DVDs and Digital Copies

Digital Copies

Go from analog to digital.

We’ve been having a lot of people coming in getting their materials transferred to DVD lately, and often we’re being asked “Can I watch this on my iPad?”  Well, I’m going to throw out some tidbits that may make the answer to that question seem pretty clear; the answer is  “No!” Simple, huh?

Not to get too technical about bits and bytes, file types, drives versus players and all the kind of stuff that people like me REALLY enjoy, but to make it easier for “normal” folks, here’s a little overview.

When your tape or film is being turned into a DVD a process called “burning” is used. With burning that source material is being converted into digital information onto a physical disc (oddly enough called a DVD.) Now when all the information is put onto the DVD it MUST be written in such a way that your DVD player can understand the information that has been put onto it.  That is done by adding more information into the data and placed into specially structured folders that all DVD players are designed to read. Now with all this extra information written into the source, it makes it extremely difficult for anything that is NOT a DVD player to understand it. Since your iPad, and Android Tablet or smartphone is not a DVD player…well, you’re kinda out of luck unless you do a lot of computer/techy stuff to get that extra information removed.

Which is why we can also give you a “digital copy.” This, in essence, is your original material (tape or film) in a pure digital form that CAN be played by your other devices. If you buy movies (like I do… a LOT of movies) you’ll notice many BluRay releases coming with a “standard DVD” (for people that do not have a BluRay player yet; and if you don’t,uhhh… why not?) and a “digital copy” so that you can take your movies with you to watch on your phone, tablet etc. In fact, when you stream a move from Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, whatever, you are in fact watching a digital copy since you do not need all the information that a physical DVD player needs to function properly.

So, in a nutshell, we here at Patchin Pictures are trying to make it easier for you to enjoy your home movies in a multitude of ways. When you get yours stuff converted, if you think you’ll want to bring it with you onto a plane, or maybe edit some of it yourself at home, or get it up to YouTube, feel free to ask about getting a digital copy and believe me, you will forgo a LOT of frustration.

Give us a call at  Give us a call at 702-240-6777 if you’d like any more information, or go to https://patchinpictures.com/transfers-to-dvd/.

Posted on November 25, 2013 in Uncategorized, Video and Film Transfers

Share

About the Author

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to Top