Complement A/S Brings You Space Saving Desk Mount Monitor Arm

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Saving Your Memories on VHS Tapes to DVD

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In the mid 1980's when VHS camcorders first became popular, parents who may have grown up with eight millimeter films and their three minute limits per reel were suddenly provided with two hours of uninterrupted filming on a single VHS tape. With such a large amount of time, they shot every move their kids made. Over and over and over - you get the idea.

A spin off of VHS was a format called VHS-C. This was a smaller version of a VHS tape in a smaller shell but using the same size tape as a full VHS cassette - just less of it. It was made to allow the camcorder to shrink in size. The mechanism used to play these small tapes in a full size VHS adapter proved to be fatal, as many of these small tapes jammed or mis-tracked. To complicate matters further, another spin off of VHS was made. These were S-VHS tapes. They were the same size as VHS, but offered more sharpness than VHS. They needed special players and would not play in a standard VHS player. S-VHS ended up as mostly a pro-sumer format.

A few Beta camcorders were made, but by then Sony was already losing the tape format wars to VHS. Beta camcorders were far and few between. VHS was king for several years.

As technology progressed, so did the camcorder. The tapes became smaller with the advent of eight millimeter video, so named for it's similar width to eight millimeter film. The tapes were better, the cameras were smaller and the color was better. The term eight millimeter turned out to add confusion with the old film reels by the same name.

Digital mini-DV tapes changed the game in the mid 1990's. For the first time, home video allowed the average user the ability to create videos that looked better than broadcast television. The tapes were even smaller than the eight millimeter and VHS-C tapes.

Fast forward to today. Camcorders half the size of a cigarette pack produce high definition video clips. Habits have changed, too. People don't shoot hours of video anymore, they shoot lot's of minute long clips. They fill up SD cards and hard drives with videos they may see only once, except for the few they upload to social video sites.

The bottom line is this. People have so much video. Many don't know what to do with all their old tapes and current video files. The best thing you can do is create a hard copy on a DVD disk. This allows not only a nice back-up copy, it lets you share your best moments with those you love. But only if you copy them before they are ruined in the heat of an attic, in the dampness of a basement or by the failure of a hard drive.

Most of the devices on the market that do convert tapes to disk involve more technical expertise than simply making a tape copy. While manufacturers have concentrated on making it easier to shoot video, they have made it harder to viewvideo. No wonder many people stash their videos into never-never land.

If you're a techie, you already know what to do. If you're not, then perhaps sending your tapes and files to someone who can convert them for you onto a DVD is the easiest solution for you. One good choice on the internet is http://www.tapestodisk.com

Rick Bennette

Rick Bennette is a 27 year veteran independent film maker. He has owned and operated a video production facility since 1985 in Connecticut and south Florida. Currently, Rick provides video services for the independent film industry, actors auditions and demo reels as well as legal video services. In addition, Rick is a published author and screen winter. His web sites include http://www.tapestodisk.com/

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Purchasing A Business PC - Cost Saving Ideas From An IT Support Company

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Purchasing Business PC's is a top of mind IT Support issue for me right now. Firstly let me explain why. Then I'll give you a few tips on getting the best value when you purchase your business PC - it's different from purchasing a home PC.

I am the Founder and CEO of IT Support Company. We act as the IT Support Department for almost 100 clients. And one of our newest IT Support London clients is shocked, verging on angry.

They are purchasing PC's for the first time in about 5 years - some of their PC's are very old. They aren't shocked or angry at us, their IT Support London Company. They are shocked at the price of a business PC. They mistakenly believed that a business PC was the same price as the home or consumer PC's they see advertised at PC World and other retailers.

Specifying Your Business PC

We've explained to the client that a £500 home PC needs to have the following upgrades to turn it into a business PC:

Upgrade the Windows 7 operating system from Home to Professional. By design Microsoft Windows 7 Home cannot be added to a network domain - essential for almost all business use. To add the PC to the domain you must purchase and upgrade to the business version. The upgrade software is approximately £90 and the labour for the upgrade will roughly double this to a total of about £200.
Add Microsoft Office Home and Business for Outlook email, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The licence is a further £180. Installation is fairly simple so some users will be able to do this themselves.
Add hardware maintenance. Most PC "retailers" supply a 1 year return to base warranty. Most businesses can't afford to lose a PC for 2 weeks and have it completely reset if there is a hardware failure. Add a further £150 for 3 years, next business day onsite hardware maintenance.
Check the hardware specification. Make sure it has enough RAM, a screen you can stare at for 8 hours and a big enough chassis to add full height cards if you ever need to.

That's a total of say £500 on top of the £500 to purchase the cheap PC from the retailer. This brings the cost of the PC to about £1,000. Purchasing the correct specification PC from Dell or another similar PC manufacturer is only about £750 in the first place.

Conclusion: You can't buy a business PC for £500. It's cheaper to purchase the seemingly more expensive business PC than upgrade a consumer PC. This comes as a shock to many business owners. Our newest client is just coming to terms with the fact that they have had to double their budget for purchasing PC's.

Will You Need Your IT Support Company ToInstall Your New Business PC

It's also come as a shock to them that the PC's don't work "out of the box." In fact they need a fair amount of setup. Here are some of the things that you must do before you start using your PC:

Un-boxing of the PC andinstallation.Initial Windows configuration - Windows product key, date, time zone, language, input type, computer name, local administrator username and password.Update Windows with the latest patchesRegister MS Office licenceUpdate Office with the latest patchesSet the virtual memory to the size recommended by WindowsOn laptops ensure network card is always on when operating on battery powerUninstall any trial applications that clutter the machines memory and use up space. This is especially true of free games on consumer PC's.Install Adobe (Reader, Flash & Shockwave)Install a PDF writer such as CutePDF WriterInstall the latest version of JavaInstall company standard Anti-virus and Anti-spywareCreate VPN connection if required for remote users or laptops.Join the PC to the company network domainInstall network printers

This is time consuming and as you can see far beyond the skill of most users. Clearly this is going to require some additional IT Support labour - Say £100 to £150.

Total Business PC Budget

As you can see a business PC plus it's installation by your IT Support Company will be between £850 and £1,000. Even more if you purchase a home PC and then upgrade it to business specification.

Ziptech Services Ltd is the best and the leading IT support company in the UK for IT support and assistance in cloud computing and telecom systems.

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