How does SPECTRA
Card play in CD-ROM drives?
Place SPECTRA Card horizontally and align four markers printed on the surface
of it with 80mm inner disc track. (see figure at right)
Does SPECTRA Card work in all CD drives?
No. SPECTRA Card is for use only in tray and caddy-loading CD drives. IT WILL
NOT WORK in jukebox style or auto vacuum loading CD drives.
How much does SPECTR Card cost?
The price of SPECTRA Card varies depending on a number of factors such as
the total quantity produced and packaging. Please contact us for pricing details.
What is your minimum SPECTRA Card order?
500 cards
How much data can SPECTRA Card hold?
30 MB or 50 MB depending on the card size Where can I find the artwork templates
of your card to create my own label art? Download our artwork template from
Resources section.
Do you provide discounts for volume orders?
Yes, large volume orders are individually quoted. Please contact us for more
information.
What is the turnaround time for SPECTRA Card manufacturing?
After you sign off on the content and label design your SPECTRA Card will
be delivered in 10 to 14 working days depending on the volume of SPECTRA Card
involved.
How can SPECTRA Card be manufactured?
There are basically four ways to produce SPECTRA Card. All methods start with
a standard Compact Disc (CD).
Stamping
A mechanical stamping machine is used to cut the card out from the CD. The
problems with stamped cards are that the sides are left open to dirt and humidity,
which may affect the quality of the cards. Stamped cards also use four knobs
to center the card in the drive. These represent a weak point and create noise
when the card spins. In many laptops this also prevents the card from being
played.
Injection Moulding
Plastic is injected into the center of the CD to create a raised area to position
the card inside the mini-disc ring in the drive tray. This creates a potential
quality problem, as instability is caused by what is called a "bounce back"
of plastic from the long side of the card when the plastic is injected into
the center. This is because the distance from the center to the "long side"
of the card is shorter than from the "short side". There may therefore be
more non-functioning cards in a production batch.
Water or Laser Cutting
This is a preferable technology because the sides of the card are cleanly
cut and the sides are sealed when the cards are shaped. Currently this method
is not used that much due to cost constraints.
Carving or Milling
A milling machine carves and seals the sides of the card. The cards are not
exposed to mechanical or physical forces, as with stamping, and there are
no knobs, ensuring high disc integrity and better quality. The centering device
used, small silicone pads in each corner, holds the card in place without
subjecting the card to stress or the CD drive to noise. SPECTRA Card is made
using this production method.
What is CD-R?
CD-R is short for ?D-RecordableO. Recordable CDs are WORM (Write Once, Read
Multiple) media that work just like standard CDs. The advantage of CD-R over
other types of optical media is that you can use the discs with a standard
CD player. The disadvantage is that you can? reuse a disc. A related technology
called CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) allows you to erase discs and reuse them, but
the CD-RW media doesn't work in all players. CD-Rewritable drives are able
to write both CD-R and CD-RW discs. All CD recorders can read CDs and CD-ROMs,
just like a standard CD-ROM drive.
Can I create new audio and data CDs?
Yes. You can create CD-ROMs from data on your hard drive, and you can create
new audio CDs from anything you can record into a WAV or AIFF sound file.
With an audio-only CD-Recorder, which hooks up to your stereo system instead
of your computer, you can record directly from CD, cassette, DAT, or whatever.
The CD-ROMs you produce will play in ordinary CD-ROM drives, and the audio
CDs you create will work in your home or car CD player. Writing to CD-Rs and
CD-RWs requires a special drive. You can't write CDs with an ordinary CD-ROM
drive.
How much can SPECTRA-45 hold?
About 5 minutes of audio, or about 45MB of data. A regular CD-R can contain
74 minutes of audio, or about 650MB of data. Some CD-R blanks can hold 80
minutes of audio, or about 700MB of data.
Can I download MP3s from the Internet and make an
audio CD?
Yes. You can download MP3s, write them to a SPECTRA-45, and play it in anything
that handles audio CDs. In fact, many of the popular CD recording programs
will decode the MP3s for you. It is also possible to take songs from a CD
and convert them to MP3s for use in an MP3 player.
Can DVD drives read SPECTRA-45?
