http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/ en Copyright 2008 Wed, 14 May 2008 14:50:21 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss PhotoShow, I’ve created another very cool show of my recent trip to Chicago. I learned a few interesting things along the way too… 1. I can import my own MP3 into my production! I chose an instrumental version of Britney Spears's “Piece of Me.” I still love Britney, I confess. 2. I can change the pace of the entire show or of just one photo within the show – customizing the look of it and giving some images with lengthier captions extra time. 3. I can output the show as a video file and then import it into Videowave for further editing (in my case, adding narration!). So, my pics from this trip were odd at best. My digi cam broke the moment we landed and we hastily purchased two throwaways (which took surprisingly decent photos!). Note: if this happens to you it’s not the end of the world because you can have your developer put the photos on disc and then get them on your computer just as you would from your digital camera or mobile device. Because I had a smattering of moments caught on camera (from first meeting our pet goldfish in our hotel room, on down to finding specific pieces of cool art at the Chicago art fair) I thought I could add narration to help guide viewers through the experience. I’m basically saving you from having to hear me say “oh, I guess you had to be there for that.” Now it’s like you WERE there! So take a look at what I’ve done here: You’ll notice that I’ve not only added text to bring clarity to certain situations, but captions (some even animated), graphics (like the fireworks around the puppet show and Garfield burping in the cab), and cool transitions so that each picture doesn’t enter and exit in the same dull way. Tip: people lose interest fast when they’re looking at anyone’s photos but their own. Do as much as you can to keep them engaged. Even if you feel you’re selling out by glamming it up, it’s worth it to retain viewership I always say! ;) Speaking of viewership, and I will digress for a sec, I have been totally uninspired to enter any contests as of late. I guess it’s a combo of not seeing anything particularly challenging out there, along with a mild funk I believe I may be in. But that’ll be another article altogether. Back to business. Take a pass at creating a PhotoShow and seriously don’t stress about the boring nature of the photos you want to upload. You can make them interesting in this application – I swear it. Conversely, if your photos rock and you take amazing pictures of unrivaled beauty then you don’t have to go and muck up your photos the way that you may think I have…you can instead create a gentle, flowing PhotoShow chock full of care and thoughtfulness that only the author of said photos can impart. Publish your show privately on the personal web page that you get when you buy the program, or post it publicly as I’ve done so the whole world can see just how non-linear your thinking can be! Most of all, just have fun. I did! ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/05/piece_of_me_yes_thats_a_nod_to_1.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/05/piece_of_me_yes_thats_a_nod_to_1.html Photo photoshow videowave narration slideshow photos Wed, 14 May 2008 14:50:21 -0800 EmediaLive.com). But even the cheapest was $599, almost as much as my state-of-the-art camcorder. And media is expensive too, from $15 for a 25GB write-once disc, all the way up to $50 for a 50GB rewriteable. I started having second thoughts about how much I needed that Blu-ray recorder right this minute...maybe I should wait till prices come down more (which they will). Imagine my delight, then, when I found out that with Toast 9 and the HD/BD Plug-in, you don't even need a Blu-ray recorder to burn high-definition AVCHD discs that will play right in your set-top Blu-ray player or PS3! Toast can burn HD video onto regular DVD media, with the DVD recorder you already have. But just how much HD video can you fit on a DVD? After all, Blu-ray discs can hold up to 50GB, whereas dual-layer DVDs hold only 8.5GB. Fortunately, the AVCHD video compression format is pretty efficient, compared to the space-eating DV format used by standard-definition MiniDV tape camcorders. The highest quality AVCHD bit rates currently available in HD camcorders is about 17Mbps, or 8GB per hour. Most AVCHD camcorders record at lower bit rates. So you should be able to fit approximately an hour of home movies on a dual-layer DVD that will play in your Blu-ray player. That's plenty for your average home movie. Toast 9 makes importing video from your AVCHD camcorder "drag-and-drop" simple with its integrated Media Browser. You just drag and drop video from your camcorder to the Toast window and you’re done! You can also crop and trim your AVCHD clips, and arrange them in the order you'd like them viewed. You won't need to touch iMovie '08 unless you want transitions and special effects, so using Toast 9 greatly speeds up the time from camera to disc. I'm off to try it all out right now, using the dual-layer DVD recorder already in my MacBook Pro. In the meantime, what are your experiences with AVCHD and Blu-ray? ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/05/taking_the_bluray_recording_le.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/05/taking_the_bluray_recording_le.html Digital Generation Burning & Copy Mac Tech Enthusiast Video AVCHD Blu-ray HDTV Toast 9 Tue, 06 May 2008 17:24:54 -0800 great site created by the Insurance Information Institute that not only tells you exactly what to do, but provides the free software to do it, for both PCs and Macs. Here's how it works: First, you set up the outline your home by naming all the rooms, including the basement, garage and attic. Then you go room by room adding items to the inventory. The software has spaces for importing pictures and receipts for each item, or you can store these separately. The Institute also recommends taking a video inventory. By simply going around each room opening drawers and cabinets and zooming in on each object, you can create an quick inventory without having to itemize a thing. While you'll still need to document purchase prices and values in the event of a loss, the video will at least remind you of what was there, and provide some proof that you owned it. I plan to do the video inventory first, and then tackle the digital photos and software-based inventory room by room. VideoWave and PhotoSuite are perfect for editing the video and organizing the photos for this task, and once completed, I will store the inventory, video and photos on a DVD in my safe deposit box. There, I feel better just having a plan! What's yours? ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/05/taking_stock_of_your_life_1.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/05/taking_stock_of_your_life_1.html Digital GrandDad Mac PC Photo Photo Soccer mom Tech Enthusiast Video Video home inventory PhotoSuite VideoWave Thu, 01 May 2008 19:39:35 -0800 PhotoShow platform is one of the coolest I’ve ever laid my hands on. I know Mac users get all kinds of cool stuff on the Mac, but for us PC folk, PhotoShow is our chance to create zany slideshows with animated graphics and music! I was able to create (or I should say recreate) my 36th birthday adventure out at Sea Ranch, using the nifty built-ins this app offers. I changed my appearance (often), added silly thoughts complete with bubbles over my head – even gave my bf a top-hat and revolving bow tie. Now that’s good clean fun! So I’m still learning a ton about the many things I can do with PhotoShow, and I’ll probably look back at this first foray (in a week) and think I was such a novice….but for now I just know that making animals talk and disco balls appear in place of ordinary light fixtures is my idea of fabulous. (Note: I am easily entertained). Check this out and you’ll see what I mean: So? What did you think? Cool, huh? The best part is that I used PhotoSuite (built into Creator 10) first to clean up the photos. PhotoShow has an autofix built in to its toolset, but I love the fact that PhotoSuite lets me adjust coloring, change the aspect ratio, layer, etc. All by way of saying, when I import into PhotoShow I’m ready to take on the fun stuff: pick my theme (and there are many), add fun transitions, adjust the speed at which I want the photos to come in, pick my background music (there are so many cool genres and options here). It’s a cornucopia of daring and provocative digital delights. I mean, why wouldn’t EVERYONE want to kick up their photo slideshows a notch? Don’t you know your family and friends are T-I-R-E-D of the same old compositions? It’s true! I’m channeling their feelings for them! Make your kid’s birthday slideshow different from the next guy’s and add a monkey swinging in the branches behind them. Or, have a bird poop right on their cake! Yes, it’s in there too! The best part is that unlike most free versions, this one actually feels robust. You don’t feel gypped or like you’re cheaping out with the freebie. Don’t get me wrong – the $39 app has far more content and music – but start with the free account on PhotoShow.com and just get your feet wet. Guaranteed you’ll be diving in stat. ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/pimp_my_photos_introducing_pho_1.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/pimp_my_photos_introducing_pho_1.html Photo fun photography photoshow photo slideshow creation Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:48:43 -0800 Now I am ready to rip. I insert an audio CD in each drive, and click the Start button. As each CD is finished, the disc ejects (I can also disable this in the Settings dialog in case I don’t want the drive tray to open), I pop in the next disc and close the drive door, and away we go. When I am done ripping, my tracks are all listed in the right pane of Multi-ripper. In case I want to change some of the tags that were provided by the online service, I can manually change title, author and other information by selecting one or more tracks in the right pane, and then selecting the Edit Audio Tags button just above the track list. I can even send my ripped files directly to a portable device like an iPod or MP3 player if I want by clicking on the "Output to" button. So now the real problem begins – I ended up with approximately three weeks of continuous music on my hard drive, but when will I ever have time to listen to it all? ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/ripping_cds_three_at_a_time.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/ripping_cds_three_at_a_time.html Digital Generation Audio Backup PC Tech Enthusiast audio cd rip Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:00:00 -0800 YouTube forays to create something that doesn’t end in swift defeat (MY swift defeat). I'm no hater, but HappyJoel wins every contest I enter so I’m feeling a bit bitter these days. I think my songs are as strong as his but he looks just like Borat and creates these incredibly silly videos that seem to have mass appeal. I wonder if he uses Creator? I should ask him. That said, I am considering entering the “raise the steaks” video contest (a video about beef and where you eat it) but I just have to finish the song and then really think hard about whether I feel like coming in second place again. ;) So I’ve been poking around doing other things with my media…and found a fun one! At Christmas I discovered that I could put my favorite photo on a bottle of my favorite perfume – “Happy” by Clinique. So, I uploaded a super cute pic of my kitty, Peanut. Now every morning when I open my medicine cabinet and reach for my perfume, I see her sweet fuzzy face staring back at me. CUTE! Well, I thought it was a one-time promo, but now I see that Clinique is running a Mother’s Day contest/opportunity to upload a picture of a fav mom moment! Yes, it was the contest that caught my eye...but I also liked the idea as a good Mother’s Day gift! I trolled around my THOUSANDS of pics and found one that I thought would work with a little “adjusting” (read: crop the Xmas tree from the background). And, because the photo had to be a certain size I knew I’d have to make the original waaaaaaay smaller. Sooo, I opened EMC10, went to PhotoSuite, and then imported the pic I wanted to use. I took what was a photo of my mom, sister in law and me with a Xmas tree behind us, and cropped my sis out (sorry Cindy!), minimized the tree exposure, and really made the focus of the composition me and my mom. I used “auto fix” to adjust the color (I always do this because I figure the system knows best how to adjust for poor lighting/over exposure), and voila! Perfect for a perfume bottle if I do say so myself. Take a look at the before and afters here: BEFORE: AFTER: I’ll let you know how the gift goes over….and, I’ll let you know if I win this photo contest! (I’m kinda doubting it because babies and puppies generally rule over washed up thirty-something-year-olds in front of fake trees. Sigh). Can a girl ever get a break around here? ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/look_and_smell_your_best_on_mo_1.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/look_and_smell_your_best_on_mo_1.html Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:38:14 -0800 Ironically, since I bought the TiVo mainly because I travel a lot, I always end up madly cleaning it out just before going on a trip, to make sure that there is enough free space to record “Mystery” and “House” while I'm gone. It's become another item on my travel To Do list, along with packing and calling the petsitter. But there's not always time to zip through everything before I leave, and it's really painful to have to delete unwatched shows, or get rid of a favorite old movie. So what's the solution for TiVo addiction and full hard drives? Assuming you have a networked Series 2, 3 or HD model, you can shell out big bucks for one of the new add-on hard disks that just came out, or you can buy a few blank DVDs, and use TiVoToGo and Roxio software to burn shows to disc or export them to your portable media player. Both Easy Media Creator 10 and Toast 9 have official TiVoToGo support. Now, instead of having to watch 10 shows before I leave on a trip, I can take them with me to view on my laptop, which is great for airplanes. And all those movies and shows I want to keep for posterity I can burn to DVD, instead of letting them use up hard drive space. You can even use the editing tools in Toast and Creator to remove unwanted segments from your recordings. Usually I only want to keep one 10-minute portion of a "This Old House" episode, for example. With Creator or Toast, I can cherry-pick the good parts from lots of episodes and put them all on one DVD with a nice menu for navigation. My dream house may not be built yet, but I'll know exactly how to do it! I just need to upgrade to an HD TiVo and I'll be in DVR heaven. So what is your experience using TiVoToGo? Any tips? Let us know in the comments. ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/are_you_a_tivo_slave.