How does everyone go about labeling your media?

I used to use Lightscribe, but there doesn't seem to be much affordable or any blu ray lightscribe discs, so I was wondering what everyone else uses.

Thanks
Matt

What I do is:

-- 1. Get them printed by a disk replication company that does a higher quality job that I can.
-- 2. Include the cost of this in the package.

But my guess is that most people are just printing the disks themselves, which, frankly, is smarter -- they'd be able to produce the final product a lot faster and more cheaply.

Hi Matt

Inkjet printable discs is the way I way always gone. You of course need a printer that does CD/DVD media ..our Epson 720 and 730 printers do a good job.

The end product presentation is very important as that is what she will show her friends and you do want them to book you don't you?

Chris

We print them ourselves on an Epson R800. I cant recommend this printer as it seems to like wasting ink every time you turn it on and takes a random amount of time to startup (one day its on and ready, others it spends an age squirting ink and moving and squirting some more).

We're going to move to have them pre-printed for speed and cost.

We used to use lightscribe but they took an age to print and at the time of switching they didnt do blu-ray disks.

Here is a little look at what our disks look like;

Those discholders look nice Danny, do you print the couples name on it or include photo's? Currently I print my boxes and dvd's on a canon ip4900 and I have a refill set so I don't spend too much on original cartridges.

I have been thinking of designing a label, much like what I see in the photo you linked to (that's a cardboard sleeve, no?) with some fixed text and my company logo and then have a whole bunch dvd's and cardboard sleeves printed by a professional printer. If I let 500 to 1000 pcs printed it's actually very cheap and the printquality is also very good. The only thing I worry about is not having the couples name and the date of their wedding on the dvd or sleeve, I don't see that back either on the example you show Danny, is that the case and if so, don't the couple complain about this? I also think your branding (if that's what it is called) is very good, you have a very recognizable style which is the same for your website and dvd boxes and business card, did you design that by yourself or let a company design it for you?

Hi Matt,
I've been through various dvd printers over the years, but am currently using a Canon Ixus IP7250. It is cheap and cheerful and a bit slow, but does a good job.

I use full face white printable discs, and the printing template can be set up in most DTP software, I currently use Serif Writer although I was previously using MS Publisher. I use a background pic of the bouquet or B&G if the right proportions, overlaid with their names and the wedding date. I keep a permanent basic template into which I just drop the new picture and text.

This December, we printed around 400 school nativity discs and the printer handled them without any problems. It's much more convenient than getting an outside printing company and of course you can personalise them, which you can't if you are using a pre printed disc.

Roger

Hi Noa, we use WowWallets for the disks. It's like a fancy disk sleeve.

We were doing the whole custom image on a disk and custom printed case but in truth. It was a 10p DVD case with a printed sleeve and it looked like a 10p DVD case with a printed sleeve. No matter how fancy the artwork on it.

So after we had our branding done by Brought To You By (http://www.broughttoyouby.tv/) we set about re-designing our delivery. We went for a standard printed disk and case. It means we reinforce our brand but also cut down production time by another half a day.

Complaints? Not one. Never lost a job because we dont do custom cases and no one has ever asked. If you do offer them and boast about them then yes, people will listen. But the delivery of the final product is never a question which comes up.

When I take delivery of a new £20,000 car I dont expect them to have my name and picture on the front of the owners manual ;)

We believe very firmly in branding. We've just launched a sister company which went through a similar branding treatment but by a different agency. A Hint of Mint Ltd | Wedding Video / Films | Wedding Videographer based near London UK (http://www.ahintofmint.co.uk)

Standard DVD & Blu-ray cases are horrible which is why we don't use them. If we are charging £1000-2000 for our videos then I think that it's nice for the client to have a lovely artefact that is customised for them.

We print on the Blu-ray & DVD discs with a Canon iP4850. We use Canon inks as we don't print dozens of discs so any savings using potentially less than perfect 3rd-party inks would be minimal. The image on the disc is usually based on the background image on the disc menu. I don't have a photo of a finished disc to hand but attached is a screen shot from the label design program that came with the printer with a typical disc.

The disc cases we use are from Loxley Colour & cost about £25-30 each but are beautiful quality. We do boast about the lovely cases when making our sales pitch. https://www.loxleycolour.com/cddvdfolio.aspx

Danny, how do you handle the menus within the DVDs/Blu-rays? Are they always the same as well or are those customized?

I've mostly printed my own discs using inkjet for many years. Usually just 2-3 copies for each wedding, though I do a few stage events each season (plays, recitals) that might require 50-100 copies each. Had an HP inkjet for years and now have an Epson, I think 720/730 type, but that is awkward to load so I don't want to do mass quantities with it. Regarding ink usage with each startup - I just leave printer on, so that doesn't bother me.

