You just finished burning that CD/DVD of your family vacation, maybe the evidence that will keep you from meeting an untimely ending, or that video of the unidentified flying object you recorded at Area 51. Now you want to make several copies and give it that custom one of a kind hand made by you label. Well the first thing you do is to start burning the 43 good copies and 11 bad copies one at a time while looking over your shoulder for Big Kelly’s goons. While doing this you design your label that you want to put on the CD/DVD so everyone will know what it is. After you ruin several labels trying to put them on you say the hell with it and get out the black magic marker and go to work. Today I have something for you from Primera Technology, a company that makes some well know CD/DVD duplicator/printers. Primera was kind enough to send me their Bravo II Disc Publisher for testing. Will it do the all complicated jobs that you gave up on? Draw the shades, and stick around for the answer.
Packaging and Specifications
The Bravo II arrived at my doorstep in a manner that gave me some concern. A couple of the boxes had some damage inflicted on them during shipment but the product survived with no damage. Once I ripped into the packages and seen everything was fine I was able to turn my attention to this behemoth of a burner/printer. The Bravo II is a fairly sizeable piece of equipment to have around but you will see the reason for its size later on.
Specifications
Disc Capacity
50 discs with included Kiosk Mode Kit
Recording Speeds
CD-R: Up to 52x
DVD±R/CD-R: 16x/48x
DVD+R Double Layer: 4x
Recordable Formats
CD: CD-R, CD-RW, CD-Audio (CD-DA), Video-CD, MP3 to CD-Audio, most other industry-standard CD formats
DVD: DVD±R, DVD±RW, DVD+R Dual Layer; other formats to be added as they become standardized
Number of Drives
One Plextor® CD-R drives or one Plextor DVD±R/CD-R Dual Purpose drive
Print Method
Inkjet
Print Resolutions
4800 dpi x 1200 dpi, 2400 x 1200 dpi, 1200 x 1200 dpi and 600 x 600 dpi
Maximum Print Width
4.724" (120mm)
Ink Cartridges
Dual CMY color and black monochrome
Colors
16.7 million and black monochrome
Color Matching
PrimaColor™ ICC-compliant color matching software included
Label Software
SureThing™ CD Labeler Primera Edition for Windows® users and Adobe® PhotoShop® and Illustrator® design templates for Mac® and Windows users.
Media Types
Printable-surface CDs and DVDs
Minimum System Requirements for PC
700MHz or faster genuine Intel Pentium III or higher, 512MB or more RAM, PCI slot-based USB 2.0 interface (combo cards not recommended), Desktop PC (laptops not recommended), Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4, or Windows XP with Service Pack 1, User account with Local Administrator equivalent rights, 2GB free Hard Drive space, at least 5GB free for DVD Disc Image
Note: For DVD±R system you must have Windows 2000 or XP with a NTFS drive partition.
Minimum System Requirements for Mac Computers
700 MHz PowerPC, G4 processor capable of running Mac OS X v10.2 or higher, 256 MB RAM, available USB 2.0 port or open PCI slot for optional USB 2.0 adapter card, 1.5 GB free hard drive space (6 GB for DVD version) one available USB 2.0 port
Operating Systems
Windows 2000 and XP for PC
OS X, v.10.2 or higher for Mac
Electrical Rating
12 VDC, 5A
Certifications
Safety: UL, UL-C, CE
Emissions: FCC Class B, CE
Power Requirements
100-240 VAC, 50/60Hz, 60 watts (12vdc)
Weight
18 lbs. (8.2kg)
Dimensions
17.25"W x 7.25"H x 16"D (438mmW x 184mmH x 406mmD)
Data Interfaces
USB 2.0
Options
USB 2.0 PCI Adapter Card
Bravo II Business Card Adapter Kit - includes templates and input trays for:
80mm mini-CDs
59mm x 85mm rectangular business card CDs
63mm x 80mm rounded ("hockey rink") business card CDs
(The manufacturers of Bravo II's CD-R and DVD±R Recordable drives recommend using only 120mm round CD-R’s and DVD±R’s. You may void your warranty if other sizes and shapes of media are used).
Key Features and Functionality / Product Benefits:
Bravo II automatically copies audio, photos, data, video, etc. onto CDs/DVDs and prints full-color, photo-quality graphics directly onto the surface of the disc. Bravo II has the following industry-leading features:
• Price Performance Leader • USB 2.0 Connectivity • Highest Print Resolution • AccuDisc™ Technology • Faster Throughput • PC & Mac Compatibility • Kiosk Mode • Business Card Capability • Network Software
What’s Included?
