There are lots of  different discs to print on, silver, white matt, white silver, glossy, semi glossy etc…

Most of the matt finish discs are not water proof.  You need to spray them with a water proof shield.  Once they have been sprayed they look nice, they have a semi shine to them, but beware, you need a lot of room to spray them. The area needs to be well ventilated as the spray can be harmful.

There are a few silver discs about. You can inkjet print on some, much the same as the matt discs.  Alternatively you can buy discs that are lightscribe, this is where you etch the text or artwork on the discs, this is water proof as there is no ink being used, however, you do need the correct software and burner for to be able to use these.

The semi glossy discs are very good for text and photo print.  They are water proof and scratch resisant, so you don’t need to spray them.  They are not very glossy but do look good, you don’t have to worry about finger marks on the face of the disc, these discs do cost a bit more than the matt finished disc, but they are a better looking disc, also you are saving the cost of the seperate sealing spray.

The glossy disc is the best inkjet printable disc you can get.  The print is very much like thermal.  Water proof and scratch proof.  Almost the same as the semi glossy disc, but very shinny.  The only problem is you can see finger marks ont he face only if you look for them.. The print is not affected.

The best print to use is thermal.  They do cost more than the other discs, this is because you get a better finish and also the cost of printing.  It’s  a different process from ink jet where they are water colours, thermal print they use ribbons instead of water based ink.

For many years VHS was the best thing since sliced bread.  The picture quality was good (better than the TV picture).  The sound was good too.  Easy to record on and you could rerecord on the tape also.  One of the main benefits of the VHS was they were easy to use.  All you did was put it in the VCR player and press play. Not difficult at all.  Unless you had to sort out the tracking.  what a pain in the neck that was.  The other thing with VHS was the tape sometimes got chewed up in the VCR player, and the only way to get it out was to take the thing apart, or simply cut the tape. When you did get it out it was ruined, not all of it but about 20-30 seconds of the tape.  You also had the worry that when it got to the same point in the tape will do it again? (most likely).  When copying a tape it is done in real time so if the tape was one hour long that is the time it would take to copy.

All the manufactures have stopped making VCR machines and all the film industries are only producing DVD and blu-ray discs.  So if you’ve got any old VHS tapes I would get them converted to DVD as soon as possible.  The cost of this service can be expensive, depending how long the tape is.  If its an old film you can buy them cheap on the intenet.  If it’s a wedding or a special event gets it on DVD fast or all will be lost.  You can buy a kit from the internet that connects to your pc.  So if you want to edit the film you can, they don’t cost much, if you have a lot on VHS buy the conversion kit it will work out cheaper than sending the tapes away to be converted onto DVD.

The age of digital photography is well upon us.  Virtually every household now have a digital camera.  Children and adults alike just point the camera and press, but to get that little bit extra from your digital camera there are a few things yu may wish to consider.

APERTURE: This is basically a lens with an adjustable hole in the centre, the adjustable part is called the diaphragm.  Adjusting the diaphragm determines the amount of light allowed into the camera thus affecting the finished image.

WHITE BALANCE: Is how the camera interpretes white under different light sources.  Our eyes can tell the difference no problem but cameras have great difficulty with getting the white balance correct.  If the white balance is not set correctly you can get horrible Green, Orange or Blue showing on your photograph.  Most digital cameras have an auto white balance filter, this makes life much easier as the filter calculates the best white balance for the lighting conditions.

SHUTTER SPEED: All cameras from the very cheap upto the most expensive have shutter speeds.  On some cameras the shutter speed is not adjustable so there is nothing you can do but point and press.  On others the shutter speed is adjustable BUT this is done automatically so you are unable to change it by hand.  On more expensive and modern cameras there is automatic shutter speed BUT this can be changed by the operator.

Finally to get the best out of your camera invest in a sturdy, well build tripod.  A tripod will last for years so invest wisely.  The cheap tripods available are usually very light and flimsy.  Look for a well known name, Manfrotto, Libec, Benbo are but a few that offer quality, reliability  and will not break the bank.  Also if possible invest in a sturdy bag or case for your tripod, this small investment will pay dividends in the long term.

The first thing to be aware of if you are thinking about Copy Protection on your disc is that no copy protection hardware or system is 100% reliable.  If an experienced hacker or computer expert wants to get into your disc they will. Saying that, there are several methods available that will stop the average guy in the street from copying your material.

If you are going to get your discs REPLICATED the copy protection needs to be put in place at the authoring stage.  Then make sure that the replication house you are using is aware of this nad they will finalise the operation at the stamping process.  With regard to cost, there is usually an extra one off cost from the stamping house then a licence cost per disc, not a great deal approx between 1 - 5 pence a unit depending on quantity.

