DVD Duplication of Old VHS Tapes

How many of us still have dusty copies of old VHS tapes stacked in the corners or on the shelves of our homes and offices? If you do, then you may be happy to know that the copying process of switching valuable content from VHS tapes over via DVD duplication is quite easy. It's a great way to preserve and also share your old tapes.

If you want to transfer VHS tapes to DVDs there are several options for the conversions. If produced properly, the DVDs can look even better than the original VHS tapes and that includes VHS-C, SVHS, Hi8, regular, and Betas. Following are some ways that you can do it.

First, you can capture the VHS video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter, or you could encode it to MPEG-2 and publish a DVD. This is provides the flexibility to edit the video as much as you want, adding transitions, special effects, or music. It can be time consuming though...

OR you can capture the video to your computer as MPEG-2 using hardware capture devices that will convert the VHS to MPEG-2 as they capture and then author a DVD. Many of the inexpensive hardware analog-to-MPEG boxes offer pretty good quality, in part because the analog source video does not have to be converted to DV before its encoded to MPEG.

Third, you could connect your VHS VCR or camcorder to a standalone DVD recorder which works much like a VCR, and this VHS to DVD recorder basically gives you a DVD copy of your tape in real time. This is the fastest and easiest way to convert VHS to DVD.

You need to make sure your analog video is of the best quality possible because any flaws in the original video tape may be magnified when encoded to MPEG-2 and then converted to DVD.

Insofar as some more details -- the process of converting to a DVD basically requires a VHS tape player, or a camcorder. Simply plug either the camcorder or the VHS tape player into your PC, as long as your computer has the ports for plugging in these devices in. You would also need a minimum of 512 MB of RAM and a 2 GHz processor, plus about 20 GB of free space in the hard drive. Next your computer also needs a CD-RW drive for the duplication process. And you also need video editing software.

It takes very little time to copy VHS tape to DVD. However if you are not inclined to take on this kind of project yourself, Acutrack is happy to do it for you via our duplication dvd packaging process.

DVD Production and Content Management Mistakes NOT to Make

As Acutrack continues to work with clients an interesting trend has emerged reflecting growing complexities related to managing CD and DVD production, as well as the production and management of other content such as CD or DVD, movies, music, software intended for your target audiences.

“Our customers are up against many challenges, including the fact that typically the CD or DVD is just one component of a larger project," said Todd Shur, vice president of sales of Acutrack, Inc. “Multiple pieces are procured via several vendors, so there are growing complexities to managing content, period.”

Shur continued, stating that for example, most of the company’s customers have from five to ten employees, versus hundreds or thousands of employees, and they are responsible for producing several different pieces that need to be managed along with the manufacturing of CD or DVD. This might include brochures, manuals, user agreements, data sheets, stationary, or presentation folders and press and sales kits. There are digital or offset printed materials and packaging that are all procured through several vendors.

Acutrack can come in and assist with these tasks and quality control issues. One example is that if a manual is produced by one company and the CD is produced by another vendor there may be no cohesiveness between the two so problems occur such as the colors don’t match. There are also shipping logistics. It is difficult to manage quality control when production is in the hands of several companies. Plus, shipping, coordination and the logistics of managing a multitude of vendors is usually the responsibility of only one person managing it all in an organization.

It is best to have someone like Acutrack handle it all to help keep branding in check, and when that is being controlled, marketing and strategic sourcing love it. This is one stop shopping that leverages their spending so they get the best bang for their buck. It’s all tied under one umbrella that they can order off of one storefront or in reality, an Acutrack e-commerce site that is basically accessing an online catalog. People can actually go online and access the specific content that they need.

The internal audience is usually the sales team, or corporate communications teams who need sales and corporate collateral, such as business letterhead and cards. Whereas VARS can get their own versions of materials needed and external customers can go in and get what you want them to see and order. Then of course there are materials for HR, training, and the technical departments.

Acutrack's On Demand Production is a system that allows our customers to manufacture CDs and DVDs on an "as needed" basis, eliminating the up-front costs normally associated with CD/DVD production. We create custom CDs and DVDs one at a time and ship them world-wide directly to your clients. All you need is a webstore, shopping cart/e-commerce and your product(s). Check out our effortless-commerce, an e-commerce solution that anyone can use and it’s set up based on the company’s rules.

Acutrack can demonstrate our services if you email tshur@acutrack.com to set up a Web demo.