[MacDV] 2 questions

[Dennis R. Cohen]

On 6/15/09 at 4:32 PM, Mary Ann <mjanosko at verizon.net> transmitted the
following electronic message:

>
>DVD label printer
>1. My students produced a video yearbook and decided to burn the
>copies at school instead of sending them out to be duplicated. We used
>paper labels (DVD laser ones), but they caused a few problems. Some
>folks reported they had to take the label off to make it play or play
>correctly.
>
>Looking ahead, if we decide to do this again, can someone suggest a
>label printer that would do more than just letters, and would not cost
>thousands of dollars?
>
>On the same topic, is using a great quantity of ink an issue for these
>types of machines?
>
>Advice appreciated.
>

I've pretty much gotten away from paper labels, going to the "printable
DVD" and printers that handle said discs. Epson, Canon, and HP all make
affordable inkjet printers (under $200 list) that do the job from
reasonably well to very well. While there are print-to-disk applications
that have design capabilities, I design my labels in Photoshop and then
just use the app (DiscCover or Discus) to do the printing. It's a lot
like printing photos, the consumables are the gating cost. If your label
design is fairly saturated, you're going to use a lot of ink. I like to
work with type and images against a white background, reducing the ink
consumption.

>Mini-DV tape vs. hard drive camcorder
>2. I am about to buy a new mini-DV camcorder. I've settled on a Canon
>ZR 900. I like that the tape loads from the top, and it seems familiar
>to me as I'm replacing a Canon ZR 80.
>
>My husband can't believe that I don't want a hard drive camera or a
>flash drive camera instead. My reason is that I've heard that these
>cameras can't (or have problems) importing to either/both iMovie and
>Final Cut Express. But I'm pretty vague on this.
>
>Can anyone confirm/explain that staying with mini-DV tape is the way
>to go when you have importing and editing as your objective?
>

I have both a Sony miniDV camcorder and a Canon HD-based camcorder.
iMovie 09 has absolutely no problems with my Canon or our son's Sony
DVD-based camcorder, or any of the other mass-storage camcorders owned
by friends and family. I've also used them with FCE 3 without a hitch.
The advantage of tape is that you essentially work with lossless
compression, whereas the mass-storage camcorders tend to be lossy, and
you have archival media. The advantage of mass-storage cameras is that
they're a lot faster and the content doesn't require nearly so much disk
space when you import it. I like tape for a lot of things, but find
myself using the Canon far more often than I do the Sony, due to the
convenience (not having to swap tapes is HUGE to me).

-- 
Dennis R. Cohen
iMovie 09 & iDVD 09 for Dummies
FileMaker Pro 9 Bible (and other titles)