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Manchester Video is
one of the UK's leading video conversion specialists. The information here
is a guide to accompany our video conversion page. We hope that you will find the information helpful, and that we've explained things clearly. If there's anything you think we can do to improve the pages on this website please contact us. |
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| Click here for professional video formats including Betacam, DVCAM & U-matic | ||||||
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NTSC VHS video recorders run the tape slightly faster than PAL/SECAM VHS tapes. As a result it's not possible to fit more than 3 hours of video onto a SP (Short Play) NTSC VHS tape. |
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| TYPE | RECORDING TIME | |||||
| PAL | NTSC | |||||
| E-180/T120 | 180 mins | 120 mins | ||||
| E-240/T160 | 240 mins | 160 mins | ||||
| E-260/T180 | 260 mins | 180 mins | ||||
| E-300 | 300 mins | |||||
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Unlike VHS, which has several different video flavours, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD Video) has just two. You may see technical descriptions such as 625/50 or 525/60 but the two DVD types are most commonly referred to as either PAL or NTSC. |
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DVDs are fragile which is why
we include two copies. Put simply a Recordable DVD disc is two bits of
plastic with dye sandwiched in the middle. If the disc is flexed
(bent), scratched or exposed to extreme heat, cold or light then it can
fail with very little chance or recovery. Well cared for Recordable
DVDs should last for many years. It's a very good idea to make back-up
copies of your home video DVD(s) - most computers with a DVD
reader/writer can do this. You can also make back up copies of the data
onto a hard drive, USB memory stick or other memory card. A good
resource for more help and advice about this is www.videohelp.com Regional encoding is deliberately intended to restrict international compatibility between DVD players in different world markets. Regional encoding should not be confused with the PAL or NTSC formats. DVD-R discs created by Manchester Video are region free (Region Code is Zero). The DVDs we make are "DVD-R Video" and are intended for playback on compatible domestic DVD players and computers. DVD-R Video is an industry standard set out by the DVD Forum. DVD-R Video playback compatibility is a requirement of all current DVD players which carry the official DVD logo. A DVD-R Video test
disc is
available on request for £2.50 (credited against any
order). Manchester Video
convert the video tape formats listed above to DVD-R Video. Menu design with enhanced features and specific chapter points is available - email us for details. Approximately two
hours of good quality video can be transferred to a single layer
DVD-R. We can encode DVDs up to 4 hours duration onto a single disc at
a reduced picture quality. All other DVD & Multimedia pricing available on request - contact us |
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A question often asked is how good will the copy be ? The simple answer is
that the quality of the DVD mostly depends on how good the original
footage was. |
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As a rule if you have
a good quality source tape you can expect a fairly good quality copy.
However, if your source tape has a crackling soundtrack and a wobbly
picture then so will the copy!
If you would like to know more detailed information about the conversion process please read-on. Copying analogue video footage is a lossy process. What this means is that you will never get a perfect copy of a VHS tape. When you copy and convert analogue video from one tape to another some information such as colour saturation or image detail is lost. When transferring analogue video from one colour standard to another the quality drop issue is even greater. VHS is prone to poor colour reproduction (especially NTSC) with drop-out, colour bleed and tracking errors. One other factor that affects NTSC/PAL transfers is frame rate and picture size. NTSC standard definition video is 720 x 480 pixels per frame at 29.97 frames per second. PAL standard definition video is 720 x 576 pixels per frame running at 25 frames per second. To convert between these two formats, depending on which way we are converting (to or from NTSC/PAL) we need to either squash or stretch the picture size and either reduce or increase the frame rate plus sort out the differences between the colour signals. The video signal is passed through a digital conversion unit. As you might expect during this stretching/squashing frame padding/frame dropping process something has to give! Our equipment has
high quality analogue and digital connections which allow
us to maintain picture quality while converting video between the
various video formats and standards. |
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NTSC Bahamas |
PAL B/G Afghanistan |
PAL D/K China PAL N Argentina PAL I Angola PAL M Brazil
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SECAM B/G Egypt SECAM D/K Bulgaria SECAM I Gambia SECAM L France
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0161 637 6838 07930 431 662 Email Manchester Video |
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Worldwide Video
and DVD multi-format standards conversion service All content © Manchester Video Limited 2009 |
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