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/are_you_a_tivo_slave.html Digital Generation Burning & Copy Burning & Copy Mac Mobile Mobile PC Tech Enthusiast Video Video dvr hd tivo mobile video series 2 series 3 tivo tivotogo Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:00:00 -0800 There are so many cool things I discovered while making this production. My whole filming-against-a-black-sheet thing worked! I was able to hang it over the door to my kitchen and then effectively use that as my backdrop so that I could add the overlay images without a prob! (My cat was probably the only obstacle in getting this filmed easily – she had to get as close as possible to the sheet and ruined my first few takes.) With the black backdrop I could place my overlay images (popsicles, lollipop, cool car, altoids and more!) exactly where I wanted them (you can literally go into the piece of video footage and find the precise place within the segment that you want to drop the graphic; better yet, you can have it spin into the scene, tumble, creep, blink, fade in, fade out – you name it!). The whole smoke-filled room thing totally worked – I used the footage of the smoke and dropped it in over my head so that it looked like I was in a "lounge" of sorts – I was quite pleased with the results! So far I’ve had quite a bit of positive feedback….I’ve had a couple of thumbs down but that surely had to come from the "addicted" living in said state. Poor, poor delusional smokers. All by way of saying, every time I use Creator I learn something new. And, I recently entered some of my music videos into the Alice 3-minute film festival (the SF-based radio station for those not familiar). I thought the best way to submit would be to use MyDVD to burn the disc - but I couldn’t figure out how to create a file that could be easily downloaded. One of my co-workers showed me that if I go into Creator and pick the “Data and Backup” tab I can create a data disc that way. Then, when someone launches the disc they aren’t automatically launching a player, but instead a list of files that they can “open”, “play”, "download", etc. So I think I’m officially getting to the “Creator Pro” status. I’m feeling that way anyway. ;) Then, just for kicks, I entered my bf into the GillettePhenom contest – a contest restricted to males only (what the heck???) and they have to be doing something “phenomenal” with a ball. Oh man…the paths I could go down here….anyhoo, I used some golf footage that we’d taken back in January and married it with the Gillette theme music. It looks/sounds pretty good – though I have had one comment so far that said something to the effect of “can’t anyone do this??”. Well, Mr. Bummer Bird, I suppose anyone could – but anyone (read: you) hasn’t! I’m so naughty. Anyway, that’s all I've got at the moment….Oh, and I didn't win the Nature Valley contest - Joel can go live in Maine and eat blueberries till he bursts for all I care. Buh. I hate losing. ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/my_favorite_place_isfirst.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/04/my_favorite_place_isfirst.html Video contest creator video Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:50:34 -0800 amazingly still made and much in demand today. We also spent hours debating the merits of turntable cartridges, adjusting our tone arms for the best pickup, and carefully making mix tapes for the car using the then-revolutionary Dolby noise reduction system. We knew all about dynamic range and "clipping," and normalized our tapes manually by watching the signal meters and cueing and recueing each song to get the perfect gaps on tape. Making a cassette mix tape was easily a weekend job, and making the even higher-quality reel-to-reel tapes we used for parties was a group effort of the entire floor. We rearranged song lists ad nauseam, and delivered the requisite vinyl to the guy with the best system, who then spent a week making the tape under the watchful eyes of the rest of us constantly dropping by his room to listen and critique. Our never-ending quest for sonic superiority seems light-years removed from today's "good-enough" culture of $20 earbuds and highly compressed music formats. Price and convenience seem to have dulled our sense of music appreciation. You rarely see a portable music player actually evaluated for its sonic fidelity, rather than its capacity and user interface. But I'm here to tell you that your musical experience can and will be greatly enhanced by paying attention to reproduction quality. Really, there's nothing more mind-blowing that listening to great music through an equally great sound system. Fortunately, you don't have to compromise or spend a lot of money to enjoy both convenience and brilliant sonics. You can rip music from CDs in lossless quality in several formats: Apple lossless, FLAC and Monkey's Audio and Windows Media Audio lossless are some of the most common. The best one to choose depends on what is supported by your ripping tool and player of choice. (Easy Media Creator and Toast support most of these.) The basic point is that they preserve CD quality (hence the term "lossless") while reducing the space needed by about half. Thanks to freefalling hard disk prices, you can