Service

For smooth collaboration and optimal results, please observe the following notes and specifications:

During content authoring and/or delivery of the master (Layer 0 and 1), please ensure that a (pre)master is not written beyond the maximum radius of 57.50!

In case the disc is written beyond this radius, then digiCon AG does not guarantee its operability.
Further details: The BLI 0/1 (Begin Lead In, Layer 0 / 1) in a DVD in accordance with Philips specification begins at a radius of 23.80 (to 24.10) and ends at 57.50; analogous in a CD.

In addition, one could describe data tracks with pits & lands, however, a disc would then be produced so to speak "out of specification," therefore no guarantee can be granted regarding the operability. We therefore request our customers therefore to direct respective authoring studios to uphold this specification.

Use only brand blanks of higher quality for recordable media, premasters must be clean and undamaged. Damages (fingerprints, scratches, dust) can severely impair the quality and lead to illegibility. Use only especially specifically suitable pens for the inscription of the premaster. Select suitable packaging for delivery.

Please, contact your sales manager for more information about copyright protection for your CD/DVD:

Master CD
You can send us your master as a CD-R. We will replicate it 1:1. If you wish a music-CD, please choose the CD-Audio format in your burning programme. We cannot work with “open” files such as WAV-files. You can also send us zipped image files (we prefer NRG- (Nero) image).

Master DVD
You can send us your master as a DVD-R. We will replicate it 1:1. If you wish a video-DVD, please choose the video-DVD format in your burning programme. We cannot work with “open” files such as MPEG-files. You can also send us zipped image files (we prefer Nero or Toast (Mac).

You can provide us with your master data via data upload, on CD / DVD or USB data carrier. In order to be able to assign the data, it should have the offer number or our variant (you can find both in your offer).

File-Upload 
This is the fastest way to transfer data. We would be happy to provide you with access to our online storage. You will receive your access data from your digiCon Sales Manager. In order to rule out transmission errors, the master data should be zipped and / or given a checksum. The tool required to generate checksums (e.g. MD5SUMMER) can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. A quick guide to creating md5 checksums can be found in the download area.

CD/DVD recordable
Blank CD / DVD discs must be locked and may not contain any copy protection. Dual-layer disc as a template for DVD-9 production is possible. A DVD-5 should not have more than 2219271 sectors. This also applies to both layers of a DVD-10. The layers of a DVD-9 must not have more than 2024335 sectors to get to 57.5 mm. Possible formats: DVD + R, DVD-R, DVD + RW, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, DL DVD + R

CD/DVD prerecorded
CDs and DVDs must not contain any copy protection. Possible formats: DVD-5, DVD-9, DVD-10, CD-ROM, audio CD

USB-Datenträger
You are also welcome to send us your data on a USB data carrier (stick or hard drive). You will of course receive this back after production.

[Translate to English:] EAN-Code
[Translate to English:] LC-Code
[Translate to English:] ISRC-Code

EAN-code
The 8 or 13-digit global article number (GTIN) can be encrypted with the EAN barcode. This means that the article number can be automatically recorded and processed, e.g. B. at the cash register, in the warehouse or at the incoming goods department. If your CD / DVD is to be sold in stores, a printed EAN code is required. If you only need an EAN code once for your production, you will find enough dealers on Google where you can purchase an EAN code.

ISRC-code
The 8 or 13-digit global article number (GTIN) can be encrypted with the EAN barcode. This means that the article number can be automatically recorded and processed, e.g. B. at the cash register, in the warehouse or at the incoming goods department. If your CD / DVD is to be sold in stores, a printed EAN code is required. If you only need an EAN code once for your production, you will find enough dealers on Google where you can purchase an EAN code.
The ISRC is a twelve-digit, international, digital identifier for titles / tracks on sound and image recordings, which enables a title / track to be clearly assigned to a company. The ISRC is inaudibly carried along in the subcode of digital recordings and can be used to pay license fees.

Every company that wants to use the ISRC needs the so-called first owner key. The first owner key can be used for any number of productions. The ISRC is encoded on the master during the premastering process. Every common mastering software usually offers functions to build the ISRC into the subcode.

The authors and copyrights are controlled and settled in each country by a separate administration society. These are networked with one another worldwide so that remuneration for author and copyright license revenues is guaranteed. The authors and copyrights are controlled and settled in each country by a separate administration society. These are networked with one another worldwide so that remuneration for author and copyright license revenues is guaranteed. The production must be reported to the administration society in the country of the client / applicant. Since production can only start after "approval" by the perception society, the notification should be initiated as early as possible.