• One Bravo II Disc Publisher • Two ink cartridges (1 black & 1 color) • 100 inkjet printable CDs (for review only) • 50 Verbatim inkjet printable DVDs (for review only) • Kiosk Mode Kit (for review only) • One Quick Start Guide
Closer Look
The Bravo II looks like a printer; it reminded me of the old dot matrix printers of yesteryear with its smoked plastic door on the front. The Bravo II has a large footprint to it but is short in height in comparison to my Brother MFC-5440CN all in one printer that is taller then the Bravo 2 by about 4 inches. The back of the unit has a place for the USB cable and the power adapter to plug in along with its nametag. The bottom of the Bravo II has a metal plate with rubber feet, no need to get fancy under here since you don’t see this side all the time.
Looking at the inside of the Bravo II it is noticeable right off that it’s different in many ways as compared to a standard printer but more on that in a bit. We have the PCB (printed circuit board) that controls the robotic arm. The ink cartridge holder/print head unit is like most other large color printers.
Now we get to where this printer distinguishes its self from a regular color printer. The center of this unit holds a Plextor DVD Burner. I have an older Plextor DVD burner and it does as good a job on burning as my new Sony DVD Burner. Will this newer Plextor still hold the same standards as my older one? Well stick around and we will do some burn outs! One thing I did notice about the DVD burner is that it’s packed in there pretty good, I don’t think it would be a 5 minute switch out if this one quits and according to my contact this can be switched out with an off the shelf Plextor DVD burner.
Now we have a few goodies that need to be installed before we can proceed. Included with the Bravo II was a box that contained the disc holders, black cartridge, color cartridge, power adapter, USB cable and software.
Installation and Testing
Once you get the printer hooked up and plugged in and the software installed, you can proceed to installing the disc holders. The disc holders are set onto a little raised square block to hold them in place. Once both holders are installed you can then drop some blank discs in the right holder.
So now you have the software installed, the burner/label-maker hooked up and some discs loaded, time to preserve those precious memories! Now since this unit is waiting on you to do something I think its time to tell it what to do. Start the included software and select the type of job you want to do. I’m just going to do an image job with pics on my PC. After you make your job type selection, you set your preferences. Once completed you point to the file or files you want to burn and then put a title and image on it and turn it loose.
The first thing I did was to run the calibration printing procedure to make sure everything was inline correctly and ready to go. After it was done printing out the two different calibration markings on separate disc is when I started with a couple of test disc. The first disk was just a print job to see how well it would do with a high graphic and detailed image that I had on my PC that I would to check my printer with when ever I installed new ink cartridges which the image is a copy of the disc that came with my CD Stomper. After it printed that and if I may say so myself it done an excellent job I then proceeded to burn some pictures I had on my PC. I grabbed a label from the images that was included with the software just so I could put something on the disc when it was done burning so I could see it go through its full process.
The start of this whole process begins after you hit burn. The robotic arm will pick up a blank disc from the right side and drop it in the tray of the burner. When the burner gets done doing its magic on the disc it ejects it out and then the robot springs into action again.
Now the robot will grab the disc and wait for the print tray to show up. After the print tray makes an appearance the robot drops the disc and the printer takes over.*Note: There is a Video you can watch on Primeras site.
Once we reach this point the process will continue for however many disc you need. The maximum number of discs at a time is 25 but with the Kiosk Mode Kit you can do 50 at a time. The one thing that you don’t get immediately when you purchase the Bravo II is the Kiosk Mode Kit which is mailed to you after product registration, which I would imagine is done this way to encourage you to register your product and then get something in exchange for it. What the Kiosk Mode Kit is an add-on disc catcher. No it’s not anything like a baseball catcher either. The kiosk mode goes under the front edge of the burner/printer to catch the finished disc when they are dropped onto a chute in the middle and it stacks them up nice and neat. Also available for the Bravo II is a Business Card Adapter to do the business card size CDs.
Conclusion
I had used the Bravo II for a few weeks doing some duplicating and converting 8mm home movies so they could be put onto DVDs. The Bravo II worked flawlessly during that time. Currently we have 4 PCs with 4 burners in each to do the jobs with and 1 single disc CD/DVD printer. The Bravo II had completed a 30 disc job of burning and printing in less than half the time it would normally take which was around 2 to 3 hours. The Bravo II is competitively priced with units of equal quality. I had found the unit and the software easy to learn and use, that even a novice would be able to pick it up pretty quick. The easy setup and use, along with the added attachments makes the Bravo II a must have for the person or small business that does mass burning and printing on a limited budget. The Bravo II had completed the complicated jobs and never broke a sweat or smeared its brow (or CD/DVD and labels). I am pleased to give the Primera Bravo II Disc Publisher a 9/10.
Pros
-Easy setup -Easy to learn software -Fast burning and printing -50 disc capacity -Competitive price -Fun to watch
Cons
-At $2,695.00 it’s a little pricey for the typical home user -You have to register the Bravo II in order to get the Kiosk Mode Kit which you need to register the unit for tech support and warranty anyways
I would like to thank Primera Technology for making this review possible.
