The Rumbolo Family Christmas Card

Several folks have asked us how we go about putting together our Christmas Card, and what tools we use. For those of you curious, or with a technical inclination the following is a year by year description of the tools used to create each of the Christmas cards.

Editing the video is not that hard - the real issue is hardware. Editing and creating video is processor and memory intensive. The faster the processor and the more RAM you have the better off you are. Our early efforts where done on a P233 machine - really not the computer for the job - which was the primary reason behind our early problems with video / audio synch issues.

As you can see, over the years we have gradually upgraded our tools- the computer hardware particularly, which has improved the product. If you have questions about digital imaging & editing or creating your own video discs, you can contact us for more information. We will be glad to help with advice and tips if we can.

The process to create the Christmas Card each year remains pretty much the same and consists of several steps. The real key is to plan ahead and stay organized:

Step 1:	Around Halloween we start planning a theme for that year's edition of the Christmas Card. For the first few cards it was pretty simple - we simply had everyone do a short 'interview'. As we got a little more advanced, we have progressed to short little skits.
Step 2:	During the first couple of weeks in November we pick out a design for the DVD case jacket and the DVD label. If necessary we create the graphics and titles for the labels using Photoshop. Once we have the design set for the DVD case and label we print them. The DVD jacket covers are inserted into the DVD cases and set aside. During this step we also print our mailing labels from our distribution list.
Step 3:	The Sunday after Thanksgiving we sort through the digital photographs we have taken over the past year and select the ones we want to include in our 'Year in Pictures' video and put them in a rough order of appearance.
Step 4:	We actually shoot the video footage during the week following Thanksgiving. Depending on what is going on around the house, we either make the video over several evenings or set aside a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday and do it all at once.
Step 5:	The week after shooting the video is spent editing the video footage and creating the graphics and titles that appear in the video. Once all of the video footage has been edited, and the graphics inserted the video is saved into a master project file and then rendered into a format suitable for creating a DVD.
Step 6:	Once the video is in a format suitable for a DVD we create a 'test' copy and play it back. We do this to ensure we have a good functional DVD. Normally we test it in at least two different brands of DVD player, a game console and a personal computer. If we find problems or errors, we correct the problems in the master project file and a new copy is rendered and tested.
Step 7:	Once we have a successful test DVD a master copy is created. The master copy is then duplicated to produce the required number of DVDs. Each DVD is tested in several DVD players and an X-Box game console to ensure it functions as designed.
Step 8:	As each DVD is created and tested, the label is applied and the DVD is placed in a case.
Step 9:	After all of the DVDs are created, labeled and inserted into cases they are packaged in shipping envelopes. The mailing labels are applied and off to the post office they go.

A couple of folks have asked about the cost to create the Christmas cards. Leaving aside the computer and camera hardware itself, the cards are not really expensive to produce. When we first started out in 1999 recordable CD media cost about $1.00 each. The cost of labels, CD cases, packaging and postal charges added about another $2.50 per Christmas card. Over the past eight years the cost of blank recordable media has fallen every year, while labels and supplies have pretty much remained the same.

When we first started using DVD media in 2002, each blank disc cost approximately $1.00 while CD media had dropped in price to around .50 cents per disc. For the latest edition of the Christmas Card, we purchased DVD media on line for less then .80 cents per disc. The total cost including DVD cases, labels, printer ink brought the "raw" cost of the Christmas card to approximately $1.90 per card, with an additional $1.06 each for postal charges. We think it is well worth the price.

Below you can find a bit about the technical side of creating each year's Christmas Card.

1999:The video for the 1999 Christmas Card was shot using a RCA PROV712 8mm camcorder. we then imported the video to computer using a Dazzle Digital Video input device. The Dazzle has standard RCA jacks for video and audio input and a USB interface to the computer. At the time, the Dazzle device was pretty cutting edge for home use, but it had a number of limitations - it was slow and tended to drop video frames.

