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“Oh…this picture here is from our first little store on the main strip in town.  This was when we were first getting started…”

We are in the business of memories.   My friend, the industrial designer Stuart Karten, once told me, “In your business you have to find a way to get as close to the memories as you can.” .

I’ve noticed over the years that some of our client’s fondest memories are from the very early years of their lives when they were first starting to get things figured out.  Often amongst the family photos, films, and videos of the Thanksgivings, birthdays, trips to Disneyland, and anniversaries, there are mixed in some items that show the early days of the family business:  the farm, the restaurant, the accounting office, the legal office, the retail store.  Everybody is so young and optimistic.  You can feel the energy in those images, and you can feel the energy in the owner of those images as they describe them and tell you the stories they contain.  The family business was often a center of gravity.  Something that not only provided a living, but also provided meaning beyond that living.   

Now I’m happy to say that we have a book about the founding of THIS business, DVD Your Memories, penned by our founder Chuck Temple.  His book is  Startup to Sold and it launches on March 7.  Not many small businesses have had Inc. Magazine publish a memoir regarding their early years, but Chuck’s story is a worthy one.

Startup to Sold relates the entire journey from Chuck’s early years earning money hustling for signatures on petitions, selling cars, tutoring autistic children, and eventually working in big box retail before recognizing an opportunity and a need in the market that he was uniquely suited for…all the way through the challenges and successes that came with rapid growth, and finally his successful sale of the business he built.

Chuck c. 2006 in the first office of DVD Your Memories

Rare for a business book, he writes with authentic honesty, humility, and vulnerability.

Chuck sold DVD Your Memories to me in 2012 after I retired from a 25 year career in the tech industry.  I looked at over 100 businesses before buying DVD Your Memories, and I can honestly tell you that the only one that was well run was this company Chuck built from the ground up.  

It is a tribute to Chuck and to the values he espouses in his book that many of the key employees he put in place over 10 years ago are still employed at DVD Your Memories today.  It is a further tribute to his process-building skills that many of the processes and systems he put in place to keep things under control are still in place as well.

The DVD Your Memories team, c. 2011 (with perhaps a little help from Photoshop!)

If you are thinking about starting a business (or thinking about what to do with a business you already own) you should read this book.  If you are a college age student getting ready to be launched out into the world (or if you know such a person) you should read this book or give that person a copy.  

Chuck’s lens is focussed sharply. He  writes in such a personal and specific way about recognizing and confronting obstacles, the value and necessity of hard work, the keys to personal and professional success, the importance of kindness and empathy, and the rewards of persistence.  I guarantee you will learn something, and I guarantee you will be inspired.

More info at: startuptosold.com

Saturday Hours for Pick Up and Drop Off Now Available!!

WE are pleased to let you know that in order to better and more conveniently serve you our offices in West LA, Irvine, and San Diego will be open for business with new hours on Saturdays starting on Jul 16, 2022.  Many of you have been asking for drop off and pick up availability on Saturdays, and now we are happy to be able to go back to our pre-COVID schedule of Saturday openings.

 Please note the following:

1. Hours on Saturday will be from 10:00am to 2:00pm for order drop off and pick up.
2. Appointments are strongly encouraged on Saturdays.  It is extremely helpful to us if you book your drop-off or pick-up appointment in advance.  You can often do that same day.  You can book your appointment by clicking here
3. Hours on Monday – Friday remain the same:  9:00am – 6:00pm.
4. Appointments are no longer required Mon – Fri.
5. Hours in our Torrance processing center are unchanged, and we are not open on Saturday in Torrance.

Thank you for all of your support over the years…especially the last two!  It has been and continues to be our privilege.  We look forward to seeing you once again on Saturdays.

In order to be compliant with local guidelines to limit the spread of Coronavirus, we are currently closed to the public at all of our four locations in California and Colorado. 

While we will not be able to greet drop-in customers in our friendly offices during this outbreak, our senior-level team is making sure that all of the orders currently in-house will be completed and back to you as soon as possible. Select staff members are deployed, either working from home-office spaces or in our labs, using social-distancing and sanitizing requirements at all times.

Current procedures for our valued customers:

We will only be able to service pick ups of completed orders and drop offs of new orders by appointment.  We will be maintaining social distance by communicating through a Ring intercom device and will handle all payments through our online portal and over the phone.

We can ship completed orders to you after taking payment over the phone or through our web payment portal.

In addition, you have the option to pay over the phone or online without leaving your home and we will provide you with a download link for your completed files.  You can then pick up your original media when we are back open to the public.  It will be safe with us until then.

