A common question posed to me when clients have contracted me to convert their videotapes to DVD is: “Are my videotapes returned to me after you convert them to DVD?” The answer is YES. All of your tapes are indeed returned to you, their rightful owner. Of course, included with the return of your tapes are the DVDs that all the material was transferred to.

Another question: “What do I do with all my tapes now that the contents have been transferred to DVD?”

I strongly urge my clients to keep the tapes as a security backup, just in case there is a need to use them again. Seriously, don’t throw them out. In fact, my other strong suggestion is to have copies of your new DVDs burnt. Your DVDs are not at all damage proof, easily scratched, rendering them unplayable, depending on the severity of the damage. So, directly related to the next question I am asked, that is one very good reason – if it is the only reason – to make copies of your new DVDs.

Yet another question I am asked is “Can I/you make additional DVD copies from the original DVD?” Yes you can and of course yes I can.. As many copies as you wish. There isn’t any copy protection encoded into the burnt DVDs. The best thing about copying DVDs is that the copy (or copies) are of the same quality as the original DVD. After all, they are digital files. So go ahead and make copies of your new DVDs. Alternatively, I can assist with making copies for you at a very reasonable cost, labelled and packaged, the same as your originals I provided.

If you have any other questions related to video to DVD transfers, please contact me to discuss.

Many people have already taken advantage of my videotape to DVD special offer I have been running recently. Great savings to be had compared to our standard rate. So, if you are in search for professional videotape to DVD transfers at a great price point, please bring in as many videotapes as you like. There is no limit to the number of tapes that we can transfer to DVD for you during this current promotion.

A common question clients ask me about videotape to DVD transfers is: “Can you improve on the picture quality for playback on the DVD?” The short answer to that is YES, the transfer process that I use does in fact improve on the picture quality, so much so that the positive feedback I receive from my clients confirms that. Please understand that a poor quality videotape recording will not and cannot be improved to pristine condition. However, even a poor quality videotape recording may benefit from the transfer process.

So how does this improvement work? No matter how well recorded your analogue (e.g.: VHS, Video8 etc) videotape recording is, the playback is not stable. This is why when, in the ‘olden days’ of VHS to VHS duplication, the copy pretty much always came out a distant 2nd best. To help improve the VHS copy, an electronic device called a Time Base Corrector (TBC) was/is used to help stabilise the picture and colour content. My digital TBCs are important units in my videotape to DVD process in ensuring a high quality, stable picture on the DVD. The TBCs incorporates various electronic filters and decoders that actually assist in improving picture quality. In addition, our TBCs will convert from NTSC to PAL and PAL to NTSC video standards. The other device used in the transfer process is an analogue to digital converter.

The Canopus ADVC analogue to digital converter is the key unit in improving the picture quality of the analogue videotape recordings. Featuring high-quality image- enhancement technology—including digital noise reduction and image stabilisation (a secondary TBC) our ADVC units clean, stabilizes, and preserves your old analogue videotapes in a clean digital format for capturing in our Apple computers. Another important step in ensuring a high quality, clean image on your DVD is the software encoding process. Already detailed in an earlier blog and elsewhere on this website, the encoding to DVD is the 3rd and final step in the videotape to DVD process prior to burning your  precious memories onto DVD.

Edit 1 Video Productions transfers videotapes in the most professional manner using the latest state of the art equipment and DVDs to achieve the highest quality results. Contact us to discuss your videotape to DVD transfer requirements.