How to send a video tape overseas? (1 Viewer)

[Julian Reville]

I need to send a VHS video tape to a friend in Serbia. Asuuming I can find a way to get it there: mail, UPS or FedEx, do I need to protect the tape from magnetic radiation or X-rays? Wrap it in aluminum foil or just put in a pacekt of silica?

 

[Jason GT]

Can't help with the packaging but make sure that the tape that you send is the correct format (I'm guessing that they use PAL in Serbia). As for the packing, I'd ask the shipping company.

Alternatively, get it authored on DVD or VCD and this avoids region and silica-packet armor issues.

 

[Julian Reville]

I thought the same thing about the PAL format; I did ask her and she assured me that the NTSC tape would work. I won't be a bit surprised to hear screams of anguish if it doesn't.

I hadn't thought about authoring it on DVD or VCD, that's a good idea. I really don't want to buy a stand-alone DVD recorder; would a PC based DVD recorder do the trick? I'm assuming my PC based CD-recorder would have to be replaced.

 

[BrianB]

DVD has the same PAL/NTSC issues.

In Europe, most modern VCRs & most DVD players are region free with built in converters for NTSC to PAL video. Hell, a lot of TVs support NTSC too.

 

[Seth--L]

Since Serbia is far from a major Western country, don't be surprised if the shipping cost is quite a bit, like over $50.

Here is UPS's cost estimator: http://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost?loc=en_US

 

[Jason GT]

You could possibly pay someone to convert the video to an MPEG format and write it on a DVD or CD. That said, is image quality a huge concern? You may be able to burn a VCD yourself (MPEG 1, quality roughly equivalent to VHS), but you're on your own about finding software and doing the capture and stuff.

I'm sure you could find help here.

 

[Julian Reville]

Hmmmm, dat's a lot of money. I may have to rethink this.

 

[brentl]

"rent some storage space on the web, upload the tape to the web(after putting it on your computer) and have them download it.

Should be lots cheaper than sending, and a lot safer too!

Brent
What is a "pacekt of silica? "

 

[Julian Reville]

That's a "packet of silica" after UPS gets through with it.