How are commercial DVD's burned?

Question

I'm not talking about the DVD-R's here. When you buy retail software and DVD movies from the store for example, how is that DVD burned onto the original disc? What would I need if I want to burn those type of "commericial" discs? (Is there a special device similar to a DVD burner for example, for this?)

Answer 1

… using a commercial replication process. This process involves creating a Glass Master. Discs are not burned in the sense of punching holes into a recordable surface. They are rather "pre-recorded", by pressing them.

This procedure only pays off for large quantities of CDs/DVDs produced. It also requires a very clean room (said to be 100 times cleaner than an operation room in a hospital), in order to minimize the negative effects of dust and other particles.

There is a relatively well written FAQ here:

The reason why it is called a glass master is because the information is copied onto a special chemical coating on a circular block of glass. The block of glass is actually much larger than a CD (they are typically 240mm in diameter and 6mm deep) to facilitate handling and to avoid the sensitive data area from being touched or damaged.

The glass master is treated with a laser to hold the data ("Laser Beam Recording"), then baked. It is then metalized using Nickel vapor. Finally, the master will be rotated in a tank of a Nickel salt solution. This will create a stronger Nickel layer on the master itself, thus make it more solid.

Finally, as the master is a positive, it is called "father". The negative ("mother"), will be created from it using a similar process.

The mother glass master is created from the father using electroforming and the mothers are then used to punch holes in the membrane layer on replicated CDs or DVDs that will then allow light through to reflect off the silver aluminium layer above the membrane layer in the centre of a CD or DVD.

That all being said, you will not be able to do this at home, unless you want to buy stuff like this:

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Related links:

• Wizbit – What is a glass master?
• Wikipedia – Compact Disc Manufacturing
• Sound on Sound – Preparing Your CD For Manufacturing

Answer 2

The original DVDs (and CDs) are not burned, but instead pressed - this is a completely different process which requires larger (and more expensive) machinery, but is not as cost-intensive per medium.

More information can be found in this Wikipedia article: Compact Disc manufacturing

It also contains a nice external link: How compact discs are made -- Explained by a layman for the laymen

Answer 3

Good for you, Epson has lately released something thats called Discproducer. With it you can burn 50 or 100 discs (depending on the model) in bulk (including graphics on the disc).

Depends where you need if - if at home, it may seem too pricey. They currently cost ~2000$

See in action at youtube (sorry, thats not english, but at least you can see it).