Start a Holiday Tradition or Create Custom Photo Gifts With Phanfare, Zazzle, and Legacy It!

Posted on November 3, 2011 by admin

The countdown to the holidays has begun! All over the country, people have enjoyed their Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing and are turning their attention to the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays. Plans are being made for holiday get-togethers with family members and friends. One of the best things about this time of year is the nostalgia we feel when we visit family and share memories of loved ones and past events. But, what if you can’t be with all of your loved ones this holiday season? Why not start a family project that everyone can share in, no matter where they are in the country or in the world. Start uploading the family photos to Phanfare and Legacy It and start a new holiday tradition that can continue to bring joy for years to come.

Phanfare is a great place to share, manage, and archive your digital photos and videos. The web site offers unlimited storage for all your photos and HD videos. You can create your own photo and HD video website in minutes and you even get a destination web site for your album collection. Your friends and family can visit the website and view your photos and videos whenever they like and they can even upload their own photos and videos to your web drop box.

Get started on that holiday tradition by having everyone in the family contribute to creating gorgeous custom hardcover photo books with wrapped photo covers through Phanfare. Their photo book software is efficient enough to create a book in two minutes, but it is flexible enough to provide you with full creative control over the final output. You can also create online slideshows with your photos and videos and even set them to music.

Another great place to start a family project is on Legacy It. Legacy It is a fun and engaging activity that allows you to organize and quickly search the digital assets that are most important to you and your family. It was created to bridge the ever growing gap found in social networking by enabling people to connect with close friends and family in a more meaningful way. You can store and search the digital items that you treasure the most; such as pictures, documents, videos, and the stories that you love to hear again and again. Most importantly, they help you capture the stories behind all of these treasures in unique and meaningful way that everyone in the family can enjoy creating and contributing to. Just think about what a treasure your collection will be and how easy it will be to share with the family and your close friends when it is properly organized and digitally preserved. Your collection will hold value that money could never buy and it will be enjoyed today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. A great side benefit of Legacy It is that you are protecting digital copies of your photographs, videos, documents, and precious memories from floods, fires and other natural disasters that could destroy the originals, your computer, or your hard drive.

Still need a great idea for holiday gifts? Try Digital Pickle’s Zazzle store where you can create amazing (and cool!) custom photo gifts with your own digital images. It’s easy and fast: there’s no download, no user name or password. Zazzle uses the pictures you select from your own memory storage device (hard drive, CD, jump drive, etc). You can build custom photo giftslike mugs, T-Shirts, mouse pads, key chains and other keepsakes including many paper items – from from greeting cards to posters and canvas prints, and get your one-of-a-kind products shipped within 24 hours.

For more information about custom photo gifts, Phanfare and Legacy It, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Easy, Personalized, And Low-Cost Gifts For The Holidays

Posted on October 15, 2011 by admin

The holidays are upon us again! It’s the time of the year when people get together with family members and share memories of loved ones and past events. While we all look forward to these happy times, the holidays can also be a source of anxiety as people try to figure out what gifts they can get for each other. This is especially true now that the economy has been so bad. Cheer up, though – this year gift-giving is going to be easy because you can relive memories, save money, and give great presents all at the same time with custom photo books and with personal, digitized DVDs of your old home movies and videos.

All of the recent advances in the photo industry have made it a snap to create one-of-a-kind, custom photobooks gifts that are unique and personal. No more standing in long lines at the mall and battling with throngs of holiday customers – you can produce your gifts in the comfort of your own home. Just grab your coffee and a cozy chair and sit down at your computer screen. Your favorite images are there, waiting to be turned into wonderful presents that will touch the hearts of your loved ones.

