Important Information on transfering your Video to DVD
I am often asked why we charge $65 to convert a video to DVD when other people they found on the internet do it for $45. Basically, you get what you pay for. Without getting too technical, here's the process we use.
1. As most of the video formats are analogue, we first convert your video to a digital format by transcoding it through a professional digital converter unit. 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 because they haven't got the equipment.
2. The digital signal is then transferred to our professional edit suite (Edius Pro 4) 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 2 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 with titles etc and assemble it into a DVD case.
Sounds a bit long winded and it is. The end result is a quality product which is what you wanted in the first place. Cheaper options involve dumping 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, show that some of the cheaper DVD's can fail within a few years. We do our part by only using high quality Industry Certified Blue Azo coated discs which are amongst the best standard DVD's you can get. You then need to store them in a cool, dry, dark place at normal room temperature (approx 18 degrees) and away from any magnetic forces such as speakers etc.
Don't be fooled by Manufacturer's Lifetime Warranties on cheaper discs. It sounds good, but in reality, it's worth absolutely nothing. Check out the fine print, they give a Limited Lifetime Warranty on discs. In other words, they will replace that disc if it fails, but what happens about 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.
Master Digital backups on MiniDV are recognised as one of the safest possible long term backup media. At $25.00 per hour of backup, it's definitely worth the small investment, plus it has many advantages as a digital master for future technologies.
If you want any more information about the process or want to discuss your video transfer, please contact us.
If you have lots of video tapes that need converting, we do offer quantity discounts.
All Prices quoted on our
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