FAQ
  
 

 
Video FAQ
What is the difference between NTSC, PAL, Secam?

NTSC ( National Television Systems Committee), PAL (Phase Alternated by Line), and SECAM (Sequential Couleur avec Memoire) describe the different international broadcast standards.

NTSC, which utilizes 525 horizontal lines per frame (2 fields with 262.5 lines per field), is used in all of North America and South America, with the exception of Brazil, and in many parts of East Asia.

PAL utilizes 625 horizontal lines per frame ( 2 fields with 312.5 lines per field) is used in mainly Western Europe and some parts of East Asia, including Australia.

Secam transmits the same frame/ field rates as PAL however this system encodes color, brightness, and synch information differently from the PAL system. SECAM is used by France, Parts of Eastern Europe, the Mideast, Africa and the Carribean.

See what format each country is
What is average turnaround for a video project?
In general, you can expect:
Video duplication takes approximately 3-5 business days in most cases. 4 color custom sleeves take 10-12 business days.

Conversions from Video to CD or DVD can take between 3-5 business days.

Please keep in mind, turnaround times are based upon the size and scope of your order and our production load at the time of your order. We do try to adhere to the above standard turnaround times; however, in the interest of keeping everyone's deadlines and making sure all product reaches it's destination in a timely manner, it is always best to consult with your representative regarding any special deadlines you may have.
What sizes for labels, insert sleeve?
There are a number of templates on our website to help make your design work easier. If you are printing a non-standard item, your representative will e-mail the template to your designer to ensure the artwork specifications are correct.
Click here to go to Video Templates
What master formats do we accept?

We can accept most every popular format for dubbing VHS including:

 
NTSC
PAL
BetaCam SP
Yes
Yes
DigiBetacam
Yes
Yes
BetaCam SX
Yes
Yes
1”
Yes
No
3/4”
Yes
Yes
DV-Cam
Yes
Yes
Mini-DV
Yes
Yes
DVCPRO
Yes
Yes
S-VHS
Yes
Yes
VHS
Yes
Yes
Hi-8
Yes
Yes
Betamax
Yes
Yes
Digital 8
Yes
Yes

In addition we can convert formats and dub sub-masters. Please contact your sales representative for your specific requirement.
What is Real time vs. high-speed dub?
In real time duplication, tape stock is loaded into cassette shells at the specified length and your program is recorded at real time speed. In high speed duplication a "mirror-master" is created and the program is duplicated onto a large reel of "pancake", the large spool that professional tape stock is loaded onto, at faster than real time speed through a process called cloning. The spool is then cut down to the proper length and loaded into the cassette shells.
What are time-based correctors?
Time based correctors are used to correct for any inherent mechanical jitter that occurs during the playback process. By adjusting the stretch and pull of the playback deck, the TBC ensures the best quality duplication. Our duplicator decks have an internal TBC .
What do I need to do to set up my master for proper duplication?

For most video formats, it is advisable for your editor to include bars and tone for proper set-up so we can calibrate to the proper color and audio levels and provide the best dub. Please allow a minimum of 10 seconds of black after the bars and tone. Also, be sure to notify us if there are any breaks in the program or if there is more than 1 program on the master.

In the case of Mini-DV formats we request that the audio be recorded at -7dB to -12dB for the optimum clarity and quality of sound on your dubs.
How do I order?
We recommend that you download our work order form to capture all of the information needed to order. Please complete it and either electronically submit it or fax it to 508-665-6290. If you are a first time customer, and wish to set up credit terms, please download and complete our credit application. In our commitment to eliminate piracy, we may ask you to complete a copyright ownership form.
Can you edit the master for me?
Our expertise lies in the duplication, packaging and fulfillment of your video. It is in your best interest to work with a video producer in you area who has the most expertise with editing. We are always happy to refer our customer to a number of video producers who can edit for you.
CD FAQ
What is the difference between CD replication and CD duplication?
CD replication refers to the process of pressing (plastic injection molding) of a disk with your data on it. This includes a process of mastering your data, disk manufacturing, silk screening your art on the disk face, quality control and packaging. The resultant product has durable scratch resistant surfaces.

CD duplication refers to the process of “burning” your data on a blank CD disk. A CD burner drive uses laser technology to burn your data in light sensitive dies on the blank disk. Some disks can be only written to once while others are re-writable. A E-K Media we only use the highest quality Taiyo Yuden media that is write once, preventing any accidental erasure by the end user.
What is the maximum amount of data that I can submit on my disk for CD replication?
We can accept up to 75 minutes of CD audio or 691 MB (mode 1) of data for our CD mastering. Please view our CD specifications page. Please contact your account representative for information regarding longer titles.
What printing options do I have for labeling my CD’s?
There are a number of options for printing art on the face of your CD. The most popular is to silkscreen your art on the disk. We can print up to 6 colors of art that is sufficient to produce nearly every color in the rainbow. We use light curable ink at 120-line screen to produce a vivid and durable image. Silkscreen is available for CD-ROM and CD-R disks.

