By DVD duplicator printers, we mean a combination that will duplicate and print DVDs or CDs. Take the example of some music concert organizers who record concerts and sell discs of that performance to the audience when the show ends and they head for the exit. The smart organizers can do it by duplicating and printing at the same time. They simply load a stack of blank discs, push a button and forget about it.

As recording speeds of DVDs are slower, duplicators with a higher number of recorders are recommended unless you need only a few copies of each title. You can find systems with one through four recorders that can be configured with an inkjet or thermal printers. The duplicator printer prints your label designs at high resolution on the printable surface of special discs.

As a duplicator printer is a combination of two separate products, there is a DVD burner and also a high-resolution, 2,400 dot-per-inch inkjet printer, not vastly different from the all-too-familiar version. As it burns one disc while simultaneously printing the label on another, the duplicator printer needs two cable connections to your PC or Macintosh. The IEEE 1394 FireWire connection takes care of the large amount of data being burned onto the disc, while the USB connection tackles the much smaller data stream being sent to the printer.

You have to connect the USB and FireWire cables to your PC or Mac, and switch on the power. If your PC lacks a FireWire port, purchase an expansion card to add that capability. Then, install the software that includes drivers needed to make the thing run, and the label-design application.

If you need more copies, add the kiosk option and get 50 burned and printed DVDs in a single batch. The price of a DVD duplicator printer usually varies from $1,800 to $3,500.