If you’d like an update on your order, or you’d like to make an appointment to pick up your order or drop off a new order, please call 1-877-388-6093, text 310-620-6645 or email info@dvdyourmemories.com.

We understand that you have entrusted us with some of your most treasured possessions. Please know that your media is safe and will be here for you when we are finished processing. If your order is running a little behind schedule, we will get caught up as fast as we can.

Thank you for your support and understanding.  We’re still here for you!

When shipping important media like video tapes and vinyl records, it is vital that you pack them safely and securely. The last thing you want is to break or otherwise damage your recordings!

The first step is to acquire a sturdy box. Heavy duty cardboard is prefered, as often times packages are thrown around during transit. Heavy duty boxes will help keep the box intact during the rough travel ahead. If you need to find a box, they are usually sold at post offices, FedEx offices and Kinkos. Alternatively, you can ask your local grocery store hold onto some boxes for you, but the quality of these boxes can greatly differ, depending on the product.

NOTE: For vinyl records, you can purchase boxes specifically designed for shipping them safely. Here is an example found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Record-Mailing-Boxes-Mailers-FingerPop/dp/B0034PU6Y8

Once your box is in hand, the next step is to make sure that you have some packing peanuts or other material to keep the contents from slamming around inside. Providing no packing material at all is generally a bad idea, even if your media is stuffed tightly in the box. Newspaper or other recycleable paper material work great for this. Make sure it is packed fairly tight so that none of the tapes or records can be jostled when the package is moved.

If you’re shipping to DVD Your Memories, make sure to include the packing slip that is generated when you complete the shipping form. Looking to ship your order to us? We have a fast, easy, friendly method through our partners at FedEx.

Ship Your Order Now!

With modern printing technology it’s now possible to create one of a kind items using your favorite photos! Over the last couple of years, there has been a lot of new companies emerging that will help you create completely custom gifts from all kinds of different photos. The trick is, however, that the photos must be in digital format. If your photos have not been digitized yet, the easiest way is to simply scan them into your computer using a high quality flatbed scanner, or use our low-cost photo scanning service. Once your photo or photos are in a digital format, you can then use your images by placing them onto common items to create unique gift ideas for friends and family.

Here is a short list of some of the amazing items that you can create out of scanned photos, slides or negatives:

Photobooks

Photobooks are becomming more and more popular as a way to tell a story with your photos, rather than just have them in an album. Photobooks are often described as similar to scrapbooks, the main difference being that the photobooks are actually printed, rather than having clippings and photos glued or tacked to the page itself.

Calendars

Calendars are a great way to show off your favorite family photos all year round. In addition to choosing your own unique photos, you also have the option of picking the overall design such as the backgrounds and borders. Never forget a birthday or anniversary again!

Mousepads

Who doesn’t love a new mousepad? Especially a custom designed mousepad with your favorite family photo, or that epic snapshot of your latest vacation. Your will be surfing the web in style with one of these at your desk!

Iphone/Smartphone Cases

If you’re sick of the same old run of the mill, overpriced smartphone cases, why not obtain a completely unique one? By using any photo of your choice, you can craft a completely custom smartphone or iPhone case for either yourself or a loved one. Show off your awesome photos right on your phone! These make truly awesome gifts for friends and family alike.

Jigsaw Puzzles

Feeling bored? Or want to keep your kids distracted? Create a brand new jigsaw puzzle out of one of your favorite scanned photos. With different variations in puzzle size and number of pieces, the sky is the limit! Puzzles make awesome gifts for kids and adults alike!

Playing Cards
Jazz up the next poker night with completely custom playing cards! You can create your deck in any style you choose, using any number of images to create a special deck that the whole group would love. These are also great for a family game night where every member can play with their own custom deck!

and much more! For more gift ideas that you can make out of your own photos, check out sites like Shutterfly or Snapfish

Summer is here, and that means warm sun, beaches and graduation time for all seniors across the country. One of the best ways to remind students of their time in school is to present a graduation slideshow highlighting key moments during the years. Instead of just showing off some images, you can combine with music and transition effects that the whole class is sure to enjoy.

Organizing
There are many ways you can organize your slideshow. It all really comes down to what content you have to work with. For starters, we recommend laying out all of your images so you can get a good general feel of what you’re working with. If you’re making a slideshow for an individual, one idea would be to start with their early years like baby pictures through kindergarten, and eventually all of the way up to high school senior year. If you’re making a slideshow for the entire class, many people sort their images by activity like school activities, clubs, sports, and also by chronological order to capture the full essence of the graduating class.