On smaller runs with white printable CD-R’s we can offer 1200 dpi color inkjet printing for stunning image quality. Thermal transfer color printing at 300 dpi is also available for a durable and crisp image. Four-color adhesive labels are another option that we offer.
What is the typical turn time for CD disks.

Film outputs for print components and disc face silk screens take approximately 2 days to complete. You will be asked to approve a match print before any production begins.

Printed components take anywhere between 5 business days to 12 business days depending upon the complexity of the piece.

Replication of a standard sized CD or DVD takes approximately 5-10 business days with day 0 starting on the arrival date of all materials. If you need your project expedited, please contact your sales representative.

CD business cards can take between 7-15 business days. CD-R takes 2-4 business days

What do you do to prevent intellectual property piracy?
E-K Media is committed to protect our customers and ourselves from IP piracy, copyright and royalty infringements. We have adopted the International Recording Media Association Anti-Piracy Compliance Program. In this effort we ask that our customers complete an Intellectual Property Rights form (from the International Recording Media Association) along with an Indemnification Agreement and submit it with the job. All the forms can be found in the Helpful Tools section of our website.
What packaging options are offered?
A bunch!!! Please visit the packaging section of our website to see the most popular packaging. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please call your sales representative (800-729-4455) and they will give you the latest packaging options!
When I burn a CD, what is the difference between track-at-once and disc-at-once?
Track at once is when the CD burner writes the disc one track at a time. This creates a gap in between tracks. This is caused due to the laser turning on and off during the process. These gaps are 2 seconds in length.

Disc at once means you write the entire disc at one time. The laser does not turn on and off for multiple tracks. You will still have multiple tracks, but the space between the tracks will be as long or as short as you make them to be within your recording software. If you have tracks that run into one another, disc at once is the preferred method.
When I burn a CD, what is the difference between recording on the fly and burning from an image?
When you record on the fly, the information is being read and burned at the same time. The information is stored in a buffer and then burned to the disc from the buffer. The buffer is being filled with new information while the old is being burned to the disc. The benefit of recording on the fly is it requires less hard drive space because you are not storing information.

Recording from an image can be done when you save the information as an image file. You will need enough hard drive space to store the information. Image files are complete copies of the data that will appear on disc.
What is finalizing and what does it do?
When you burn a CD-R, you have a choice to either burn the disc as an open session or a closed session. As an open session, you are able to add to the disc at a later time. However, open sessions discs cannot be played on an audio CD player. For playable audio, you need to close the disc, a process that is called “finalizing”. Once closed or finalized, you cannot add any more information to the disc. When you finalize, you are creating the table of contents within the lead in. The lead out is also created, thus closing the disc. You are also finalizing the disc when you use disc-at-once recording.
How do I place an order?
We recommend that you download our work order form to capture all of the information needed to order. Please complete it and either electronically submit it or fax it to 508-665-6290. If you are a first time customer, and wish to set up credit terms, please download and complete our credit application. In our commitment to eliminate piracy, we may ask you to complete a copyright ownership form.
DVD FAQ
Can I convert video to disk?
Absolutely! Please see our Video to DVD disk conversion page for an overview of the conversion process and the options available to you. Please contact your sales representative to help you with any questions you may have.
How much info can I fit on DVD?
The answer to this depends on the type of DVD disk you select.
A DVD-R disc will hold 4.7 GB of data on a single side.
A DVD-5 video disc will hold 4.7 GB of data on a single side.
A DVD-9 disc will hold 8.5 GB of data on one side
A DVD-10 disc will hold 9.4 GB of data on two sides
Is DVD disk the same size as CD disk?
A DVD disk is physically the same diameter and thickness as a CD disk. Please see our link to the material in the Mitsui DVD-R to see how the construction of DVD-R’s and CD-R’s compare.
Can I play a DVD on the same drives as a CD?
DVD’s must be played on DVD compatible drives. Many computer makers are now shipping dual CD/DVD compatible drives. DVD’s cannot be played on CD only drives.

In addition to computers DVD’s can be played on set top players to view on a television.
What printing options do I have for labeling my DVD disc?
There are a number of options for printing art on the face of your DVD. The most popular is to silkscreen your art on the disk. We can print up to 6 colors of art, which is sufficient to produce every color in the rainbow. We use light curable ink at 120-line screen to produce a vivid and durable image. Silkscreen is available for DVD-R, DVD-5 and DVD-9.

For DVD-10, since both sides of the disc contain data, we can only print on the inner ring of the disk.

On smaller runs for DVD-R we can offer 1200 dpi color inkjet printing for stunning image quality. Ink jet printing uses ink jet cartridges to print directly on to the surface of a printable disc, blending the colors to create the image.

Thermal transfer color printing at 300 dpi is also available for a durable and crisp image. In a thermal printer, a thermal ribbon is pressed onto the surface of the disc transferring dots of color. Four-color adhesive labels are another option that we offer.
What is MPEG 1 and MPEG 2?
MPEG is an acronym for Moving Pictures Experts Group, which developed a standard compression scheme used for compressing data for CD-ROM and for DVD replication.

