Common Questions

MST Productions has one main objective over all others: to provide customized solutions that meet our clients needs. We are dedicated to operating our business with integrity and fairness above all else. We have built our company on the basis of trust in all of our relationships, with both clients and vendors alike. We guarantee our customers' satisfaction in every product and service we sell and constantly strive to achieve new levels of creativity and innovation.

Our product and service line enables us to take care of nearly all your media needs; from CD and DVD duplication at any quantity, editing and authoring, formats transfers, complete graphic design, copy protection, packaging solutions, fulfillment and distribution and project management. We are constantly reinventing ourselves to meet our clients' needs.

We believe an important aspect of our business is to simply be available to our clients. We want to talk to you when you need us so we make ourselves available via phone, email and online-chat. Each client has direct access to their project manager.

We gladly accept payment via certified checks, Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express.

Credit terms will be considered upon receipt and approval of a completed and signed credit application. You can download this from our Downloads Page.

Unfortunately, we do not accept cash at this time.

We are committed to your complete satisfaction on every project we work on and in every way serving you at the highest level.

If you are ever dissatisfied with the product you receive from us please let us know and we will work with you on an individual basis to ensure your needs are met.

MST Productions is actively involved in our local and world community. We work with numerous churches, religious and community groups and other not-for-profit organizations on a regular basis.

We work with not-for-profit clients on a case-by-case basis to find the best way to offer them affordable solutions. The end result of this varies on every project.

Please contact us for more information on this subject.

Replicated discs such as DVD-5, DVD-9 and DVD-10 are all manufactured with the content on the disc. The process begins with glass mastering. During glass mastering, a stamper containing the data is created, which is then used to injection-mold the discs. These “pressed” discs have their data encoded as a series of microscopic indentations molded directly into the disc surface. The resulting disc is only half of a finished DVD and is half as thick as a normal disc. The process is then repeated to make the other half of the disc. The process is completed when the two halves are bonded together to create one complete disc. Artwork is silk-screened or offset printed onto the disc after manufacturing.

Replicated discs have nearly 100% compatibility with DVD playback devices.

Duplicated discs differ from replicated discs in that their data is not stored as actual indentations, but as laser marks made by burning tiny holes in the dye layer of the DVD-R or CD-R media. Discs created this way are called “duplicated” as opposed to “replicated” discs.

Duplication has virtually no “start” cost but a higher per unit cost and is therefore great for short run jobs. Replication has a higher “start” cost but has a lower per unit cost, which makes it ideal for larger volume jobs.

This really depends on your unique situation and project. Replication becomes most cost effective on orders of over 500 discs, and offers more packaging options.

Since Duplication has a "zero" start cost it is ideal for shorter orders, typically of fewer than 500 discs. For orders of these quantities, duplication can be significantly faster than replication.

Feel free to contact us if you would like help making your decision.

Our duplication process is among the best available. What makes our duplicated product different from many of the other companies in the market is our printing. Each of our discs is printed with a high-gloss, magazine quality, full color print. The print is thermally applied directly to the surface of the CD or DVD. We DO NOT use inkjet printers or press-on labels. Samples are available upon request.

Our replicated projects can be printed using up to 6 color silk screen or CYMK process offset printing.

Our On-Demand production model saves you time and money while giving you unprecedented flexibility and control over your content and product. Using specialized production equipment we can make custom, high-quality CD and DVD products in small quantities that look and feel like product formerly available only in large quantities. This means you can order 25 pieces of your product on Monday and have it in New York on Wednesday and on Thursday modify the product and have another 50 pieces for a conference on Saturday in Chicago.

With MST OnDemand you no longer have to meet minimum order quantities or keep stock of inventory. We make what you need and ship it where and when you need it.

When song titles (or any album information) is displayed on a computer it’s because the CD has been registered in an online database (also known as CDDB). None of this information is actually stored on the disc itself.

The process of registering your CD and submitting your album information is free and fairly easy to do. This can be done by yourself or we will gladly register your CD with CDDB for free - just ask!

Another closely related technology is CD-TEXT, which shows album information that is actually encoded on your supplied master disc. CD-TEXT will only display on supported players - most commonly aftermarket or high-end car stereos.

The rule of thumb is that each hour of average video takes about 2 gigabytes of space. The amount of video a DVD can hold depends on the amount of audio and the type of compression, as well as the complexity of menus and any other material on the disc.

All of this means that a DVD-5, DVD-R, or DVD+R can hold up to about 130 minutes of high-quality digital video with standard bit-rate and a 48kHz audio stream. However, if the DVD has only one audio track, it can hold over 160 minutes at excellent quality. DVD-9, or dual-layer DVDs, will hold about 4 hours of video.

A single layer DVD, or DVD-5, can store up to 4.7 gigabytes of memory, and dual-layer DVD, or DVD-9 can store up to twice as much (9.4 gigabytes of memory).

The short answer is just about any format! You can submit a master pre-authored and ready-to-go on a DVD-R or DVD+R. We can also accept masters on DLT. If you would like us to convert your tape master to digital, we accept most tape formats, including 8mm, digital 8, VHS, SVHS, DVCAM, MiniDV, DVCPro, and Beta SP. For DVD with copy protection, you must supply a DLT master or for DVD-9 without copy protection a DVD-DL can be supplied.

Any project requiring CSS or Macrovision copy protection must be authored as such and must be submitted on DLT.

Most short run duplication jobs can be completed in as few as 2 to 3 business days. We will let you know an exact time frame when you submit your job. If you need something faster, just ask, we can turn some jobs in 24 hours or even the same day!

Volume Replication jobs typically take about 7 - 10 business days to complete. Day zero begins the day we receive the masters, artwork and final PO before 10am PST.

We are more than happy to rush a job, but rush fees will be applied. We can rush replication jobs for 2, 3, 4 and 5 day turns.

We accept artwork in just about every industry file type, including Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, PDF or EPS files.

 

If you supply your design in Photoshop, it is important to work in 300dpi. When you add your art, add it on a new layer (do not add it on the layer with the template info). Please send us layered Photoshop documents rather than flattened files, with any text layers still editable, and all necessary fonts.

If you have additional questions about designing your artwork, please feel free to contact our design department with specific questions.

Our artwork templates are available in three of the most common file formats. They have been designed to work with most Adobe design software, including Adobe Illustrator®, InDesign®, PageMaker® and Photoshop®. There may be other applications we have not tested that will work. Any application that can work with an EPS file should be able to work with the the EPS template.

Programs like Microsoft Publisher® or Word® do not have the capability to open most of our templates.

If you need further help please feel free to contact us.

Depending on the application you are using, the template should be imported into the document as a separate layer. The design can then be created based on the template. For best results you should design your art to bleed at least 1/8" around any borders and keep all text and other important elements at least 1/4" inside any cut lines or outside edges.

The printers used to print your project will vary. We have specialized equipment for each type of printing. All of our printers used to print your discs and inserts are calibrated and serviced on a regular basis to ensure high quality and color accuracy. However, the color of the finished product may not match what you see on your computer monitor. Your monitor might not be calibrated or you may have chosen a different calibration than what is used to produce your project.

Our high-quality thermal printing for duplication and CMYK offset printing for Replication both produce very high quality, photo-quality results. Due to the nature of these types of printing we can only produce close color sampling to the original artwork supplied. It will be within industry acceptable tolerances of pleasing color.

If you require exact color matching, silk-screen printing with the use of PMS colors should be used to guarantee accuracy.

Unfortunately, we cannot offer exact color matching on our duplication service.

Read more about the different types of disc printing here.