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 All Frequently Asked Questions


Click on a question below.

How Do I know If My DVD Player Will Be Able To Read Your Disks?

Which DVD should I Buy

How does a PhotoShow DVD differ from a Video CD (VCD)?

On Our Photo restoration Services

Slideshow Chapters

What Do You Get For Final Image Size? What do you end up with after your 35mm slides or photos are all scanned?

How many photos Can I Fit On A CD or DVD?

How can I get the best quality from my video?

Definitions

How Do I Know If My DVD Player Will Be Able To Read Your Disks?

Most DVD players manufactured in the last three years have no problem playing the VCD format. This is especially true for DVD players included with your PC. DVD players that can play this format are very inexpensive. To verify that your player can play DVD-r or VCD formats you should look at your manual, labels on the DVD player itself or call the manufactures' support lines i.e. telephone, e-mail or internet site. Look for any two of the following, DVD-r, VCD and Jpeg. Make sure you fill this in on our order form.

If you would like, we can do this for you, just e-mail your DVD player's name and model number. We cannot be held responsible for any errors made on third party web sites.

We can even send you a sample to ensure it works! See sample offer here.

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Which DVD should I buy?

The new DVD players let you scroll through your images with the remote or they can run in slide-show mode where it changes the picture every few seconds. Look for these features: The player should be able to play JPEG files, VCD,VCD2.0, CD-R, DVD-R, MP3, (MPEG 4 is a nice to have, holds 10 hours of high quality video).

Here are a few models that support this feature:
Philips DVP642/37 player supports JPEG files. It retails for $70 - $100 CDN.

RCA
RCA DRC212N This DVD player supports every disc type but only JPEG files smaller than 5MB. It retails for about $70US.

APEX AD-1200
APEX AD-1100W

Panasonic DVD-F65K
Panasonic DVD-S35S
(The Panasonic's don't support JPEG files on DVD discs, only on CDs)

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How does a DVD SlideShow differ from a Video CD (VCD)?
A DVD PhotoShow contains fully authored DVD video content and menus, and is produced on high quality DVD-R media. These discs are compatible with almost all DVD players manufactured in the last three years, and work just like your favorite DVD movies. Video CDs (VCD's), provide good quality but are inferior to DVD Slideshow in two ways:

Photo Video CDs, by comparison, are simply a collection of images that are stored on a CD, and will only play back in a simple slide mode.

Highest Quality - DVD Slideshow make the best possible use of the DVD format, including high resolution photos and great sounding audio.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions On Photo Restoration:
Q. How do I get my photo to you for photo restoration?
A. You can send a photo to us by mail or e-mail. If mailing the file, it should be 300 dpi in tiff format. It can be submitted on a CD-r, DVD-r, USB Micro drive or memory card.
Q. Should I e-mail a copy or would you rather have the original photo, slide or negative?
A. It is always best to work with the original picture so that we can scan it with our high quality products. The better the digital copy we have to work with the better the results will be. However, very good results can be achieved if we are provided with a good quality color scan (300 dpi) by email. But do not use automatic filters. Larger retail photo copy outlets can copy a scanned file to the following media:CD, DVD, or to a USB micro disk drive. You can e-mail the file or send us your media by normal mail.
Q. How do I place an order?
A. Most people start by sending us an email describing the photo(s) that they wish to have restored. We respond with an price and time estimate.
Q. How long does it take to complete my order?
A. It really depends on the amount of work. Allow for 2-5 days for the work to be completed. If you are ordering prints it will take at least a week for the order to reach you by regular mail. Rush orders will be charged a 50% premium.
Q. Can I review the restoration results before shipment to me?
A. Yes. We will send a proof by email attachment for your review and approval.

Photo Restoration depends on amount of work. Terms: 50% deposit required, cash, cheque's, no credit cards. The rest is due once you approve the final version.

Our photo repair or photo enhancement service can breathe new life into old family pictures. Why not give the unique gift of a digital photo restoration

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Text Frames are placed at the beginning of Chapters. If you have more Text Frames than chapters, you must divide your slides up so that you will have a chapters for each text frame. To assure accurate spelling, include a text file or send an email with your text.