MPEG1 is used to compress digital video to the CD Audio data rate and is used most commonly with CD media. It squeezes 167 Mbits per second into about 1.4 Mbits per second, a reduction of over 99%. This compression method reduces the picture size, halves the horizontal resolution to 352 pixels, and discards one of the fields (halves the vertical resolution) and segments the frame for encoding. Lastly, the frames are analyzed and any parts that do not change from frame to frame are not stored, and any segment that has moved to another place but not changed is encoded with significant data savings. MPEG 1 can be played back on a computer screen at full screen 30 frames per second.

MPEG2 is used with DVD media, and employs some of the same methods as MPEG1 but without the resolution and size reduction. MPEG2 varies the data it used to store material (changes the number of data bits per second) depending on how difficult it is to encode.Slow moving sequences compress more efficiently than fast moving video
What are title pages and chapter stops?
These are optional features that can be incorporated into your DVD. The title page contains a graphic or picture, typically with the title of your DVD and the play, pause, forward and reverse buttons, and a link to the chapter page. The chapter page contains a similar graphic with text or thumbnail picture links to pre-selected sections of the DVD.
Will my DVD be playable in other areas of the world?
We can protect your DVD master so that it is not playable in other regions of the world. In addition, we can copy protect the your DVD. Please see our Video to DVD conversion page and contact your Sales representative for options and pricing.
ARTWORK FAQ
What do you mean by process (CMYK) colors? PMS colors and RGB colors?
Process color or CMYK. Pure cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K) pigments combine to produce any number of tones in color spectrum. CMYK is based on the light-absorbing quality of ink printed on paper. As white light strikes translucent inks, a portion of the spectrum is absorbed. Color that is not absorbed is reflected back to your eye. Combining these inks to reproduce color is called four color process printing.

PANTONE or PMS colors are used for printing inks. Each PANTONE color has a specified CMYK equivalent. One of the great problems of the digital age has been matching colors between a digital RGB image from a monitor and making it look the same in print using CMYK. These problems are addressed by using the Pantone Matching System (PMS)

RGB: A large percentage of the visible spectrum can be represented by mixing red, green, and blue (RGB) colored light in various proportions and intensities. Because the RGB colors combine to create white -- that is, all light is reflected back to the eye. RGB colors are used for lighting, video, and monitors.
What software do you accept?
We accept most of the popular graphics packages. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel draw, Quark Express, In Design to name a few. Here are a few tips when submitting artwork.

Download the disk or sleeve templates from our web site to insure your art fits to the printing requirements. If you’re looking for special packing that is not on our site, contact your sales representative and they will e-mail it to you.

Do not flatten your files, as this will prohibit us from making minor changes for printing requirements. You will be asked to approve a proof prior to the print run.

Avoid using JPEG images or other low-resolution images as they are not suitable for print medium, and will produce a grainy effect.
What is the difference between offset, digital and silkscreen printing?

Offset printing is a technique whereby ink is spread on a metal plate with etched images, then transferred to an intermediary surface such as a rubber blanket, and finally applied to paper by pressing the paper against the intermediary surface. Offset printing is used to produce large volumes of high-quality documents (150 line screen), often in process color (CMYK), where multiple jobs are printed together in a run.

Although the equipment and set-up costs are relatively high, the actual printing process is relatively inexpensive. Films negatives are required to produce the plates required for offset printing.

Direct Digital Printing is commercial-quality printing in which electronic source files are processed directly on the printing press or printing system, rather than through analog steps such as film image setting and plate making. Direct digital printing eliminates conventional films and stripping to significantly reduce prepress materials and costs, and allows for significant productivity benefits for quick turns as well as short or long runs. Direct digital printing systems may be based on lithographic offset technology or laser/toner technology.

Silk Screening: Using color separated artwork, a screen is created for each separate color and/ or copy change. These screens (stencils) are used to apply color ink to a CD or other product. Originally, screens were made with silk material thus the term “silk screening”. Silkscreen requires film outputs and uses either process color (CMYK) or PMS colored inks.
What is the difference between the various types of proofs -- match print, dylux, laser and PDF?
Our Fuji match prints are produced from the films that will be used to print your job. Films are needed for our disc silkscreen or offset printing jobs. Match prints are used for 4-color process printing and are the most accurate representation (color and art placement) of how the job will print.

Dylux are used less than 4 color or PMS specified printing. They are produced from each color film and are used for art placement verification. They are not for color verification, however since the PMS colors are specified for each film separation, we will print using the actual PMS ink.

Laser, inkjet, Canon or Xerox prints are produced from the electronic file and not from film. They are suitable for digital printing that does not require film output.

PDF outputs are computer files that are viewed on a color monitor. They should not be considered an accurate color representation as color is printed in CMYK ink and art is displayed on a monitor as RGB.
What is the typical turn time on sleeves and printed materials?
You should plan on 10 – 12 working days to print your materials. The disk or tape replication will take place in parallel to this, but a few days of final assembly is required after the literature is printed.