In-Car Video
Introduction to In-Car Video DVD Preparation
Darlington Mediaworks can put your in-car footage
onto a custom-printed DVD for you. This has been a frequent request from
those signing up for our Targa
Newfoundland Team Packages who like to have their in-car video included
with their custom Team DVD package.
The time it takes to put your in-car footage onto a DVD
depends on the amount of preparation
you do. For example, sending us a big bucket of MiniDV tapes with the instructions “there’s
some good in-car footage on some of those tapes” is very time consuming
since we have to review all of the tapes looking for "good in-car footage".
On the other hand, sending us instructions like, “Here
are the QuickTime files for the five in-car scenes ready to go as-is. Here
is the list of the file names and the corresponding menu items to
use on the DVD menus”.
If you do a lot of the work ahead of time, then it greatly
reduces the labour required to do it.
The most common case we see is when someone
has MiniDV tapes but can tell us exactly what sections (identified by start
and stop time) to put in what order with a specific title for each piece
to use in the DVD menus. The start and stop times can be specified by time,
such as "two minutes and 15 seconds into the tape" or, better, using the
specific timecode that many MiniDV camcorders can display, such as "at timecode
0.22.34.12" where the digit sequences represent hour, minute, second, and
frame. If you omit the frame part, let us know so that we don't misinterpret
your instructions.
If we receive MiniDV tapes from you, we then capture each
of the sections you identify onto our hard drives If the capture
of the video from the tape goes smoothly, this doesn’t take too long
to do, typically around two or three minutes for each minute of video to
be captured since it takes time to position the tape, capture it to the hard
drive, and then advance the tape to the next section. Sometimes, though,
a tape can be very difficult to capture from, perhaps because the video heads
were misaligned or because there were timecode breaks caused by the tape
jumping on the heads (surprisingly common in stiffly-sprung cars). Sometimes
we can work around that and sometimes the only solution is to capture subsections
that skip over the problem spots on the tape.
If you will be sending us files, such as from a camcorder
that captures to a hard drive or flash memory, send us a small file to play
with so we can be sure we can work with the type of files you send. We can
work with a great variety of file formats, but it's always good to check,
if possible, before sending us your files.
Once we have your video on our hard drives, we'll assemble
it into the DVD project in the way you specify. You can either have all the
sections run together in a single long sequence with chapter markers identifying
each section, or you can have a separate menu entry for each section (or
a combination, if you like, such as all the sections in Targa Newfoundland
Leg 1).
If you will be shipping original media, such as tapes or DVDs,
to us,
please ship with a tracking number and insure your shipment appropriately.
If you are shipping us copies of your original tapes or DVDs, then tracking
numbers aren't essential, though still handy to see when the package gets
to us.
Pricing for Targa Newfoundland Team Video and The Works
Customers
If you are purchasing a Targa Newfoundland Team Video package
or theTarga Newfoundland The Works team package, you will receive a discount
on In-Car Video footage since we're already putting together a DVD for you.
If you send us digital files such as QuickTime or Windows
Media files, either electronically or on disk, and you specify the start
and stop times of each section, and the title of each section, the cost will
be $20 plus $20 for each ten minutes (rounded up to nearest ten-minute
increment) of video put onto the DVD.
If you send us MiniDV tapes
and you specify the start and stop times of each section, and the title of
each section, the cost will be $25 plus $25 for each ten minutes (rounded
up to nearest ten-minute increment) of video put onto the DVD.
If you send us a bucket of tapes or files and ask us to find
some good in-car video for your, the charge will be $25 for each ten minutes
(rounded up to nearest ten-minute increment) of video sent to us that we
have to look through plus $25 for each ten minutes (rounded up to nearest
ten-minute increment) of video put onto the DVD.
If we run into any unusual problems, such as damaged tapes,
we will let you know about the problem and any price changes. You will have
the option to cancel the order if we must increase the price.
Pricing for Other Customers
If you are not purchasing a Targa Newfoundland Team Video
package or a Targa Newfoundland The Works team package from us, there will
be an additional charge of $50 added to the rates listed above.
