ALL-IN-ONE BURNER AND PRINTER MAKES TOTAL SOLUTION
 The process of burning CD and DVD disks, then individually printing and affixing labels can be a tedious process, especially if you are creating more than one at a time. Fortunately Primera Technology has unveiled their new Bravo Disc Publisher peripheral that automates the entire process in one very cool computer device. Billed as the world's first automated disk duplicating and printing system below $2000, the Bravo is a clever melding of several technologies into one stand-alone unit.
At first glance, you might think the Bravo to be a printer and you'd be partially correct. But instead of having to copy and label one disk at a time, the system lets you perform the entire process of creating a finished disk in a single, handsfree operation. And you can perform the process up to 25 times before having to reload the Bravo's holding tray with more disks. There are two models available. The Bravo CD Publisher works with a 40x CD-R recorder sells for $1995. The Bravo DVD Publisher can produce both DVD-R and CD-R recordings and sells for $2495.
Both models let you stack up to 25 disks in its rack. When the process begins, a little robotic arm glides over the stack of disks and lifts one up to be recorded. After burning the disk, the robot arm moves it to the built-in inkjet printer that proceeds to print a full color 2400 dpi image directly onto the disk itself. When printed, the little robot arm slides the completed disk into the receptacle that holds the finished disks. Just watching the Bravo do its thing can be entertaining. I was especially impressed to see that the Bravo does not use labels. Instead, it uses the newer, more popular disks that come with a specially treated ready-to-print surface. No labels means that's one less disposable item you have to buy when you begin using the Bravo. And since CDs and DVDs with a print-ready surface cost around the same as an ordinary disk, saving those label costs is an added perk.
The included software lets you control the entire process from start to finish. You can even choose to burn different files with different labels onto different disks, all within the same automated run. It's a totally flexible publishing system.
After inspecting a disk printed on the Bravo, I have to say that the quality of its appearance is synonymous to handling a professionally mastered disk. Even when using one of those handy CD label applicators, the manual pressing of a label onto a disk can still make it look home-brewed. Those little air bubbles that can get caught between the label and the disk itself can make the whole thing look messy. And labels not properly affixed can have little wrinkles or be off centered, making it look lopsided. As a disk spins, a poorly affixed label can even promote tracking errors that can interfere with the actual playing of the disk. But upon inspecting a disk printed on the Bravo, I was hard pressed to discern any differences between the Bravo created disk and one created on a professionally mastered CD. The image was smooth, perfectly centered and seamlessly integrated to the surface.
If you find yourself burning and printing lots of CDs and DVDs for yourself, or are thinking about doing so for your small business or even your social group, you may want to consider a Bravo before investing in just a burner or label printer. The hours you'll save using this automated system, plus the more finely appearing disks you'll produce using a Bravo Disc Publisher may be just the ticket you've been looking to create.
The Bravo Disc Publisher connects to any Windows based computer via a USB connection.
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