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General Dr. DVD Questions | The Tape-To-Disc Conversion Process | Dr. DVD’s Finished DVD | General DVD Questions | Privacy, Trust and Customer Service | Other Questions

General Dr. DVD Questions:

Why don’t I watch my home movies more often?

How do I ship my video tapes/movie films to you?

Can you create a photo slide show with my digital pictures or 35mm slides? With music?

Questions & Answers

General Dr. DVD Questions:

Why don’t I watch my home movies more often?

Because they’re not easy to watch, and therefore not as enjoyable as they could be. Maybe you’re tired of having to fast-forward through hours of footage, just to find the parts you want to watch. Or maybe it’s because you have a lot of camcorder tapes and it’s not convenient to hook up your camcorder to your TV. Some people do not have their videos/movies organized well enough to find what they’re looking for, easily, let alone enjoy them. Whatever your reasons are, Dr. DVD has “the sure cure for your aging video tapes and movie films.”

What exactly is Dr. DVD?

Dr. DVD, the sure cure for your aging video tapes and movie films, is an affordable video tape-to-DVD transfer service that helps people preserve their precious memories. All analog/digital video tapes and movie films age, whether they are stored well or played on a VCR/camcorder/projector. As the tapes/movies degrade and picture quality drops, it becomes too late to restore them back to their original condition. Dr. DVD will convert and transfer your video/movie footage onto a DVD disc, while it is still in good shape.

Dr. DVD is located in Sunnyvale, CA (in Northern CA, near San Jose) and accepts shipped orders from all over the U.S. and also those orders dropped off by local customers.

There are several significant differences. The last thing you want is to end up with a DVD that did not retain the quality of the original source tape. You want it to look exactly like the original without spending "an arm and a leg." Even if you were to save $20 by going with a low-end processing company (see chart below), sacrificing quality is not worth it, especially since this is something you want future generations to enjoy for the next 100+ years.

We are the premier DVD conversion company for Northern California videographers. Since 1996 we’ve been associated with Avid Technology, the professional’s choice of commercial video editing equipment in Hollywood, and have done digital video work for Hollywood.

Our DVDs are the highest possible quality DVDs, yet at an affordable price. Most professional-grade companies charge $200-$300 for what we do because of their high overhead (which you end up paying for).

And, there are now drug and department stores who are beginning to offer a seemingly similar service. Watch out! They are assuming that you’ll want to drop off your priceless video tape without much thought, just like a roll of undeveloped film. In fact, some places require you to use the same envelope as you would for film processing AND to drop your tape into the same bin. Your video tapes contain valuable footage, and therefore deserve better care than that.

Here are the main differences between us and other companies:

We know how important your tapes and films are, so we “prescribe” specific shipping methods. First, wrap all of your tapes/films in aluminum foil. Then, place them in a plastic bag before placing them into a sturdy box. Important: Ship them via a trackable method, such as UPS, FedEx, or Airborne Express, and request signature delivery. We return your originals to you in the same, careful manner.

Two main reasons:

1) If you want to preserve your precious home movies beyond the normal life-span of video tapes/movie films, then you should consider transferring them onto DVDs. Future generations, including your children’s kids, will be able to watch, hear, enjoy, and learn how our (and even previous) generation(s) lived. Giving a home movie DVD as a gift or passing on a DVD to future generations as an heirloom are great ideas!

2) A big problem with video tapes is trying to find the parts of the videos that you want to watch. How many times have you fast-forwarded/rewound past the scenes that you were trying to find? You can easily spend more time looking for that scene than watching it. Because of this reason, most people don’t watch their tapes very often–it’s just too much of a hassle. With a properly crafted DVD, you can instantly and randomly jump around to your favorite parts using a navigational menu. You jump right to those memorable moments, making home movies much easier and more enjoyable for the entire family.

Another benefit of DVD discs are that they are much sturdier and more compact for storage than video tapes or movie films.

