Best printer for printing DVDs

I've been an Epson user for many years. But I've always had mixed results printing on discs. Lately my printer rejects the disc about 4 out of 5 times I attempt to print. I have the stylus Photo R340.
The Epson software & support seem VERY dated.
So what is everyone using to print DVDs?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
g

After putting up with an Epson Stylus Photo printer for several years and dealing with lots of poorly printed and ruined DVD's using this printer. I recently purchase a Canon IP4500. Canon printers sold in the U.S. (for licensing reasons) do not (out of the box) support printing to DVD. The Canon printers sold in the U.S. ARE capable of printing to DVD's. By using Google and eBay I was able to buy an inexpensive tray for loading DVD's and inserting them into the IP4500 and find a video showing a few easy steps that reprogram the Canon IP4500 for printing to DVD using Canon's PrintCD software. This took less than 10 minutes to do and was very simple.
I have now printed over 30 DVD's with the Canon IP4500 without a single problem. It just works, perfectly every single time! I purchased the printer from Amazon, the CD tray off of eBAy, and found the video on how to prepare the printer for printing to DVD's online using Google. I highly recomend going this route.
Tom

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Best Settings for Exporting DVD Footage in a Movie File

Hello,
I've been trying to find the best settings for exporting DVD footage into a movie file from Adobe Premiere CS6.
I recently have been using my Magnavox DVD recorder for recording VHS tapes that I made long ago for shows and various other things, and no matter what, my footage doesn't come out as it needs to be.
Here's an example of what I did recently with my own settings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFV4sT7rHGs
I'm not expecting HD footage, I know these are tapes, but I'm playing the raw footage on my Xbox 360, and it looks better than this. I had to directly use the VOB files on the DVD for this, as trying to rip the files into an AVI or any other format with a DVD ripper didn't do anything, in fact it degraded the quality and made the audio not play in Premiere.
So what would be some good settings for exporting a sequence with DVD footage that is from a VHS into a movie file, preferably one that wouldn't degrade the quality?
Thanks!

First, read Why not edit mpeg http://tangentsoft.net/video/mpeg/edit.html to get a general idea of why a VOB makes a very poor source file (which is a renamed MPG, with some other stuff like menu screens)
Also, Read Bill Hunt on editing a VOB/MPG file http://forums.adobe.com/thread/464549
Once you have a DVD compliant VOB on your timeline, and understanding that a standalone DVD recorder sometimes plays fast-n-loose with "compliance" per the DVD specification, about all you can do is export to standard or widescreen DV AVI and accept the fact that re-encoding an already compressed file is just not going to give great results

Best Process for making DVD slideshows w/iDVD

Hasn't someone made a Sticky about this yet??
I just perused the forum for this answer and it seems the user "Shippley" has provided the most help in this area. I'm hoping they can help in this case. For making a dvd slideshow using ONLY iMovie, iPhoto and or iDVD what process has been determined to provide the best visual quality on playback in a DVD player?
I've read that for best results in putting a slideshow onto a DVD is to make the slideshow in iPhoto or iMovie first, and then send it on to iDVD.
But I need more information, and in one location-
Should the iPhoto/iMovie slideshow be WITHOUT any transitions for best quality?
In iPhoto, should we organize our slideshow in an Event then Share > Send to iDVD for best results, or is there a better way?
Does iMovie HD (6.0.4) or iMovie '08 (7.1.4) make a difference in quality? Otherwise I want the easiest.
When the iMovie slideshow is being sent to iDVD, should we use Share>Export Movie for the best quality when sending to iDVD? Or is there another/better way?
My photo's are scanned from slides and are small file sizes, if they were large (like from a digital camera) do I have to resize them for optimum DVD viewing?
What about the settings for widescreen or standard, either one better?
iDVD encoding, Best/High/Professional, which one for best clarity?
Like most other infrequent DVD makers, I do not want a fancy slideshow, I don't care if it has transitions if it means I can have better clarity in the DVD player. I have old slides that I simply want to burn to a DVD.
Thanks for your help!
Sandy