Ulead Systems Video Studio 3.0 was used to edit the raw footage and create the titles and sound track. Once the video was edited it was then rendered into MPEG format at 29.7 fps. We ran into a number of challenges with keeping the video and audio in sync. Part of the issue was with the Dazzle capture device and the other problem was simply the computer hardware we had to work with - we really pushed the abilities of the computer we had - a Pentium 233 MHz CPU with 128 MB RAM and a 16 MB ATI Rage video card running Windows 98 SE

All of the video and photo editing work was accomplished using a single computer, so all of the work was done sequentially. Rendering the video was a slow process - it really was pushing the limits of the hardware. It took almost an hour to render each video into MPEG-1 format. The CD-ROM was created using a 2X speed CD burner running on the same Pentium 233 MHZ computer. Each CD-ROM took approximately 12 minutes to create. The CD-ROM labels and jewel case inserts where created using the NEATO Media Face application and blank stock labels. The print work was accomplished using a HP 694C inkjet printer. One of the biggest challenges with our first effort was that everything was done on sequentially on one computer - which took forever.

2000: For the 2000 Christmas video card production, we used the same video camera, digital camera and video editing hardware. Our major improvements came from a second computer and editing soft. The new computer consisted of a Pentium III 500 MHz CPU with 256 MB of RAM and a 32 MB video card running Windows 98 SE. The upgraded hardware was coupled with Ulead Systems Video Studio 4.0. The improved computer power helped considerably in editing and creating the video. Unfortunately even with the additional computing power we still had some problems getting the audio and video to stay in synch.

The 2000 edition also marked the inclusion of a digital photograph album. The photographs where taken using a Sony Mavica FD-75 digital camera. The FD-75 used a standard 1.44 MB floppy disk as storage media which made it simple to transfer the picture to the computer for editing. The camera featured a relatively low resolution sub-mega pixel sensor - suitable for taking pictures to be displayed on a web page or monitor, but certainly not print quality images. A copy of Arc Studio 2000 was used to edit the digital pictures and the result images on the CD-ROM used PCA Portrait Gallery software to display the photo album

For the actual CD we also made a major improvement in how the card actually worked. Gone was the previous year's clumsy HTML file based CD. Instead, we used WISE Install Maker to create an actual installation program. This allowed us to simplify the installation of the Christmas Card and give it a more polished look. All the recipient had to do was insert the CD-ROM into the computer and the CD would auto load and run the installation program just like any commercially available software.

The CD-ROMs where created using the same tools as the previous year and once the master CD-ROM was created it took approximately 12 minutes for each copy. However, having the new computer allowed us do the video rendering and CD creation on the Pentium III and off-load the printing functions to the our old computer, which significantly reduced our production time.

2001: The 2001 Christmas Card again used the same RCA PROV712 camcorder and Dazzle Digital video device. However we upgraded the computer to a Pentium III 1 GHZ CPU with 512 MB of RAM and a 128 MB NVIDIA video card. These improvements in hardware, along an upgrade to Ulead Systems Video Studio 5.0 made a big difference with the audio/video synch problems - the added CPU and video processing capabilities eliminated the video / audio sync issues from the two previous years.

The photographs for the album where taken with a 2.1 mega pixel Sony MVC-FD95 digital camera, which stores images on a standard 1.44 megabyte floppy disk in 1600x1200 .jpeg format. The files where then copied to a computer and edited. Microsoft Image Composer 1.5 and Arc Soft Photo Studio 2000 where used to edit the images. The video compilation was accomplished using Ulead Systems Video Studio 5.0.

The CD-ROM for this year used the smaller mini CD-ROM media. We chose the smaller media in order to fit the video CD into a regular Christmas card. We created a Christmas Card using Print Master Greeting Card software and glued a vinyl pouch containing the mini CD-ROM onto the inside of the card.

Wise Install Maker was again used to create an installation program for the Christmas Card. The CD-ROMs where imaged using using a 4x speed CD writer. All the print work for the cards, labels and mailers was accomplished using a Lexmark Z53 inkjet printer.

2002: Technology, technology - we made major upgrades this year in both and computer hardware and software. A new AMD 2.8 GHZ processor with 2 MB of RAM, a high end NVIDIA graphics card with 256 MB of video RAM, DVD/CD-RW drive and IEEE 1394 video capture card running Windows XP Professional. We also went completely digital on the video side of things as well- replacing the old RCA video camera with a Sony DCR-TRV130 digital 8mm camcorder on MP120 digital videotape.

