CD DVD Duplication Replication News

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Nike shoes talk to Apple's iPod in new system

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nike Inc. said on Tuesday that its shoes will now be able to talk to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music players about how far anathlete has run with a new wireless system called Nike+iPod.

Shares of Nike rose nearly 4 percent.

Using a Nike+iPod Sports Kit, expected to retail for about $29, consumers will be able to access distance, time, pace and calories burned on the screen of a nano version of the iPod via a sensor inside the shoes that communicates with the digital music player.

The kit will be available in stores within two months and other products will follow.

Nike, the No. 1 global footwear company, said the Nike+ Air Zoom Moire was the first shoe designed to work with the system.

Apple will also include a Nike Sport Music section on its iTunes music store, the companies said.

The partnership was announced in New York during an event attended by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, Nike CEO Mark Parker, Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and marathon record-holder Paula Radcliffe.

Shares of Nike rose $3.05 to $81.03 on the New York Stock Exchange. Apple shares rose about 59 cents or about 1 percent to $63.97 on Nasdaq.

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Posted by DiscBurn, a leader in DVD duplication, replication,
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Thursday, May 18, 2006

Duplication biz is one of a kind

Todd Mortenson was running his software business a few years back when he needed to make some copies of a DVD. Unable to find a vendor, he bought a duplication machine and made his own copies. He figured since he had the machine, why not start a side business to make copies for others? To Mortenson's pleasant surprise, he reaped larger profits making copies than he did with his software company.

By 2001, Mortenson's software firm failed and the side business -- DiscBurn -- took off, growing 100 percent every year since.

"I love creating companies, and I've never learned more in my life than failing that [software] company," he said.

DiscBurn targets Fortune 500 firms; clients include Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. Inc.

John Clark of Target said DiscBurn is Target's preferred vendor for about 80 percent of its DVD copying projects. Clark said DiscBurn is willing to do smaller projects more often than some its competitors. "It seems like they bend over backwards to get these small projects done," he said.

Best Buy has used DiscBurn's services for four years. Joan O'Brian, the former supervisor of production and business affairs at Best Buy, said she liked DiscBurn's attention to detail. O'Brian said DiscBurn was always willing to explain which process, duplication or replication, will best fit each project. "They understand the importance of maintaining the vendor/client relationship," she said.

In the early stages of his business, Mortenson decided to team up with his father, Gary, who became the company's CFO. Gary Mortenson had retired from running his family-owned eatery, Tobies Restaurant in Hinckley.

The partnership was chaotic at first, Todd Mortenson said. "I'm probably more aggressive and focused on rapid growth, while he's more assertive and focused on controlling costs," he said. It didn't take long, though, for the two to balance decision-making efforts, and the business ran much more smoothly.

Then, in 2003, Pete Saari became president and minority owner of DiscBurn. "I loved the entrepreneurial side of [DiscBurn], and Todd did a fantastic job explaining his vision to me," Saari said. Now Mortenson drives the goals and direction, while Saari manages the daily operations.

Mortenson said his goal for the company's future success is to have one of the largest market shares in the Twin Cities. He also aims to expand the business across the country soon. Saari said DiscBurn also may land a new client that would "double the company's profit overnight."

For questions or comments on this story contact Steve LeBeau at slebeau@bizjournals.com or (612) 288-2108.

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Posted by DiscBurn, a leader in DVD duplication, replication,
VHS to DVD transfers, and
disc equipment.

Friday, May 12, 2006

All about Jewel Cases

A Jewel case is a three-piece plastic case, measuring 142 mm × 125 mm × 10 mm, which usually contains a compact disc along with the liner notes and a back card. Two opposing transparent halves are hinged together to form the casing, the back half holding a media tray that grips the disc by its hole. All three parts are made of injection-molded polystyrene.

The front lid contains two, four, or six opposing tabs to keep any liner notes in place. The liner notes typically will be a 120 mm × 120 mm booklet, or a single 120 mm × 240 mm leaf folded in half. In addition, there is a back card between the media tray and the back, usually listing the track names, studio, copyright data and other information the consumer would need to read before purchasing. The back card is folded into a flat U shape, with the sides being visible along the ends of the case. The ends usually have the disc name and artist printed on them, and are designed to label the case when it is stored book-style.

The back media tray snaps into the back cover, and is responsible for securing the disc. In its center is a circular hub of teeth which grip the disc by its hole. This effectively suspends the disk in the middle of the container, preventing the recording surface from being scratched. Originally, the media tray was constructed of a flexible black polystyrene, but many newer trays use a more fragile transparent polystyrene. This allows the reverse of the back card to be visible, and is usually used for additional artwork.

Origin of the name
The case does not derive in any way from containers for jewelry. Instead, the name apparently originates from watchmakers' use of the term jewel to refer generally to a polished hemispherical bearing used in a mechanism (high-quality mechanical watches and clocks commonly use gemstones, typically rubies, for such bearings because of their low friction properties). A jewel case has two moulded hemispherical plastic bearings in its hinges, hence the use of the term "jewel".

