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Convert those old home movies to DVD
Salt Lake Tribune
Do you have a closet full of old home movies on VHS tapes? Save some space
- and ensure that the film lasts for generations - by using a service
to transfer them to DVD.
"These services make it really easy to transfer your tapes to DVDs,"
said Jeremiah Driansky, test engineer at the Good Housekeeping Research
Institute. "You don't have to buy any equipment, just ship out the
tape to the companies."
To find out which services work best, Good Housekeeping Research Institute
experts sent two 1-hour videotapes to several professional services that
convert VHS tapes to DVD. Here are their findings and some tips.
YES VIDEO
This was the Good Housekeeping Research Institute's pick for best value.
To use the service, simply drop off and pick up your footage at a participating
local store. It cost $24.99, and Good Housekeeping waited 14 days for
the DVD. Special software takes highlights from your home movies and pairs
them with popular tunes to create three music videos for your DVD.
APM STUDIO
In the Good Housekeeping tests, APM Studio was a little more expensive
than YesVideo - $38.20 for two 1-hour videotapes - but it produced better
picture quality. Send your tapes to the address provided at the APM Studio
Web site. Your old footage and new DVDs will be returned to you by mail
in about 11 days.
PICTUREAL
Have a treasured moment to preserve? Ship Pictureal the tapes (on their
dollar), and the company will cut any dull footage and add a soundtrack
for Hollywood flair. The cost for Good Housekeeping's DVD? $101.98, with
a 30-day wait. Although you wouldn't pay this much to convert just any
video, the impressive finished product is perfect for a special occasion.
Plus, you can prescreen and make changes before you buy.
MAKE THE SWITCH YOURSELF
If you have a lot of videotapes to transfer, consider buying a machine
to do the job in your home. In tests, the LiteOn LVC-9016G ($229; us.liteonit.com;
888-854-8366) got high marks for quality. The practically goof-proof machine,
which looks like a souped-up VCR, is also easy to operate. And it will
do more than just convert your videotapes. You can also use the LiteOn
as a DVD recorder.
TAKE BETTER HOME MOVIES
With their special effects, image stabilization and powered zoom lenses,
modern video cameras are fantastic. But they're useless if you don't know
how to use them correctly. Here is filming advice from Tony Pagano, a
video pro whose work you've seen on network TV for years:
* Use the zoom sparingly, otherwise viewers might get annoyed watching.
* Don't record a person against a bright background, like sun streaming
through a window. The images will be washed out.
* Save your battery power, and turn the camera off - a lot.
* Look for the most exciting moments. People are most interested in the
highlights of an event. Do your home movies have some of these flaws?
Consider fixing the flubs with a simple video-editing program. Some computers
include the programs for free.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_4264721
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