On the larger bulk DVD jobs, I've started using Kunaki -- CD/DVD manufacturing and publishing service (http://www.kunaki.com) - this may not help folks outside the US though. But I just upload the DVD and the artwork to their site and a few days later the finished discs arrived at my door. Full color printing of DVD, case jacket, card inside case (if desired), includes shrink wrap, all for $1.75 per unit. Can't beat that at home and saves me a TON of labor on the larger jobs.

If you print your own inkjet discs, look for Taiyo Yuden (now JVC) "Watershield" discs - these have a glossy surface that results in a much nicer image than typical matte white inkjet printables.

Thanks

On the larger bulk DVD jobs, I've started using Kunaki -- CD/DVD manufacturing and publishing service (http://www.kunaki.com) - this may not help folks outside the US though. But I just upload the DVD and the artwork to their site and a few days later the finished discs arrived at my door. Full color printing of DVD, case jacket, card inside case (if desired), includes shrink wrap, all for $1.75 per unit. Can't beat that at home and saves me a TON of labor on the larger jobs.
There are similar deals here in the UK even for quite short runs of 20 or 30 discs too. The nice thing is the very professional look in a shrink wrapped package. Unless you have invested in one of these duplicating towers and have hours to waste it's a no brainer to get these guys to duplicate your discs for you.

We went for a standard printed disk and case. It means we reinforce our brand but also cut down production time by another half a day.

Thx for the info, much appreciated, this is actually the part that interests me most and that's how much time I can save per wedding, custom designing the prints for the case and dvd takes time. Maybe I could have a bunch pre-printed with a cardboard sleeve by a professional printing company and have the exclusive box, which Nigel linked to as paying option. Have to think about that.

Thx also for the branding company link, I probably would not invest in something like this as I will remain a one man company and have no ambitions in growing or getting my name out there, If I would have to make a living out of filming alone then definitely yes, a good recognizable brand would be the way to go but because I"m retired I just try to have fun but I end up every year doing to much weddings so timesavers are always welcome. I usually use what you and other known videographers do as inspiration to develop my own thing, very likely not as nice looking but fun to do myself. :)

Danny, how do you handle the menus within the DVDs/Blu-rays? Are they always the same as well or are those customized?

Those are custom.

i used lightscribe in the past, but mostly i use print on DVDs, the printer i have is a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 which yields very good prints.
Does anyone use pre-made after effects menus that can match up with packaging cotents for an overall look?

I like to use the same photo as a background for the menu as I use on the disc. Obviously the image has to be cropped as the disc is circular & the menu a 16:9 rectangle. Here is the DVD/Blu-ray menu that matches the disc that I posted earlier. I haven't actually done this for a client as I usually offer the leatherette, damask, silk or faux suede covers but it could be quite cool to use the same image wrapped on the DVD Folio case.

On the larger bulk DVD jobs, I've started using Kunaki -- CD/DVD manufacturing and publishing service (http://www.kunaki.com) - this may not help folks outside the US though. But I just upload the DVD and the artwork to their site and a few days later the finished discs arrived at my door. Full color printing of DVD, case jacket, card inside case (if desired), includes shrink wrap, all for $1.75 per unit. Can't beat that at home and saves me a TON of labor on the larger jobs.


Would love to hear if anyone has any experience of a UK equivalent of this service. I've Googled, but not found anything near this price bracket. Especially when they take the p*** with Northern Ireland postage.

I use a CISS in my Epson printer for DVDs and covers. It was from City Ink Express, looks identical to the RIHAC system, and has saved me a fortune. My next run of DVD inserts are going to be printed by a local printing company, but I still have to print the DVD faces, and use a tower duplicator for the discs themselves.

It's charity work, the money comes in in dribs and drabs rather than all at once from a single client, so my spare time (free) is better than spending £100s on duplicating.

I prefer to do it all inhouse so that I can customise everything for each individual client and type of job.

It is just packaging at the end of the day and unless you are chasing the vanishingly small numbers of clients who have lots of money to spend and who are receptive to triggers prompting the desire for exclusivity ..... well you may be incurring extra expense for no good purpose.

I use clear DVD boxes with see-through front sleeves into which a customised print can be inserted as the wrapper. I don't use the cheapest available but they are by no means expensive either.

I print onto discs using an Epson XP-850 and original Epson inks - it can get expensive if you use compatible inks and have to regularly flush through the system. Also there is a finite number of times you can flush the ink before the printer is DOA; unlike the larger printers that can have a replaceable waste tank. You cannot reset the latest printers with third party software now either - so you can't fool the printer into thinking it has more space in the waste tank than is the case.

