Putting mastered tracks on CD - questions

[Bezo]

My project is completely DYI. In a few months I will be looking to print my mastered album to CD and replicating it. I'm looking for a program or piece of equipment needed to do this. I've been using iTunes to burn mixes to, but it obviously doesn't have all of the options needed.

What is the name of what I'm looking for so I can begin to shop around? Any model recommendations? And what type of features am I looking for? Am I simply looking for something like the Alesis MasterLink or TASCAM DV-RA1000? Can I get away with less than that? Do I need more? Something different altogether?

Or would I be better of with a software equivelent?

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Secondly, a few questions about the process. All of my sessions are 24 bit/44.1. My understanding is that I should keep it that way until the final step. And I know it needs to be dithered when going to 16 bit.

So, assuming I end up with something similar to the link above, at what point should I dither/convert to 16 bit? I didn't see any mention of dithering in that link's description. Should a piece of equipment like that have a dithering function? If so, are they generally better/worse than a dithering plugin?

And what bouncing options would I have? Can I bounce directly to the disk recorder? Do I bounce to the CPU and get the resulting WAV into the burner somehow? Should I record the session directly to the disk recorder via digital outputs?

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Other than a well mastered tunes and the media needed to burn/replicate it, is there anything else I should have?