strengths and weaknesses.

Does a DVD Duplicator perform better with SATA drives as opposed to IDE (ATAPI)?

The simple answer is no.  There are very few advantages to a DVD Duplicator on a SATA bus.

SATA does not add any throughput speed to CD DVD recorders (or “burners”).  The only piece of hardware associated with a DVD Duplicator that takes advantage of SATA speed is the hard drive and that just does not matter ether: for a DVD duplicator

So why all the hype?

When CD Duplicators where first integrated the only bus that could support the drives was SCSI.  As technology developed and the DVD recorder was “born” the faster DVD drives (and CD) went to ATAPI or IDE (now called PATA). IDE has been the standard for many years with no “speed” issue.  The only bottleneck in speed is the media, not the drive (witness the ever increasing speed of drives vs. media which will not follow the path).  Recordable CD and DVD media can disintegrate at high speeds so there is a limit to how fast it can spin.  End of story.

The hype is actually around the hard drive and it’s technology changing from a strictly IDE bus to a SATA bus in a computer motherboard.  SATA is much faster in this configuration and certainly will be the dominate technology as far as hard drives go.  Also with the introduction of recordable Blu-ray drives SATA does increase throughput which the format requires.  As for DVD duplicators it does not add any speed and it costs more money.  Because of economy of scale the IDE versions will be phased out and the consumer will be forced to pay more for the same thing.

The only real advantage of SATA over IDE in a duplicator is the size of the cable (or width) IDE cables are flat and wide, SATA is thick and round.  Air flows better around a SATA cable then it does with a IDE cable.  So if the unit is assembled in a haphazard way in which the cabling blocks air flow then the unit will fail (or the drives will burn up from heat buildup). Of course this is all avoided with a effective cooling system that most high grade duplicators have (both IDE and SATA) so it’s not a real issue.  The cable is not going to make the difference between the unit being sufficiently cooled vs. the fans (and lots of them).  The consumer should be asking how many fans does the unit have (and power supply fan does not count) and not get caught up in the hype.  IDE or ATAPI is still less expensive to produce and thus demands a lower price then a SATA system.  SATA is new but it’s not “better” then ATAPI as far as CD and DVD duplicators go.  As to thinking it provides a upgrade path to Blu-ray recorders the person would be mistaken.  The controller used in Blu-ray is different then the controllers used in CD and DVD duplicators.  You would have to buy a new duplicator (or upgrade the controller and drives for more money then a new tower).