Here is a quote from a post of F Shippley on March 8, 2010 that I am referring to. Bengt, you also responded to this post. The post is titled "poor picture quality with DVD slideshow".
Thus my confusion as to the best practice. I may look into Fotomagico, but like others, I don't want to have to pay for another application that may only be used once or twice a year! Thank you for your responses.
F Shippley writes, "As I told you in your other message yhread:
The easiest way to improve the quality of slideshows for use with iDVD is to create them as movies in iPhoto or iMovie! Creating slideshows in iDVD has MANY drawbacks (as you have probably found). It's 'quick and dirty' easy for a few slides, but that's about all I use it for.
BTW, for PAL DVDs use 768x576 pixel images for standard video and use 1024x576 pixel images for widescreen video. That's all the resolution a DVD supports. "

Best settings for older dvd players

anyone have any recommendations on bit rate or other compression settings for older dvd players? everything i produce plays fine on my personal dvd player that actually says dvd-r on the front, but i continuously have problems with clients players having pixel issues of freezing up. i've tried lower bit rates and such but i'd rather not go into all the different angles and just see what you guys say.
I can't be the only person out there that has clients with cheapo players!
thanks in advance.

I don't think you are going to find a single solution to this problem. Just about every DVD player is going to have problems with some brands or types of recordable DVDs. Some things to consider or try:
1.) Educate your customers about potential DVD media problems. Potentially tricky since not everyone will freely admit or accept that such problems exist.
2.) Burn the DVD at the lowest possible rate (burn at 1X rather than 4X, etc.).
3.) Try a different brand of DVD-R.
4.) In special cases consider using DVD-RW rather than DVD-R (some older players will actually work better with DVD-RW).
5.) Consider using the best possible DVD recorder (I'd recommend Plextor drives mated with Roxio's Toast software).
6.) Use a commercial DVD mastering service (only practical if you want to duplicate several hundred discs -- too costly for small runs).

Best workflow for making dvds on printable disks

I am going to burn a few dvds and want to also use my printer to print some images onto the dvd itself.
I have printable dvd-r blanks, and will use idvd and my mac pro dvd drive to make and burn the dvds, but I am wondering which is the best sequence to do it in?
Do I burn the dvd first and then print on its surface, or do I print the surface first and then burn the dvd?
Will one way be better for avoiding burning or playback problems or does it make any difference?
Thanks for any advice.

How do I use it if I want to burn another copy of my movie to a dvd in the future?
I use Toast to make all additional copies from a disc image (or from the finished dvd itself). But you can also use apple's disc utility just the same without the additional cost of any 3rd party software.
There is very little difference between a disc image and a finished /burned Dvd-R. Both are fully self-contained (complete with video_ts folder/s). Both respond exactly the same way when played with apple's dvd player app.
Yes you can go ahead and delete all prior iDvd and iMovie project files (assuming all is exactly the way you want the dvd to play now and to look like as far as menu selections, movies, titles, audio, and slideshows). But I personally would not delete any of the above files until I am 100% certain I will not need them again in the future (in terms of further modifications to an existing iMovie project especially). External HD space is rather cheap these days and I have a habit of keeping existing iMovie project files and if necessary archiving an existing iDvd project file which I'd rather not have on my boot volume but poses no problems on an ext. FW HD.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Best way for Slideshow DVD

I am rookie user of all iLife software on my computer. I have a dilemma I was hoping someone here might be able to help me with...
My fiance put me in charge of putting together the slideshow for our wedding reception. The DJ told me that it has to be in DVD format. I would like to do in three sections; one of me, one of her, and one of us together.
-I need each of the sections to have a different song.
-I need to be able to play the sections in succession. I do not want to have to go back to the main menu to click the next section every time.
-I need to have an introductory slide before each section (ie. Him, Her, Them or something to that extent).
If someone could guide me through this process it would be greatly appreciated. I tried using iDVD already. It worked great for one section, but I need to put together something that looks somewhat professional (250+ people will see this) and can't go back to the menu to click on each section of the slideshow.
- JoshuaThomas

Welcome to the forums!
There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto, iMovie or iDVD, but they all have one thing in common: they reduce the quality of the photos to that of a movie still frame and sometimes limit the number of photos you can use.
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, place text exactly where you want it, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico: http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie 6 as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast, for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!