New software for video editing this year included Pinnacle Studio 7.1 The new software was then used with the IEEE 1394 video capture card to import and create the video footage. Pinnacle Studio was also used to add the titles, special effects and the music soundtrack. Pinnacle's Studio software was a marked improvement over Ulead Systems Video Studio we previously used for editing video.

All of the upgrades in computer hardware allowed us to try something new. The 2003 edition also introduced our first foray into the DVD format. Producing the Christmas Card on DVD posed a number of challenges. Each DVD takes about three times to create - approximately 16 minutes per disc, while the CD only took about 5 minutes to burn. It also required us to validate that our DVD-R+ media was compatible not only with the DVD-ROM drives found in computers, but DVD players. After some trial and error we managed to produce a limited number of a special DVD edition which was tested on as wide a range of DVD playback devices as we could.

On the digital photography editing side we moved to Adobe Photoshop for the editing of our digital photographs. The video compilation of the photographs into the 'Year in Pictures' feature was accomplished using Pinnacle Studio 7.1.

All of the video and photo editing work was accomplished on the AMD 2.8 GHZ computer. The increased video RAM and the multimedia features of Windows XP Professional really cut down the time it took to edit and render the video files. The CD-ROM version videos use MPEG-1 format. For the higher resolution DVD requirements the MPEG-2 format was used.

The actual layout and creation of the DVD was accomplished using DVD Complete and burned to the DVD media using a HP DVD200xi DVD-RW/CD-ROM RW. The CD media was created using a MITSUMI CR-4804TE 4x speed CD-RW. Each CD-R took about 5 minutes and the DVD took about 10 minutes. In order to get everything produced in a timely manner we ended up using two computers for burning discs, one creating DVD discs and the other creating CD discs. A third computer was used for printing the labels and cards.

2003: For this year technology upgrades were limited to a new IEEE 1394 video capture board by Pinnacle Systems which improved our ability to capture older analog video as well as an upgrade of Pinnacle Studio to version 8.

Our big efforts for 2003 was increasing the number of the DVD version of the Christmas Card we sent out. The higher quality of DVD video and the larger capacity of the DVD media gave us the ability to be more creative in terms of format.

Since the 2003 DVD version was our 5th edition, we wanted to add a retrospective look back at the previous versions of the Christmas Card. The big challenge was getting the old video files to something resembling DVD quality. For some of the old video we had to go back to the original video tape. This sometimes required a frame by frame editing of some video footage to ensure adequate quality. Fortunately we where in the middle of an ongoing project to move all of our video tape to DVD so some of the work was already done.

The DVD version of the card included a CD-ROM meant for installation on a personal computer and was mailed in a standard DVD case. The video files for this year were larger then 2001 and 2002 which required using full sized CD discs instead of the smaller mini-discs we previously used. The same DVD creation software and hardware as 2002 was used for the 2003 edition.

2004: For the 2004 version of our Christmas Card we moved completely to the DVD format. Given the increasing prevalence of DVD players it no longer made sense to devote effort to creating two separate versions. This greatly simplified our production process and costs. On the computer hardware side of things the only hardware upgrade was a new, faster DVD-RW device.

Our big hardware upgrade for 2004 was on the digital photography side. Our Sony FD-95 was replaced by a Canon 300D digital SLR. The Canon 300D is a full featured SLR with a 6.2 mega-pixel sensor capable of very high resolution photographs suitable for printing up to 13 x 19 prints.

The general process for creating the video remained the same - first the video camera was used to make a master tape, then camera was connected to the computer using a IEEE 1394 Firewire card and tape replayed to capture the video on the computer hard drive in MPEG-2 format.

Once the video was captured, Pinnacle Studio 9 was used to clean up dropped frames and edit the video as well as to add titles and special effects. Adobe Photoshop and Paintshop Pro 9 were used for the editing of digital photographs.

The actual layout and burning of the DVDs was done with another new software product - Sony DVD Architect. The new software featured several improvements over DVD Complete and allowed us to better control the DVD menus and features.

The DVD labels and the DVD case jackets where created using MediaFace software and printed using a HP 2510 inkjet printer.

2005: This year featured two major technical improvements - a new computer specifically built for digital image processing and a new digital video camera.