Photo books make wonderful holiday gifts! Custom photobooks turn your old, lifeless images into glossy, full-color, custom designed albums that burst with life and are filled with pictures that will never fade or discolor. Digital Pickle’s professionally designed Smart Arrangement technology allows you the full capability to unleash your creativity and make custom designed, long lasting, beautiful photobooks, all while giving you complete control over the layout, backgrounds, themes, and cover types. This Smart Arrangement technology analyzes your pictures to automatically produce an intelligent layout for your custom photobooks. Instead of spending hours trying to craft the perfect arrangement, RocketLife makes the process short and painless!

Here’s another great gift idea! Remember those old slides, movies, videos, and photos from your childhood? Turn them intodigitized DVDs that will last a lifetime and will bring a smile to your loved ones! Home movies and videos of the kids, grandkids, parents, and the rest of the family can be digitized so the family can relieve fond memories over and over again without fear of the film becoming brittle, cracking, or fading as time passes by. You can convert your old 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm movies, videos in VHS or Beta (and more!) formats, or even slides and photo negatives into high quality digitized DVDs. Even if you don’t have these images loaded onto your computer, your films, slides, and photos can be scanned and uploaded through Digital Pickle for easy conversion. Imagine the delight of watching these restored and stunningly colorful new digitized DVDsand DVD slideshows of old memories!

With custom photobooks and digitized DVDs, boring holiday presents are a thing of the past!

For more information, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Save Space and Preserve Memories With Video Transfer Services

Posted on July 19, 2011 by admin

Remember the way you felt when you took your son on his first camping trip and the way your daughter looked when she finished her first dance recital? Every time important moments like that arose in their lives you were there with the video camera, capturing every precious moment and rite of passage. You knew, without a doubt, that those significant events would be available for you to watch over and over again as you and your children grew older. You would always have the opportunity to relive those happy times.

Unfortunately those old videos and films are more vulnerable than you may think. Over time they tend to become brittle and break, not to mention the damage that can occur to the video quality. Arik Paran of Digital Pickle, a photo and video preservation company, notes that his company is seeing high amounts of deterioration to the magnetic material in many tapes. Such corrosion often makes the tapes impossible to view at all.

Video preservation companies are able to save such films and preserve your family’s treasured memories. Through video transfer services VHS, Beta, and Hi-8 formatted videos are easily transferred into a digital configuration. During this process, video technicians can enhance the quality of the video through the use of Dolby Digital while reducing and eliminating background noise. Short videos can be edited together so you have one long DVD to watch istead of many short ones. The technicians can also ensure the audio and video are synchronized and the film’s color is touched up. By the time they are finished, you’ll feel like you’re watching your home videos for the first time.

In addition, imagine the amount of space you could save by using video transfer services to digitize your VHS, Beta, and Hi-8 movies and videos. If that weren’t enough, take into consideration the fact that DVD and Blu-Ray movies are making thetraditional VCR player obsolete. As Paran points out, “VCRs are beginning to be scarce for all types of tapes – including pro formats. VCRs are no longer sold in Europe! The US is probably next.” Because of this, many families should consider converting their VHS, Beta, and Hi-8 movies onto DVDs rather than losing all the money that went into purchasing them. Video transfer isn’t just for home videos, either- it can also be done for sales presentations, weddings, baptisms, memorials, and bar-and bat-mitzvahs and other ceremonies, so you can watch them over and over for years to come.

Turn those brittle, discolored movies and videos into high tech, professionally edited, quality enhanced DVDs or video files.Video transfer services will digitize them so you’ll be able to enjoy them for a lifetime.

For more information about video transfer services, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website atwww.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Organize Your Photos Into Albums With Custom Photobooks

Posted on June 22, 2011 by admin

It seems like we are always taking pictures nowadays. Whether it’s a birthday party, a holiday, or just a beautiful sunset that strikes us just the right way, that camera is constantly clicking; preserving the memories and moments that we want to hold close to our hearts no matter how old we get. If you are like most people, however, those pictures you take quickly begin to pile up in old shoe boxes, or files on your computer. They are constantly sitting there waiting for you to do something with them; waiting to be organized in a way that will allow you to easily look back over them so they can truly be appreciated.