Best settings for HD DVD?

Quick workflow question. I am outputting to HD DVD which is played on xBox 360 HD DVD player. Ultimately I am guessing that the best workflow from camera to DVD would be to use 1080p60 or 1080p24 depending on what the look is I am going for. Is this correct?
Here's the problem. I just bought a Sony PMW XDCAM EX1 and I want to output to HD DVD. I was told by one person to use the 1080p30 setting when I shoot because it all around looks the best, which in my opinion 30p does look the best for what I am doing. But someone else said, "no, why use progressive, your product will eventually end up 60i."
So my question is, 1080p30 looks the best on my camera, but my HD DVD player and projector both can handle 60p. What do I do?

I know this is a very subjective question, but that's what I am looking for, subjective advice on the best workflow from 1920/1080p30 to High Definition DVD's.
Thanks

Best settings for short DVD movie from HDV source

Source: HDV, 3 min Movie, Final Cut
I've used Best Quality 90 mins which gives me Mpeg2 video and AC3 audio. As space isn't a problem I wondered if there were better presets to use (eg AIFF for audio)
I'm downconverting from HD to SD and then going to DVD SP.

First, read Why not edit mpeg http://tangentsoft.net/video/mpeg/edit.html to get a general idea of why a VOB makes a very poor source file (which is a renamed MPG, with some other stuff like menu screens)
Also, Read Bill Hunt on editing a VOB/MPG file http://forums.adobe.com/thread/464549
Once you have a DVD compliant VOB on your timeline, and understanding that a standalone DVD recorder sometimes plays fast-n-loose with "compliance" per the DVD specification, about all you can do is export to standard or widescreen DV AVI and accept the fact that re-encoding an already compressed file is just not going to give great results

Best practice for creating DVD

I am trying to create a DVD of the movie i just made.
I am wondering about the exporting feature of iMovie, beucase i want to change the frame rate from 29 fps to 25 fps to give it a more movie like feel, rather then so life like....
is is possible? What perhaps is good practice for this?
thanks.

29/25 fps are Apple's latest "acronyms" for NTSC/PAL...
you change a lot more then just framerate...
in case you like to play the resulting DVD on a NTSC player: don't do so...
making a more "filmish" look, deinterlace your project, using
JES Deinterlacer (free)
.. gives much better effect...
finally: use the cinematize effect in iM.. adding black borders give most viewers a nice ... ehm, cinema effect.

Best options for external DVD burner for MAC Pro

The internal DVD/CD burner died in my MAC Pro -
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111D
it wasn't ever reliable so I want to replace it with an external drive so when that one dies I don't have to take my computer to the Apple store to get it replaced & the worst part being without my computer for 3-4 days.
Any suggestions on a good reliable DVD burner are greatly appreciated.

A good bootable multi-interface enclosure (empty) for an external CD/DVD drive will run about US$70.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MRSFW8U2RF/
They also sell SATA drives pre-installed in that same enclosure.
Many users find installing an internal drive themselves no more difficult than doing a memory upgrade themselves.
Others prefer not to work inside their computer.
Based on your graphics card and the original drive, I expect your Mac Pro is an older model. All before 2009 accept an ATA INTERNAL drive such as this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/superdrive/Mac_Pro_Xeon
That page also has a video of how to install a replacement DVD drive.

Best software for watching DVD on Pismo?