I used the RIHAC continuous ink system for a couple of years on my 850's predecessor. It was OK but eventually was more trouble than it was worth because of air bubbles in the system etc. RIHAC support is excellent and I've Skyped them using an Ipad to video in real time what the printer is doing. But it is unwieldy and I won't get it for the 850. It does void your warranty.

The 850 is also good for scanning and photocopying. Its a lot smaller than earlier models.

The Epsons come with disc printing software in the UK (maybe not so in the USA as there were copyright issues going back). It works great, no need to use 3rd party software like Nero or Photoshop.

Here is a video disc surface customised for a kids birthday party. The blue surround is just the software saying that space is blank:

http://www.ashtonlamont.co.uk/images/disc1.jpg

And one for a wedding. This time customised to refer to NTSC (I'm in a PAL area):

http://www.ashtonlamont.co.uk/images/disc2.jpg

And for those of you venturing into offering stills, a disc customised for high resolution digital files:

http://www.ashtonlamont.co.uk/images/disc3.jpg

I reckon that the ability to use any image and any text trumps more elaborate or posher outsourcing solutions.

I do have Lightscribe as well. As others have mentioned it is very slow. Also it doesn't have the same ability to use any image - you have to choose carefully for good results. And the media is increasingly hard to obtain; I couldn't get any dual layer Lightscribe discs at all though they did once exist.

The wrappers I print for the boxes can be as simple or elaborate as I want. A simple one:

http://www.ashtonlamont.co.uk/images/wrapper.jpg

I print the wrappers on normal photo paper on my wide body Epson 4800. You can use the Epson 850 type printers but their ink is not pigment and prints will not cope well with placement in direct sunlight. You can of course use a lab. Just put your DVD wrapper onto a plain A4 background and get it printed then trim the excess off.

Disc surface and box wrapper production both lend themselves very well to the use of templates whilst at the same time allowing infinite customization. I'm not sure how anyone manages to take more than a few minutes to do them.

Pete

Would love to hear if anyone has any experience of a UK equivalent of this service. I've Googled, but not found anything near this price bracket. Especially when they take the p*** with Northern Ireland postage.

I use a CISS in my Epson printer for DVDs and covers. It was from City Ink Express, looks identical to the RIHAC system, and has saved me a fortune. My next run of DVD inserts are going to be printed by a local printing company, but I still have to print the DVD faces, and use a tower duplicator for the discs themselves.

It's charity work, the money comes in in dribs and drabs rather than all at once from a single client, so my spare time (free) is better than spending £100s on duplicating.

I never need to run off more than a handful of discs myself so have never needed to get them duplicated by a 3rd party but I know colleagues who have used these people & been very happy with the results & the prices Prices for CD Duplication and DVD Duplication (http://www.duplicationcentre.co.uk/prices.html)

I like the Epson 1430. Not for bulk jobs, but for a few disks in a wedding.

Peter, if you shoot a disc only wedding with no wedding album do you give them the disc in a "clear DVD boxes with see-through front sleeves into which a customised print can be inserted as the wrapper" or something nicer?

Peter, if you shoot a disc only wedding with no wedding album do you give them the disc in a "clear DVD boxes with see-through front sleeves into which a customised print can be inserted as the wrapper" or something nicer?

Yes thats exactly what I deliver. And whats more I get complimented on it. And get referrals. e.g. my shoot this Saturday is a recommendation from the grooms work colleague whose wedding I shot 3 years ago and that was a standard files only job.

I actually deliver two copies of the files DVD package, one being as a backup for them. In addition they receive three versions of each file. One is partially edited but not resized or sharpened (from the RAW) which is for Photoshop enthusiasts as it gives them more pixel pushing potential than an entirely finished printready file. The second version is fully printready. The third version is shrunk down ready for web use.

These factors together with the highly personalised discs and wrappers probably increase the perceived value over "shoot and burn" alternatives.

I've been experimenting with online delivery for the past few months as well. This is in addition to DVD discs. I upload all three versions to my website (which has unlimited capacity) as three zip files. Interestingly though my webstats show that very few clients download these zip files, presumably preferring to wait for the discs to arrive by post. And i am in a very tech savvy region.

The presentation cases from Queensberry Jorgensen Loxley et al are products they are pushing to improve their bottom line not my bottom line. Its integral to their sales pitch that they try to make you feel like you are an also ran budget photographer if you don't pay their inflated prices.

The SWPP trade fair tomorrow Saturday and Sunday is well worth getting along to. Its very wedding focused compared to Focus on Imaging (and its successor). GraphiStudio have at long last started exhibiting at it. I'd give the seminars from the self-appointed "experts" on all things photographic at the show a miss though, again thats largely about their bottom line not yours in my humble opinion :- )

Pete

anyone know of a place in the US that does this with Blu Rays?