It is for this reason that so many of us have a note to “organize photos into photo albums” on that perpetual to-do list we’re always worrying about. Well, now professional photo service providers like Digital Pickle can save you time and help you put together custom photo books to fit any of your needs. From the comfort of your own home you can upload your digital photos and format them into your own personalized photo book. Digital Pickle’s Smart Arrangement technology automatically analyzes your pictures and rearranges them into an intelligent layout while still giving you complete control over layout, backgrounds, themes, and cover types. They offer various size specifications, binding, designs, and your custom photo books can be produced with matte or glossy pages.

Whether you’re trying to save time on organizing your own photo albums or seeking a unique, personalized gift for friends or family, Digital Pickle is one of your greatest resources. They can even scan and restore those physical photos filling up the old boxes in your attic or basement so no picture will go to waste. Forget shopping for the typical gifts and wasting your precious time to organize your family’s favorite memories. Simply sit down at your computer and let your imagination run wild. Custom photo books are perfect for wedding thank-you gifts, holidays, vacations, graduations, birthdays, and retirement parties.

For more information on custom photo books, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730 or email them today.

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Professional Video Production Services Can Improve Your Customer Support And Your Bottom Line

Posted on June 15, 2011 by admin

In today’s starving economy, businesses all over the world are pulling out all the stops to make sure their company comes out at the top of every consumer’s list. High technology items like cell phones, computers, and televisions make up an industry that has created high demand. Unfortunately, the technical problems that often arise with these products also means that customers are talking to company representatives more than ever before. Because of this demand, customer service has become that factor that separates the drowning businesses from the ones that will outlast the recession. As a result, many companies are scrambling to provide increased consumer quality while decreasing overall costs.

For companies in today’s world, technical support can encompass a vast range of topics from basic installation questions and common errors to difficult troubleshooting and full-out repair assistance. Imagine being able to provide how-to videos to your consumers for those most basic technological questions. Simple step-by-step videos included with their purchase would allow your customers to get immediate answers to easy questions, as well as a visual demonstration they can follow to reduce mistakes. Not only would this save your customer’s time, it would free up more agents in technical support departments, allowing them to focus their attention on the more difficult technology issues.

Professional video production companies, such as Digital Pickle, can create edited digital content that consists of a combination of multiple, synchronized video streams in virtually any digital format required for online streaming, downloading, or archiving. For booming technology companies this means their user-friendly how-to videos can be included in the box with a customer’s purchase or streamed online through the company Web site, which would reduce costs even more.

Continuing education in customer service is yet another way businesses are ensuring their agents meet the expectations of consumers everywhere. Such education often requires having a specialized trainer travel from branch to branch relaying the same message over and over. However, companies that utilize professional video production services can reduce this cost as well by creating videos that can be reused for refresher training or educating new-hires.

Video production for either internal company use or external company support is cost-effective to produce and can further increase a company’s bottom line by leveraging the knowledge of the existing engineering and support staff. In addition, corporate video digital media production can be used for all types of products in any industry. To make it even easier, Digital Pickle is able to provide a camera crew and any necessary recording equipment to complete the videos. They will create edited digital content that may consist of presentation slides synchronized with the presenter video or any other combination of multiple, synchronized, video streams in virtually any digital format required for online streaming, downloading, or archiving. They will even take care of post-production services such as editing, formatting, special effects additions, and improvements to picture and sound. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!

For more information about how to implement professional video production services anywhere in the U. S. for the production of sales and marketing, training, and customer support videos, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Enjoy Your Home Movies For a Lifetime – Transfer Your Film Or Video To A Digital Format

Posted on June 12, 2011 by admin

In the not-too-distant past, people had movie cameras that used 8mm, 16mm, and Super8 movie film reels to record family events and happenings. They watched those reels of home movies on projectors that showed flickering images on a movie screen. The problem with home movies, though, is over time movie film gets brittle and breaks and the recorded images fade and change color. We thought that problem was solved when the VHS and Beta movie/recorder systems came out. But these systems still use film and the recorded memories are still subject to fading and cracking. The moment movies began to appear in DVD form, everyone quickly learned that the digital format of a DVD is much more durable than the typical reel-to-reel or VHS movie.