store a 3000-disc CD collection in lossless format on a single $250 terabyte hard drive. Once you've ripped in lossless format (and note that I'm not buying a digital download until they come in lossless -- the local used CD shop is cheaper anyway), all you need to do is listen through a top pair of headphones, like those from Koss, Sennheiser, Grado, Shure, Bose and others. (Head-Fi.org has recommendations.) You'll hear a big difference even on a portable player, but for true audiophile action, run the optical audio output from your computer to a good receiver, and thence to your headphones. The quality of the digital-to-analog conversion circuitry matters a lot, and it will be much better in the receiver. Have some other tips for getting the best sound out of your music player? Or think your MP3s sound just fine the way they are? Tell us in the Comments! ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/earbuds_schmearbuds.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/earbuds_schmearbuds.html Digital Generation Audio Audio Mac PC Tech Enthusiast earbuds headphones lossless audio Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:39:17 -0800 written previously about the damage the wrong pen or marker can do to your CDs and DVDs. But really, the biggest danger to the long-term health of your discs is the media itself -- some discs are just more reliable than others, made with better materials, equipment and quality control processes. A couple years ago, the UK Independent published an illuminating article on CD longevity, citing studies where media became unreadable after just two years in a dark cupboard -- even without exposure to sunlight or humidity, the usual culprits in CD degradation. While some disc formats are better than others (RW discs tend to have lower rated lifespans, for example), the bottom line is that no CD or DVD lasts forever, and the professional archivists responsible for major CD and DVD collections use only top-quality media, make multiple copies, check them every few years, and recopy as needed. So what are the best strategies for home users looking to preserve family photos or financial information? I asked Verbatim spokesperson Andy Marken for advice. He recommends looking for special "archival-grade" discs, and burning, handling and storing them with care. Archival discs are available from most of the major CD and DVD manufacturers, and may include special hardened outer coatings, more stable dye layers, and oxidation-resistant reflective metal layers. All of these things add to the cost of the disc, but are worth it when it comes to storing your most valuable data. Interestingly, when I asked Andy whether he'd recommend DVD-R or +R media, and single or dual-layer, he said that while there isn't much difference between R and +R, "Conventional wisdom recommends that you use single-layer as opposed to double-layer media just because you are multiplying the chances for issues." The Sony Studios library, for example, divides up its video files and spans them across multiple single-layer DVDs. (Both Easy Media Creator and Toast can perform disc spanning automatically.) Andy also wrote a great article for Audioholics about the longevity issue that ends with some dos and don'ts for CD and DVD handling: DO: * Handle discs by the outer edge or the center hole * Use a non solvent-based felt-tip permanent marker to mark the label side of the disc * Keep dirt or other foreign matter from the disc * Store discs upright (book style) in original jewel cases that are specified for CDs and DVDs * Return discs to their jewel cases immediately after use * Leave discs in their spindle or jewel case to minimize the effects of environmental changes * Remove the shrink wrap only when you are ready to record data on the disc * Store in a cool, dry, dark environment in which the air is clean -- relative humidity should be in the range of 20% - 50% and temperature in the range of 4°C - 20°C * Remove dirt, foreign material, fingerprints, smudges, and liquids by wiping with a clean cotton fabric in a straight line from the center of the disc toward the outer edge * Use deionized (best), distilled or soft tap water to clean your discs. For tough problems use diluted dish detergent or rubbing alcohol. Rinse and dry thoroughly with a lint-free cloth or photo lens tissue * Check the disc surface before recording. DON'T: * Touch the surface of the disc * Bend the disc * Store discs horizontally for a long time (years) * Open a recordable optical disc package if you are not ready to record * Expose discs to extreme heat or high humidity or rapid changes in temperature or humidity * Expose recordable discs to prolonged sunlight or other sources of UV light * Write or mark in the data area of the disc (area where the laser "reads") * Clean in a circular direction around the disc.]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/the_myth_of_the_100year_cd.