Number of "Shows" or "Chapters" on the DVD Menu? Minimum of One show per approximately 100 slides is recommended and really needed for organizational purposes. (These are NOT text frames. Text frames are extra. See above.) Each Carousel will be considered a separate show unless they are divided up even into smaller shows. You can't have one CD disk be considered as one show. If you don't divide the slides up into small enough shows, we will have to do it for you.

35mm slides or Photos should be organized into the order you want them to show. First one on top, all facing in the same direction.
Separate stacks will be put in separate slide shows all accessible from on-screen menus, unless otherwise clearly noted.
Mark your stacks or envelopes clearly with some way to determine position in the Slideshow, such as: 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 3A, 3B.
Photos and 35mm slide scans will be not be intermixed into the same "show" but can be on the same disk. (There can be many "shows" on a disk.)

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What Do You Get For Final Image Size?
What do you end up with after your 35mm slides or photos are all scanned? What will your image sizes be?

Your photos will be scanned and saved at their original size. They will be saved at 300ppi (pixels per inch) in JPG format. (Note that we can scan up to 4000 ppi). All photo retailer will be able to make high quality prints and enlargements of up to 50%. This means that a 4" x 6" image can be enlarged to a 5" x 7" print or an 8" x 10" print.

Standard 35mm Slides are saved as 4" x 6" images, at 300ppi and JPG quality of 10. On a scale of 1 to10, saving at 10 would be the highest quality.

Image size for slide scans would be 4" x 300 plus 6" x 300 = 1200 x 1800 pixels = 2.16 Mega pixels

How many photos can I fit on a CD or DVD?

The number depends on print size, scanning resolution and the length of songs. Songs can reduce the amount of photos on a cd/dvd by 200. This table shows you how many digitized photos you can get on a CD/DVD given a certain print size.

On CD (JPEG Format 300 DPI)
On DVD(JPEG Format 300 DPI)
3*5 up to 650
3*5 up to 4700
4*6 up to 430
4*6 up to 3100
5*7 up to 325
5*7 up to 2350

Normally VCD's with transitions are MPEG movies and are limited to 352x240. SVCD is 480x480. These MPEG movies also do NOT store your original image files so you cannot access them or get them printed.

We use JPEG stills for the slide shows and we use the VCD 2.0 CDR 720x480 format for the image display. This will, of course, give noticeably crisper images in the slide shows. These images will show on your large-screen TV and still be sharp and clear whereas VCD's at 352x240 or even SVCD's at 480x480 will be noticeably blurry. DVD format also has the same resolution as VCD 2.0: 720x480. VHS Tape resolution is approximately 320x240 pixels, just for comparison

Also, the ability to view the slide shows on a PC and the storage of digital images are a definite plus since everyone who has one of your disks will have the original images and the ability to print out copies at any time in the future.

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How can I get the best quality of my video?

When your output target is VCD disc, the recording profile should be VCD profile (MPEG1 at 352x240@NTSC, 352x288@PAL).

VCD (also called video CD, video compact disc or "disc") is a compact disk format that is specifically designed to hold MPEG-1 video data. VCD has a resolution of 352x240, similar to that of VHS, which is far short of the resolution of DVD. VCD's can be played on a VCD player connected to a television set (in the same way that video cassettes can on a VCR) or computer, on a CD-i player, on some CD-ROM drives, and some DVD players.

VCD variations include: VCD 2.0, which was introduced in 1995 and adds hi-resolution stills, fast-forward, and rewind functions to the original specifications. This is the format we use.

Image Quality Comparisons

VCD 2.0 720x480
DVD 720x480
SVCD 480x480
VCD 352x240
VHS Tapes 320x240


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  Makes An Excellent Keepsake Gift

As a Seasonal Gift:Christmas, Hanukah,
Valentines Day, Mothers day

Weddings Gift

For your Grandparents Anniversaries

For Your Spouse

For your Children

For your Friends

Preserve Your:

• Graduation Ceremonies

• Engagement Photos

• Honeymoon Photos

• Video Biography

• Baby Montage

• Childhood Photos

• Family Reunions

• Sporting Events

• Life Tribute Videos

• Bar Mitzvahs

• Recitals

• Family Albums

• Vacation Photos

• Birthdays

• Graduations

• Parties


 
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