. I
Foreign-made tapes
can be dubbed for
students.
By Jonathan Houghton
Staff Reporter
Students wondering why video
tapes they bought in another country
won’t work in American videocassette
recorders'might look to Kay
Schupbach for help.
Schupbach runs a videotape con
version service at UNL, a service she
said most students probably don’t
know exists.
With the help of a specially
equipped VCR, she dubs videos from
virtually any country onto a tape that
works on American VCRs.
She said the service is helpful for
foreign students, who might unknow
ingly bring tapes from their home coun
try and expect them to play on Ameri
can VCRs.
Students who want to send their
home movies to their parents in other
countries might also find the service
beneficial.
“I’ve watched one student’s baby
grow up,” she said. “The student and
her husband’s in-laws live in Germany
and France, where the VCRs have dif
ferent operating systems.”
Schupbach said she has converted
several home movies for the students
to send to their parents.
VCRs around the world can run on
any of six different operating systems,
she said, which can cause confusion at
times. She said North American coun
tries’ VCRs run on a different broad
cast system than VCRs in Europe.
To convert videotapes, Schupbach
has to use a VCR that can play videos
from each country. She then uses a
simple dubbing process to convert the
' material from a foreign tape onto an
American tape.
But while such a VCR is available
for about $1,300, Schupbach said the
fee she charges for converting videos
is closer to a student’s price range —
$7.50 for converting an hour-long vid
eotape, and $5.00 for each additional
hour.
Her fees can vary depending on
whether students supply their own
blank tape.
“We’d like to provide it free,” she
said, “but we have to pay for upkeep
of the machine. Student fees pay for a
lot of it.”
Schupbach said her service gets
around 10 or 15 requests for tape con
version per month, mostly from foreign
students. She said she is usually able
to return videos to students in about
three days.
Schupbach has run the service since
1994, when Nebraska Union Director
Daryl Swanson approached her about
the possibility of Schupbach moving
from her job in the union’s recreation
room.
“He asked if I’d like to do some
thing in the rec room besides hand out
pool balls,” Schupbach said.
But her new job hasn’t been as
simple as she had hoped.
Last semester, Schupbach had to
temporarily shut down her service
when the mechanism that held tapes
inside the VCR broke. The manufac
turer could not find the necessary part
for her for six months. During that time,
Schupbach said she received several
requests from students that she was
unable to fill.
Fortunately, a local video service
helped Schupbach by loaning her the
necessary equipment until die could
get her own unit repaired.
Before beginning this job,
Schupbach had never had any techni
cal training. Even now, she said, she
didn’t consider herself an electronics
expert.
“I’m dill wondering how to get that
12:00 off my VCR.”
i
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