FILES
Protecting Your Valuable Memories
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Back up your really important media frequently.
Generally, most of us have 2 types of media (files) that need to be protected:
- Extremely valuable and often used files (these could be your job contracts, music you made and your art projects) – these files need to be backed up frequently. We recommend that you keep a separate hard drive, where you back up your files every 2-3 weeks, and store it in a safe or a secure location. Could is ok too, but keep in mind that the cloud can be breached and your personal info compromised.
- Extremely valuable and rarely used files (these are files that are very important, and are not used often, such as your wedding videos, family history and irreplaceable files) – while we recommend that these files be treated with the same level of care, for many of us it is simply cost prohibitive and impractical. The most practical solution is to store your drives in a safe and secure place.
What is important for us to get across is that we have shifted as a society from a tangible (physical) storage media (tapes, discs, paper) to a virtual one (files and the cloud). In the age of virtual media it is very important to remember the two main potential risks:
1. Your files can be deleted and your drive can permanently crash. It is far more common than most of us would imagine.
2. Your information can be compromised on the cloud, as well as deleted, stolen or distributed. Just think “WikiLeaks”.
Please contact us at Advanced Media when you are ready to address your media protection needs, or call us at (323) 469 0707
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HARD DRIVES 102: MOUNTING
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If you’ve read my previous article on Hard Drives, you now know the basics. But there is always more to know when it comes to computers.
I briefly spoke about mounting your hard drive to your computer but I wanted to expound on that idea. The process involves a cable which comes with your drive which will link your computer with your drive so they can communicate. There are two main connections. One is the USB and the other is Firewire. If you have a PC, you will only have the USB option. Mac computers tend to have both and now even offer a new type of connection called Thunderbolt which is extremely fast but we’ll stick to the basics here. First locate the cable and connect it to your drive in the proper port.
Next, locate the USB or Firewire port on your computer and insert that end of the cable into the port. If you have a Mac, your drive should show up as an icon on your desk top. To access the drive, you need simply to double click on the icon to explore it’s contents. If it does not show up, try unplugging and plugging again. If your external drive requires power, make sure it’s plugged in and remember, not all power sources are created equal. Each drive has a specific power cable and if you try mixing and matching you may end up frying your drive. Also, plug that into a surge protector to ensure the safety of your device. Power surges could also wipe your drive out and destroy it, leaving your out of luck without recourse.
From time to time, a drive will not mount. Don’t worry, simply open disc utility which is in the pulldown menu undero “Go” when you select “Utilities”. Now, you should see your drive and select it by clicking once on the icon. Now, verify the disc and it will show up on the desktop. Please see the next blog in this series if you are still curious. Thanks for reading.
For more information, click here to contact us.
Backing Up Your Hard Drive
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It’s a sad fact that sometimes, hard drives can die and take all your secrets to the grave.
Not to mention all your important documents, video files, pictures and whatever else you may have stored on there. Hopefully it’s not your screen play or your feature film. So what can be done to prevent such a tragedy? The thing about hard drives is, they may last a very long time or they may not. It’s kind of a crap shoot. I spoke with a customer the other day who told me he went through 6 drives in the last 4 years. I don’t think that’s normal, but he was extremely frustrated and wanted to get all of his family video history in one place, safe once and for all. The other thing about hard drives is that they need to be used. It’s a use it or lose it situation. This type of technology, much like your automobile, needs to go for a spin every once in a while. That can help to prevent the hard drive from fragmenting. If that happens and you lose all of your data there are options, very expensive options, which may or may not work. So it’s best to back everything up which means having another hard drive to store everything. Hopefully someday the geniuses who come up with these amazing, new technologies will figure out a way to preserve all of our important media on a tiny drive that fits in the palm of your hand, that will never, ever quit on you. But until then, back up your media. Please feel free to contact us here. (323) 469-0707
DVD to File
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A lot of people are not familiar with the fact that you can change your DVDs into files, so I wanted to write a little blog about it today.
Most people are aware that you can go from VHS to DVD or from various tapes to file, but what if you have a DVD and you want to edit the footage or upload it to the web? That’s something I’ve been helping customers with since 2007. There are two basic types of DVDs that you should be aware of. The first is the professionally manufactured DVD. That would be something that you purchase in a store and it’s very well protected. Of course there are ways around the protection but we do not offer that service because it’s not legal. The service we do offer is for the 2nd type of disc. That would be the DVD-R. This would be an unprotected disc. If it’s purple on the bottom, it’s probably a DVD-R. If it’s green, it’s more likely to be a CD-R. If it’s silver, it could be anything. If the bottom is black you have a Bluray disc. We are now offering DVD to .mov file or .mp4 file for the cost of $10/disc. In the past customers have paid upwards of $25 for files from disc. We’re offering this deal until the end of the year to see if we can drum up some new customers. Also, this is something that we feel is going to become more and more common place and necessary for our ever changing, technological society. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us here or give us a call during business hours which are 10am-6pm Monday thru Friday. And yes, that means we’re not open weekends. (323) 469-0707
Super 8 to Bluray is here!
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In the last year we have added HD telecine transfers and high quality Bluray discs to our arsenal.