Up until recently is was very expensive and quite difficult to get copy protection on DVD discs in quantities less than 1000 (replicated) but nowadays with modern equipment and software any quantity can be protected and does not cost the earth.  Most people are aware of duplication towers.  The single towers allow you to duplicate upto 10 or 11 discs at a time.  Well now there are towers available that if specific specialised software is used they will copy and protect discs.  Basically this software embeds a proprietory copy protection encryption into the master DVD video through a PC.  This can then be transferred onto the duplicators hard drive via the USB connection.  A licence has to be purchased for each title but then you can copy protect as many discs as you require without any additional costs.  Additional licenses are available on a USB in quantities from 30 to 100.  The actual towers are slightly more expensive than standard towers but obviously their costs will decrease significantly as time goes on.

Video surveillance cameras are more common now than ever.  They are virtually everywhere we go, on department store roofs, in most suburb streets, football grounds etc.  Cameras differ greatly in price from a few pounds to an elaborate system costing thousands.

More and more householders are now installing them.  Parents can check on children in different parts of the house.  Visitors can be seen prior to answering your front door.  You can even check on the dog in the front garden, video surveillance is here and its here to stay.

Some small businesses and households who cannot afford compete systems now use fake cameras.  These usually consist of a dummy camera wiht batteries that light up a red bulb at the bottom of the camera thus hopefully acting as a deterrent for thieves or vandals.

Another surveillance camera that is gaining popularity is the Covert camera.  These tiny cameras can be hidden anywhere, from a picture in a living room to a telephone in a shop.  These cameras can be recording without any one realising they are being spied on.

Now available are cameras that record at night. These are very popular in town centres and car parks where lighting is limited.  Police position these types of cameras in known violent or troubled areas and now use the tape as evidence in court.  Although a lot of organisations such a Rights Campaigners and liberty organisations are saying that it is big brother watching people all the time, surely if these cameras help identify muggers, rapists, thieves and even murderes they are helping the majority of the comunity and the only people who should be against them are the people with something to hide.

Wireless Surveillance cameras are now available and can be erected very quickly.  No wires are visible and they are very unobrusive.

Useful hints below to help you look after your disc’s or repair ones that are damaged.

1) How to remove those finger marks.

You can get rid of finger marks very easily.  All you need is a small amount of washing up liquid diluted with water. Clean the disc like you would clean an ornament. (carefully) When it is dry go over it with an optical closh to bring back the shine.

2)  How to remove light marks and scuffs.

Try using nail polish remover.  You ca slo try furniture polish.  This will get rid of the marks and scuffs.  Use a soft cloth and rub the nail polish remover/furniture polish all over the disc.  Whe it is dry wipe with a soft cloth.  Then use an optical cloth to bring back the shine.

3) How to remove scratches.

Brasso or car polish.  Use a soft cloth and rub gently all over the disc.  You might have to do this a few times to get the scratch out.  So rub it on then rub it off, the use of an optical cloth to bring back the shine is again recommended at the end.

4) How to remove deep scratches.

This can be very difficult to do.  You can take it to a game shop that will put it in a professional cleaning machine.  It will cost between £5 - £10.  Or you can try this, you have nothing to lose.  If the disc doesn’t work anyway.  Get some glass paper (very fine sand paper) then lightly use the glass paper on the disc, it will scratch the disc but don’t worry, what you are trying to do is make the layer of the disc smaller, so the deep scratch will not be quite so deep.  Make sure the disc has been evenly rubbed all over, wipe with a clean cloth and follow step 3 above.

The moment of truth will be when you  put the disc back in the player.  Make the £5 or £10 to get the disc professional cleaned not sound so bad after all!!.

There are many companies using DVD/CD towers big and small. Schools, collegues and universities use them.  They can be used for small or large runs of DVD/CD duplication.  These towers are now one of the most important pieces of kit for companies.

Below are a few reasons whey the DVD/CD tower is so importand and popular with today’s videographer/film maker/musician or eductional body.

1)  They can duplicate any amount of dics

2) Any disc can be duplicated as long as its not copy protected.

3)  The tower can be used on a network

4)  It can write a CD 52 x and DVD 16x speed.

5)  The tower can be a standalone unit.

6)  The tower can be connected to a single designated computer.

7)  You can store data on the internal hard drive (if the unit you have purchased has one)

8)  you can also fly dup.  (put a disc in the rom drive and duplicate direct from that disc onto your blank media).

There are many more features to having a tower….  Many companies also use the towers for backup copies of their databases or finances.

There are a few disadvantages of using a tower (not many and we can only think of one)

1)  Labour intensive

That is about it, if you are looking for an affordable way to copy discs this is it.   There are automotive towers and also combi tower and printer units.  These units cost a lot more money to purchase than the stand alone units, the advantages of a combi unit is that you can put your disc on and walk away, come back later and they will all be done for you.   The combi units also print the disc.  The quality of the print is very good as long as the original files used are no less than 300dpi (dots per inch).  Combi units come in different sizes with different capacities of disc’s they will hold.

MCPS

UK Licencing authority for the use of music on behalf of composers, songwriters and music publishers, check out our quick guide to MCPS at

Web www.mcps-prs-alliance.co.uk
Telephone 020 7580 5544

ISRC Codes

ISRC coding is a way of giving music tracks a unique identifying code.

