Wrap It Up! - careful packaging of digital video disks - Statistical Data Included
Emedia Professional

THE STATE OF DVD PACKAGING

NOW THAT THE GIFT OF DVD WILL SOON BE AVAILABLE, HOW SHOULD IT BE WRAPPED?

Despite numerous raise starts and initial disappointments, and much mind-numbing hype and hyperbole, DVDs have finally won both retail shelf space and the attention of electronic media consumers. Many of these consumers will have gotten used to writing "00" on their checks by the time the new medium truly gains a foothold in the home and corporate marketplace. Yet they will greet it with open wallets, captivated by the promise of increased storage capacity and heightened audio and video features. Only one question remains for the manufacturers and content providers who await profit from the inevitable DVD boom: Now that the gift of DVD will soon be readily available, how should it be wrapped?

The question may seem trivial at first, but replicators and packagers are faced with important technical and marketing considerations. Their biggest challenge is the relative sensitivity of DVDs. Compared to their CD ancestors, the new discs are more easily scratched and more difficult to assemble, making them more error-prone once they've been manufactured. Since DVDs consist of two layers of plastic that are half as thick as a standard CD-ROM, great care must be taken to make sure that they're bonded together properly. If the two halves are even one micron away from perfect alignment with each other, serious errors are likely. Assuming that the disc is successfully assembled, it can still be damaged in many ways. The pits on the surface of the disc are more closely spaced than on a CD, which allows it to store more information, but also makes it vulnerable to scratches. DVDs are also double-sided, which means that they must be handled with further caution. Even fingerprints can cause significant problems to the disc's fidelity, which presents a challenge to replicators and packagers.

Replicators will need to seek durable containment for DVDs, to protect them from the day they're first created until they're held in the consumers' hands. They must also try to offer their clients a variety of options and to accommodate their individual requests and needs. Each replicator shall attempt to remain as flexible as possible when reviewing potential packaging options, while still bearing in mind the physical limitations of the DVD.