How Does Your VHS To DVD Service Company Rate?
Finding the best VHS to DVD service to preserve your family treasures can sometimes be a little tricky. When you look online, you can find lots of companies that convert VHS to DVD that say they use the same methods as Hollywood for copying your old home movie memories to DVD but are they telling you the whole story? As a former Hollywood visual effects coordinator, let me help you take a closer look at what makes the best video transfer service company.
What Matters Most In A Transfer Service
As I search for the best video conversion service to transfer my own VHS tapes to DVD, I find it important to focus on what matters most. It doesn’t really matter to me if a company uses the “same method as Hollywood” to copy – or burn - a movie to DVD. Burning a DVD is a rather straightforward process once you get to that point. No, what matters most is the method the company uses to digitize the video. Before an old video can be burned to DVD, it needs to be converted to a digital format. The quality of this conversion process, more than any other factor, dictates the quality of the final DVD. Here are three basic quality indicators I use to help identify the best video transfer service companies.
Quality Indicator #1: Video Capture Device
To select the best video transfer company, there are certain indicators I look for on a company’s website. When a company offers specific details about the equipment they use, that is always a good sign. As an example, they might mention the brand name and model number of the video deck they use to play the VHS tape as it is being digitized. Even better, the company may cite the name of the video capture device they use. If a company says it uses something called a “Canopus” (or “Grass Valley”) ADVC 300, for instance, then things are looking good. This capture device is well-respected for the way it captures the analog signal coming from the VHS tape and for the way it cleans up any noise and enhances the video. If no details are disclosed, then move on.
Quality Indicator #2: Color Correction
Another good indicator in choosing the right video transfer service company is color correction. If a digital transfer service company advertises that it will enhance the color of your video, making it look better than you remember it, there is a good chance that they are telling the truth. This is a guarantee that many companies will not make because it is a challenging promise to keep – unless they actually are a professional company using some of the best equipment and methods. Color correcting digitized video can be done with additional hardware or software but no matter what method is used, it is something that is rarely offered by a fly-by-night video transfer service. So, if your potential transfer house is offering you color correction, take another sigh of relief because you are on the right track.
Quality Indicator #3: Uncompressed Video
The third and most “black-and-white” of my three “litmus tests” for identifying a company that offers a good video transfer service is also the most simple. Most ordinary companies that offer a VHS to DVD transfer service will only deliver standard definition video on DVD. The best companies know that this is only the beginning. The world is changing to high definition. Even if your particular analog video format can only be digitized to standard definition (VHS is the example I am thinking of), it is important that you receive the raw digital files of your digitized home videos. These uncompressed digital files contain the most detail and, as such, become your new “master” with which to preserve your video memories for future generations. You will be able to use that master to convert to the next format when digital video technology takes another leap into the future. The DVD copy is just that – a copy on DVD. A good video transfer company will offer you these uncompressed video files on either a data DVD or a hard drive. So, if the company you are considering to transfer your videos to DVD also delivers uncompressed video files in addition to the DVD copies, then you are in good hands.
Grading Transferring VHS To DVD Service Companies
As someone who is looking for a convert VCR to DVD service to get his own personal videos transferred to digital, this website is helping me organize my thoughts and notes as I research various companies. I hope that this site might help you identify the best copy VHS to DVD service for your needs, too. As I continue to compare companies based on the three quality indicators listed above, I will write reviews of those companies and add some of the highlights to this post. Keep reading.