Movie studios, television networks, video game designers, and software developers have propelled the DVD replication industry to grow at an astonishing pace. If this was not enough, advertising departments and agencies are fast latching on to DVD duplication and CD replication to distribute product promotions, press kits, and collateral sales materials.

DVD replication is not as simple as it sounds. It is a high technology intensive industry and there are quite a few technologies available today that are striving to deliver information in highly innovative and effective manner as well as minimizing some of the problems that have risen as a result of piracy. Let’s discuss some of them.

FlexDVD
This is one of the latest and cutting edge advances in DVD and HD-DVD replication field. As the name says this remarkable piece of technological innovation can be bent and manipulated without any damage. Moreover it is only 0.6mm thick and plays like a regular disc, and is available in DVD-5 (4.7 GB), HD-DVD (15 GB), 80mm VCD (1.1 GB), and a "mini" HD-DVD (3.7 GB).

Because of its thinness and physical flexibility it can be utilized in ways that regular DVDs simply cannot. For example, because it's resistant to breaking, shattering, and cracking, a FlexDVD can easily be used in direct mail, or as a cover mount on a magazine or manual.

Hybrid disc
This is yet another innovation in the DVD duplication field. This two-sided disc is capable of containing two different

format of content on either side, like conventional audio CD material on one side and DVD material on the other. It can be formatted as DVD/CD, HD-DVD/CD, or HD-DVD/DVD-5.

While the music and video industries have used this product, its use has also become popular in the business-to-business sector.

Within the music industry, one side of this hybrid disc is often used for music videos, behind the scenes footage, and artists' biographies, while the other side is used as a conventional CD. The B-to-B market appreciates that a single disc operates both as a DVD-ROM and CD-ROM, enabling them to reach every target audience with a single disc.

Rub and smell discs
This is the most peculiar innovation in DVD replication field. This involves adding smell to the replicated DVDs which remains inert until someone rubs the label and releases the scent.

This innovation seems gimmicky but research has indicated that consumers are four times as likely to buy a product that they can smell over a similar but unscented product. These research results have made marketers and those in the DVD replication industry to add this technology to their repertoire by offering clients both stock and customized scents.

The industry is also offering cutting edge technology to prevent unauthorized DVD replication and CD duplication. With an estimated one billion dollars per year lost to piracy in the movie industry alone, the urgency to find ways to protect copyrighted material has reached the critical stage.

Today, a number of techniques are being employed to prevent video content from being recorded to DVD and computer recorders, either digitally or through analog means.

Recent trends have clearly demonstrated that the DVD replication industry is more than up to the task of finding new and innovative ways to manufacture DVDs, create creative packaging solutions, and prevent piracy.