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March 2002

Product Development Technique
CD Production

CDs have a high perceived value in the marketplace and will be around for some time . . . at least until DVD burners become dirt cheap which will be a little while yet.

To start out you must have a CD burner. This is a CD player that also has the ability to record info on a CD. The information you put on a CD can be audio, video, date or a combination of all three. I guess this is where the term "multimedia" came from.

INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL

CD burners can be internal or external. Internal CD burners are cheaper because they are built into the case of your computer or added later to an older computer and don't require a case of their own and a big cable. If you are going to add one, you will have to open the case of your computer and know what you are doing. You can easily have one added at a computer store.

External CD burners can be easily plugged into computers that don't have one using a cable. They are completely enclosed and sit in any convenient place you have on your desktop.

CD burners normally come with CD burning software that makes it pretty easy to burn a CD. In fact, one of the best known and widely used software is made by Adaptec and it's called "Easy CD Creator."

JOLIET VS ISO 9660

This will be the most technical part of this article. Are you ready?

USE ISO 9660 as your burning format when you burn a CD. Don't ask why. Just do it.

OK I'll tell you why in simple terms.

In your CD software you will choose one of these formats. If you choose Joliet you will likely be sorry. Joliet is a newer format what allows you to use long file names like IToldYouNotToUseJoliet.pdf But it won't work in older CD players. Just take my word for it and choose ISO 9660. When you do, you will have to make sure that your files use 8 or less characters in the file name and a 3 character extension.

Example: 9660Good.pdf

By choosing ISO 9660 your CD will work in virtually all CD players no matter how old they are. Just make sure your file names are 8 characters or less with a three character extension.

In my version of Adaptec Easy CD Creator you make the choice between Joliet and ISO 9660 by clicking

"File" > "CD Layout Properties" > "Data Settings" > "File Properties"

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of CD production, order the free CD production guide from http://www.discmakers.com You better be technically oriented to get anything out of it.

BLANK CDs

To make CD products you want to buy good quality CD-Rs. CD-R is a "recordable" CD as opposed to a CD-RW which is a "rewriteable" CD which you should avoid like anthrax. CD-RWs barely play in the recorder they were recorded in let alone any others.

When you buy your CD-Rs make sure they are certified for high speed duplication or you may not be able to duplicate your CDs very fast.

Don't buy the 19 cent bulk special either. This is precision work and you'll get many returns and customer complaints because of errors on your CDs.

Here's another tip I learned the hard way. I bought 4 or 5 drums of 50 CDs at Comp USA. Little did I realize that the printing on the CDs would show through my CD labels.

I buy CD-Rs 150 at a time from http://www.polylinecorp.com . I've been getting TDK brand lately and never have any trouble with them. 

START SIMPLE

I'm going to start you out with something simple this month to get you started. Making CDs can get complicated if you try to bite off too much at once. We'll get more intricate in future articles.

Let's say you want to distribute an ebook you've written by putting it on a CD.

On the CD will be:

  • Your ebook PDF file

  • The latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader

  • Menu file

  • Autoplay file

  • A readme file

  • Link to your website

  • Mailto link to your email address

  • Browse files button

The first thing you do is prepare your files.

Finish your ebook and write down the location of the file

Download the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader from the Adobe website and remember when you saved it. 

Write a plain text "readme" file. This could contain just about anything. You could put installation instructions, updates, welcome message, thanks for buying, etc., however readme files are usually used for technical and or known bugs, install help etc.

Create your menu so that people can navigate around your CD (I use AutoPlay Menu Studio found at http://www.indigorose.com -- This will be covered in a future issue)

Your autoplay files will be created by the AutoPlay menu studio above or you can get a techie to dig some up and give them to you. These files are used so that your CD starts up automatically within about 30 seconds of being put in a computer. NOTE: You won't need these for an audio only CD designed to be used in your car or home stereo.

Your autoplay menu will also already include your website links, email links, browse button and anything else you want to put on your CD.

BURN BABY BURN

Now that all the files are ready and you know where they are, get out a blank CD-R  and put it in your CD burner.

Open up your CD program. I'll use Adaptec Easy CD Creator. 

Pick ISO 9660

You will search through your files and drag all the ones you have prepared earlier into the CD burn window. Then click on "create CD." 

You may be asked if you want to do a test first. This is to be sure that your system is capable of feeding large amounts of data to your CD burner. I did this once and then never did it again.

Don't expect it to work perfectly the first time either. I always blow several blank CD-Rs when I'm doing a complicated project (you can't use them over so just throw them away).

Next issue we will learn to label the CDs and it's alot easier to learn how to create beautiful labels than it is to burn the CD


Other upcoming topics

  • Product packaging

  • Email courses

  • Ebooks

  • TeleSeminars

  • Consulting

  • Video Tapes

  • Webcasts

  • Radio Shows

  • Videoconferencing from home

  • Streaming audio courses

  • Streaming video courses

Back to March 2002 Index page

 

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