Rights to sound and video recordings
Before copying a medium, the rights to the content should be clarified. The right to reproduce the audio or video recording, or parts thereof, belongs solely to the owner or the licensee of this recording. If you are neither the owner nor a licensee authorized to reproduce, this requires a clear review of the legal situation so that you have the rights to reproduce all content of the medium confirmed in writing by the rights holder. For example, every music passage in a CD-ROM application or a film, regardless of the file format of the film, as well as every film passage itself are checked for legitimate use.

Rights to documents and software (CD-ROM)
Software and files are to be checked with regard to the rights situation with regard to reproduction in a manner similar to that described above for video and sound recordings.
So-called "shareware" may also be used freely, but the owner would have to be requested to reproduce it.

Rights to fonts and images on printed matter
Please note that there are also property rights to images and fonts. If you use photos or logos for the design of your printed matter, you should clarify beforehand whether they can be used without further permission.

Authoring
During authoring, the different contents of a master DVD (e.g. film, images, text and sound documents) are compiled, designed and functionally linked to one another. Authoring is an important intermediate step between production and duplication. First, with so-called encoding, the supplied data is converted from any source material into a DVD / Blu-ray compatible format, i.e. a DVD-compliant MPEG2 video stream is created. The files are then prepared to make them easy to use for the user. The focus is on the design of interactive menus and the different and therefore individual programming from case to case.

Autorun (autoplay, autostart)
Autorun is the Microsoft Windows function of automatically searching data storage media and automatically opening or executing files as soon as the data carriers are available for the operating system. This allows an installation program to start automatically when a CD or DVD is inserted, for example. Newer Windows versions may no longer allow autorun for security reasons.

Bleed
In order to get the finished printed printed product, it has to be cut by machine. There are always slight tolerances when cutting, since paper and cardboard are "living" materials. So it could be that the knife cuts e.g. 0.5mm further to the right. If the data now has no trim, a white, unprinted border of 0.5mm remains on the left side due to the offset. Trimmed is therefore not a white border but a printed border. This means that the top, bottom, right and left backgrounds and images that go right up to the format edge must also protrude 3mm beyond this, so that no unprinted areas remain when cutting afterwards

CD audio
The Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA for short, also Audio Compact Disc, Audio CD or Digital Audio CD) is an optical mass storage device developed by Philips and Sony since 1979 for the digital storage of music. It should succeed the record. The compact disc has a diameter of 12 cm, a maximum playing time of 78 minutes and only contains audio data. If it complies with the so-called Red Book standard (a standard for audio CDs), the audio CD can be played in any device intended for this purpose, for example a drive in a PC or notebook or a standard stereo system with CD player .

CD-R
A CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) is a write-once CD that can be written to with a commercially available burner. Data, photos, videos or music can be stored on it and played with a CD drive.

CD-ROM
The term CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) is used for optical storage media on which digital data can be permanently stored. Depending on the manufacturer, storage capacities of up to 900 Mbytes can be achieved on the plastic carrier.

CMYK
The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model that forms the technical basis for modern four-color printing. The abbreviation CMYK stands for the three color components cyan, magenta, yellow and the black component key as color depth. Like RGB color spaces, CMYK color spaces are device-dependent and therefore require color profiles in order to describe color tones exactly.

Cover card
Covercard is the name given to printed matter for CD and DVD boxes. A cover card has the dimensions of a booklet and is also described as a 2-sided booklet, as it is a sheet that is printed on the front and back.

Digital printing
Digital printing refers to a group of printing processes in which the print image is transferred directly from a computer to a printing machine without using a static printing form. The printing system is usually an electrophotographic printing system such as a laser printer, which is designed for high numbers of copies. In practice, however, this process is much more expensive than offset printing and is therefore used very much for very urgent productions.

DVD - Digital Versatile Disc
The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) has a significantly higher storage volume for audio, video and multimedia content than the CD. This data carrier is characterized by excellent picture and sound quality. It is versatile and very durable.

Euroscale
Euroscale is the abbreviation for the European color scale for offset printing. It was previously standardized in the German standard DIN 16539 from 1971. A color scale is a compilation of the four printing colors for four-color printing. Test prints made in the laboratory with a specified layer thickness on specified printing materials are the basis for the colorimetric standardization of the color scale.

Encoding
In DVD production, it refers to the conversion of data into MPEG2 format, the standard for video DVD.

Hybrid CD
Hybrid CD refers to CD-ROMs for Windows and Macintosh on which several different file systems are located, for example data CD-ROMs with an audio CD track. Hybrid CDs are used, among other things, for computer games (for several systems or with additional music), but increasingly for copy protection purposes, including audio CDs.

Image file
Image file is the name of a computer file that contains a memory image of the contents of a CD or DVD that is structured in the ISO 9660 format. The file system is copied unchanged when an ISO image is created, so permissions and other metadata remain unchanged. This is mostly used for electronic data delivery in the press shop, via FTP server or via cloud storage. The most frequently used format is the Nero image with the extension .nrg.

