Hi,

I'd like to start a business in my local town offering a VHS --- DVD
conversion service. I've got a DVD writer but find the area of Video Capture
Cards and Editing Software to be very confusing.

Can anyone recommend the right kit to use that would be suitable for
commercial quality rather than just home use? WinTV seem to do some cheap
home products but this kit must be too cheap to use as the basis for a
professional business.

Recommendations for Hardware and Software anyone?

Cheers

M.

In message , Spidey
writes
Hi,

I'd like to start a business in my local town offering a VHS --- DVD
conversion service. I've got a DVD writer but find the area of Video Capture
Cards and Editing Software to be very confusing.

Can anyone recommend the right kit to use that would be suitable for
commercial quality rather than just home use? WinTV seem to do some cheap
home products but this kit must be too cheap to use as the basis for a
professional business.

You fail to mention whether your DVD writer is DVD-R or DVD+R.

I suspect that you aren't aware that only a proportion of domestic DVD
players can replay DVD-R/DVD+R.

Have you actually tried burning *any* DVDs? I suspect that if you had
you'd have realised that the time taken for each burn effectively
precludes doing this on an economic basis.

Sorry to be a wet blanket :-)
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

Tony,

I have a 2x Writer that does DVD-R and a 4X Writer that does DVD-R + DVD+R.
I have burnt lots of disks and don't really think it is a problem. I have
serveral computer so tying a couple up is not a problem. At 4X, a full movie
only takes 12 minutes so not that time consuming.

M.

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Spidey
writes
Hi,

I'd like to start a business in my local town offering a VHS --- DVD
conversion service. I've got a DVD writer but find the area of Video
Capture
Cards and Editing Software to be very confusing.

Can anyone recommend the right kit to use that would be suitable for
commercial quality rather than just home use? WinTV seem to do some cheap
home products but this kit must be too cheap to use as the basis for a
professional business.

You fail to mention whether your DVD writer is DVD-R or DVD+R.

I suspect that you aren't aware that only a proportion of domestic DVD
players can replay DVD-R/DVD+R.

Have you actually tried burning *any* DVDs? I suspect that if you had
you'd have realised that the time taken for each burn effectively
precludes doing this on an economic basis.

Sorry to be a wet blanket :-)
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

Malcolm,

I agree with you aguements, but there are others offering this service, so
that must mean that others are making it worthwhile doing??

M.

"Malcolm Knight" wrote in message
...
"Harry Broomhall" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 14:23:38 +0100, "Spidey"
wrote:

Hi,

I'd like to start a business in my local town offering a VHS --- DVD
conversion service. I've got a DVD writer but find the area of Video
Capture
Cards and Editing Software to be very confusing.

Can anyone recommend the right kit to use that would be suitable for
commercial quality rather than just home use? WinTV seem to do some
cheap
home products but this kit must be too cheap to use as the basis for
a
professional business.

Recommendations for Hardware and Software anyone?

It will rather depend on how much capital you want to invest in
this. A supplier of fairly good kit is Keene Electronics - get a
catalogue from http://www.keene.co.uk/.

Also have a look in the back of a number of video mags - there are
others advertising their services like this, and this may enable you
to get an idea if the business will be viable for a given outlay.

It's hugely time consuming whatever sort of equipment you use.
Inexpensive VHS players won't extract the best image and even an
expensive one only does it in real time. Then there's the authoring and
rendering to be done and probably that will tie up your computer full
time so you can't manage more than one DVD conversion at a time.

It seems to me that an hour of VHS is likely to take you three hours and
then there's all the artwork for the covers etc. I don't know how
valuable you believe your time is but unless you have a constant stream
of work coming in (how much will the adverts cost?) and you charge three
figure sums you aren't going to be able to live on the proceeds.

Then you've got the returns to cope with. If the client's DVD player is
old and won't play your disc it will be your fault.
--
Malcolm




Regards,
Harry.

"Spidey" wrote in message
...
Malcolm,

I agree with you aguements, but there are others offering this
service, so
that must mean that others are making it worthwhile doing??

M.

Well when you find out how they do it (except as a hobby) then please
let me know. :-)

Right now I'm doing the same sort of thing except that it's mpeg 1 on to
CD and despite having a huge amount of professional grade kit I find I
cannot get much more than an hour of source tape to output file in a
long day - that does include an amount of rudimentary editing but no
artwork whatever.

Malcolm

"Spidey" wrote in message

Tony,

I have a 2x Writer that does DVD-R and a 4X Writer that does DVD-R +
DVD+R. I have burnt lots of disks and don't really think it is a
problem. I have serveral computer so tying a couple up is not a
problem. At 4X, a full movie only takes 12 minutes so not that time
consuming.


I really can see the point in all this, with DVD recorders on the high
street and the price failing people will just burn their own before long, we
are at the point with DVD technology now that we were in the late 70's with
VHS - the format wars will be over very soon, the price will drop even
further and every house that needs one will have one....

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Spidey
writes
I have a 2x Writer that does DVD-R and a 4X Writer that does DVD-R +
DVD+R. I have burnt lots of disks and don't really think it is a
problem. I have serveral computer so tying a couple up is not a
problem. At 4X, a full movie only takes 12 minutes so not that time
consuming.

You can burn a DVD 60 to 120 minute DVD from analogue in 12 minutes?

Can you tell us all just how you manage that?

We are far too sceptical a bunch here Tony, he's buzzed off to
rec.video.professional now to see what they have to say.
--
Malcolm

"Jerry." wrote in message

snip


Oops ! Below should have read "I really can't see the point in all
this....."

I really can see the point in all this, with DVD recorders on the high
street and the price failing people will just burn their own before
long, we are at the point with DVD technology now that we were in the
late 70's with VHS - the format wars will be over very soon, the
price will drop even further and every house that needs one will have
one....

Malcolm,

I was only answering the point about the time to 'burn' a disc, not saying
anything about all the other factors.

M.

"Malcolm Knight" wrote in message
...
"Spidey" wrote in message
...
Tony,

I have a 2x Writer that does DVD-R and a 4X Writer that does DVD-R +
DVD+R.
I have burnt lots of disks and don't really think it is a problem. I
have
serveral computer so tying a couple up is not a problem. At 4X, a full
movie
only takes 12 minutes so not that time consuming.

You originally claimed you were aiming at commercial (maybe I was wrong
in interpreting that as 'professional') quality and here you are
claiming you can knock out a DVD in 12 minutes. What about designing
appropriate artwork, checking it works on a couple of different players?
And where did you get this kit that puts a VHS tape onto hard disc and
renders it in no time at all, that's what I'd like to know. I could do
with some of that. :-)

Even if your system works it will get as tedious as hell in a very short
time - I'm speaking from similar experience here - why do you think I'm
neglecting my video work right now - really really boring if you do it
every day.
--
Malcolm

Tony,

I as original said, I WANT to do this, I AM NOT actually doing it which is
why I wanted some advice. I was merely saying how long it took to 'burn' a
movie. I was not saying anything about the time taken to author the DVD from
the source or the time to capture the analogue in the first place.

M.

"Tony Morgan" wrote in message
...
In message , Spidey
writes
I have a 2x Writer that does DVD-R and a 4X Writer that does DVD-R +
DVD+R. I have burnt lots of disks and don't really think it is a
problem. I have serveral computer so tying a couple up is not a
problem. At 4X, a full movie only takes 12 minutes so not that time
consuming.

You can burn a DVD 60 to 120 minute DVD from analogue in 12 minutes?

Can you tell us all just how you manage that?
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info