Weaknesses
The original jewel case design has a well-known and very frustrating weakness in that the case is hinged on two brittle plastic arms, which often break if the case receives shock or stress. The teeth of the hub holding the disc are also prone to failure. An opposite problem are the tabs which hold the liner notes in place; sometimes, especially with larger booklets, the tabs grip the booklet too tightly, leading to tearing. As noted above some CD releases have only two tabs, which allows the booklet to be easily removed (at the small cost of the booklet sometimes falling out if held the wrong way).

Variations
Double albums can either be packaged in a normal jewel case with a hinged media tray (which can be lifted up to reveal the second disc, and is even more breakable than the lid) or in a double jewel case, which is the size of two normal jewel cases put together. The latter do not fit in most CD racks, however the design of these cases (with a small gap between the two normal sized trays) allows them to fit in specially designed racks.

The intended successor, which is now gaining ground, is the "Super Jewel Box", a more advanced design which offers (amongst other improvements) a greatly strengthened hinge area. Unfortunately the Super Jewel Box cannot be used as a direct replacement for the older jewel case design, as its card insert for the back is slightly different in size. However in many other ways it is an attractive concept and some CD manufacturers (for example the high-end company Linn) are supplying them. The Super Jewel Box was developed by Philips and other CD format developers, originally in a larger format as a DVD case, and then in smaller formats as CD cases.

A number of other alternatives to the standard jewel case are also seen, including digipak sleeves, and DVD-style larger cases with a more book-like format.

In the United States, the jewel box of a music CD was originally packaged for retail sale in a large cardboard box called a longbox, in order to fit in store fixtures designed for vinyl records, offer larger space for display of artwork and marketing blurbs, and deter theft. This packaging was much-criticized as environmentally wasteful, and was eventually dropped.

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Posted by DiscBurn, a leader in DVD duplication, replication,
VHS to DVD transfers, and
disc equipment.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

It's official! Pixar & Disney have finally merged

Friday, May 5, 2006 will likely be a date soon forgotten by many. Yet the importance of a short meeting held at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art should not be overlooked. This was the day that Pixar stockholders were to vote on the question of the proposed merger with Disney. A crowd of perhaps a hundred people gathered in the museum’s Phyllis Wattis Theater for the meeting. The stage was set with three stools and a black curtain for a backdrop. Documents mailed to shareholders indicated a 10:00 a.m. starting time. That came and went as the theater filled, with stockholders having to be searched before entering to prevent the use of any recording devices.

At 10:17 a.m., the stage was taken by three people and the meeting was called to order. Simon Bax, the Chief Financial Officer, explained the process that was about to take place and described the content of the morning’s meeting. After the business was conducted, there would be short remarks made by Ed Catmull, co-founder and president of Pixar. Lois Scali, the general counsel for Pixar was the third person on stage and she made no comments during the meeting.

Simon Bax conducted the business meeting. A final call was made to allow stockholders the opportunity to vote their proxies and the polls were closed at 10:23 a.m. The results were then announced with the stockholders voting to approve the merger of Pixar with the Disney-owned Lux Acquisition Company. Pixar then became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. At 10:25 a.m., the business meeting was adjourned.

Ed Catmull then addressed the audience and gave a brief history of Pixar and the merger. In the company’s 20-year history, the highlight’s of that first decade were the partnership between Disney & Pixar and the production of "Toy Story" along with Pixar becoming a publicly held company. Along the way, there were many opportunities to learn lessons, some harder than others. As the end of the second decade approached things had indeed changed with the construction of the studio and the impending end of the partnership deal with Disney.

He highlighted the fact that changes in the leadership at Disney had become a major factor in the decision to resume discussions with Disney. One lesson that came into play was that Pixar had not been as successful as hoped in at efforts of marketing its own products. At the core of Pixar is the goal to make films that touch people all around the world. In the end, it was decided that the best way to do that was to join Disney.

Ed touched on the culture of Pixar. While there had been apprehension when the merger was first announced, he felt that things today were as they had been before the announcement. He also commented that the people at Disney had been nothing but gracious during this process and completely supportive of Pixar.

Finally, he thanked the stockholders for their support of the company and that the success of the company would not have been possible without them all. And with that, at 10:30 a.m., the meeting was adjourned. On exiting the theater, the audience was given a poster for “Cars," a pin for the “One Man Band” short and the opportunity to visit the MOMA.

Simple, short and to the point, Pixar ceased to be an independent animation studio. A number of people sat as the meeting broke, seemingly waiting for something more to take place. Unlike the Disney stockholders meeting earlier this year in Anaheim, there were no photo ops with costumed characters nor showings of previews for films.
Instead it was a simple, to the point meeting. If anyone was expecting a farewell to company, this was not to be. Instead, this was a clean, quick break as the next chapter in Pixar's history begins.

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Posted by DiscBurn, a leader in DVD duplication, replication,
VHS to DVD transfers, and
disc equipment.