Video Conversion Terminology and Details of Pixmonix Services

Understanding the technical issues involved in converting your videos to digital form and transferring your video to DVD can be daunting. We know this and we want to make life easier for you -- not more complicated. We hope that this introduction helps you to make the right choices regarding scanning your slides or negatives. If your questions are not answered here, we encourage you to contact us with your questions.

Digital Video Basics Digital video is a type of video recording using digital information rather than light passing through moving film to produce a moving image. Though encoded differently than film, it works in a similar fashion; it is basically a series of still images which are flashed on the screen at a rate high enough that our eyes perceive smooth motion. Digital video can be encoded in a wide variety of formats and stored on a wide variety of different tapes and disks. The most common usage (and the one that generally concerns us here) is the digital video format used in home video equipment, namely the DVD and digital camcorders. Video is encoded on a DVD in a format called MPEG-2. The MPEG-2 digital video format provides very good quality video while allowing a reasonable length of video to be stored on a single DVD disk. Normal DVDs can hold about 2 hours of video (along with high-quality sound). Many current digital camcorders use a tape format known as MiniDV which stores digital video onto a small tape. Video used on the Internet generally uses different formats to make it small enough to download in a reasonable amount of time. Popular formats for online video are Windows Media (.wmv), Quicktime (.mov), Flash and Real Media (.rm).

Transferring/Converting Your Videos to Digital Video Analog video, as we might see recorded using an analog camcorder, must be converted to digital form in order to view it on a TV or computer using a DVD player. We perform this conversion using specialized conversion hardware and software. This hardware and software is capable of "cleaning up" or improving on the images and sound on the analog video tape. For digital video tapes such as MiniDV, we pull the video data into the computer and process it to produce a high quality DVD. For both analog and digital video sources, we generate smaller compressed versions of the video and make them available on the website for you to view and share with family and friends.

Digital Video Storage, Security, and Longevity Analog video tapes generally have relatively short lives. Digital video files stored on DVD or on computers can last forever. However, it does take some care to achieve this feat. First, it must be understood that storage media will not last forever. DVDs may get scratched. Fires and floods happen. It is also important to understand that DVDs have finite lives, even if they are not damaged due to abuse or mishandling. The materials used in their manufacture do not last forever. In particular, exposure to heat, cold, sunlight or moisture may significantly shorten the lifetimes of these disks. We use only archival grade DVDs to store your videos. These DVDs have very long lifetimes. Our links page has pointers to detailed information on archival quality of DVD and CD storage. Our order form provides you with the opportunity to order multiple copies of your video on DVD. We encourage you to do so (not because we make lots of money on these, but because it gives you further assurance of the longevity of your video). You can also order additional copies of your videos after you receive your order from us. Please contact us for pricing (and note that we will only retain your videos for a fixed amount of time, as detailed in our terms and conditions).