Category Archives: General Information

General information about the products and services offered by New Cyberian. Special announcements go here too.

White flood or silver?

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sputtered CD

Silver CD before artwork printing

When a replicated CD is sputtered, i.e. the CD just came out of the production line, it looks like a silver mirror but with few rings around the hub area. As a designer, you should be aware of these rings because they may affect your design.

The first ring (45mm dia.) has a somewhat darker silver shade and it is called the mirror band by the people in the CD manufacturing industry.  The mirror band has some barcodes and some additional text to identify the manufacturer.

The second ring is the transparent area which does not have any silver coating on top.

The third ring is the empty hole that allows the CD players to engage the disc in place.

white flooded CD

White Flooded CD

effect of white flooded CD

Transparent area of a white flooded CD

In general, before the artwork is printed a layer of white ink will be applied to the CD, making it as if the artwork will be printed on white paper.   This process is called white flooding.  White flooding normally stops to leave a 23mm non-printable area at the center to avoid the ink from dripping through the empty hole. With white flooding, your artwork can be printed from the edge of the CD (with a 2mm gap) to the center hole (23mm).  Your only concern with white flooding is: Despite the coating, the transparent area still creates a slight difference in contrast, especially when it is viewed under strong light. Normally this is not a big concern.

On the other hand, if having a white background does not suit your purpose, you can choose to skip the white flooding so your artwork will be put on bare silver.  When you choose this option then be aware that the reflective text on the mirror band may intercept your artwork to create an undesirable effect.  If your artwork is very simple with a logo or some text, try to avoid the mirror band by not having anything entering the 45mm territory.  If this is unavoidable, consider a partial white flood around the hub area as shown in one of the examples below.

Here are a few examples of CDs without a white base.

silver-cd-example-3 silver-cd-example-2 silver-cd-example-1

Something out of ordinary in CD replication and Packaging

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Hello there!

When it comes to packaging for music CDs people tend to use jewel cases.  The jewel case is indeed the de facto standard for CD packaging for many years.  Ever since the first CD release in 1981 jewel cases have been used and people always associate them with a music CD.

I believe it’s time to change that.  Jewel case uses too much plastic and is so fragile.  If you drop a jewel case it will definitely break.

New Cyberian has been the front runner on using nonplastic material for CD packaging. Digipak and Digibook are among the items we actively promote. Both products use less plastic and they look more elegant as compared with jewel cases.

A lot of companies are selling digipaks.  But in reality, they all funnel to a few companies that can make digipak cost-effectively and New Cyberian is one of them.  The digipaks made by New Cyberian are different from the ones made by d*scmakers and N*tionwidedisc in that our digipaks are more robust and we use poly wrap instead of shrink wrap.  Don’t underestimate such subtle difference.  It’s the difference that distinguishes premium and mediocre.

I don’t think there are any companies making digibooks.  It’s not that they are difficult to be made, but it’s difficult to make them good and cost-effectively. Oh, by the way, digibook is just a book with a sleeve as the first or last page to hold a CD.  The book can be as thin as 10 pages and as thick as 100 pages.  This is an ideal packaging solution when you have a lot to tell in writing.

If you have any weird idea about CD packaging please call New Cyberian.  We will be your partner to implement your idea from making a prototype to mass production.

New Cyberian Systems
Toll Free: 877-423-4383
Email: sales@newcyberian.com

Welcome to the blog of New Cyberian

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Hello there!

Welcome to the blog of New Cyberian.  We hope to use this platform to communicate with you — our prospects or clients.  Hopefully, you will find the information here useful for your digital content reproduction.

If you have bought from us you know we are a CD duplication, CD replication, DVD duplication, and DVD replication service provider in San Jose, CA.

For those who don’t know New Cyberian, I am here to give you a brief introduction.  New Cyberian is founded in 2000 by a group of musicians, filmmakers, graphics artists, and engineers to offer professional digital content-copying services.  There are many companies out there that offer the same services as New Cyberian does. What makes us different from other companies is our experience, knowledge, and passion in our field.  I myself worked at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA from 1986 to 1992.  I also worked at the IBM San Jose SPD plant that made high-capacity hard drives.  My other colleagues have very similar qualifications from either research or manufacturing background.  In other words, we are very knowledgeable in what we are doing.  Unlike the salespersons of other companies who are wholesaling the teaching from their superiors without the fundamental understanding of the working of compact discs; be they CD, DVD, or Blu-ray.

Compared with our competitions we do have our niche.  In a comparative sense if other companies are making Toyotas then New Cyberian is making Rolls-Royce. But don’t get me wrong that we are selling at much higher prices.  As a matter of fact, our niche is to sell high-quality products at below-average prices.  At IBM we were taught to achieve high-quality at the lowest cost.  I am using my knowledge learned from IBM to run the engineering department of New Cyberian now.