Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!kddlab!trl!rdmei!ptimtc!olivea!apple!usc!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!haven!uvaarpa!murdoch!murdoch.acc.virginia.edu!dwells From: dwells@fits.cx.nrao.edu (Don Wells) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: CD-ROM documents (was Paperless Office) Message-ID: Date: 30 Nov 90 21:07:56 GMT References: <11191@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <00940487.15804140@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <28083@mimsy.umd.edu> <1990Nov29.162726.11411@mozart.amd.com> Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA Lines: 51 In article <1990Nov29.162726.11411@mozart.amd.com> brett@cayman.amd.com (Brett Stewart) writes: In article <28083@mimsy.umd.edu> chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) writes: >Musician friends tell me that you can walk into a CD house with a digital >master tape, plunk down $2000, and walk out with a digital master tape >and 1000 CDs. This means that the cost is $2/CD for very low volumes, >hence only lower for reasonable volumes. I have no idea whether CD-ROMs >use the same mastering techniques as music CDs, but a good estimate for >100% markups at two levels of delivery would put CD-ROM prices at around >$5 each, *provided* that the equivalent of `making the master tape' was >free. ... And what I wanted to report to the net was similar economics for CD ROM mastering: .... A guy from Denon (yeah, like in audio CD) told me that if you show up with your master tape and $1800, 48 hours later you could start getting your CD ROMS for under 2 bucks in Jewel Cases, you supply your own art. Other interesting news was Several months ago I visited the Nimbus CD production facility about 15_miles north of Charlottesville. I learned that CD-ROMs are produced on exactly the same production line as music CDs. The master molds are produced on the same mastering engines. The test procedures are identical. Nimbus has a subsidiary called Nimbus Information Systems which produces CD-ROMs; their offices are 100_meters from the CD factory. They write the digital master tapes that drive the mastering engines at the factory. The prices mentioned above are in the right range. A rough cost estimate is $1500 mastering charge plus $2 per CD-ROM. The price includes jewel cases and multicolor artwork printed onto the CD-ROMs; you supply the master for the artwork, and you can get booklets printed separately at a printing shop. The masters are retained indefinitely in a vault and can be used for additional production runs. I was told that, contrary to my a_priori assumption, most production runs -- even for music CDs -- are modest in size, a few hundred to a few thousand. For further information about producing your own CD-ROMs, contact: John L. Sands Support Services Manager, CD-ROM Division Nimbus Information Systems, Inc. P.O. Box 7305 Charlottesville, VA 22906 804-985-1100 804-985-4625(Fax) -- Donald C. Wells, Assoc. Scientist | dwells@nrao.edu Nat. Radio Astronomy Observatory | 6654::DWELLS Edgemont Road | +1-804-296-0277 38:02.2N Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA | +1-804-296-0278(Fax) 78:31.1W Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com