Save your Videos by Transferring to DVD
With the changes in technology and VHS and other videotape formats not having a long shelf life, now is time to transfer your precious videos to DVD. Videotape degrades faster than what most people realize. The VCR tape heads wear on the surface of the videotape during every viewing and chemical processes are at work destroying your tape even while sits on the shelf. Transferring your videos to DVD before they loose their quality and video image is a permanent and cost effective way to guarantee a future for those irreplaceable memories.
DW Video & Multimedia is providing this high tech service to consumers and businesses alike. By transferring your videos from: VHS, VHS-C, 8mm, HI-8, Betamax and Digital formats to DVD, is the best media for archiving in 2005. Archiving your wedding, your child’s first steps, graduations, birthdays, vacations, old 8mm/super 8mm film, business projects can all be transferred.
According to owner Duane, "For best results we transfer at a two hour bit rate mode and don't advise putting more than two hours on a single DVD, because it lessens the quality. I highly recommended that those VHS tapes that were recorded in the SLP or six-hour mode be transferred to three DVD's. Once the master DVD is authored copies can then be made. Your master is labeled as the original and is recommended to be put away in your safety deposit box and only be used to make copies." Duane continues, "DVD's however can also be damaged so care needs to taken - scratches, extreme heat, fingerprints all can affect the performance of a DVD. This is also true with purchased DVD's from the store".
Here is a few tips when preparing your videos for transfer and some general DVD tips:
1) Know the length of the tape and write it on the label or a post-it note. This lets you know if it will take more than one DVD or if there is room for another tape. To check the length rewind the tape to beginning, zero your counter (a counter with hours, minutes, seconds is what is needed here - older machines with the four digit counters don't help) fast-forward your tape to the end of the recorded video - make note the length. The VHS-C (the smaller VHS style tapes that take the adapter) are 20-30 minutes if recorded in the SP mode, in the SLP these can have up to 90 minutes on them. If you are unsure how to check the length DW Video will do this for you before a project is started.
2) We print to the face of the DVD – we do not use labels. Labels tend to affect the balance and could damage the DVD.
3) Provide a photo that can be added to the face of the DVD to personalize it and share with family, friends and business associates.
4) Once a DVD has been finalized nothing else can be added. Until the project is finalized it won't play in a player.
5) Not all DVD players are created equal. Meaning some DVD's won't play in some players. 99.9% of the time it is the player. With over 60 variations of the one DVD standard it is hard for all players to comply. This was really true three or four years ago. Today the players are more in line with the market.
6) The same holds true with computers. Not all players in computers are equal. At DW Video we have found that WinDVD makes a good compatible player.
7) There is a difference in blank media. Like in most cases in life you pay for quality - the same holds true with DVD's. Use the best media - Verbatim and Fugi make good blank DVD media.
8) Store your master DVD in a safety deposit box and only use it for making duplicates. This way in the next decade or two when there is a better archival method your original is still in great shape and in a safe place.
posted by dw video @ Wednesday, August 03, 2005
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