Your video will be transferred with as much fidelity to the original recording as possible. All transfers from tape to DVD employ an intermediary TBC (Time Base Corrector) to prevent unstable video and other defects in (often poorly recorded and aging) source material from interfering with the DVD encoding process. Without such equipment, skips and audio/video synchronization problems can plague transferred DVDs. We set our encoders and recorders to the highest bit-rate usable for the length of video to be transferred. This ensures the maximum possible resolution and smoothness in digital video reproduction.

Completed DVD’s feature a main menu that allows you to see what is on the tape at a glance.  The photo shows a typical DVD opening menu. There will be one “thumbnail” picture for each tape recorded to the DVD with a short descriptive label. Viewing can be started by pushing your “play” button, or by selecting one of the transferred tapes (if there are more than one) and pushing “play”. Additional chapter markers are set at approximately 5-minute intervals to allow you to easily skip forward in the video.

But great video is only half of the story. We also package your home movies so that they will be not only practical and durable, but also look good on your video bookshelf. The photos show a typical printed DVD home video disc and packaging provided.

The disc is printed using a thermal printing process that is washable and as durable as the disc on which it is printed. Access Video does not use “stick on” labels that have been shown in studies to significantly increase the bit-error rate during DVD playback potentially causing skips and unreadable discs. They also put stress on the DVD (due to shrinkage) and have the potential for peeling over time – which can render a disc unusable. We want to be sure our customers’ DVDs will work as well 10 or 20 years from now as they do today.

Unless requested, we also avoid using inkjet printing on our discs. While colorful, they are not washable, and over time tend to smear if handled with wet or sweaty hands. We think our customers want their discs to look good and have readable labels even after many years of handling – often by children.

Our standard DVD package is a movie style case, similar to what you see in your local video rental store. It has a full wraparound clear plastic cover to protect the inserts we install with your DVD information. We print whatever label you request on the face and “spine” (side) of the box insert. We also add all the pertinent technical information, including video length to the back of the insert.
To save space or reduce cost, you can also request the Slim Poly Case package option. This case is similar to a slim CD jewel-style case - except made from a more durable plastic. The DVD information can be read through the clear cover of the case. No insert is needed.

Options in more detail:

Additional DVD Copies

This option provides additional identical copies of a single DVD transferred from tape. The price is per disc. This is a special low DVD duplication price only available if ordered at the same time as the original transfer. 

Note: For more than a few copies, the per-disc price may be lower using our DVD duplication pricing chart.

Combination

Shorter tapes may be combined on to a single DVD during transfer: Tapes added to a DVD are priced at a slightly lower price, see pricing. For example, four 30-minute VHS-C tapes transferred to one 2-hour DVD would be priced at the normal 30-minute transfer price plus three 30-minute transfers at the “combo” price. This not only saves you money (vs. transferring each tape to its own DVD), it also saves space and saves money on duplicate copies due to fewer discs. Each tape is individually selectable from the DVD opening menu.

Note: Since there is typically a short delay before stopping a transfer after the end of each tape, there may be up to 30 seconds of blank tape recorded before the next recording begins. This may show up as “blue screen” or video “static” between sections on the DVD. If you need perfectly clean transitions between DVD sections, consider using the “Customize DVD” option.

Custom Start or Stop

This option provides the ability to “edit out” or “skip” (roughly – see note 2 below) the beginning or end of the content of a videotape during the transfer process. We charge a “custom start” and/or a ”custom stop” edit fee for this service. This is charged at a $60 .00/hour labor rate with a minimum of $6.00 per custom start or stop. Charges include time to find and mark the point(s) to start and/or stop the recording. Fees can be minimized by cueing the tape, that is, winding it to the custom start or stop point and bringing/sending it to Access Video cued to that position. Due to differences in the way machines load and unload tape, cueing is only accurate to about 5 seconds, so we would also need a description of the scene and what material you want or don’t want transferred. If there is to be both a custom start and stop, cost can be minimized by cueing the tape to the beginning point and providing a measure of the elapsed time to the end point from the beginning point – with scene descriptions/instructions. With adequate cueing and instructions, most custom start/stops can be provided at the minimum rate shown above. However, editing can be expensive. We will provide an estimate at the time we receive the tape and your instructions – before work begins.

Note 1: Please do not bring in a tape expecting to play the tape and show us where on the tape you wish to start or stop. We are not set up with customer tape viewing areas (there are far too many formats for this) and our production areas are usually in use. It is better to cue the tape and provide a written description of the transition scene(s) and what you do or don’t want including in the transfer. For more complex editing, please call to discuss options on how to communicate editing requests or for rates and scheduling of “studio time”. If you do not have a player to view the tape beforehand, consider transferring the entire tape and then using the Customize DVD option.

Note 2: This method is strictly for “rough” editing. It is only possible to get within a couple seconds of the desired start or stop points using this method. If you need more precise editing, consider using the “Customize DVD” option below.

Customize DVD 

This option provides the ability to edit both the content and the menu structure of the DVD after it has been initially transferred from tape. 

Sample Customized DVD Menu

This option is charged at a fixed labor rate (currently $60.00) per hour of work with a minimum charge of $20.00 to transfer the DVD files into the DVD “authoring” system for customization and to output the final DVD. With this option you can, among other things:

• Change the menu background to a custom image of your choice.
• Add a custom title to the DVD main menu (e.g., Smith Home Videos ’82-’90)
• Add custom chapter markers to easily access scenes of the DVD.
• Add custom labels (e.g., Mary at the Lake, 1988) to chapters of the DVD.
• Edit out sections of video that you do not want.

If the customization is simple, with adequate instructions we can complete the customization immediately after the transfer from tape. However, for customization that requires significant editing, or several custom chapter markers, it is usually more efficient (and less expensive) to take the initial DVD home, locate and list the edit points and chapter marker points using the DVD player time display and bring the disc back in for customization. This greatly reduces the time in finding scenes and therefore reduces your cost. If there is a large amount of custom titles/chapter labels, it may also save time/cost to provide us a “softcopy” of the labels on disc, flash-drive, or by e-mail. We can provide an estimate of the total cost at the time instructions are provided. Typical DVD customization jobs (for home video use) with 6 to 12 chapters require one to two hours of labor.


Print customer-provided photo image to DVD box insert

This includes scanning (or otherwise importing) a customer-
provided photo, and printing the image (approx. 3”x 4”), in full
color, to the front of the DVD movie box insert along with other
customized label information. This option is perfect for gift DVD’s!

Remove top menu

This option removes all menus from the DVD. Most DVD players will simply start playing the video when a disc is inserted with no menu. This is useful if you do not want viewers to be distracted by a “generic” menu (at the beginning of a presentation for example ) and you do not want to develop a custom menu. This is an extra-cost option since the default menu created by DVD transfer machines must be stripped out. 

Note: Some DVD players and most DVD-capable computers may still require user action, such as pressing “play” or starting DVD software on a computer to start playing a menu-less DVD. Regardless, once the DVD starts, no menu (from the DVD) will be displayed, only the video program itself will appear.

Make DVD looping

This option is used to create a “looping” DVD that will automatically restart when it gets to the end. It will continue to repeat until the “stop” button is pressed on the player. This is useful for events in which you want to have a short video playing continuously during the event. A basic DVD opening menu (which would not be seen during looping) can be included or left out during the process at no additional cost.