YesVideo Launches Videotape-to-CD Transfer Service
| New Service is Designed to Help Consumers Preserve and Share Their Stockpiled Home Videos |
SAN
JOSE, CA (Dec. 18, 2000) -- YesVideo announced today that it has launched
a new service to help camcorder owners resurrect and organize the more than
300 million home movies that are gathering dust on their shelves. The convenient service will turn these home videos into CDs with vivid memories that can, for the first time, be easily customized, duplicated and shared with friends and families. YesVideo is making its services available nationally through its Web site. In the Bay Area, consumers can alternatively drop off their videos at any of nearly 50 participating photo stores. Transfer of video to DVD will be available early in 2001.
YesVideo's innovative new service makes tapes easy to share for free over the Internet, and also protects against videotape degradation, which threatens the permanent recording of life's most momentous events.
"Unlike diamonds, videotapes are not forever," said Sai-Wai Fu, co-founder and CEO of YesVideo. "VHS tapes start to degrade after 50 viewings and/or 15 years, even under optimal storage conditions, which most of us don't have. Video footage transferred to CDs will not deteriorate. Perhaps more importantly, home movies transferred onto CDs by YesVideo can be trimmed, rearranged scene-by-scene and customized so that friends and family actually will want to see them, by way of inexpensive CD copies or for free on the Internet.
"It's the logical next step following the explosion of shared photos," continued Fu. "Now your mother can see and hear her grandchildren squeal with delight as they open her holiday presents. She could simply view a CD or watch a webcast. It's a crime to think of the nearly 300 million videos sitting in people's homes throughout the U.S. that are only infrequently viewed or shared that are deteriorating a little bit every year."
While transfer of videotapes to CDs has been possible previously, the alternatives were typically either finding and making several trips to a professional duplicating facility (which could charge $150 per hour) or going to the difficulty and expense of buying, installing and learning transfer and editing hardware and software at home.
In contrast, YesVideo's solution is as simple as filling out a form on YesVideo's website and then sending tapes directly to YesVideo. In the San Francisco Bay Area only, consumers can alternately drop their tapes off at one of 50 participating photo stores. The price is $29.95 for up to 1 hour of video transferred, and $39.95 for up to two hours of video transferred.
As a result of YesVideo's patent-pending process, CDs produced by YesVideo have built-in software that allows viewers to select and view individual video scenes in any order they wish. Customers can rearrange the scenes and even eliminate unwanted footage by a simple "drag and drop" procedure. The selected, trimmed scenes can then be shared for free by webcast through YesVideo's web site, or through CDs duplicated inexpensively by YesVideo.
For example, a bride may arrange the video scenes on her CD to emphasize shots of her sorority sisters. Then she can email her friends the link to view the preferred scenes on YesVideo's website at no charge, or order CD copies to send as presents.
"I love watching the videos of my son on the computer. They're much easier to look at without the hassle of dragging out the camcorder," said San Francisco resident Lorraine Woodruff Long, a tester of YesVideo's transfer service. "My favorite part is that we can quickly scan the scenes and go right to the ones we want to see in any order we want. And I rearrange and trim the scenes, posting only the very best clips for my parents and friends to see on the Internet."
All CDs arrive in customized cases with pictures of the most important scenes on the cover. Starting early 2001, YesVideo will also transfer videos onto two-hour DVDs to serve the increasing number of consumers purchasing both DVD-ROM drives and DVD players. Right now, there are about 17 million DVD-ROM drives and 9 million DVD players in the U.S. in addition to the more than 100 million CD-ROM drives.
About YesVideo
YesVideo offers digitizing, customizing and home videos sharing services on CD, the web and, in early 2001, DVD. The company can be reached on the Internet at yesvideo.com or by phone at 408/514-6400 or (toll-free) 877/817-5375.
