CPM Reviews: XLNT Idea Nexis 100AP CD/DVD Publisher
As the guy who has the job of creating a bunch of discs at the end of Sunday services, I’m always interested in a device that will make my job easier. And in my church, we have a disc copier that makes pretty quick work of reproducing the master disc that just came fresh out of the CD recorder ... but only three at a time. And that’s no big deal. My church serves lunch after services, and usually by the end of lunch, we’ve managed to make enough copies to send everyone home with a disc. But our labeling scheme leaves a bit to be desired. As the discs come out of the copier, I put a pre-printed label on each one. It’s not very high tech, but it’s functional. When I was asked to review the XLNT Idea Nexis 100AP CD/DVD Publisher, I was excited to get a look at a device that might replace me as the entity that labels the discs.
The Nexis 100AP is not just a disc duplicator, nor is it just a printer. It is both; hence it is designated a “publisher.” It connects to your computer via USB cable, and the computer provides all the necessary data–specifically the image that will be printed on the top of the disc, and the files that are burned on the other side. There are three computer applications associated with the Nexis 100AP–DiscWorks, DiscStudio, and DiscDirect. The software is not currently available for Macintosh, but I’m told that XLNT Idea is in the process of porting the software right now as we speak.
Since installation and operation on one of my many Macs wasn’t going to happen, I moved on to my Windows computer. I discovered that installing the necessary drivers on a Vista machine is a challenge, if not downright difficult–a fact acknowledged by the kindly tech support gentleman with whom I spoke. I discovered one other potential source for frustration: the publisher simply cannot be used with a Windows Vista computer with less than 1GB of RAM.
Luckily, memory is cheap, and I upgraded from half a gigabyte to a gigabyte and a half and proceeded along. In fairness, despite the Vista-oriented difficulties, I’m led to conclude that the entire experience on a Windows XP computer is vastly simpler and user-friendly.
Once the drivers and software were installed and functional, I proceeded to get the printer component aligned properly. XLNT Idea spells out the setup, installation, and alignment process very clearly with a nice “Start Here” document. I went on to make some discs of audio and data varieties. Using DiscStudio software, I was able to very easily create some nice looking graphics and text, incorporating photographic images from the included library.
And since I’m admittedly a sound guy (and decidedly not a graphics guy), the fact that I was able to create such nice images is really saying something. From what I can tell, you wouldn’t have to use DiscStudio to create the disc images, but after using it, I simply can’t imagine why you would want to use anything else. It’s very intuitive, and assists the user in ensuring that the image will work on the surface of a disc. It’s also simple, which helps graphics neophytes like me by avoiding the pitfall of presenting way too many options. I put together some beautiful images literally in just a few minutes, and was ready to move on to the next stage.
Next Steps
After saving a DiscStudio image, I closed the application and then opened DiscDirect. This is the application that allows you to specify what files will be burned on the bottom of the disc, and which visual image to print on the top. This was very simple business–I provided the information to the application, clicked “go,” and watched the process. The publisher is a clever design, essentially a large inkjet printer (19 inches wide, 17 inches deep, and 9.5 inches tall) with a centrally located disc burner, all tied together with a robotic arm that moves discs where they need to go. The unit ships with hoppers that hold 50 discs, but can accommodate double that with an available 100-disc capacity adapter. An aspect that I really appreciate here is the fact that the printer uses standard inkjet cartridges–not proprietary cartridges that are expensive and hard to find. The unit I test-drove shipped with Lexmark cartridges that are available at office supply stores everywhere. One other really nice thing: in the second run of discs I published, one of the discs did not burn correctly (likely due to a flaw in the disc) and was, hence, unusable. The Nexis 100AP printed “Reject” repeatedly in a circle around the disc, making it abundantly clear that it was headed for the garbage can.
In addition to CDs with audio or data, the Nexis 100AP can also publish DVDs, so if your church does video, you’re in fine shape. According to the manufacturer, the publisher can burn up to 50 discs per hour–and after observing the system in action, I absolutely believe that claim. One particularly clever aspect of operation is that discs can be moved by the robotics while another disc is being printed. In other words, the publisher can “get started” on the next disc while the previous one is finishing up.
The high-resolution printer can achieve resolution of 4,800 DPI and prints in four colors, and I was thrilled with the quality of the output. The system can also publish not only standard 120mm discs, but other media such as business card discs with an optional adapter. Another nice feature–the publisher can work in reverse, facilitating the ripping of a stack of CDs with software like iTunes or Windows Media Player–a huge time-saver.
Overall Analysis
In the grand scheme of things, once I got past the Vista-oriented difficulties I initially faced, operation was really simple. Using it in church should be a snap for most; the only potential bottleneck being the process of getting the freshly recorded audio onto the computer quickly (if it wasn’t there already), but even then, it’s not a huge problem. For churches that use a CD recorder, it’s just a matter of transferring the data from disc to the computer. Some consoles also now enable recording to USB jump drives, which can then be easily imported to the computer for publication. Similarly, some churches are recording directly to the computer, either with a USB-appointed mixer or a stand-alone audio interface connected to the computer. Regardless of the mechanism, once the audio is aboard the computer and using a visual image created in advance, you can quickly publish a stack of discs that look really nice. At $1,595 the XLNT Idea Nexis 100AP CD/DVD Publisher is a powerful tool at a moderate price. Take a look at it.
John McJunkin is the CEO of Avalon Podcasting in Chandler, Arizona, which offers high quality podcast production and consultation services to a broad range of clients. He’s also the host of the Podcast Pro Tech & Tips Podcast at www.avalonpodcasting.com.
