Pictureal is offering users of Apple’s iPod Video a professional editing service, taking raw footage and transforming it within days. Announced on Thursday at CES, Pictureal requires the user to send their footage via a pre-paid FedEx kit and in a few days an edited version will be posted online along with the unedited footage and a scene index. (Your original tapes will be returned).
Once the footage has been edited, the user chooses the scenes they want and click “Download to iPod” on the Pictureal menu. Each iPod download costs $1.99. The Pictureal site also offers easy-to-use templates and tools for turning home video footage into short music videos, video greetings and photomontages.
Pictureal accepts video in any format including VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, MiniDV, Hi8, Digital8, MicroMV, DVCAM, Beta and DVD. Pricing for tapes shipped begins at $29 per hour of video sent, with prepaid packages ranging from $99 (3 hours of video and one DVD) to $299 (12 hours of video and three DVDs).