Video To DVD Info

Important Information on transferring your Video to DVD

We are often asked why we charge $65 to convert a video to DVD when there are others on the internet offering transfers for $45 or even less. To put it simply – you get what you pay for. A standard 90 minute VHS transfer takes us over 2 hours to complete (more than ½ of that in dedicated operator time). Without getting too technical, here’s the process we use.

1. As most of the video formats we transfer are analog, we first convert your video to a digital format by transcoding it through a professional digital convertor. Line Time Base Correctors (LTBC) with Digital Noise reduction eliminates picture noise and the snowy effects. As we are monitoring the signal with a vectorscope and waveform monitor, we can adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, hue and sharpness. The transcoder outputs a pure, stabilised digital signal with locked in audio/visual sync. This is a very important step in the conversion process and not many businesses do this as they just don’t have the equipment.
2. The digital signal is then transferred to our professional edit suite (Edius Pro 5) through a hi-end Canopus IEEE1394 firewire card and is captured in true enhanced DV format. We then edit and clean up the start and end plus any extra editing you have requested.
3. Once we are happy with the timeline footage, we use ProCoder to convert the DV to MPEG-2 ready for authoring to DVD.
4. The next stage is what you see. We add all the chapters where requested and your footage is converted and the audio is encoded to Dolby Digital and finally your video is burnt onto a DVD.
5. We then print your titles directly onto the DVD, print an insert and finally assemble it into a DVD case.
6. If this sounds a bit long winded, it is! The end result is a quality product which is what you wanted in the first place. Cheaper options involve recording directly from video to DVD without transcoding, which is just not acceptable nowadays, but as I say, you get what you pay for.

Important Info:

Many people are under the misunderstanding that DVD’s last forever. It’s true they don’t wear out and can be played over and over without any wear or degradation. But, recent tests by PC Magazine and admissions by many industry experts and manufacturers (as well as our personal experience) show that some of the cheaper DVD’s can fail within just a few years. We do our part by only using high quality Industry Certified discs which are amongst the best standard DVD’s you can get. For the discs to last , it is imperative to store them in a cool, dry, dark place at normal room temperature and away from any magnetic forces such as speakers etc.

Manufacturer’s Lifetime Warranties on discs are irrelevant when it comes to irreplaceable video. It sounds good, but in reality, it’s worthless. Sure you get a Limited Lifetime Warranty on the discs, but it’s only the disc that they will replace if it fails. What happens to the contents and your precious memories or data, there’s no compensation for that.

We also offer upgrade options to either Premium Master DVD’s (TY recognised as the World’s best duplication DVD) for an extra $1.00 per disc, or the ultimate Premium Archival DVD (24 Karat Gold reflective layer and rated at 100 years plus) for an extra $5.00 per disc.