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Did you know
your videotapes have an expiration date? With the convenience and
popularity of videotapes, most of us assume our special video recordings are permanent.
But in fact they begin to lose information immediately after being recorded. We preserve
your irreplaceable videos by converting them to DVD.
Imagine this....You pop the
videotape of your wedding or the tape of your child's first steps into the VCR. At best,
the colors and images have faded and the picture is a little snowy. Or worse, the picture
is un-watchable and the sound garbled. It's not a matter of if
your tape will fail but when.
Your personal videotapes will not be playable within 20
years, most likely closer to 10-15 years. But if you wait that long to preserve your
videos, they won't be worth saving anyhow, because of the significant loss of video
quality. The videotape was never meant to be a long term storage media. Due solely to the
weakening of the binder, which holds the magnetic particles containing the video data to
the plastic tape material, videotapes continually release their magnetic information
particles over time until eventually the tape is unplayable. Environmental conditions can
speed the process, but nothing is going to stop it.
Equally as bad, simply playing a videotape causes some wear.
The older the tape is the more deterioration will take place each time it's played,
because the older binder material is weaker and therefore more particles are ripped away
each time it's rubbed by the spinning player heads.
Magnetic media's sensitivity to static shock or common
electric fields further confirms it's inadequacy as a storage media. All or some of the
information stored on videotape can be wiped out by a simple static shock or an electric
field from a household device as common as a VCR, stereo, speaker or TV.
DVDs, on the other hand, have ideal characteristics for the
long haul. DVDs will last a minimum of 100 years, though some tests suggest in excess of
500 years. DVDs never wear out, so they can be played millions of times without losing any
quality. The data surface on DVDs is optical, not magnetic. The data surface is protected
by a layer of polycarbonate, the same material used in bullet proof glass. DVD data is
digital, so copies are exactly the quality same as the original. DVD video data is the
format of the future and is not in jeopardy of becoming a lost format. The Library of
Congress and National Archives Service use DVD and CD for long term storage. So
should you.
PGH Pictures has been providing
families and businesses with the highest possible quality digital imaging and videotape
conversion services since 1998. Our experience, combined with the very best professional
equipment available, results in the best DVDs possible. Plus, we’ve never lost
or damaged a single videotape. Service you can trust, quality that can’t be matched
….. that’s Rege Curtin
Photography.
We convert all standard tape formats - mini DV, VHS, S-VHS,
VHS compact, 8mm & Hi8. ....more |
