Vinpower’s famed CopyConnect feature, which allows users to transfer files directly from a computer to a Vinpower duplicator, initially was only available for PC’s. Now Vinpower has created an interface that allows this feature to work with Apple’s line of Mac computers as well. This is a huge advancement in the duplication field as Vinpower is the first to offer this useful feature for both the PC and Mac platforms.

This application is particularly important in the creative world as most graphic designers and creative professionals prefer to use a Mac for its greater graphics and programing in this field. The biggest problem is that either most Macs come with no optical drives, or they only offer a DVD writer, leaving those needing to burn content on Blu-ray discs out in the cold. That is why Vinpower’s CopyConnect feature for a Mac is such a useful application. Not only will it save time in the overall duplication process by sending files directly to the duplicator’s HDD, it will also allow the user to burn their large and small files onto any format of discs, especially Blu-ray, which is not even an option on any Mac.

So, if you are a Mac user and you have content that you need to burn onto 1 or multiple discs, Vinpower offers the best solution.

Vinpower Digital announced that they have officially certified the specially enhanced Sony Optiarc 5280-CB drive for use within its series of duplicators and duplicator controllers. Vinpower helped Sony Optiarc develop the CB series of drives, which were created to improve the burning performance and results for mass duplication in a simultaneous multi-drive recording environment. Vinpower officially adopted the drives in 2005 and many prominent manufacturers of duplication equipment followed them over the years.

The 5280-CB drive boasts many advantages to the standard half height burner drives, including Sony Optiarc’s own standard model 7480-OB and 5280-OB burner drives in the following ways:

Better Burning Quality:
• Secure Media Speed Stability – Ensures that media duplication speed does not exceed encoded maximum rates to provide better burning control and virtually eliminates bad burns.
• Enhanced Recording Stabilization Control – Ensures all drives in a single duplication environment burn uniformly to avoid disproportionate speed fluctuations, which lead either to failed discs or less compatible completed discs.
• DVD+R DL Overburn – Can extend the listed capacity from 8.5GB up to 8.7GB* to allow the user to capture more content on a single DVD+R DL disc.
• Stable Recording Control – The drives have an extensive database of media specs and are better able to communicate and convey these details while burning the disc(s) at ultimate speed.

Greater Compatibility with blank media and media players:
• Stable burning throughout – Provides consistent and reliable burning of any file type for the duration of the duplication progress to ensure the recorded media has far greater reliability of playback or that the discs will successfully copy to begin with.
• Enhanced Compatibility for DVD+R media – Ensuring greater compatibility with DVD Players
• Enhanced CD-R Duplication – Limits potential distortion in CD-R audio duplication
• Enhanced Compatibility for CD+G media – Ensuring greater compatibility with Karaoke players
• Supports 99 minute CD-R – Allows CD-R media to be over-burned effectively to 99 minutes

Drives Last Longer:
• Built using sturdier components - Compared to alternative drives, this model was built using the true Japanese design and parts lists for a stronger and more reliable system.
• Less Wear and Tear – since there are fewer bad burns, the system is able to complete its jobs in less burns meaning a prolonged life for the drives themselves due to less use
• Industrial tray gears & pulleys – provides a more stable disc loading tray for a longer life cycle (1 cycle equals 1 tray extend from and then return into the drive)
• Enhanced Error Reporting – Provides greater details as to the cause of any potential duplication failure during the Lead-In

Works with Robotic Duplication Equipment:
• Accurate Tray Extension – Provides reliable consistent tray extension for Robotic Duplication System

The 5280-CB drive is immediately available and can be shipped anywhere in the world. Contact Vinpower for more details in regards to the benefits and capabilities of this drive.

Recently SanDisc announced that, through a partnership with Toshiba, has presented a technical paper for a flash memory chip that stores 128 billion bits of data. This is on par with the current highest capacity Blu-ray format with the 128GB BDXL media.

At present, optical media has enjoyed a comfortable lead as the cheapest per byte method of data storage. Additionally, outside of hard drives, optical media has long held court as the largest capacity recordable media as well. With SanDisk’s announcement, this ups the ante in the battle between optical and flash for storage supremacy.

In an effort to better utilize the large capacity Blu-ray format as an effective archival media, Pioneer has announced the BDR-PR1. This Blu-ray disc burner was designed to offer reliable BD-R recording for reliable archival storage.

Considering the amount of data held on servers and the potential disasters that could cause that data to become corrupted or deleted entirely, it’s becoming more and more critical to have an alternative back-up. That’s why optical discs are still relevant as they are complete resistant to tampering or viruses and if one uses the correct media which is burned properly, can hold data for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Based on an article in CDRinfo;

“According to Pioneer, burning on MKM’s new 50GB BD-Rs at 4X CLV results low Burst Error Cound (BEC) and Random Symbol Error Rate (RSER). These parameters are among the basic signals related to digital errors of a Blu-ray disc and Pioneer’s results are well within the specifications defined for BD-R discs.”

The drive is expected to be released in Japan first and hopefully migrate to other territories soon after.

Vinpower announced the recent release of its Hard Drive (HDD) Duplicator, boasting the exceptionally fast duplication speed of max 150MB/sec. That’s all well and good, but what does that mean in real time duplication and will it really make a difference in the time it takes to duplicate a HDD?