From weddings to anniversaries, and birthdays to your child’s first baseball game, every family has an assortment of memories they don’t want to lose. It is for this reason that more and more people are making the smart move to transfer video to digitalor to transfer film to digital. By digitizing their film and video archives, people can enjoy their recorded memories for a lifetime. Film and video transfer technicians specialize in converting and preserving your family’s memories into a modern, high-quality digital format. This digitalization of movies and videos can not only preserve your family memories, it can also improve them.

Digital Pickle provides a process that restores those home movie to their full glory. This process involves making minor repairs on the film and splicing the brittle film that has broken through the effects of aging. The film is then cleaned with an anti-static solvent before the transfer and technicians carefully inspect the film for dust and lint so your movie images are crisp and bright with color instead of looking faded and splotchy. There also is an added bonus to digitizing your home movies: one of the hallmarks of the old 8mm film is that the reels allowed for 3 to 4.5 minutes worth of filming, which meant you needed many reels of that type of film to properly capture a family event. Digital Pickle will consolidate those multiple small reels into larger ones for ease of storage.

Some of the services they offer during the conversion process include:

  • Advanced filtration technology that cleans up video to reduce noise, synchronize frames, and correct color and exposure.
  • Cleaning and repairing during the film to digital transfer process, adding leader, and splicing as necessary.
  • Utilization of aerial capture method technology that removes flickering, balances light distribution, and perfects the film focus.
  • Custom editing services that allow them to trim, join, or rearrange video clips, create a slide show of still images, design a navigation menu, and add titles and motion effects.

This conversion not only saves the space those old movies and videos required and allows you to retire the outdated equipment they ran on, but video transfer to a digital format also allows you to back up the images on your computer’s hard drive so you never have to worry about losing those precious moments. With that kind of security in mind you can plan on passing your memories down the family line for generations to come.

For more information about film transfer to digital formats or video transfer to digital formats, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Give A Gift From The Heart With Digital Photo Keepsakes

Posted on May 2, 2011 by admin

Throughout the year we all have multiple occasions arise that require us to purchase gifts: birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, holidays, etc. Between all these gift-giving events it often becomes difficult and nearly impossible to get someone something they don’t already have, never mind a present that’s unique and truly expresses how much you care for the recipient.
For such occasions consider personalizing a gift with pictures, slides, or negatives that you already possess to make digital photo keepsakes. Digital Pickle, a photo and video preservation company offers unique services for creating that one-of-a-kind present for all your loved ones. Through their Zazzle store, you can customize high-quality gifts without going through the trouble of downloading your own software; and the process couldn’t be easier.

Simply choose the type of product you want to put your image on. Digital Pickle and Zazzle can add your picture to mugs, aprons, hats, mouse pads, key chains, and much, much more. This doesn’t include the paper items they also have available such as greeting cards, calendars, posters, stationary, and photo books. They even offer customized stamps that would be perfect for invitations to weddings or anniversary parties. Their Smart Arrangement system automatically analyzes your photos and produces an intelligent layout to fit the product you’ve chosen for your gift. While this program makes your life easier for the initial layout, it also gives you the power to alter or customize the image any way you see fit.

Once your digital photo keepsakes look the way you want, simply hit the “Buy” button and your gift is on the way to being completed. All prices and discounts are clearly listed throughout the buying process and most products ship within 24 hours of being ordered. Best of all, Digital Pickle’s Zazzle store allows you all the no-obligation customizations you want, which means you can alter and play with your gift to your heart’s content without being hassled by the program.

With such a user-friendly system at your fingertips, you can create digital photo keepsakes to make your next gift-giving occasion a hit with a personalized present that truly comes from the heart.