Label printing
The "label printing" is the order on the CD / DVD itself. Printing processes are usually a combination of screen and offset printing. First a white primer is applied by screen printing, then the actual high-resolution printing takes place in offset printing.

Layer
When it comes to DVDs, a distinction is made between single-layer DVD-5 and double-layer DVD-9 blanks. The second layer (layer) is below the first and is read out separately. In the single-layer DVD-5, the second layer is an empty dummy. The first layer is referred to as Layer0, the second layer as Layer1.

Leporello
The characteristic folding of formal or business letters is called a fanfold fold. With the fanfold, the paper is folded twice horizontally and in alternating directions. This results in the typical folding that is used for flyers or smaller brochures.

Mastering/premastering
During mastering, the original digital file on your data carrier is transferred to a glass master by laser exposure. Premastering includes checking and, if necessary, post-processing of the source material made available to us. The pre-mastering process includes, for example, data formatting, any copy protection edits and DVD authoring. Of course, there is no need to pre-master if your source file already meets the guidelines for a production master.

Maxi inlay card
The Maxi-InlayCard is a cover card that can be printed on both sides and is used in the standard packaging for Maxi CDs, the two-piece box. It differs from the cover card primarily in the fold, through which information can be stored under the 7mm wide bar of the two-piece box, and through the subsequent, folded printing surface, which is reminiscent of the insert on music cassettes. Maxi-Cards are produced with and without a flap. The flap is another, fold-out page.

MP3
MP3 is a method for lossy compression of digitally stored audio data. MP3 uses psychoacoustics with the aim of storing audio signals that are only consciously audible to humans. This enables a strong reduction in the amount of data, which, however, does not or only hardly reduces the perceived audio quality. MP3 is the dominant method of storing and transferring music on computers, on the Internet and on portable music players (MP3 players). In practical terms, a CD with MP3 files is a CD-ROM, although audio data is stored on the CD. Many CD players, car radios and DVD players are able to play MP3 CDs. Please note that we cannot produce an audio CD from delivered MP3 files without renewed approval.

Offset printing
After pressing the CD/DVD can be printed. For this there is the screen printing process and the offset printing process. Up to 6 label colors can be used with both methods. The offset printing process is better suited to depict photos, fonts and detailed color gradients.

Polycarbonate
Polycarbonate, the raw material for CD/DVD-pressing, is transparent and colorless. Polycarbonate is relatively expensive. It is therefore almost only used where other plastics are too soft, too fragile, too sensitive to scratches, too little dimensionally stable or not sufficiently transparent.

Printable area
Since a press cannot print to the outer edge of the paper, the printable area is specified. If print templates are created, these must be selected from the print specifications and taken into account. The same applies to CD / DVD printing. We do not recommend printing in the area of ​​18-35 mm. (See also our specifications).

Printed matter
The product and packaging design of your CD or DVD can under certain circumstances have a major impact on the market success of the end product. With technically modern offset and screen printing machines, we can supply you with excellent quality print products. Therefore, please be sure to observe the specifications when preparing your order in order to achieve the best possible print result.

RGB
The RGB color space is an additive color space that reproduces color perception by additive mixing of three basic colors (red, green and blue). This is used on computer monitors, but is not suitable for printing. When converting RGB data into the CMYK color space required for printing, color shifts can occur. e.g. a dark blue can easily "tilt" into purple. Therefore, create your print data in the CMYK color space right from the start.

Stamper
The stamper is the template for duplicating CDs, DVDs and BDs in a press shop. It is the final impression of the glass master obtained by electroplating. During the pressing process, CDs, DVDs and BDs are created in large numbers in an injection molding machine using the stamper. A stamper is work-specific and only has a limited shelf life, but can be used for all pressings or re-pressings until it is no longer usable after about five or more years.

Screen printing
After pressing the CD / DVD, the CD / DVD can be printed. For this there is the screen printing process and the offset printing process. Up to 6 label colors can be used with both methods. The screen printing process is the standard version and is very well suited for displaying strong, full-surface colors.

WAV
The WAV file format is a container format for the digital storage of audio data that is based on the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) defined by Microsoft for Windows. Beneath the audio data, a WAVE file contains at least information about its format. Please note that we cannot produce an audio CD from delivered WAV files without renewed approval.

Letter fold
The spiral fold is a form of parallel fold in which two or more equally wide parts of the folded sheet are folded around a sheet part without changing direction. The fact that the folds goes in the same direction results in the eponymous winding. With two parallel folds, one folding sheet results in 3 sheets or 6 pages, so called a two-fold spiral fold. A three-fold letter fold results in 4 sheets or 8 pages, etc.