When you look at many of the competing HDD Duplicators, you’ll find that most of them top out at around 90MB/sec. So if you look at it more closely, that means the Vinpower HDD Duplicator can copy approx. 9GB/min, while the competition can only copy at 5GB/min. So, if you extrapolate that out over a now standard 500GB HDD, in theory, the Vinpower duplicator can copy the entire HDD in less than 30 minutes while the competition will take nearly an hour to complete. Take that further to a 2TB HDD and the time gap between the two becomes even further apart. The Vinpower unit, using the same criteria, could take less than 4 hours to copy while the competition would take nearly 7 hours to complete.

I don’t know about you, but I can think of much better things to do with my 3 hours than wait for a duplication job to finish. So if your time and money is important to you, I would recommend you read the specs carefully and judge for yourself which type of HDD Duplicator you’d rather use, the one that saves you time or the one you’re constantly waiting on, I know what I’d choose.

Recently, I inadvertently launched a particularly nasty viral assault on my office desktop computer. What I quickly and painstakingly discovered, was that this virus not only cleaned out my hard drive, but also followed the data stream back to our server and wiped out the entire back-up data as well. I’m not an overtly technical person, so I never even imagined this was a possibility. I assumed that once you create a back-up file away from the primary computer, the files would be safe. To my chagrin, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The saving grace in this case, was that our company, in its infinite wisdom, also keeps a hard copy of all back-up files from our server on optical discs. Optical discs (like DVD (especially archival grade) or Blu-ray) are the only true back-up solutions that are impervious to viral attacks, accidental or deliberate deletion, hacking, etc. If we didn’t have the foresight to use optical discs to back up our back-up, I would have completely lost nearly 8 years’ worth of painstakingly laborious content including reports, pictures, proposals, templates, email history, and so much more.

I thought, what if this happened to my home computer where I don’t have the back-up systems in place I have at work. All of my family photos and videos would be gone forever. Irreplaceable memories wiped out with a single keystroke. That is not something that you can put a price tag on, or could even be replaced for that matter. I went home and backed up my entire hard drive’s irreplaceable files, especially the pictures and videos on our new archival M-Disc media. I dodged a bullet this time, will you be so lucky?

In the recordable optical media world, price is often king. There are plenty of those that still care about the disc quality and also realize that paying slightly more for a better disc will cost you less in the long run when you factor in the number of failed discs that are wasted from the cheaper brands. So when rumors started flying that one of t preeminent media manufacturers, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), is looking to close their manufacturing plants, it makes enough sense for reporters and bloggers to take the rumor and run it as factual content.

That happened recently, where it was reported that Mitsubishi Chemical (MKM’s parent company) was indeed shuttering its doors in a Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun on Monday. That story was quickly refuted by MKM to which they reported to remaining vigilant in their dedication to manufacturing their continued lines of recordable DVD and Blu-ray media.

For more details on this story, please click on the below link:
In the recordable optical media world, price is often king. There are plenty of those that still care about the disc quality and also realize that paying slightly more for a better disc will cost you less in the long run when you factor in the number of failed discs that are wasted from the cheaper brands. So when rumors started flying that one of t preeminent media manufacturers, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), is looking to close their manufacturing plants, it makes enough sense for reporters and bloggers to take the rumor and run it as factual content.

That happened recently, where it was reported that Mitsubishi Chemical (MKM’s parent company) was indeed shuttering its doors in a Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun on Monday. That story was quickly refuted by MKM to which they reported to remaining vigilant in their dedication to manufacturing their continued lines of recordable DVD and Blu-ray media.

For more details on this story, please click on the below link:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=32245

For the last few years, all I have been hearing, when it comes to the CES trade show, is that it is declining and destined to go the way of Comdex. Based on my experience as an exhibitor for numerous years, I was inclined to agree. That was until this year just created a frenzy of people. According to records, an estimated 153,000 people attended the show. I can’t say whether it the show was as successful as other shows, but I can say that we were on our feet a lot and the flow of people to and around our booth was at times overwhelming.

Looks like CES is not ready to be a relic but a viable, healthy featured electronics trade show which will continue to set the mark for a durable trade show.

Apparently the release of Avatar last year, which became the highest selling DVD and Blu-ray movie of all time, spurred a rash of Blu-ray player purchases. In fact the number of homes with Blu-ray players rose 52 percent from a year ago, to 33.5 million in the United States. Whether this was directly related to the release of Avatar or not, it does show that more households are attracted to the high definition experience and that they are willing to pay more for it, even in tougher economic times.

So this is encouraging to the duplication market as well as sales trends for movie formats tends to also cross into increased demand for duplication equipment and media for the same format. So as long as the number of households with Blu-ray players increases, then the number of options for Blu-ray content will follow suit. Another reason to appreciate James Cameron!

Even though researchers generally agree that older generations (30+) have become accustomed to physical media and are more likely continue using it. It’s also a common belief that the younger generations, especially children will become accustomed to maintaining content in a digital realm. But current research has shown that not to be the case.

New research from The NPD Group found that 79 cents of every entertainment dollar spent by kids aged 2 to 14 was used on CDs, movie discs and video games, compared with 21 cents on content downloaded from the Internet. This shows that even when given the option of purchasing and storing digital content, young children are still more interested and comfortable with owning tangible items.

So when people want to pronounce the end of physical media, you’ll know that the evidence says differently.