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/the_myth_of_the_100year_cd.html Burning & Copy Burning & Copy Mac PC archival media CD/DVD longevity Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:05:00 -0800 So what I did was I took my Sony Cybershot camera (yes, I’m still using it which will explain why the clarity isn’t fabulous), I mounted it on one of the obnoxious oversized planters in my office’s “foyer”, took a look through the viewfinder and made sure that I was getting the shot I was after. Then it was truly as simple as hitting record because once the camera was rolling I could walk into the picture and have it continue rolling as I got inside the elevator, waited for the doors to close, then quickly press the “door open” button and assume my position of confusion/frustration again at not having moved. You get the picture. When I was done (and this literally took all of two minutes to film) I imported the footage into Videowave (integrated into Creator 10) and quickly edited out the bits I didn’t want – like me hitting “record” on the camera and then scurrying stage left. Right? Left. I then silenced the native audio because I didn’t want that strange humming sound that accompanies poor audio – it’s like the lights in a cheap department store. Creepy and depressing. I found this cool instrumental version of the main theme to “GoldenEye” and then (now this is going to sound confusing but it’s sooooo not) I imported the unprotected audio into Mixcraft, took EXACTLY the 15 seconds of it that I wanted, then saved it. Next I overlayed the audio on my 15-second video clip and I had myself a little story going. The best part, I used the narration feature again (remember how perfectly that worked in My Nature Valley?) and I dubbed my “elevator up!” voiceover just as my mouth was saying the words. The narration layers on top of the background music (cool) and doesn’t sound weird or thrown in “after the fact” – just more like what you’d expect from a commercial. Ya know? In fact, I’ll take this opportunity to show you what my video would have sounded like had I NOT done anything at all to the audio. Check this out: Pretty big difference huh? I know! So anyhoo, if you were to check out my YouTube channel you’d see I executed on the “toilet flush” concept as well – but I felt my elevator clip was stronger and likely wouldn’t be done by many. Toilet humor is far too obvious. But always funny. At 36 I still love a good toilet joke. I digress. Stay tuned cuz I’m in the throes of wrapping two new video/song compilations: the final anti-smoking pitch and a road trip video that I had wanted to submit to a contest but unfortunately I couldn’t finish it in time because I actually had some work (yes, real work – the kind I get paid to do) conflicting and messing up the rest of my life. Bye for now! ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/the_15second_challenge.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/the_15second_challenge.html Video 15-second video comedy contest submission creator 10 elevator music Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:54:18 -0800 Dymo DiscPainter is the coolest kid on the block. This unique printer works by printing while the disc spins, from the inside out, keeping the print head steady as the tray moves under it. The end result is fascinating to watch, much like making spin art paintings at the school fair. I saw it at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, and had to try it out for two reasons: first, stick-on labels are just not good for use in many drives, especially cars and slot-loading Macs, where they can gum up the works; second, I'm creating more and more video and photo CDs as gifts for relatives, and Sharpies just don't cut it anymore. The DiscPainter comes with a few blank CDs to get you started, as well as an ink cartridge good for about 100 discs. It works with both PCs and Macs, and can be used with the Label Creator software in Easy Media Creator 10, as well as the Disc Cover application included with Toast 9 Titanium. After a bit of experimentation I got things working perfectly on both platforms. Here are some tips for getting great results right off the bat: Choose the Right Media: Be sure to buy special "inkjet-printable" CDs or DVDs for use with the DiscPainter or any other direct-to-disc printer. These have coatings designed to absorb the ink so that it does not smudge and the colors show up properly. They come in a variety of surfaces: matter white, glossy white, silver and colored. They also vary in how much of the inside "hub" of the disc is printable. I tried several types, and my clear favorite was glossy white, which yielded the most vibrant colors and most professional-looking results. I also liked the hub-printable disc better since they provide more space for background images and text. Buy a few small samples and test before buying in quantity, however, since there was at least one brand that didn't take the ink properly. The Dymo discs and Verbatim inkjet printable CDs both worked well for me. Using with Label Creator on a PC: In the Print dialog box, choose the DiscPainter as your printer, and then set both Properties and Preferences. In Printer Properties, choose either "hub-printable" or "non-hub-printable," depending on