Given our interest in both digital video and digital photography we decided to invest in a computer specifically built for processing and editing digital images - both video and still photographs. (It is also a killer gaming computer) Our new computer consists of a AMD 64 bit CPU and 4 GB of RAM installed on a SLI compliant motherboard with dual high end NVIDIA graphics cards and dual-layer format 8x DVD-RW+ drive. The new computer significantly reduced processing and video rendering times.

On the camera side, the big technical improvement for this year was the retirement of our Sony digital 8 video camera. The replacement was a JVC GZ-MG20U digi-cam. This video camera dispenses with the need for any form of video tape and instead records movies directly to a 20 gigabyte hard-drive built into the video camera. The recording format for the resulting video file is mpeg-2 and can be either 16:9 or 4:3 ratio.

The new video camera greatly simplified the process of transferring the movie to the computer for editing. Eliminated is the requirement to replay the tape to capture the video, nor is it necessary to deal with correcting for dropped video frames that can occur during the transfer process. With the movie files already on the camera's hard drive in mpeg-2 format it is simply a matter of plugging the camera into a USB 2.0 port and copying the files.

To edit the raw video footage we used both Pinnacle Studio 9 and Sony Vegas Movie Studio 4 for video editing, creation of special effects, graphics and titles. Since the video files are already in mpeg-2 format, rendering the video into a file suitable for building the DVD is a much faster process, particularly given the upgraded computer hardware.

All of the pictures included in the 'Year in Pictures' feature where edited with with Adobe Photoshop. We added some new plug-ins this year, including an airbrush tool by Kodak (GEM Airbrush Pro) to add some special touches to some of the pictures. Pinnacle Studio was the used to build the video slide show.

As for 2004 the actual DVD layout and creation was done using Sony DVD Architect. We ran into an interesting problem with the actual burning of the DVD media. DVDs created using the new dual-layer DVD-RW device had some compatibility issues with certain DVD video players. The problem was eventually traced to a firmware issue with the DVD-RW device - upgrading the firmware solved the problem.

The DVD labels and the DVD case jackets where created using MediaFace software. The pamphlet inserted into each DVD case was created using Microsoft Publisher 2003. All printing was accomplished using a HP Inkjet 2510xi printer.

2006:For this year we didn't make any improvements in our hardware or software. The 2006 edition Christmas card was actually an hasty, abbreviated effort due to time constraints. My work kept me traveling for a significant part of the year and we only had a few days to tape and edit the video and produce the DVDs. We used the same processes and software as last year to produce the labels and pamphlets.

While not one of our best efforts, we where just happy to get it completed and shipped out to everyone, for awhile it looked uncertain if we could get it distributed before Christmas.

2007:This year the technical changes where fairly minor - a new Lightscribe DVD writer. The Lightscribe DVD writer provides the ability to 'burn' the label onto Lightscribe compatible DVD media rather then use an adhesive printed label. Lightscribe media have a coating on the label face side that responds to the laser in the DVD writer. This eliminates the need for paper adhesive labels which have to be printed and then applied. We have found that over the years paper labels can peel and jam the DVD player. The drawbacks are that labels are limited to the color black and it takes approximately 7 minutes to 'burn' the label into the media face.

Other then the Lightscribe DVD writer we really didn't include any new technology changes other then an upgrade to our video editing software - an upgrade from Pinnacle Studio 11 which was necessitated by our upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate.

2008: For our tenth anniversary Christmas Card we have moved into the age of high definition video using a JVC GZ-HD3U camcorder. This is a HD camcorder with 3 CCD image sensors capable of recording video in MEGP-2 TS 1440 x 1080i HD format. The new camcorder also required updating our favorite editing software Pinnacle Studio and Sony DVD Arhitect to handle the new HD video format used by the JVC GZ-HD3U camcorder. We also added a new Nvidia 9800GT video card to our primary editing computer to improve processing.

With the adoption of HD video recording and production of our video in 16:9 wide screen format, we needed to take some additional testing steps to make sure that the DVD and video was backward compatible with older 4:3 ratio TV screens and DVD players. This required some additional testing and formatting to ensure that the video was compatible with both older analog 4:3 ratio televisions as well as HD wide screen television and monitors.

Another challenge was the short skit we produced - we based our skit around the classic opening scene in the old 1950's television series Father Knows Best. Some careful timing was required to match our version of the opening scene to the classic theme song music so that we could closely approximate the look and feel of the original.