Haquyen's blog

This country is full of do-it-yourselfers, and that includes people or companies who want to do their own CD or DVD duplication without working with an outside service organization such as Acutrack.  However, many who choose this without guidance get into trouble.  That said, it's important to stay up to speed on the most cost effective ways to get your content such as movies, music, or materials, out to your target audience.  What do you need to know before buying your own CD or DVD publishing equipment?  There are many options available.

Often times, when purchasing this type of manufacturing equipment, people's selection criteria may have been off, and so they may not have purchased what they really needed.  Before purchasing any CD or DVD manufacturing equipment, there are a few facts that everyone should know -- and because we are in this industry -- we can offer some advice.

As Acutrack continues to work with clients an interesting trend has emerged reflecting growing complexities related to managing CD and DVD production, as well as the production and management of other content such as CD or DVD, movies, music, software intended for your target audiences.

“Our customers are up against many challenges, including the fact that typically the CD or DVD is just one component of a larger project," said Todd Shur, vice president of sales of Acutrack, Inc. “Multiple pieces are procured via several vendors, so there are growing complexities to managing content, period.”

How many of us still have dusty copies of old VHS tapes stacked in the corners or on the shelves of our homes and offices? If you do, then you may be happy to know that the copying process of switching valuable content from VHS tapes over via DVD duplication is quite easy. It's a great way to preserve and also share your old tapes.

If you want to transfer VHS tapes to DVDs there are several options for the conversions. If produced properly, the DVDs can look even better than the original VHS tapes and that includes VHS-C, SVHS, Hi8, regular, and Betas. Following are some ways that you can do it.

First, you can capture the VHS video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter, or you could encode it to MPEG-2 and publish a DVD. This is provides the flexibility to edit the video as much as you want, adding transitions, special effects, or music. It can be time consuming though...

Today, Apple announced via a press release that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios will now be available to purchase on the iTunes® Store on the same day as their DVD release. iTunes movies can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac, or PC or widescreens with Apple TV. New releases are priced at $14.99, and catalog titles at $9.99.

Apple lists that catalog titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios.

It appears as if people back in the late eighteen hundreds were thinking about the environment, as this poster demonstrated. Today more and more companies are seriously doing something to accommodate the Green Movement towards leaving behind a smaller footprint. It’s simply not possible to continue with business as usual and not take into consideration how their business practices are affecting our environment. For companies who are in the business of putting out a CD or DVD-based product, there are even more issues that must be addressed compared to that of a service-only business. In fact we even have produced a podcast on the topic of Eco-Friendly DVD Production.

Acutrack has been helping its clients ease the burdens they are placing on the world we live in a number of ways, including manufacture their CDs and DVDs in more environmentally friendly ways.

Last month on April 22nd it was Earth Day, so it is no wonder why the Green Movement is a number one topic. We are all conscious about it, but we are all still trying to learn the different ways that we can leave a smaller carbon footprint – both at home and on our jobs. The concept of being green is important.

There are many types of companies from small businesses such as an artist, to various sized corporations, and even to the government, each are being driven by family, friends, business associates, even politicians, to help plan for the future of our environment. There are a number of frustrations.

The big issue affecting all sectors of the entertainment and media industry is maintaining control of content and audiences. The days are gone when television and radio programmers held captive audiences. Today's consumers demand control over what they watch, listen to and read, and trends are indicating that more and more people are doing it online.

• Total spending (including advertising) in the U.S. on media of all types was about $930 billion in 2007.
• U.S. advertising spending alone was about $284 billion.
• The number of broadband Internet connections in the U.S. has reached true mass market in size, at about 80 million homes and businesses in 2007
• Advertising on the Internet is now a $17 billion industry.  Comcast has more than 12 million high-speed Internet subscribers (Source: Plunkett Research, Ltd.)

The latest news, as told by DM NEws, is that the proposed merger between Vertis Communications and American Color Graphics is back on, after the two printers announced plans to merge last summer, and then the deal fell apart in September.  Apparently their mutual goal is to better address the advertising insert and pre-media services marketplace by enriching their print capabilities and offering a wide range of pre-media and workflow solutions.

Which brings us to the fact that as Acutrack has focused quite a bit in the last couple of years on our on demand CD and DVD replication model. However, we have always been doing the basics, assisting our clients with print production, design, and fulfillment. Now we are seeing a nice combination of online and traditional marketing tactics that will continue to flourish as marketers get a better handle on measurement and metrics for results both online and offline. This leaves room for tweaking campaigns and improved results.