For more information about digital photo keepsakes, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website atwww.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Photo Repair And Retouching

Posted on May 2, 2011 by admin

Many people are interested in their family tree and some are lucky enough to have old photographs of by-gone generations lying around in a drawer or a box somewhere in the house. The problem with storing these old photos this way is that they are exposed to acids and lignins from the paper that either they are mounted on or that the other photos in the box or drawer are printed on. When these acids and lignins are released from the old photo paper, they cause old pictures to slowly become yellow and brittle. Then, one day you decide to show that prized picture of dear ol’ great-great-Grandpa Fred to someone only to find that the person in the photo is nearly unrecognizable. Time to think about photo repair and retouching!

The first thing to think about when it comes to repairing an old photo is who is going to do it? You might be tempted to give it a shot instead of using a professional, but resist the temptation. Although there are software programs out there that allow amateurs to try their hand at photo repair, they are expensive. The restoration process requires an artistic eye and lots of practice and experience. Think about it – if you aren’t artistically inclined or a technical person, how are you going to recreate a face that has a scratch down the middle or a portion of the head missing?

When a professional works on photo repair and retouching, they will scan it into their computer and use a design program such as Adobe Photoshop to enhance the image, add depth through changing the contrast in the image, and sharpening the images. They also repair scratches, add color to faded areas, and fix rips, stains, mold spots, and other damage the picture has endured through the years. One of the side benefits of having a professional do your photo repair and retouching is that they are doing these repairs digitally so your picture looks as nice as it did the day it was originally taken.

Another neat thing about the retouching and photo repair of your family’s treasured keepsakes is that the restored photos don’t even have to go into an album any more. In addition to a typical “paper” photo, you can have a photo restorer load your pictures into a digital format. That way, you can share them with family and friends through email or online photo albums, you are able to print a copy out at any time, and you can keep the digital version for about 100 years (long enough for your own great-great-Granddaughter to take an interest in the family memories).

It’s a really good idea to restore your entire collection of old photos and family pictures before they literally fade into the sunset. This fading process can happen if you display them and you haven’t used UV protective glass in front of the picture. The sunlight (and even natural light) will fade any photo over time. Photos stored in photo albums will turn color from the acids on the pages of the book unless they are stored on archival-quality paper. But once you have restored these old pictures, they can be copied onto a CD or a DVD that will keep them safe and in perfect shape for years to come!

For more information about photo repair and retouching, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730 orthem today.

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Home Movie and Video Preservation

Posted on April 14, 2011 by admin

The last couple of generations of Americans have grown up making and watching home movies. Everything has been captured on movie film and video from Baby’s first steps to graduation, and from weddings and family reunions to holidays and the birth of the next generation. caught on film. And, how many times have you had to sit through Grandma’s vacation movies? Americans are great at making and saving memories, but as time goes by, many of these treasured moments are being lost because they were recorded on a medium that has become outdated.

Digital Pickle offers home video preservation services that will let you convert your favorite home videos or film movies to a modern, high quality format that won’t fade, crack, or lose clarity over time. These preservation services are available for movies that have been captured on film such as in an 8mm, Super 8mm, or 16mm format, or for those that have been recorded in a video tape format like VHS, Beta, Video 8, or DV tapes. Home video preservation will keep your film-based movies from degenerating over the years.

Digital Pickle uses high-quality professional commercial video equipment to perform its home video conversion which produces an exceptional quality duplicate of your movie or video in a digital format. They include includes noise reduction and image stabilization in the preservation process and their professionals can turn out a copy that is better than the original. They also offer custom video editing services that allow you to trim, join, or rearrange video clips within the format. You can change it up by creating a slide show out of still images, adding captions and titles, and putting in motion effects. Part of the conversion process involves using an advanced filtration system for noise reduction, frame synchronization, and to minimize jitter.