whether your disc has a print area that goes all the way to the middle or not. Also select the desired print quality and ink density for your disc. Different densities are used for matte white, glossy white and silver or colored discs. With the matte Verbatim discs I used the lowest ink density, higher densities obscured detail. Finally, since the DiscPainter is too new to be listed as a predefined "Paper Type," I selected the Epson PM-4000PX as a proxy, then adjusted the offsets slightly to center the image on the DiscPainter. To adjust offsets, click Preferences, then use Fine Tuning settings of -.8 for vertical, and -1.6 for horizontal. Using with Disc Cover on a Mac: Printing in Toast 9's Disc Cover involves two steps. After pressing the Print button, select the Output (Direct to CD/DVD), Tray Type (Dymo DiscPainter), and Printer (Dymo DiscPainter) in the window that pops up. If you will be printing at Best quality, also choose 600 dpi output. Clicking Next brings you to the standard Mac print dialog, where you can set DiscPainter-specific Printer Features like hub diameter and ink density. For Best quality on matte Verbatim discs, I used Matte1. For the correct inside and outside print diameters, check your disc manufacturer's Web site or product label, or simply measure the disc in mms. I'm now dreaming up all the ways I'm going to use my DiscPainter, including a few holiday projects that I'd better get started on pronto! ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/disc_label_spin_art.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/disc_label_spin_art.html Digital Generation Burning & Copy Burning & Copy Easy Media Creator Mac PC Tech Enthusiast cd/dvd label dymo discpainter printing Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:41:58 -0800 Just who is buying all those photo frames? It's not me. I'm normally on the bleeding edge, but thus far, this is one tech trend I've managed to avoid (another being online multiplayer games like Second Life and World of Warcraft -- I like my tech to save me time, not eat it up...). It's not that I wasn't aware of them. I've been writing about them in computer publications for years, and even testing them out. But somehow, as a photography nut, the idea of substituting a relatively low-quality LCD display for a brilliantly-colored glossy color print enlargement on my nightstand or side table just never appealed to me. I look at my photos as art, and rotating digital snapshots seem more like ephemeral newspaper headlines than eternal displays of beauty. And that's when it finally sank in. That people don't buy these frames as art, but as means of communication. They buy them to give to relatives, and load them up with all the latest photos of their kids. Or use them to display photos of last month's vacation or holiday celebration. They have become substitutes for printed photo albums. (Although photo books are also becoming extremely popular, a topic we'll cover another time.) As for myself, I'm finally considering buying a digital photo frame for two main reasons: to hold some of the vast numbers of old family photos I don't have room to display elsewhere, and to keep up with the latest pics of my far-flung quintet of nephews, all of whom are too cute for words. I haven't yet picked out a winning frame, but I'll be looking for these features: * Wi-Fi for receiving photos over a network and the Internet. * The ability to automatically download new pics from a service like Flickr or Picasa. * USB port for flash drives or computer connection. * Remote control and memory card slot. * At least 5x7, probably larger, depending on my budget. * Resolution that matches typical digital camera aspect ratios, so that edges won't be cut off or letterboxing needed. * Slideshow capability with music background. * The ability to play back short videos, too. * A clean frame design that blends in with most decor. * A bright and colorful LCD with excellent picture quality from all angles, not just straight on. What I don't need: built-in printer, RSS newsfeeder, weather and traffic reports, alarm clock, Internet radio, or Bluetooth for beaming over cell phone photos. All nice features that will appeal to some, but my laptop and clock radio already serve them better than any photo frame could, so I'd rather not pay for them. David Pogue reviewed a bunch recently in The New York Times; none fit all my criteria, but some come close. I'm betting I'll have a winner soon, and will report back on what I choose. In the meantime, let us know about your experiences with digital photo frames. Have you taken the plunge? When and why? Which frame did you choose? Are you happy with it? ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/digital_photo_frames_art_or_sc_1.