Well I have been convinced to purchase a DVD/CD printer burner for the business.
I have a Mac shop and the budget is small so I opted for the 50 disc capability of the Mircoboard versus the 20 disc capabilities of the Primera. I thought it was worth the extra couple of hundred for the added disk capacity.
I am very excited. I was asked a trade show last year if I do DVD duplication. My answer was "No, I'm not in that business."
The floor rep followed up with "How many DVD do you make per customer." My answer was on average 20 disks per client.
I heard it leave my lips and I realized - I am in that business.
It took me almost a year to let go of the money and purchase this robotic desktop publishing unit from Microboards.
I'll give the blow by blow of the set up install and first print and burn for my shop.
I'm in a hurry for the next 50 disks to be published so I'll try to make this concise.
I was able to find a GX2-1000 on-line. It was shipped in two days and arrived while I was out of town. Lucky for me I had someone in the office to receive it.
I got it out of the box. A largish 3 foot box and attached the catch tray and installed the ink cartridge first.
This point is very clear in the fine print- Install the ink cartridge before powering on the GX-2! The print is regular 12 pt but not until page 7 do they have cartridge instructions.
Great it looks fine I have read the four or five important pages of instructions and begin the install of software. Again in the fine print it mentions to install the software before connecting the Microboards to my computer.
I install my PowerPC software. There is an option for the Intel Mac as well. I have both in the office so this is useful.
There is one thing missing in my opinion.
There is no template for the disk face label. I found suggestions on the internet. I was able to use a two CD face label from
http://ww.worldlabel.com I used the OL1200.pdf label. I opened it in PhotoShop and cropped it down to the suggested 120mm x 120mm.
I was able to successfully use this label to do a print test on a coaster disk in the office. The cheap-skate wouldn't let me make a coaster.
The fine print also suggests not to print labels on blank disks. Burn then print!
Ok this label adventure took me a couple of hours with normal office interruptions.
The next thing is to power up the Microboards unit and the computer with the USB connection in place.
System prefs set up is next. Choose the printer/fax and "add" the GX system. Register the unit. It took about 2 minutes for the two emails for the activation number to arrive.
I was able to register and do a page / printer set up easily. During the set up it is important to do a calibration print.
It is a little disconcerting to think about this calibration. My question is "Does it need to be done every time or just on the initial set up on this one computer?" (More on that later)
Today I have created a label for a need DVD an have the original DVD. I am going to use the copy DVD/CD option since I have a DVD drive on the computer I'll just use this option to make the dups.
Stacking the disks is a little odd but it works.
4 or 5 disk will lay flat in the feeding whole on top. Then 40 or so will lay tipped slightly in between the pins sticking out of the top of the unit. It looks like it might not work but my test assured me it does. Of course Microboards wouldn't sell a bad design. Sometimes you cannot believe your eyes.
Other than the missing template it was relatively quick to install software and burn and print disks with the GX-2-1000
I figure it will take about two hours of attention to get up and running. I include a significant test in this two hours.
Hope this might help someone out there wanting more input on their decision on a DVD publishing system.
Cheers!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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