Tips for Burning CD-Rs / DVD-Rs

Just some simple guidelines, this does not guarantee a perfect result but it sure increases the chances of success.

1. Use high quality media. We recommend Taiyo Yuden, Verbatim, or at least use a Disc with a White Coating for Ink Jet or Thermal Printing. These discs are better than non-branded cheap discs. (Here at Bizemedia we are happy to send you a couple quality discs at no charge to ensure your Master is as good as possible)

2. CD-R not CD-RW   DVD-R not DVD+R or DVD-RW

3. Data size:  CD max 650mb for CD-R  
     and no more than 4.5GB on DVD-R

4. Burn using Disc-at-Once mode only.

5. Burn at the slowest speed 1x if possible.

6. Don’t leave open sessions.
    Finalise the Disc and ensure it is not a Multi-session burn

7. Turn off other programs, (including screen savers and virus protection software if possible) . For best results, don’t run any other programs whilst burning.

8. Keep your fingers off the disc... or at least off the underside of the disc. Only touch the outer edges of the disc. Or, place one finger in the center hole and your thumb on the outer edge. Any fingerprints or dirt on the bottom of the disc will cause distortion of the writing laser.

9. Keep your discs dust-free. Store them in cases or sleeves , or keep the spindle of blank discs covered. Before posting place in a Seal-able bag.

10. Keep your hard disks defragmented. Or ensure the drive where your data is stored ready to burn to the CD-R or DVD-R has been defragged recently.

11. Use only dedicated Disc Burning software, not Windows save to CD etc programs like Nero, Gear, Roxio even better the Pro versions of these.

12. Only use a CD/DVD SAFE marker pen when writing on the face of the Discs. It is the solvent used in the ink which can cause problems. These pens are always labeled CD SAFE if not do not use.

DVD Masters should really be the very expensive DLT tapes, but very few people provide this format now, hence we will accept DVD-R discs but they are trouble some. We provide this information to assist you in providing the best possible acceptable CD-R or DVD-R Master.

The Factory will test your discs for read errors before replication, if the disc has any errors it will be rejected and a new Master will be requested.

Please see our templates page for printable areas.

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Some of this material has been copied from a number of CD/DVD definition websites - we can't thank them all individually but we do acknowledge their assistance and we hold no copyright on the text or information.