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/digital_photo_frames_art_or_sc_1.html Digital Generation Digital GrandDad Mac PC Photo Photo Soccer mom Tech Enthusiast digital cameras photo frames Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:55:41 -0800 istockphoto.com (you can buy royalty-free stuff pretty cheaply there) and found this awesome video of a lit/smoking cigarette on a black backdrop. I was able to take that clip and “overlay” it onto my video by first creating a solid black panel in my production, then adding the mpg as an "overlay on the internal panel." The results are pretty stunning (considering I’m no pro I think this looks pretty darn cool). Once I finish the piece you’ll get to see another cool effect in which I’ve taken what looks like a smoke-filled room and inserted myself in it, again just using footage that has a solid background and then mirroring the same background in the panel where I’m overlaying it so that the end effect is a seamless image (you can’t see where the image and panel behind it come together – or apart as the case may be). Sometimes I find myself in a position where I have a mental block...I’ll get stuck on something – either trying to come up with some new angle I haven’t already tried….or exploring a new setting I haven’t exhausted a zillion times (I think that’s a real word actually). Surfing the web for ideas can help. You probably know you can go to google.com and perform an image search for the topic you’re working on. All kinds of things come up – some you may have never thought of – and often this can create new ideas or build on the ideas you already have. For example, there is a section in my anti-smoking song that speaks to putting something “sweeter in your mouth” and I was able to find an image of a giant lollipop against a white backdrop. My plan is to take footage of me against a white backdrop, and then layer that into the panel with the enormous sucker and sort of wrestle with its sheer magnitude (the lolli will most definitely be bigger than me in the final cut). Kinda fun, right? It’s just a way to jumpstart the thinkin’ when you’re tired of the same old footage. Let's say you recently went camping or on a fishing trip (or whatever floats your particular boat)…it’s way more fun to “delight” (that word is something a grandparent might use but it delights me nonetheless) the people who will be watching your photo slideshow or video with random photos of say Bigfoot or a massive hammerhead shark that you “caught effortlessly.” Know what I mean? F-U-N. But if my idea of fun isn’t necessarily yours, that’s ok too. Stick to the footage you actually shot yourself and add neat transitions and effects between segments. My favorite transition is the “dissolve” feature because I love the way one image fades slowly as another comes up on screen. It’s such a softer effect than jumping from shot to shot. And with borders (like the “old photo” or “newspaper collage”) you can make what was a more ordinary series of photos something that jumps off the screen. Do I sound like I’ve been paid to wax on? I’m feeling a bit prolific even for my own standards….but as I write this, my boyfriend is putting the final touches on a marketing plan that I’m supposed to be writing - so I’m attempting to look very busy so he’ll keep on going. More later! ;) ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/el_fuego_with_creator_by_my_si.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/03/el_fuego_with_creator_by_my_si.html Video creator layering imagery no smoking overlay video Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:34:48 -0800 miniSD card. With some of these cards, you can get a adapter that then lets you insert the card into a computer SD card reader to copy the photos off. That’s normally a big headache since for many camera phones, removing the memory card involves disassembling your phone to get at the card. Other methods include (if the carrier has unlocked the functionality), using a USB cable to connect the phone to the computer or using Bluetooth to wirelessly transmit the photos from the phone to the PC. All of this is interesting, but still involves a lot of manual copying of files and photos. With Creator 10 and Media Manager, we’ve really tried to address this basic need for those of us that would really love to get our photos out from the phone and onto the PC so we can view them in all their full screen glory or perhaps create something like a slideshow or a panorama slide. Syncing is a vital part of this process. Set up the camera phone the first time for syncing, and any new pictures that have been taken since the last time will automatically be backed up and copied onto the PC. That way, you can now print them out, and be confident that if something unfortunate were to happen to your phone, you always have a copy of those snapshots in life somewhere handy... I would be interested to hear how many of you actually do get your picture off our camera phones or do you just leave them on there until memory has run out? Have any of you had instances where you have lost your phone or even upgraded to a new one and now don’t have your important photos with you? ]]> http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/02/how_do_the_heck_do_i_get_my_ph_1.html http://blog.roxio.com/mymoments/2008/02/how_do_the_heck_do_i_get_my_ph_1.html Mobile camera creator 10 mms Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:00:11 -0800