Spring into action with photos on video and DVD

Believe it or not spring is upon us, and now is the time to begin making the red letter days of this season special. Graduation Day, Mother's Day and Anniversaries of spring weddings past are the perfect time to create a unique DVD for everyone to enjoy!

Graduation Day. A time for joy, a time for tears, a time to treasure through the years!

• You have so many wonderful memories of your child's life, and Graduation Day is the time to tell their story in a "Birth to Graduation" Photo Video Keepsake DVD. Imagine those precious memories (the ones now scattered in boxes, closets and basements) given new life in a touching tribute and celebration. Gather those baby pictures, school pictures and prom photos. Find videos of birthdays and Little League. What about certificates and ribbons from past accomplishments? We'll help you blend it all with music, titles and special effects to make a DVD that will never be forgotten.
• Let's not forget the ceremony! The cap, the gown, the nerves, the procession and finally the diploma! You will surely be recording this special event with your video camera. Don't delay in getting it transferred to DVD right away. Your friends and family will definitely want a copy of this!
• The party! Why not video family and friends offering advice and well-wishes and edit it into a DVD that will be cherished for years to come?

Mother's Day. Your Mom has always found creative ways to say "I Love You" like no one else. Now you can return the love with a special Mother's Day video that will be one of a kind! Here are just a few ideas:

• A Mother's Day Photo Video keepsake. How about a photo montage for the whole family to enjoy? We can take your favorite photos of mom, add her favorite music and some titles and produce a masterpiece.
• A Message for Mom. Can you imagine mom's delight if her kids made a video message? A poetry reading, a song or just an impromptu speech of what mom means to them. We can create and edit to your heart's content to make it really special.
• Videos through the Years. You've shot video on vacation, school programs, recitals, camp, graduation, family reunions. That's a lot of video and it's probably on a lot of formats: 8mm film, VHS tape, 8mm tape, Mini DV, Mini Disc. We can take all of your formats and organize it into something special for mom's special day. And what could be more gratifying to mom than seeing her kids grow up before her very eyes?

Anniversaries. Video is a unique and personal way to remember the vows of your special day!

• Is your wedding still on a tape? (but you're not quite sure where?) Now is the time to find it and get it transferred to Archival Platinum DVD  in time for your anniversary!
• How about a special gift this year? A Photo Video Keepsake of your life together "Through the Years" would make a personal and unique anniversary gift.
• Do you have a special "place" or a special song? Nothing is more powerful than images and music blended together to bring back special times.

Are you ready? Call us now and let's get started! The fun will start right away with the selection of your media whether it's photos, slides, video footage, old movie footage or all of the above! Then the creativity will start flowing as you begin to imagine how you want to tell your story, whether it's for your graduate, your mom or your spouse. Then we'll tie your masterpiece all together into a one-of-a-kind work of art! And don't worry if you think you're not the creative type. We stand ready to help you every step of the way!

Don't delay! The red letter days of your life are just around the corner. Make them even more special with video. Call your Home Video Studio today!

Arthur Zepeda

559-732-3050 / 866-993-8348

Let Home Video Studio spice up your video!

Does your video need polish? We can help!

Video editing is an art in itself! Like a finely prepared meal your video's success lies largely in its presentation. Our experience, expertise and state-of-the-art equipment can help you deliver your intended message concisely and with impact: Does your business presentation need pizzazz? Does your event video need to tell the story of a wonderful evening? Does your training video need to articulate important points? Does your wedding need just the right touches?

The proliferation of very good consumer video cameras has given everyone the power to shoot high quality video these days - whether you are documenting a business presentation, video taping an event for your organization or church, making a training video or even shooting a wedding. Now that you've carefully shot that outstanding video let us partner with you to polish it up and present it on a silver platter.

Here are some of the ways we can help you:

Editing: Your video needs to be long enough to cover the subject and short enough to maintain interest. Our editing software and expertise will assure this.

Music: Well-placed music is one of the most powerful things your video can have.

Graphics: Whether it's your company logo, charts and graphs or bullet points to articulate something important the power to incorporate these are at your fingertips.

Still shots: Will pictures inserted into your video help you with your message? Special effects: Motion graphics, slow motion, video transitions, still frames, zooming you name it! Whatever your creative mind can imagine we can most likely achieve.

Call us today and let's talk about adding some spice to that video footage!

Home Video Studio-Visalia

559-732-3050 / 866-993-8348

What Kind of Camcorder Should I Buy?

