I highly suggest New Cyberian:
http://newcyberian.com/aboutus.html
Pressed DVDs vary as much as burned DVDs, in terms of the quality of materials, assembly line and workmanship. I've had countless thousands of discs pressed by New Cyberian in the past 6-7 years, and the discs are beautiful -- not a single flaw on the metal reflective layer or on the polycarbonate layers. The on-disc printing is excellent, as is the packaging printing.
I can only imagine how much business I've sent their way in the past decade. I know for a fact that some of
their listed customers went to them off my recs. (Too bad they don't have an affiliate program!) At one point in time, years and years ago, when they still advertised, they were also a
digitalFAQ.com advertiser. I've not seen a NewCyberian ad on any site (or in any magazine) for quite a while now. I think they've hit a point where they largely get word-of-mouth references and don't need to advertise.
That's who I would use. I don't even bother to investigate their competitors anymore -- nobody can touch them for quality, from what I've seen in the past decade of dealing with replication work. Due to our heavy involvement in streaming CDN content these days, it's been a little while since I sent them any press work.
Note that this advice is for disc replication (pressed discs) -- not duplication (burned disc). Just in case there is any confusion. (We actually duplicate media ourselves, for anything less than 250 discs. Beyond 250 discs, it's cheaper to just replicate/press.)
New Cyberian can accept your master on DVD-R or DVD+R. I believe they can also accept DVD+R DL, as well as ISO images on hard drives. Most of our dealings with them have been for single layer presses via submitted DVD-R(G) masters, so I don't always remember all the other input options off-hand. I'm pretty sure they just rip a disc image anyway, if it's submitted on a disc. Some specs are written on the site, some are not.
The facility is in Silicon Valley and turn-around tends to be in about 2 weeks.
I'm not readily aware of anything in the Deep South or Southeast. (If anything did exist, it would be in Atlanta.) The
DiscMakers plant is outside Philadelphia. To do business with DM, you have to visit a local sales office, order online, or order by phone. But my current preference is still for New Cyberian.
As you've noticed, a lot of pressing services are middlemen. We help our clients place orders with New Cyberian -- we don't act as middlemen. (I honestly don't see the point. The mark-up is too small to be bothered with it.)