We understand how precious and irreplaceable your video tapes and movie films are. After all, that is why you want to convert them to DVD in the first place. We treat every video tape and movie film we accept as if it was our own fragile, irreplaceable tape/movie. We have never lost a video tape or movie film, nor have we damaged anyone’s either. We track your order and video tape(s)/movie film(s) together so that they are returned to you in the same condition as we received it. Because we assume your video tapes/movie films are old and needing a lot of TLC, they will be played back usually only once during the conversion process, to extract the movie/audio from them. We use professional-grade equipment that will not damage your video tapes/movie films. Should your tapes (and/or movie films) be in such a condition that there is danger of breakage or damage, we will advise you of this and not play them. We don’t want to damage them any further, and frankly, nor do we want to subject our expensive equipment to the potential damage that can occur from a tape that is in poor condition.

First of all, because they are very expensive. And for the price, they don’t produce the quality of video that one would expect on a DVD. They are intended for casual recording of TV shows and standard videos. Analog video-tape-to-DVD conversion is a very complex process that is very difficult to do properly without using state-of-the-art equipment costing many tens of thousands of dollars. The new expensive DVD recorders are trying to do real-time analog to digital conversion, which results in visible digital artifacts (jittering video, muted colors, skips, etc.). Any video scene containing fast scene changes, such as fast pans, sports scenes, lots of movement, etc. may result in rough video and unclear picture. There will be noticeable degradation in the recording and it will not maximize the DVD’s capability. Unless you use $30,000 Hollywood-like equipment, real-time conversion is very difficult to do with a consumer product–the technology is simply still too expensive to do it real-time AND get great results.

Our process results in a better picture because it takes a much longer time (non real-time) to properly digitize every pixel in every frame, and it uses multi-pass encoding technology to ensure the highest video and audio quality. We use an 11:1 ratio triple-pass encoding process that leads to a much cleaner video. This means that for every hour of video, it takes 11 hours to convert the video to ensure the cleanest DVD. This is a very exact and complex digitizing process where a real-time single pass method results in lower quality. For something you want to keep for a very long time, why preserve your memories in a degraded version?

We offer a video/movie film conversion service, and we are so sure that you will love your finished DVD that we stand behind the quality of our work with an unconditional money-back guarantee. Within 30-days, if for any reason, you decide that you’re unsatisfied with the quality of your DVD conversion, return your DVD and we will refund your money without any hassles–be aware that some other companies do not offer a refund at all!

We run promotions, occasionally, so give us a call or see the Price List .

We’ve been doing digital video for a very long time, since 1996. That is longer than most other companies on the Internet and almost since the dawn of digital video. We are experienced professionals who will not only take great care of your tapes and films, but also provide you with a finished DVD that you will enjoy and cherish for many generations. Some of the other companies may not use state-of-the-art equipment, nor take the added time to do a proper conversion.

Some misleading ads are going around on the Internet about how to convert your own videos onto VCDs (Video CDs) using a CD burner. VCDs are a much lower resolution and a lower quality medium than DVDs. A CD simply does not have the capacity to hold the large files of a high quality video, so one must give up quality in order to fit any reasonable length of video onto a CD. And you may have received some email SPAMs selling a program to convert your own videos...they simply aren’t intended for high quality results. They may be fun for tinkering, but few people will want to use them to save videos for long term because the video quality is lower than VHS tapes. So why preserve your videos in degraded form?

There are also some new inexpensive DVD authoring programs out there, but they are intended for casual use. They produce non-archival-quality video and therefore drop the video quality for the sake of making the software easy to use. For high-quality results, you need the right equipment, but most of all, you need the digital video experience. This is Dr. DVD’s specialty. Again, why preserve your videos in degraded form? Do it right the first time so that you and future generations don’t regret it later.

There are many benefits to doing this, but some of them include:

1) It will be easier to watch the movies and much more enjoyable, too (no need to fast forward or rewind).