Good news video enthusiasts! It's a buyer's market in the consumer camcorder world. Today's models are smaller, lighter and more affordable than ever - yet capture your most precious moments with more quality than ever before. Here are some of the latest types of camcorders available:

Pocket Camcorders: Many of us just want to point and shoot!

• Flash based
• Low cost
• Good quality for the money
• Convenient and portable
• Easy transfer to your computer
• Not a lot of memory
• Small lenses, file compression, and lack of manual controls means not as high quality as more expensive cameras

HD Consumer Camcorders: A little better video quality and a few more options

• Internal hard drive based
• Better HD video quality than pocket camcorder
• Larger than pocket camera
• Portable, reasonably priced and easy to use
• Some include SD card slot for removable media
• More memory, bigger lenses and sensors

HD Prosumer Camcorders: When your ready for the next step

• Higher quality components assure higher quality video
• Many more manual controls
• Larger
• More accommodation for good audio recording
• Many accommodate MiniDV tape in addition to removable flash

Video-Capable Digital SLRs: A camera and camcorder in one!

• A still camera that shoots professional quality HD video
• Not as bulky as a video camera
• Rather expensive

Choosing the right camcorder depends on your ultimate interests in recording. If convenience is your main interest you might look at a simple Flash based camcorder. They are lightweight and portable and are inexpensive, however the storage space tops out much quicker than an an Internal Hard Drive based camera. If massive storage is your concern the Hard Drive based camera offers that. But you might sacrifice size and convenience.

Here are a few more tips to consider:

Check out the LCD screen in daylight:You want to see what your doing.

For longer recording times, buy an extra, higher-capacity battery: Nothing's more frustrating than losing a shot because you ran out of juice.

Try out the camera's controls before you buy: You want to like working with your camera!

What Can Home Video Studio Do For You?

Video Tape is Dangerous . . . to your memories.

All forms of "Visual Media" are subject to a limited life span. The hidden danger of video tape is the relatively quick degradation of the tape and the signal recorded on it. For your convenience we have included a table below from the www.filmpreservation.org website that provides a limited guideline for preservation of most of the visual media you might have around your house.

Let's focus on VHS video tape for the moment. It was first introduced as Sony's Betamax format in 1/2" cassettes with a 60 minute record capability. It was never designed to archive "family memories" - it was born to be a cheap distribution medium in the late 70's for commercial/industrial training materials. The average shelf life is estimated to be around 5 -10 years* before it is rendered useless from various factors.

Close behind Sony, JVC followed with a lesser quality offering called VHS. (Video Home System) In VHS format the way the signal was recorded made for less picture quality than Betamax, but a two hour recording capability was a prize feature, so we as consumers adopted this system. This gave rise to inexpensive video cameras and recorders and home-based videography was launched.
The good news is we now have precious, never to be repeated memories captured. The bad news is that it's stored on what was never meant to be a long term storage solution, but rather an inexpensive and reasonable industrial distribution medium.
Your fondest "memories" now exist solely on a disposable by design medium . . . who knew?

What can you do?

It's simple! Take all of your old VHS tapes with kids, weddings, sports, pets, family and travel memories to your nearest Home Video Studio and have them transferred to a Gold Archival DVD. This is a real storage solution because our 24k Gold Archival DVD is rated to last for 100 years. This DVD is so tough that you can scratch it with a nail and it will still play.


Now, let's not forget that we can also organize and edit these tapes together and tell a more specific story. So think about how you might add to the family tree/archive with these old treasures and then distribute those to the rest of the family.
And even if you had Umatic 3/4" or 1/2" Betamax tapes there are still resources at Home Video Studios to capture those to DVD.
Sure it's another thing on your "to do" list, but it's a very important one, as it involves something totally irreplaceable . . . your memories.

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As you are preparing your tapes to be transferred to Gold Archival DVD here are a few tips you need to know:

How to Handle Your Video Tapes

• Never touch the tape itself. Hold it by the side of the cassette
• Rewind the cassette before storing it.
• Keep away from curious kids; avoid dropping or banging the tapes.
• Keep cassettes away from magnetic fields (Top of the Old TV)
• Don't leave a cassette in the car where it will be exposed to heat and cold
• If using a new cassette and it's still cold, let it warm up to room temperature.
• Occasionally fast forward and rewind a tape that's being stored a long time.

