If you want to make copies of CDs and/or DVDs, you can go about it in two ways: large run CD replication or CD duplication. There are professional service providers that offer CD and DVD duplication, and they also typically offer services such as digital printing. Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and other big cities all have these types of services in convenient locations, as well as many smaller cities and towns throughout the country.

During the CD duplication process, the information from an original compact disc or digital video disc is simply burned onto multiple copies. To have this done at a professional CD and DVD duplication center, the customer must be the owner of the material or have the permission of the owner of the material to copy it. The large run CD replication process is a bit more complex. Information can be added and the tracks on the disc can all be mastered to ensure proper volume, sound and time elapsed between the end of one track and the beginning of the next.

Understanding the differences between large run CD replication and CD duplication is important, because it helps customers determine which process is best for their project. A duplicated CD or DVD is not only created using a different process than a replicated CD/DVD, but the actual final product is different. CD duplication results in a finished product that is contained on a CD-R or a DVD-R. Large run CD replication, on the other hand, results in a series of CD-ROMs which were all created using a stamping process that ensures each disc is of the same quality as the original mastered copy.

Both large run CD replication and CD duplication processes extract data from the original source in the same way. In terms of manufacturing, however, this is where the similarities between CD and DVD duplication and replication end. The finished product of either process performs in the same manner, although there will be difference in the way they sound and the way they look, depending on how the discs are printed.