Choose Format
Choosing the right format depends on your goal. If you simply want to
archive the film and be able to easily play it, then DVD (or Blu-Ray DVD) is the best
format. Video on DVD will not degrade over time. We use professional
DVDs that are scratch proof. These DVDs are 100 times less likely
to scratch and will last a minimum of 50 years.
Example DVD Menu:
- 5 minute chapters
- Thumbnail picture per chapter
- Start on any chapter
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Editing Formats
We offer the following formats for editing purposes:
Bronze, Silver & Gold Process: AVI, MiniDV or
DVD
Platinum HD Process: 1080 HDV or 1080 HD 4:2:2 SDI
Uncompressed Files
Bronze, Silver & Gold
Process:
Traditionally, DVD has not been a format that you could edit from. There
are some programs that do allow you to edit from the DVD. Pinnacle Studio
12 and iMovie are two of them. Studio 12 can be purchased at
computer retail stores like Best Buy or can be downloaded from their site
at http://www.pinnaclesys.com.
Editing footage from DVD is acceptable for most of our customers. It is
true that DVD is more compressed than AVI files
or MiniDV Tape. Most customers
would never know the difference and you have to write it out to DVD at
some point. If, however, you are looking for the very best quality master
to edit from, then we offer the following formats: MiniDV Tape, (Requires you to have a MiniDV Camcorder) and
AVI files on an external Hard Drive. You must
ship us an external hard drive or purchase one on the order form if you choose AVI
files. If you need help calculating the disk space you'll need for the
transfer, click here.
You may
want to consider getting a copy on a playable DVD in addition to the
format you choose to edit from. This
way you archive the film and have a format you can edit. If you want to do
this, choose the format for editing as the master format and the DVD as
the copy format on the order form. Our copies are master quality.
We go back to the master file and completely render the video to the copy
format. We never make one format using another (making the DVD from MiniDV
tape) like many other companies do. So, we charge a little more but the
quality will be better.
Platinum HD
Process:
HDV master files. Most customers choose HDV (1080 lines)
which is already the industry standard format for high definition video
cameras. The HDV files can be easily edited on today's computers. The HDV
files cannot be played by today's DVD players. The files
must be read onto a computer for editing. Today, there are a number of
programs that support HDV
(Pinnacle Studio 12 Plus, Premier Elements, Pinnacle Liquid and Final Cut
Pro for example). The HDV files are delivered on a Hard
Drive. You must ship us an external hard drive or purchase one on the order
form if you choose HDV
files. If you need help calculating the disk space you'll need for the
transfer, click here.
Uncompressed 4:2:2 SDI HD master files. Editing
fully uncompressed HD files (1080 lines) requires a professional editing
workstation which is why this is typically only ordered by broadcasters or professional
post production facilities. The Disk space required for HD uncompressed is
550GB per hour of film. Editing HD uncompressed requires a RAID disk system
with a data rate of 200MB/Sec (Start at $5000 - Stand alone internal disks
have a data rate of about 50MB/sec). You'll also need an editing workstation
with 2 physical Xeon processors (Start at $3000) and an editor that can
handle uncompressed HD video (Adobe Preimere Pro - $850). You
must ship us an external hard drive or purchase one on the order form if you
choose uncompressed HD
files. If you need help calculating the disk space you'll need for the
transfer, click here.
Writing DVDs. You will be able to write regular DVDs or Blu-Ray
DVDs with either the HDV or HD uncompressed master files.
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