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CD duplication is the process by which CDs are duplicated using a burning drive. Duplicated CDs were not initially meant for mass distribution or profit. Its prime objective was to transfer data from the computer to the CD or CD-R. This was essentially used for sharing or safekeeping the data transferred. However, the use of duplicated CDs has grown in leaps and bounds. The entertainment industry and the software industry, to name a few, are the main contributors to the augmented use of CDs. This has automatically played an important role in increasing duplication facilities. An increased demand for CDs has thus made the procedure of duplicating CDs an industry on its own.

The cost of duplicating a CD has shown a significant decrease over the years. Factors causing such a decrease relate to improved technology and use of economic material. Intense competition amongst CD manufacturing companies has also played an important role in reducing costs. It is more cost-effective to burn CDs at home, using a personal burner and software. Apart from the initial expenditure of purchasing the required hardware and software, operating and maintenance expenses of CD duplication tend to be minimal. The main drawback in burning CDs at home is that it may only be used for personal use. This is because burning a CD at home is a slow and time-consuming affair. Companies requiring large-scale duplication find such an effort uneconomical.

In order to overcome such limitations, firms undertaking duplication activities on a large-scale use custom built equipment, which burn a number of CDs together at the same time. This helps in decreasing time consumed and increases output. Cost of CD duplication also varies directly with the quantity of CDs burned. Increase in the number of CDs duplicated generally lead to decreased production costs. The basic cost of CD duplication depends on the price of a blank CD. Decrease in the rate of blank CDs will automatically result in the decrease of CD duplication costs.

CD DVD duplication technology involves the use of different machines, components, and software to make error free copies of prerecorded CDs or DVDs. The main technology used in disk duplication is called disk ‘burn’ in which high intensity lasers are used to burn small ‘pits’ or ‘bumps’ on the surface of a CD or DVD that represent data in the form of 0’s and 1’s.

This technology is used in burners installed in desktops and laptops in conjunction with disk burn software to copy prerecorded CDs or DVDs. Disk burn software is also available on the Internet in the form of freeware but they are inefficient and perform at a slow speed. A user can buy customized software for this purpose on the Internet.
Duplication firms use the same basic technology for duplicating CDs or DVDs on a large scale. Autoloader machines use this technology to duplicate disks on a commercial scale. Autoloader machines require PC connection for operation, which is made via a ‘firewire’ adapter or SCSI adapter on a host PC running a Microsoft operating system. It is used for low to mid volume disk burning and can burn around 500 disks per day.
Another disk duplication device that uses this technology is a tower duplicator that comes with inbuilt hard drives and does not require a PC to duplicate CDs or DVDs. Blank disks are automatically loaded into the machine using automated disk loading mechanism. It is used for low to high volume disk duplication and can burn around 2500 disks per day.

Duplication technology is used mainly for catering to the immediate copying requirements of an organization. For processing large copying orders exceeding one thousand disks, it is better to opt for replication technology, which is relatively cheap and provides better quality. Scientific research work is underway to increase disk burn speed that will enable healthy competition between duplication and replication technology.