2) Your precious videos/movies will be better preserved for at least the next 100 years.

3) They make great gifts to family members. Or pass it on as an heirloom in your family...future generations will be thankful you did.

4) Once your movies are converted to a high quality digital format, they can be easily upgraded in the future, onto future undeveloped mediums.

In order to get the best quality movie and audio, the typical processing time is anywhere from 4-6 business days, depending on the options selected for the DVD. We use the newest professional-grade equipment to ensure the best results. It is possible to do it faster, but the picture quality is then reduced. Remember, to retain the original quality we use a complex conversion process that takes 11 hours for each hour of video footage. Dr. DVD will not compromise quality, just to shave some time off of the process.

We accept all movie film and video tape formats. Movie film (projector-type) formats include 8mm, 16mm, and Super8. Video tape formats include VHS, S-VHS, and VHS-C. We also accept most camcorder tapes such as 8mm, Hi8, MiniDV, DVCAM, and Digital8. Please call us if you have any questions.

Fortune Magazine says, “Few people outside the industry know that the life expectancy of half-inch VHS [and camcorder] video tapes is much shorter than originally predicted – perhaps as short as ten years [for high quality tapes]. Recent technical reports by Sony, Ampex, and Agfa corporations and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers suggest that unless magnetic tapes like VHS are carefully stored and maintained, their lives can be fleeting.”

Just as people do, all video tapes (even digital tapes) age and fade, gradually. They age and fade regardless of how carefully they are stored or played. They age even if they’re vacuum sealed, double-wrapped in light-proof packaging, and double-wrapped in air-tight bags. All video tapes degrade over time, simply due to a chemical reaction of the tape’s tiny magnetic particles and the plastic backing they’re adhered to. The magnetic particles separate from the plastic backing, turning into a virtually invisible powder and taking whatever video and audio that was on the tape, with it. It’s hard to know how much aging a particular video tape has gone through. This process occurs gradually and persistently. As the degradation occurs, it will appear as loss of video quality–more snow on the picture, and a fading picture that isn’t as clear as the day the video was recorded. The hard part is knowing just how much worse the video is since day one. The easy part is knowing that the aging process started the day the tape left the factory, and it occurs even under the best storage conditions.

After we play back your video tape (usually once), we carefully store it away until your order is returned with your new DVD. Your tapes are only played on well-maintained professional equipment, which cannot record, so there is no danger of your tape being accidentially erased.

No. We’re sorry, but Dr. DVD’s services are only available for non-copyrighted movies.

After thousands of orders, that hasn’t happened yet. We go through great lengths to ensure that your tape is returned to you in the same condition we received it. Our equipment is well maintained to ensure that no damage occurs to it, but in the highly unlikely event a tape should unravel/jam while being played, we will replace the tape with an equivalent one. We know we cannot replace the content, so you may want to consider insuring the tape.

Yes, we accept all movie film and video tape formats. Movie film (projector-type) formats include 8mm, 16mm, and Super8. Video tape formats include VHS, S-VHS, and VHS-C. We also accept most camcorder tapes such as 8mm, Hi8, MiniDV, DVCAM, and Digital8. Please call us if you have any questions.

Most definitely! We convert all PAL-formatted video and camcorder tapes as well. There is an addition charge involved. Please contact us for a quote.

Our video quality is “Hollywood-grade” (we’ve done work for Hollywood, too, and met their strict quality requirements). The quality of videos converted to DVD can vary widely, depending on how much care is given to properly convert (encode) the video. Because we take approximately 11 hours of conversion time for each hour of video, our quality is much higher, and virtually identical to the original source tape. Most companies cannot make this claim because they don’t take the necessary time to properly convert the video.