Web http://www.ppluk.com
Telephone 020 7534 1000

Music Publishers Association

looks after the interest of all music publishers based or working in the UK and exists to safeguard and improve the business and legal environment within which its members are operating

Web www.mpaonline.org.uk
Telephone 020 7580 0126

Musicians Union

The Musicians’ Union represents over thirty thousand musicians working in all sectors of the music business

Web www.musiciansunion.org.uk
Telephone 020 7840 5534

Music Publishers Association

promote awareness and understanding of british music, the value of the music, intellectual property rights, opportunities of the digital age for music

Web www.bmr.org
Telephone 020 7306 4446

British Phonographic Industry

The BPI is the British record industry’s trade association. Representing the interests of British record companies whose principal aim was to fight the growing problem of music piracy

Web www.bpi.co.uk
Telephone 020 7803 1300

DVD Replication

British Board of Film Classification

British Board of Film Classification, the independent regulator of the film and video industry in the UK which classifies cinema films and videos for public and industry.

Web www.bbfc.co.uk
Telephone 020 7440 1570

Federation Against Copyright Theft

trade body that is committed to protecting the interests of the audio-visual industry in the fight against pirate film and DVDs and the increasing threat from online piracy.

Web www.fact-uk.org.uk
Telephone 020 8568 6646

British Video Association

represent the interests of publishers and rights owners of pre-recorded video home entertainment. BVA also reports the Official Video Charts with the top 10 for sales and rental markets

Web www.bva.org.uk
Telephone 020 7436 0041

Video Standards Council

Oversee the code of practice to promote high standards within the video industry and computer games industry

Web www.videostandards.org.uk
Telephone

Software & Games CD Replication

The name Blu-ray is derived from the underlying technology, which utilizes a blue-voilet laser to read and write data, unlike the red laser which is used for CD’s and DVD’s.  The E in Blu was removed for trademark purposes.  The correct name is Blu-ray disc, not Blu-ray disk often shortened to BD.

There are two sizes of BD.  25Gb and 50GB (dual layered) you can fit over 9 hours of high definition (HD) video onto a 50GB disc and over 23 hours of standard definition (SD) video.

There are 3 main formats of Blu-ray.

BD-Ram - read only format for HD movies, games etc

BD-R -    recordable format for HD video recording and data storage.

BD-RE  - rewritable format for HD video recording and PC data storage.

Blu-ray is interactive you can consult menus wihtout stopping your film, you do not need an internet connections for basic playback of Blu-ray movies, however, it is needed for value added features such as downloading new extras, watching recent movie trailers and web browsing.  It will also be required to authorize managed copies of Blu-ray moveies that can be tansfrerred over a home network.  Blu-ray is backwardly compatible with DVD.  Most Blu-ray players support upscaling of DVD’s to 1080p / 1080i so no-one has to worry about their old DVD favourites.

Blu-ray disc provides the below key features and advantages.

* Maximum picture resolution - Blu-ray disc deliveres full 1080p video resolution to provide pristing picture quality.

* Best audio - as many as 7.1 channels of native, uncompressed surround sound for crystal clear audio.

* Enhanced interactivity - Seamless menu navigation, new bonus feature and network/internet connectivity.

There are 3 region codes for Blu-ray, the region code must be decided before the disc are authored .

A - America, Korea, Japan and South East Asia

B - Europe, Middle Est, Africa, Australia and New Zealand

C - Russia, India, China and the rest of the world

There are 3 main types of disc.  DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, and DVD-Audio. Each of these DVDs can be in DVD-5, 9, or 10, . The first classification is based on functions and the second classification is based on the capacity or playtime. The names of the DVDs are pretty self-explanatory. DVD-Video is for video, DVD-ROM is for pure data, DVD-Audio is for high quality audio, and DVD-R is the recordable version of all these DVDs. There is also DVD+R which is nothing more than a different kind of recordable disc. Most DVD writers or players do not care whether the recordable media is in + or - format. This used to be a problem some years ago when DVD was quite a new format and certain players would only recognise either the + R discs or the -R discs, but luckily as time has moved on so has the technology and this is no longer a problem.
The following table summarizes the different formats of DVDs.
Format Capacity Side / Layer Video Playtime Comment
DVD-5 4.7 GB Single / Single 2 hours The most basic kind of DVD
DVD-9 8.54 GB Single / Double 4 hours Need to be careful during authoring to choose the correct jumping point from Layer-0 to Layer-1.
DVD-10 9.4 GB Double / Single 4.5 hours Essentially a DVD-5 on each side. The disc needs to be manually flipped in order to play the other side. No artwork can be printed because both sides contain data.
DVD-18 17.1 GB Double / Double 8 hours Essentially a DVD-9 on each side. The disc needs to be manually flipped though and no printing can be done on these discs as both sides contain data.
In short the most popular is either a 5 or 9 as niether of these need to be manually turned over and both of these allow data on one side and full colour print on the other.