Why DVD? - Transfer VHS to DVD

You are probably aware that you can purchase Hollywood movies on DVD. But the real breakthrough of DVD for millions of people is the ability to store video footage accumulated over decades onto this revolutionary new media. There are many reasons to convert VHS to DVD.

VHS tapes degrade much faster than most people realize. Tape heads wear on the tape during every viewing and chemical processes are at work destroying your tape even while it sits on a shelf. Transferring VHS tapes to DVD, before they lose the quality of their video image, is a permanent and cost effective way to guarantee a future for those irreplaceable memories.

A DVD has many advantages over video tapes. Instead of fast forwarding to a specific spot in your video, a DVD lets you skip right to a specific point, bypassing all of the video in between. The DVD Menu lists "Chapters" which are the places where you want to be able to skip to (usually a new scene or event). By pressing the MENU button on your DVD player's remote, you can access your menus and move to the exact spot you want.

What is DVD?

DVD is the next generation of video storage. With the capacity for high quality sound and video, DVD has surpassed video tapes as the new industry standard in quality video storage. A DVD is similar to a CD (compact disc), but has 8 to 10 times the storage capacity. DVD is the first video format that will truly last a lifetime. All the major players in video media (Sony, Pioneer, Toshiba, Etc.) have embraced DVD, and together have reaped the benefits of DVD being the fastest selling consumer electronic in history.

One of the best things about DVD is the quality of the video. While a normal VHS tape only offers 200-300 vertical lines of resolutions, a DVD allows a full 480 lines of resolution. This means that your picture is sharper and more detailed.

If your video camera only records in a mono channel (playback through one speaker), then DVD is just right for you. We can split your one channel of audio into two channels giving you a left and right audio channel for a more enjoyable listening experience.

Most video cameras only record in one channel of audio. Even if you have two speakers on your TV or 5 speakers in your entertainment center, your videos are only going to be playing audio out of one speaker. You may have some feature films on tape that use more that one speaker, that's because Hollywood has gone through and re-sampled the audio to playback out of different speakers. We can also split your your one channel of audio into separate channels.

DVD Movie Copy Software | Things To Know Before You Buy
 by: Jay Smith

Thanks to the latest technology it's extremely easy to copy a DVD movie these days. Some DVD movie copy software programs make it as easy as clicking a few buttons. However there are many things one should keep in mind when shopping for DVD movie copy software, as all are not created equal.

For starters the software should be easy to use. There is no point in buying new software that is too hard to use and will just end up collecting dust. Fortunately there are many great DVD copy software choices today that are very easy to use.

The next thing to consider is what you will be using the software for. Different DVD movie copy software programs have different features. Many programs will allow you to copy:

· CSS encrypted movies. This means that you can copy a full length DVD movie. Although according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act this is illegal.

· Data from CD's.

· Music CD's from MP2 & WMA files.

· Video games such as Xbox, Playstation, PSP, Dreamcast, etc.

· Damaged or scratched DVD's. Limited error correction attempts to recover damaged DVD's to make an undamaged DVD copy.

· VHS tapes

Other important features to consider are quality and speed. There is no point in copying a DVD if the quality is going to end up looking like a VHS recording. Many DVD movie copy software programs will copy a DVD with virtually no noticeable loss of image quality, in other words, high quality output. Speed is also something to keep in mind as some programs will copy and burn a DVD in less than 45 minutes where others take a few hours.

Many DVD copy software programs now allow you to try before you buy. This is a great feature as you can make sure the program will do all that you need it to do and that it is easy to operate. Some even let you burn a few DVD's.

So before you purchase any DVD movie copy software make sure you know what you will actually use it for. It's great to be able to copy DVD movies easily with fast high quality results.