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In Software Downloads:
Adobe Premiere 6 (trial)
Paint Shop Pro 7 (trial)

Tips and Advice:
How to get started with computer video editing

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Epson Stylus Photo 950

A handwritten disc label can spoil the look of even the most carefully crafted DVD video. What's needed is something much more professional, and thatís whatís promised by the direct-to-disc printing capabilities of Epson's Stylus Photo 950.
A neatly printed disc label gives a professional appearance to a DVD video disc, but the process can be fiddly and time-consuming if it involves the use of sticky labels. Direct-to-disc printing is the way forward but, until the recent launch of Epson's Stylus Photo 950, the cost of suitable printers had been prohibitive.
The £329 Epson offers print resolution of 1440 x 2880 dots per inch, and edge-to-edge printing on A4 paper as well as simultaneous roll paper with sheet cutting. It can also print to card up to 2.5mm thick if fed in straight from the rear. But we were largely concerned with the 950's direct-to-disc capabilities. These require the use of suitable full colour printable discs, as is also the case with a more expensive (£599) A3-capable companion, the Stylus Photo 2100. For our tests with the 950, we used Sony CDQ-74P1 CD-Rs, though printable DVDs are a still expensive.

Conclusion
Epson's Print CD V1.0 program offers easy-to-use design tools but is still in its early stages and needs to be tweaked to remove a few bugs. Printer setup looks easy on the instructions but can be tricky. What's really needed is a paper version of the manual for setting up the print-to-disc side of things.
However, these shortcomings are easy to forgive because the quality of disc prints is excellent. The Photo 950 is a very attractive proposition for anyone wanting to produce professional-looking DVD or CD discs in small runs, and its attraction is further enhanced by its offering double-sided, roll paper and borderless printing. It isn't cheap compared to many inkjet printers but, for many video editors, it will be money well spent.

Lisa Keddie

For the full review, see the November 2002 issue of Computer Video.

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Reviewed in November's issue:
Pinnacle Studio 8
Epson Stylus Photo 950
Matrox RT.X100

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Apple moves to dual-processors
Panasonic £550 set-top DVD-R recorder
Edition upgrade for DV500
JVC FireWire-equipped notebook PCs
Dazzle £99 capture-to-author DVD program
Formac Mac/Win analogue/DV converter
17in widescreen DVD burner Apple iMac
Canon MV5/5i bundled with Pinnacle Studio 7SE
Pinnacle Pro-ONE and DV500 Edition highlight in Evesham Video Tour 2002
Bug fixes for Apple FCP 3.0.2