pete_s6 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 <p>I am in the planning stages of starting a small, part-time business to transfer prints, negs, & slides to digital. I know there are many companies doing this, but I plan on a local focus for the business.</p><p>My question involves potentially adding video transfer capabilities. I tried to do this with my own videos and was not successful using a $75 software/hardware kit from Honestech. I'm wondering what & how the large commercial video transfer companies accomplish this given the large number of video formats & sizes. Can anyone enlighten me or point me in the right direction? </p><p>Thanks in advance, Pete</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig_shearman1 Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 <p>Roxio makes a USB interface and software to go with it, but it might not be any different than what you tried. Just about any video editing software from Windows Moviemaker on up can be used to create DVDs from just about any video source provided you have the hardware to get the signal into the computer. <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com">www.bhphotovideo.com</a> sells a variety of input cards, as does <a href="http://www.markertek.com">www.markertek.com</a> which is a professional video supply house for production companies and broadcasters.<br /><br />To be honest, however, proposals that start off "I'm starting a business, what equipment should I buy and how do I use it?" are a little worrisome. It's much more comforting to hear from someone who says "I've been doing this for years and I can do it with my eyes closed, how do I start making money off of it."</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_s6 Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Craig, Thanks for your response. A couple things about my proposed business. I'm currently scanning a large group of family photos, slides and negatives using an epson flatbed scanner and a Nikon coolscan 5000, so I'm only into this project for ~$2000. After I finish my project, I have several friends lined up that want some scanning done. After that, I'll decide if I will start the business. Secondly, I'm semi retired and looking for something to do. (I also don't need the money) My interest in the video transfer is the fact that everyone my age (54) has tons of videos that we never watch due to the inconvenience. I believe if I started the photo/slide/neg business, I would have a lot of inquires about video. Thanks again (& sorry for the long post)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig_shearman1 Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 <p>Pete -- I'm same age as you and sometimes I wish I was retired. :)<br /><br />Didn't mean to be harsh. We just get a ton of posts on here along the lines of "I'm shooting a wedding this weekend, what settings should I use" or "I'm opening a photography business, what kind of camera should I buy?" What you're talking about is much more reasonable.<br /><br />My only word of caution would be that scanning on consumer equipment is extremely time consuming. Not like commercial equipment that can zip through a roll in a couple of minutes, burn it to disc and print a label all without human intervention. And that's what you're up against -- the thousands of places that do this in volume and have it down to a science. If you can get the work and are doing it for fun that's one thing. But I thought about doing the same thing myself and realized I'd be going good to make a couple of dollars an hour.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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