IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

My collection of home made DVDs and CDs is now in the dozens and to save space I keep them in the thin hard cases, stored on shelves

Any suggestions about an easy way of finding what I need as there is no room on the thin spines for ID? Are there any storage systems where they can be stored and easily flipped out so that the face of the case and the info can be seen?

Thanks

Ned C

It's for this very reason that I use the standard width CD 'jewel' case for my DVDs, Ned. This way there's room enough on the spine for identification. To save shelf space (as you want to do as well) I use the jewel cases that store two discs.

tom.

Thanks, Tom. I read your recent article with info on the minidisc which seems to be slowly vanishing here in the USA. I now use a recorder that records to SDHC cards as .wav files. This is the ZoomH2, works well.

Ned C

I'm reluctant to write here ... but we seldom stick to the themes of threads anyway, so ...

For some time now a lot of professional and semi-professional sound recording has been done straight onto a computer. What may surprise some people is that you can record commercial quality music in 8 tracks on a laptop computer.

Maybe as MiniDiscs fade out we can move to the ever-smaller portable computers as a useful and viable recording medium.

Dave

The ZoomH2 is a lovely recorder Ned, as is the Edirol competitor. But the beauty of the MiniDisc is the amazing affordability of the things. Admittedly you have to buy the machines secondhand now, but the discs themselves (less than a pound each) are available everywhere and record in mono at the highest quality setting for just under three hours. Thousands of times. In perfect sync with your camera.

Another plus point is the tiny size of the recorders, much smaller than the Zoom and Edirol. I can slip the MiniDisc into a groom's inside pocket and fear no evil. The big downside is the fact that on my particular example there's no line out, and I have to feed the PC from the headphone socket, in real time.

tom.

The storage issue for discs is matched in our household by the problem of storing MiniDVs in a way which does not mean piles of them crashing to the floor whenever I try to grab one from half-way down the stack.

I bought some pricey plastic racks which screw to the wall either horizontally or vertically. Now my problem is doing labels for the cassettes.

I can easily do labels for the cassette cases ...

My problem is the little label on the top of a cassette itself and along its spine beside the safety tab.

My handwriting is awful.

I sometimes try preparing text in Word, using a table to get the spacing correct and then printing it onto a plain sheet of paper. Then sellotaping the sheet of labels which comes with each cassette to the paper right over the print. Then running the paper through the printer again.

It works - but it can only be a matter of time before disaster strikes and the innards of my printer are sellotaped for ever.

What do you guys do?

Dave

Sounds like it may be worth your while going on a handwriting course for a couple of hours, Dave. I have a wonderful set of Staedtler Lumocolor permanent 0.4 mm S marker pens. Eight colours, they write on anything - glass, CDs, labels, you name it.

Strange that a paragraph in my latest Positive Image should hark on this, as I find labelling tapes a very worthwhile occupation if you want to save hours later.

tom.

I number all my tapes! I then have a little book with has a number for each page. I then write whats on the tape in the book that includes a time index of the event or recording. So when I want to find something I look in my book and I know what tape it`s on and where it is. If numbering is a problem then just number the tape (on the tape etc) with a felt-tip pen.

Sometimes to do forget to update the book ! But every now and again I spend a morning going through my new tapes.

I hand write my labels. It doesn't look very elegant but at least I can see what's on the tape! I started out with a numbering system but that fell by the wayside a long time ago - perhaps I should revive it and log everything in the computer but oh, the time it would take because I'm one of those sad souls that keeps all his tapes. My digital photographs are better organised as I create folders/sub folders for each download before putting them into the computer. (I take the precaution of backing them up onto CD's). For DVD copies I use the printable discs and make nice colour labels using Epson software that I print onto the discs. The spines of the thin jewel cases cases are a problem but I prefer these because of the saving in storage space. I think some office supply companies sell plastic boxes for these.

The best organised person I know is Norman Speirs who has wonderfully neat handwriting and carefully labels all his tapes and photographs.

Wow, sound recording to labelling!!

I have the plastic racks screwed on the wall for miniDV and full size DV cassetes. I also have an old wooden rack that held audio cassetes and holds 2 miniDVs in each partition. I have a simple reference protocol, first number is the year eg 8 and then 2 or three sequential numbers eg 8001, 8002 etc. Numbers written on the spine label with a permanent marker and on the box liner. Details written up in a folder, use CatDV to get full printable details from a SD tape.

Why do I keep all my tapes? I have used past shots on occassion and there are now a number of historical shots, I re-recorded all the Video8 and Hi8 to DV.

I have just found CD/DVD cases with a moulded in attachment so they can be stored in a 3 ring binder, this makes it easy to recognise the contents. Got them from Staples.

Ned C

Here Ned, I didn`t know you had Staples over there. I thought you all went to Walmart!