Hello all
I've resurrected an old Pismo (G3 Powerbook - Firewire). I have upped the RAM to 768MB and swapped the 400MHz processor out for a blindingly fast G3 500MHz from another unit. (Yes, it makes a difference!). I have swapped out the original DVD-ROM (which seemed to be on its way out) with a nice slot load DL DVD-R/W unit, complete with appropriate faceplate. The Pismo is running 10.4.11 Tiger with all updates on one partition, and OS 9.2 on another. I default boot into OS X and when I insert a DVD (using Apple DVD Player) all I get is the initial audio (that jingle you hear when the menu pops up) and that's it - NO video (just a black screen) and nothing else. I have tried VLC for Tiger, and I can get audio but NO video. In the VLC menus, I have fiddled around with the video settings to no avail.
Here's the kicker - when I boot into OS 9, the DVD plays just fine using Apple DVD player (I think it's 2.7), so I know the hardware is all good and the disk isn't scratched or anything. (And the symptoms in OS X happen with various DVDs - I've tried a few).
What software can I try to watch DVDs in OS X? Or is there some secret to getting either Apple DVD player or VLC to work properly?
thanks

Well, I hope it supports it. A *very* long time ago I had a Wallstreet with a DVD drive, and I know I used to watch movies on it (with the DVD decoder card, which the Pismo is supposed to have built-in), but it's been so very, very long since I used a G3 Powerbook that I don't remembrer any of the details. At the moment, I'm using the DVD Player in OS 9 (so I know that the hardware can handle DVD playback), but I don't remember how to do it in OS X --- or even if it's possible.
thanks

Best Settings for my dvd

I've been having problems importing a quicktime movie to DVDSP , so someone suggested i use compressor. Well I'm compressing the project straight from Final Cut Pro using the setting h264 to DVD Studio Pro. The Project is about an hour and twenty minutes, some titles from live type, chapter markers. Other than that it doesn't have a lot to it, but I returned after almost 24 hours and it is at 57% complete and says it has another 17 hours to go! Should I be using different settings when compressing? I'm not looking to do anything special to it in DVDSP, just make menus and burn it to a regular dvd.
Powermac Dual G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

H.264 is the wrong format for a standard DVD.
You're wasting your time.
MPEG-2 is what you have to use for standard definition video.
H.264 can be used for encoding high defintion video to be used in the creation of high definition DVDs not standard definition DVDs.

Best Program for DVD/Video converting

What is the best program for converting DVDs and videos? I know one is videora or something like that. I want something that is easy to use and dosen't take up alot of time to install.

GUIDES TO: Converting Video for iPod - Mac & Window
http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123067
Patrick

Best way for printing

Hi,
I have developed a card designer tool having features of adding text and image on card with many effects(sepia, negative etc..) , But when I print the quality of printed card is not good, I used ImageSnapshot class to print and used dpi 300.
What should I do for best printing quality? Kindly suggest the best way.
Thanks,
Premkant

...I am wondering which is the best option to make
JPEGs for an external printing service.
JPEG is a lossy format, meaning some image data is lost with every save to JPEG format. That means that best files for print submission should be non-lossy TIFF or PSD files when possible (e.g. when you are delivering files on CD/DVD).
That said, prints of well shot images from files saved once as JPEG-12 quality are indistinguishable from prints of the same files saved to TIFF.
As you go down the JPEG quality scale from 12 to 1 quality gets progressively worse.
You probably should review the various comments on the thread at
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=756016&tstart=0
-Allen Wicks

Best Practice for a Print Server

What is the best practice for having a print server serving over 25 printers 10 of which are colour lasers and the rest black and white lasers.
Hardware
At the moment we have one server 2Ghz Dual G5 with 4GB Ram and xserve RAID. The server is also our main Open directory server, with about 400+ clients.
I want to order a new server and want to know the best type of setup for the optimal print server.
Thanks

Since print servers need RAM and spool space, but not a lot of processing power, I'd go with a Mac Mini packed with ram and the biggest HD you can get into it. Then load a copy of Xserver Tiger on it and configure your print server there.
Another option, if you don't mind used equipment, is to pick up an old G4 or G5 Xserve, load it up with RAM and disk space, and put tiger on that.
Good luck!
-Gregg

Best printer for printing DVDs

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