Now, we’re offering them in conjunction. You can have us transfer your old 8mm and Super 8 film to HD files as well as Bluray. Of course we’re still offering transfers to DVD as well because not everybody has a Bluray player. Me, for example, I don’t have one but personally I would prefer the files anyways because I would like to edit my footage and create new files to upload to my Vimeo account and share them with family members. Actually I already had my own footage transferred. I wish there had been more of it but it amounted to about 45 minutes of footage ranging from the late 70’s to the early 80’s. The colors are so beautiful and the images are incredibly sharp but I think I’ll redo them to get the HD quality. To find out more, please contact us here or call (323) 469-0707
Video to Computer
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The VHS Family
Apparently a lot of people out there are googling “Video to Computer” so I figured I would write about it.
The first thing you need to know is what kind of computer you have. You either have a Mac or a PC. It’s that kind of world. Very black and white in this case. If you have a Mac, you most likely want some .mov files and if you have a PC you will need the standard .avi files. That’s if you want to edit. If you just want to watch your footage, I highly recommend a DVD transfer. If you want to edit, you’d better know how or at least have the curiosity to find out, otherwise, leave it to the professionals.
A lot of people are finding out that editing is actually a lot of work and a good amount of fun too if you have a pension for it. I know I do. The hours tend to roll by like a train when I’m in the darkened editing bay. Also, Mac computers come with editing software which is very convenient. If you’re a PC user, I recommend you get Adobe Premiere. It’s a great program. There are a lot of cheap programs that I wouldn’t get involved with if I was you. It’s also pretty easy to learn and if you don’t know something, as always, please do “GOOGLE IT!” But if you need help you can always contact us here. (323) 469-0707
Video to Capture
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The VHS Family
Some might ask, how does one go about capturing video?
The first thing you need to know is what kind of tape it is. There are many and we transfer most of them. You have your tiny tapes known as Mini DV. You can also have the HD version known as HDV. A slightly larger tape about the size of an audio cassette tape but thicker is the Hi8. There’s another version of that known as Video8 and also Digital 8. My decks play it all. If you have something beefier than that but about the same size, you probably have a VHSC tape. These fit into an adaptor and they cost the same as a VHS to go to digital file or DVD. Or you might have film reels which are round but that’s another matter and thus another blog. So how do we capture video? Well, we set up our deck to the corresponding tape. It’s hooked up to a Multibridge Pro by Blackmagic. This converts the analog signal to digital. That goes out with an SDI output to the Mac computer. We use Final Cut Pro to Log and Capture your footage. That means we give it a name and we store it on our computer and then we store it on an external drive for you. The next step is to manipulate the data. You get to sit down and cut your video together and take out all the crud that has no meaning for anyone. That’s the main thing about editing, you have to sort out all the stuff you never need to watch again or to share again. And often you will find very interesting accidents that can occur along the way, if you’re lucky. Are you feeling lucky? Feel free to contact us HERE! (323) 469-0707
Digitize
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Digitize
Digitizing, or the process of converting picture and sound into a file form that can be read by computers, means that what you currently have on a tape, film or a slide can be easily edited and manipulated digitally with your preferred editing software, or with a professional.
You can use these files to share with family and friends, edit and tell your own family story, promote yourself and your ideas online, and if they have some commercial value – go ahead and find a way to make some money by selling or licensing it.
Another major benefit of digitizing, is that you take a very smart step toward preserving and securing your family history and memories on a readily accessible file format, which can be read by any computer, now and in the future.
We offer digitizing to all file type and can digitize from virtually any source – DVD, VHS, Blu-ray, Beta, Video8, 8mm & 16mm film, MiniDV, photos, slides, CDs, Audio Cassettes and many more.
Most common files are: QuickTime (DV, ProRes, Uncompressed, H.264), AVI, WMV (Windows Media), DIVX, Flash, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DPX and many more. If you need it – we can handle it.
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YouTube & Vimeo
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YouTube
If you are a little more Internet savvy and would need to utilize the web in a way that would benefit your career, profession and overall personal purposes, we are here to help.
We specialize in high-quality encoding and generating files for YouTube and Vimeo. Some of the benefits of using these web platforms are that the hosting is free and you can easily embed the files into your own site and other affiliate sites and online locations. You can also use Vimeo to share and distribute content in a way that would only be available to registered and qualified users.
We do charge a small convenience fee for the high-quality encoding, setting up and uploading of your files to these
Vimeo
platforms.
We would like to note that the platforms themselves are free to use and you can encode the files yourself if you know how to do it. The benefits of working with us, is that we know exactly how to get it done, can do it efficiently and fast and can achieve a very high quality for your files.
Other platforms we can encode and upload to are various websites and FTP servers, as well as other video sharing Internet platforms.
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iPhone & iPad
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iphone
Let’s face it – who doesn’t have these days an iPhone or an iPad? Who doesn’t have both? As these smart phone devices are becoming the norm and find their use into everyday life, so may your family history and memories needs.
One of the main benefits of carrying your personal and family memories over these mobile devices, is your ability to enjoy them whenever you go and share them with anyone you would like to. If this is not a benefit, we wouldn’t know what is.
We offer the convenience of converting your files to iPhone and iPad and other smart phone devices.
Take your memories anywhere in the world and keep them close to you, even when you are away.
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