When you bring your home movie or video to Digital Pickle for home movie preservation, the conversion professionals will repair the film or video, inspect it to be sure it is free of dust and lint before processing, and will splice broken pieces as necessary. This means you get an exceptional quality video free of flickering. The frames are focused and the light distribution is balanced to be sure the end result looks great. This home movie preservation from film to DVD is painstakingly done one frame at a time, so the digital version operates at the correct frame rate without interference.

Stephen Valentino, a radio host who lives in Marin County, turned to Digital Pickle when thousands of family photographs dating back to the 1800s were damaged during a home remodeling project. For about $9,000, Digital Pickle digitized his photos and repaired much of the damage.

“When I sat my mother down in front of the computer, she was so moved she sat there and cried,” Valentino said. “How do you put a price tag on memories? As we say in Yiddish, this was a mitzvah, a blessing, to have all these memories and history intact.”

For more information about home video preservation and converting home film or video movies to a digital format, please contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at www.digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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Improve Customer Support With Professional Video Production Services

Posted on April 12, 2011 by admin

One of the things that can set a company apart from others in this competitive economy is the way that particular company deals with customer support. Those businesses that are perceived to have better customer support for their technical products are usually the ones that come out on top because customers know they can rely on the business to provide help when it is needed. The recession also means that businesses are scrambling to provide increased consumer quality while decreasing overall costs. Wouldn’t it be great if improved customer support could be combined with lower customer support costs for businesses? Professional video production services can help with both areas.

Most technical products such as computers, cell phones, CD players, etc, come with written manuals to help customers learn how to set up and use the product. Many people are visual learners, however, which means they understand better and retain more if they can see something being done first. The popularity of You Tube can attest to this. In addition to playing silly skating baby commercials, You Tube has exploded with “how to” videos. People love them because they can see what is happening on the video and can follow it step-by-step. The video just has to be restarted or paused and the customer can watch a necessary part of the video over and over again. With professional video production services, any company can offer their customers the same experience – they can show the purchaser how to install a component, how to configure a software program, or even how to perform any needed product maintenance with ease. Imagine how much of the technical support staff could be freed up for more difficult areas of customer support if clients could access basic videos and see how to make a change or complete an installation by themselves.

This principle also translates to areas within the company itself. If the firm is introducing a new computer software system, for example, a tutorial on the new program will help familiarize the staff with the technical aspects, will answer most of the frequently asked questions, and can provide a reference for employees. This frees up trainers and technical support staff and allows them to be utilized in more critical areas. Having the video tutorial as a reference means the staff can review it over and over again, and can use it as a supplement to written technical documentation. The videos can also be used for training new hires.

Along the same lines, professional video production services can be used to create videos of new or continuing training or education within the firm. These training videos can be broadcast simultaneously to all branches of the company world-wide or can be produced for different divisions or branches of the firm. It is more costly for a company to send a trainer to individual divisions than to invest in video production that can be produced once and replicated over and over for distribution throughout the firm. These focused videos communicate the technical aspects of the company training comprehensively and efficiently.

Video production for either internal company use or external customer support is inexpensive to produce and can leverage the knowledge of existing engineering and support staff. And, corporate video production can be used for virtually any technology and any kind of product. Digital Pickle provides professional video production services to companies anywhere in the U. S. for production of sales and marketing training and customer support videos. They create edited digital content that may consist of presentation slides synchronized with the presenter video or any other combination of multiple, synchronized, video streams in virtually any digital format required for online streaming, downloading, or archiving. Digital Pickle also can provide a camera crew and any necessary recording equipment. They even will take care of the editing, formatting, special effects additions, and improvements to picture and sound.

The current recession has made companies more aware of the need to reduce costs while maintaining quality customer service. They also need to be cost effective internally to increase profits in a struggling economy. Professional video production services can provide an inexpensive means of customer support and internal training or staff support and gives a great return on investment.

For more information about professional video production services in the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Metro Areas, contact Digital Pickle at 1-800-889-0730, visit their website at digitalpickle.com, or email them today.

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