The only discs that a DVD drive is guaranteed to read are DVD discs. Support
for CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW may be included, but is by no means guaranteed.
SPECTRA-45 was designed to be read by an infrared 780nm laser. DVD uses a
visible red 635nm or 650nm laser, which aren't reflected sufficiently by the
organic dye polymers used in SPECTRA-45. Some DVD players come with two lasers
so that they can read SPECTRA-45.
Is it better to record at slower speeds?
SPECTRA-45 is written by heating up tiny sections of the disc. When SPECTRA-45
spins faster, the laser has less time to shine on a particular spot, so the
laser has to be controlled differently. Different formulations of media may
require a different "write strategy" at certain speeds, and each recorder
may adjust its write strategy differently to accommodate those speeds. This
can potentially result in combinations of recorder and SPECTRA-45 that work
perfectly at one speed but fail miserably at another. Generally, SPECTRA-45
is recommended to be recorded in 4x to 12x. Put simply, there is more to writing
at high speed than just spinning faster. There is no One True Answer to this
question. Do what works best for you.
How do I make my CD-ROM work on the Mac, WinNT, and UNIX?
This is a tricky one because of issues with long file names and file attributes.
Mac CD-ROMs are typically burned with a HFS file system, not ISO-9660, and
WinNT uses a different scheme for long file names (Joliet) than UNIX does
(Rock Ridge). Some variants of UNIX will recognize the Joliet names, but neither
Windows nor the Mac understands Rock Ridge. You might be able to use an HFS
CD-ROM on a platform other than the Mac, but if you're distributing software,
it is not wise to assume that your customers will be able to do the same.
A common way to construct SPECTRA-45 for the Mac and PC is as a "hybrid" disc
that has both an ISO-9660 file system and an HFS file system. To save space,
the data itself is shared by both sections of SPECTRA-45. This is possible
because the ISO-9660 directory entries use an absolute block offset on SPECTRA-45,
so they can point at data residing in the HFS file system. There are various
applications that will do HFS/ISO-9660 hybrids. Adaptec's Toast for the Mac
and "mkhybrid" for the PC are two examples. The issue of Joliet vs. Rock Ridge
can also be solved, by including both kinds of extensions on the same SPECTRA-45.
The "mkhybrid" program can include Joliet, Rock Ridge, and HFS all on the
same SPECTRA-45. You can even have files appear on one kind but not the other,
and rename files on the fly, allowing you to have a "readme.txt" with different
contents for Mac, UNIX, and Windows.
Do I need to worry about viruses?
Absolutely. Infected CD-ROMs are every bit as nasty as infected floppies,
if not worse: you can't disinfect the source media. It is prudent to scan
your files before creating a CD-ROM for distribution, and it's not a bad idea
to scan the CD-ROM afterward (in case somebody has cleverly infected your
CD writing software).
How long does SPECTRA-45 last?
SPECTRA-45 may last at least 75 years (supergreen dye, used in "platinum"
discs) once it has been written. The shelf life of an unrecorded SPECTRA-45
is estimated at between 5 and 10 years. There is no standard agreed-upon way
to test SPECTRA-45 for lifetime viability. Accelerated aging tests have been
done, but they may not provide a meaningful analogue to real-world aging.
Exposing SPECTRA-45 to excessive heat, humidity, or to direct sunlight will
greatly reduce the lifetime. In general, CD-Rs are far less tolerant of environmental
conditions than pressed CDs, and should be treated with greater care. The
easiest way to make SPECTRA-45 unusable is to scratch the top surface. Find
SPECTRA-45 you don't want anymore, and try to scratch the top (label side)
with your fingernail, a ballpoint pen, a paper clip, and anything else you
have handy. The results may surprise you. Keep them in a cool, dark, dry place,
and they will probably live longer than you do.
Is it okay to write on or stick a label on SPECTRA-45?
Only if you're careful. The adhesives on some labels can dissolve the protective
lacquer coating if the adhesive is based on a solvent that the lacquer is
susceptible to. Asymmetric labels can throw the disc out of balance, causing
read problems, and labels not designed for SPECTRA-45 might bubble or peel
off when subjected to long periods of heat inside a CD drive. Similarly, the
ink in some kinds of pens may damage the top coating of SPECTRA-45.