Music
It’s often best practice to incorporate some sort of music into the slideshow. Think about which songs are special or popular to the graduate or graduating class. These might be the top hits of the year, songs from the Prom, or school spirit songs. It’s also best to mix in different styles of songs to best match the theme or tempo of the images. For example, the football team music might be slightly more up-tempo than the chess team shots.

Title Slides
Adding in some descriptions and title slides can help keep the audience engaged as to what’s going on in the images their seeing. Some of the images might be a little subjective, so some background story can help the viewers feel more part of the action. You can can also use title slides to break up the monotony a bit, and to provide breaks between sections of images.

Video Clips
The great thing about modern digital slideshows is the ability to easily add video and audio clips into the slideshow. This is perfect for showing off the year’s biggest football game win or the last dance of the prom to give the viewer the full experience of being there. By adding effects and clever placements, video can really bring out the best in your graduation slideshows.

Los Angeles reel to reel audio to CD services

Brief History

Reel to Reel audio is a form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the tape is actually held on a reel, rather than being enclosed within a cassette. The reel which holds the tape, also called the supply or feed reel, is attached to a spindle and then threaded through mechanical guides through the head assembly and then onto the empty or take-up reel. This format was commercially developed in the 1940’s by American audio engineer, Jack Mullin with financial help of Bing Crosby. Inexpensive reel-to-reel tape recorders had seen widespread use for voice recording in homes and schools until 1963, when Phillips’s audio cassette took over. Cassettes rapidly replaced reel-to-reel recorders for consumer daily use. However, the slower recording speeds, and more narrow tracks used in cassettes compromised quality.

Once professional recording studios begun using reel to reel audio, they now had several advantages which are unique to tape recordings versus phonograph recordings. Once major advantage was the fact that there was now a way to record past the 30 minute limit that phonograph records had. In addition to longer recording times, audio tape could be easily edited or manipulated in ways not possible for phonograph records. Tape editing is performed by simply cutting the tape at the required point, and reconnecting it to another portion of tape using adhesive tape, or sometimes glue. This is called a splice. Tape can also accommodate multiple tracks, allowing not just stereo recordings, but multi-track recordings too. This gives the producer of the final edit much greater flexibility, allowing a performance to be remixed long after the performance was originally recorded.

Reel to reel tape also has the option to be recorded at varying speeds. In general, the faster the tape speed, the better the sound quality will be. In addition to faithfully recording higher frequencies and increasing the magnetic signal strength, higher tape speeds spread the signal longitudinally over more tape area, reducing the effects of damage or defects in the tape. Slower speeds will help to conserve tape and are useful in situations where sound quality is not as crucial.

Tape Speeds

15/16ths of an inch per second (in/s) or 2.38 cm/s — used for very long-duration recordings (e.g. recording a radio station’s entire output in case of complaints, aka “logging”)
1? in/s or 4.76 cm/s — usually the slowest domestic speed, best for long duration speech recordings
3¾ in/s or 9.52 cm/s — common domestic speed, used on most single-speed domestic machines, reasonable quality for speech and off-air radio recordings
7½ in/s or 19.05 cm/s — highest domestic speed, also slowest professional; used by most radio stations for “dubs”, copies of commercial announcements; Through the early-mid 90’s many stations could not handle 15 IPS.
15 in/s or 38.1 cm/s — professional music recording and radio programming
30 in/s or 76.2 cm/s — used where the best possible treble response is demanded, e.g., many classical music recordings

Transfer Process

Transferring reel to Reel audio can be sometimes be much trickier than it seems. Due to the fact that the tape could have been recorded in a variety of speeds, makes it difficult to initially assess it’s length. If the tape or reel is not marked with what speed it was recorded on, the only way to find out is to load it on the machine and run it. Typically, from my experience with audio transfer in Los Angeles, most home audio recordings were recorded at 3¾ speed, so it’s best to start there first. Once you have determined the correct speed of the tape, you also want to make sure the tape is loaded correctly onto the reel. Sometimes when people have finished listening to a reel, instead of rewinding, they will leave it on the takeup reel, which if played from that, could result in backwards audio.

Reel to reel audio can also have multiple tracks on one side of the tape. One easy way to determine this is to just set the player to play both tracks at once, or stereo, so you can easily tell if the tracks are the same or not. If a reel is not stereo and has multiple tracks, you must either play the reel back again over the other track, or record in stereo and manually split them up in an editing program afterwards. After you decide the reel is ready to be transferred, load the reel onto the player and ensure that the audio out plugs from the reel to reel recorder are connected to your Line-in on your computer. All that is left to do is play the reel and hit record on your audio capture program and you are now well on your way to preserve and enjoy your old reel to reel audio in Los Angeles.