VHS machines are virtually out of date and
are getting scarce! Very few companies can still service and repair
them -- which means the writing is on the wall: since you surely
wish to preserve your old family video and 8 mm footage, you probably
ought to it transferred to DVD as soon as possible!
In addition, the original material deteriorates every year, so the
sooner you have it done, the better the quality that will be preserved
on the DVD.
One great advantage of transferring such historic material to DVD is
that DVDs can be chaptered -- which means it becomes very simple to
find the exact section you wish to view; you don't have to spool and
search as one had to do on VHS and this makes the material infinitely
more accessible and valuable.
There
are two different ways of transferring old footage to DVD:
1) Direct transfer from VHS or 8mm to DVD (in other
words, the material is transferred
exactly like it is -- machines do all the work).
This is the least expensive option,
but it may not be the most satisfactory and only a
limited number of chapters can
be programmed onto the DVD.
2) Transferring the material onto an editing system and once the edit
is done (adding
music, titles, removing unwanted part, changing the
sequence if necessary,
removing bad spots, adding unlimited chapter
points) and then transferring to DVD.
The second option is more expensive -- however, we are convinced that
if something is worth doing (particularly if it involves family
heirlooms!), it is worth doing well! Furthermore, while the Master
DVD is not inexpensive, copies are cheap and make absolutely terrific,
highly personalised gifts for everyone in your family!
Music of your choice (anything on CD), e.g. that is suitable to a
particular era, adds tremendously to the enjoyment of a DVD. You could
also go one step further and add voice-over commentary if you
wish. This would entail viewing the footage, writing a "script"
and making sure that the voice-over will be no longer than the section
over which it is supposed to go.
Adding titles ensure that everyone who is viewing the DVD, also in
future, will know exactly what they are looking at and who the people
are that appear in the footage.
Note that while VHS is a very forgiving format, a DVD is much more
finicky. A VHS machine will "wow" and become unstable on e.g. time code
breaks on a VHS, but it will keep playing. A DVD, on the other hand,
tends to get stuck on time code breaks and pixilised sections (usually
when going from one day's recording to the next on the original video),
so these little bits should be removed during the editing
process. However, it is entirely possible that your VHS is still
in shipshape and need no such edit -- it all depends on what machine is
was originally recorded on, how old it is, how it was stored and how
often it was played.
We prefer to put no more than 90 minutes of material onto a DVD --
ensuring that we can encode the DVD at the Standard bit rate of 6000
bps in order to yield the best quality possible. One can package DVDs
in presentations boxes that can hold up to 8 DVDs.
All chapters of the DVD are listed on the face of the DVD as well as on
the back of the presentation case -- each "forward" will get you to the
next chapter.
The
more prep you do, the less your DVDs are going to cost:
If you can provide us with a list of what
has to be done with your old footage, it will save a great deal of
editing time -- and thus, money.
- To make such
a "shot list", spool your video back all the way to the beginning.
- Ensure that
the video machine's counter is on 00.00.00.
- View your
video and take notes of the timings (minutes and seconds) of
- Chapter
points (and note the name of the chapter and what music you would like
to be added to a specific chapter or section)
- Any "black
holes", time code breaks (where the picture is unstable), etc. that
should be removed.
- Any sections
that are out of order and should be moved.
- Sections
that are too dark/light (one can considerably improve the images during
editing by means of applying various digital filters.)
Then come to us with your old footage as well as the
notes, and we will do the rest. When the edit has been done, we will
ask you to come and check it on the editing computer time-line before
finalising the DVD.
If you no longer have a VHS machine on which to view
your video and do the prep, we will digitise the video, identify the
obviously different scenes/events and add a title template for each
chapter -- and then ask you to come to the studio to check the chapter
and provide chapter names and/or music.
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