Each DVD order comes carefully prepared with a lot of TLC, as if it was our own video being preserved (we started this business because nobody else offers a high quality conversion service). You can customize your DVD with various options by adding music, adding a picture behind the navigational menus, or adding a photo slide show with or without music. Just like a commercial DVD, yours will come encased in a DVD “safe box” with a personalized cover and disc label, along with your original tapes/films. If you would like, we can even edit your videos for you. See our price list for details.

You will receive your DVD in a professional-quality safe box that will be personalized with a picture taken from your movie footage, a title of your choice, and your DVD’s total running time. Each disc will also come customized with same information.

We have a professional graphic designer in-house who ensures that your menus, safe box covers, and disc labels look professional-grade, and not like a “cheesy” template.

We can accept as many video tapes (and movie films) as you want us to combine, as long as their total length is no longer than 120 minutes. If they are longer than 120 minutes, then they will continue onto a second DVD. There may be an extra charge for multiple tapes, so see our price list for details.

Of course. They make great gifts for family members. Or you may want to keep a copy off-site in a safe deposit box or even at a relative’s or friend’s house for safe keeping. When copies are requested at the time of the original order, there is a significant discount. See our price list for details.

Sure. If you don’t need chapter marks, menus, or a customized case, we offer a basic DVD that is still great for presentation purposes. Please see our price list for details.

Yes and yes, again. If you have a lot of digital pictures just sitting on your computer or old boxes of 35mm slides hiding in storage somewhere, why not put them onto your DVD for easier viewing and sharing? We can put your pictures into a photo slide show for you to enjoy. Give your digital pictures “a new life” and get them out of their “dormancy.” It’s also a great way to keep them organized.

DVDs last at least 100 years and they are the most practical method of preserving video and movie film footage for long term. DVDs also provide the best visual and audio quality for viewing on your TV. Because DVD is the digital standard for high quality video/movies, you’ll always be able to take the digital files from the DVD, onto the as-yet-undefined format of the future.

A VCD (Video CD) has about 1/6th the capacity of a DVD. Decent looking video files are very large, therefore require the larger capacity of a DVD. When a movie is put onto a VCD, the large files are compressed so much in order to fit, that the picture quality is sacrificed. Therefore, VCD picture quality is not as good (it’s actually worse than VHS tape). Also, only approximately 60% of the DVD players can play a VCD.

The shelf life of a DVD disc is 100 years and it can be played 100,000 times without any wear.

Absolutely. Use any of the standard DVD playback programs for Windows or Mac and enjoy it on your computer or on your TV.

Absolutely not. The DVD disc will last for 100 years, regardless of whether played or stored, so that future generations can enjoy the same movies we’re enjoying today. Unlike video tape, playing a DVD does NOT wear it down (there is no physical contact with a DVD when it is played). Every time you watch it, it will look just as good as the first time.

DVDs offer the highest quality for watching videos on your TV. DVD video quality is higher resolution and much cleaner than any type of video tape. As a matter of fact, a DVD’s video quality is better than any digital camcorder tape. Therefore, if the transferring process is done properly and carefully, the finished video on the DVD is virtually identical to the source tape’s quality.

When properly created, a DVD can hold up to 120 minutes of high quality video.

If your videos are longer than 120 minutes, then we can split them onto multiple DVDs.

Absolutely! Please see our Contact Page and call or e-mail us for a quote.

95% of the DVD players sold since 1999 can play the recordable DVDs we create. The other 5% (older models) may have problems playing recordable DVDs, regardless of who created it.

Absolutely not. We value your privacy so we will only do what is necessary to convert it to DVD. We have no need to watch your entire video/movie–only to set it up for conversion. After the conversion is complete, all temporary files are deleted.

We pride ourselves on the great service we provide our customers. Customers from Coast to Coast have been very happy with us and 98% would recommend us to their family and friends. Read what some had to say. Because most of our customers come to us as referrals, our goal is make sure you’re 110% satisfied with the final results, or your money is refunded–guaranteed! After you see what we can do with your videos/movie films, you will want to tell your family and friends to save their videos/movies, too.