Thursday, May 31, 2007

Video Duplication

If you need to make a copy of a video tape then you could consider taking advantage of video duplication services. The easiest way to go about duplicating a video is to pay somebody to do it for you. You can find numerous companies that duplicate videos, and many for a fraction of the cost that you would have expected.

You can search online for service providers in your area; however you are not necessarily restricted to dealing with a provider near by. Most video duplication companies will be happy for you to ship a package to their office, and then they will send it back to you along with your duplicates. These firms can do an unlimited number of copies of the master video tape, and will most likely charge a reduced rate per video based on how many you order.

However, you can do the job yourself if you prefer. For this you will need a high quality blank tape and a VCR. It is important that the blank tape is in good condition, because by duplicating a video, quality is lost anyway, so you don't want to waste any more than you have to. You need to keep as much of the original quality as possible. The disadvantage of this procedure is that you will have to wait the length of the actual tape for the copy to be ready, as it is copied in real time.

There is another option for you should you want a duplicate of a preexisting video tape. You can transfer the video to DVD format. This is a very wise thing to do, as you can convert the video on to a DVD which is a much smaller size, allowing you to save some precious space in your home. The quality of the footage will suffer only very slightly, but it is most likely you won't even notice it. There are several programs and software that can do this job for you. Browse the Internet and buy such software and you can copy and duplicate an unlimited number of videos for no cost besides buying blank videos. You can turn all your videos into DVDs this way. These software packages offer the possibility of editing the footage as well, meaning they have multi-functional capabilities. For example, in case of a home video, you may cut, rotate frames, include comments and make the video more fun to watch and personalized to your family and friends.

There is also the possibility to turn the video into any other required format using this software. On the other hand, you may turn to specialized firms to turn the videos into DVDs, but this procedure will cost you more, and they will likely charge you for every copy that you ask for. The duplication costs vary according to the length of the master video and the amount of copies that you require. The advantage of this type of duplication is that you don't have to do anything apart from pay and just wait for the copies!

All in all, the most cost effective thing to do is get the conversion software and you are all set for doing this as many times as you require in the future. On the other hand, you may find it much easier to pay a company if you want a professional job and don't have much spare time on your hands.

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