Blog

You can certainly try! Yes…there are many ways to make a video yourself these days. But, like anything else, there can be a long learning curve to figure out how to do it…and how to do it well. WE ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO IT! We've been making videos professionally for over 14 years. We promise you that we will make an amazing video for you much faster, with better quality, ultimately cheaper, and with less stress, than you can do it yourself. I can’t tell you how many times people have tried to make a video themselves, only to call us in a panic at the last minute because there’s something they can’t figure out or the video they made came out looking and sounding like it was done by a 4-year-old. Let us take all the stress off your shoulders. Call us or text us today at 952-292-7003 or send us an email at info@timesofyourlifedvds.com. We’ll take good care of you.

When I first started this business over 14 years ago, the DVD was really the only format customers wanted to watch videos. As you can imagine, that’s changed a lot over the last 14 years. Now, there are many ways to watch a video. Here’s a brief explanation of the main format options you can get.

DVDs
DVDs are still a popular option. All standard DVDs are produced with a high-definition video file. DVDs can be formatted to play continuously. The DVD will repeat over and over until you stop it.

Streaming Webpage
The video can be watched in a streaming video (like a Netflix video). The webpage is private. It’s great for sharing with people. You control who sees the video. The webpage stays live/active unless you ask me to take it down or delete it. You can watch the video anywhere, on any device, anytime as long as you have an internet connection, access to wifi, and/or cell coverage on your device. Here’s a sample video to see how it works. An added feature of the webpage is that you can also download the high-definition video file directly from the webpage. It’s just another way to get the video file. Once you have the file you can do whatever you want with it.

High Definition Video File on a Flash Drive
I can provide a high-definition video file on a flash drive that is shipped to your house. Once you have the file, it’s yours. You can do whatever you want with it. You can copy and paste that video file like you would any other file. The file can be copied to any device you want. It’s important to note that the actual video file CANNOT be made to repeat over and over again, You can make the file repeat by changing the setting on the actual player you’re using to play the video. Please contact us for more information.

High Definition Video File as a File Download
I can provide a high-definition video file sent to in an email as a file download. When you click on the link that’s in the email, you can download the file to a computer, laptop, or any other device. This video file is the exact same file that I would send on the flash drive. It’s just a different way to get it to customers. The download link I send you in an email is only temporary. Once I setup the link and send you the email with the link, I leave it up for about a week. During that time I assume you will download the video from the link onto a computer onto any other device. It’s not meant to be a permanent link. That would be the web page.

Customers always ask if it's better to use digital photos (like ones taken with a phone) versus real, printed photos. There's no question that digital photos can be great for sharing with people via email, text, social media…or whatever, but when it comes to using them to make a video they can be very difficult to work with. The challenge when working with digital photos is when a customer wants photos shown in a certain order in a video. When the photos come from multiple sources (i.e. different phones, cameras, etc.), each device assigns a different number to each photo. So when all those photos are gathered in one place on a computer, the photos are basically in random order because computers automatically re-sort the photos numerically then alphabetically. So, to put the photos in a particular order, each photo has to be manually re-named/re-numbered. The filename has to be changed to make sure the photos are in the correct sequence. Once that's done, the photos can be added to the video and we can be sure they will be in the correct order. It's not easy, but that's the only way to ensure the photos stay in the order the customer wants.