How to Store Your Video Tapes

• Store in conditions that are stable, cool and dry.
• Stay away from hot, humid and dusty.
• Store cassettes in the cassette case.
• Store your tapes vertically and not flat to distribute the gravity pull equally, stably and avoid edge damage.

And from the www.filmpreservation.org site we get the following information:
Chemical decay is due to spontaneous chemical change. Fading of color dyes in photographs and degradation of binder layers in magnetic tape are examples of decay caused by chemical reactions occurring within the materials themselves. The speed of these reactions depends primarily on temperature, but moisture also plays a role. In general, the warmer the temperature of the storage area, and the higher the Relative Humidity, the faster the media collection will be affected by chemical decay.

Excessive dampness is a very serious environmental threat to media collections because it contributes not only to mechanical decay but to biological and chemical decay as well.

Give us a call!

559-732-3050 / 866-993-8348

Home Video Studio-Visalia's website

Archive your mobile videos on a Platinum DVD with Home Video Studio

We all know that when you and your family get together with friends over the holidays you will enjoy watching those old home movies and tapes. Many of you have had us put your tapes and movies on a Platinum Archival DVD which makes it really easy and fun. 

We also know we're now in the digital media age. Here's a question: Do you know where your precious memories from this year's holiday events are?

You took that cool video of the kids on your iPhone. You snapped the perfect picture on your digital camera. You shot precious video footage of Grandpa on your flip camera. Now where are they? Still sitting in your phone? On a camera in your glove box? On your computer? Most likely everything you shot or filmed during the holidays is in danger (just a click or crash away) from being destroyed, stolen or lost because the digital age is also the dangerous age - for our memories. Don't let them become "Dust in the Wind!"

Did you know that if your phone gets wet or dropped those memories may be lost forever?! Sometimes they can be retrieved, but often they cannot! What if your digital camera or flip camera gets stolen or lost? What if your laptop hard drive crashes?

DON'T LOSE YOUR PRECIOUS MEMORIES! Home Video Studio can back up the pictures and videos from all of your portable devices on a Platinum 100 Year Archival DVD! We can back up your lap top as well. Be a saver of your family's archives! Don't wait till your mobile device is dropped or stolen. If you lose your phone you lose your memories.

Plus Home Video Studio's archival process offers easy access to your pictures and videos for printing, posting (Facebook/youtube/etc.) or just viewing with friends and family on your PC or DVD.

It's a great age we live in - the digital age! Digital cameras and smart phones make documenting the important things in your life easy and rewarding - Home Video Studio makes protecting those memories a cinch with our Platinum Archival DVDs!

It's also a great time to relive your older memories with friends and family. Home Video Studio makes projecting those memories really easy! Ask about putting your old movies, videotapes and photos into a Lifetime DVD Keepsake with music and titles today! 

We're only a click or call away. 

Call us today! 559-732-3050 / 866-993-8348

That will bring a smile to our faces and to yours!

Transfer Your VHS & 8mm Tape To DVD - Makes A Great Gift!

Believe it or not the Holidays are upon us and we all know that the best gifts for the upcoming season come from the heart. What could be better than getting all your old video tapes transferred to Home Video Studio's Platinum Archival DVDs? It's the perfect gift and one of the most important things you can do for yourself, your kids and/or your grandchildren.

Maybe its been a long time since you and your loved ones enjoyed the memories of those scenes you took long ago because it has become a hassle. You have to find the right cables to connect your camera to your TV, hook it up, figure out which TV setting etc.

Perhaps what you want to watch is somewhere in the middle of one of those tapes in the pile. Wouldn't it be great to give everyone DVDs that they could easily pop in to a player and enjoy anytime and anywhere?

The best thing to do right now is to gather up all your old tape formats - VHS, VHSC, 8mm, and minis - and get here before the Holiday rush. We can answer any questions and help you get started. The key thing is get started now!

Don't worry if some of your tapes appear damaged. We are video tape repair experts and can most likely repair them and get them onto a much more durable source for good!

Once your DVDs are made you have many options for packaging. We have many attractive themes for both DVD labeling and case wraps. Or you can customize your own. Maybe you want a precious family photo on the case. Once again, your imagination is the limit!

The best thing about transferring your videos to DVD is that, once the master DVD is made, copies are a cinch. They are quick to make, inexpensive and always available for that last minute gift.

The more thought you put into this gift the better it will be. Call us today and let's get started putting your memories onto Platinum Archival DVDs for the ultimate Holiday Gift!

Home Video Studio-Visalia

559-732-3050 / 866-993-8348