VINTAGE VIDEO TAPE TRANSFER SERVICE
Vintage VIDEO TAPE to DIGITAL transfer service from following formats;
VIDEO 8 / MINI DV / VHS-C / VHS / DVD
Transfers are made to MP4 video files which is a standard format for playing in most modern devices
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Files will be supplied on a USB memory stick which can either be supplied by us at £10.00 for a 32GB drive, unless you’d prefer to provide your own and send with your tapes/s. If requested, the converted video files can be setup and put on a DVD which involves some time and re-encoding. DVD discs hold 60 minutes of video at their highest quality setting. To split your files and put on DVD discs this would be an additional £15 per disc. The cost of the disc is minimal, but it is the preparation time involved.
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QUALITY
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PLEASE! note the following;
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Some older tapes that may not have been stored in a damp free or kept in a particularly dusty environment may not be salvageable due to deterioration.
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SCALE
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Consider that the comparison of a modern widescreen TV screen ie. 50” screen. Any image upscaled to play on a much larger screen than originally made for will not look great. The following diagram illustrates how small the DVD (PALDV) format was in comparison to todays TV’s: Your new digital version will look better on smaller devices eg. Laptop
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Transferring your tape won’t improve the original quality as it is what it is, but it will preserve it from further deterioration or possibility of ever seeing again.
Some tapes suffer from bad tracking (lines through the screen) which can also affect the sound.
This can often be tuned into but not always successful.
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Agreed cost is required to be paid before dispatching your USB stick and tapes back to you.
The return post will be based on 2nd class signed for small parcel and packaging which is on average
£3.50 for sending eg. a couple of VHS tapes and USB stick
And £0.00 1st recorded delivery
Or if local, pick can be arranged (I live in Ardross and also work in Alness High Street)
Each 1 hour of tape transfer is £20.00 which is unedited direct transfer footage converted to .MP4 format or also known as H264. This is a widely recognised format used on many devices and the format that youtube uses once converted from uploads.
Tapes can only be copied/transferred if they are in good enough playback condition. If I start a transfer and notice that the tape is particularly bad, I will contact you and give a screen shot of how it looks before proceeding.
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STRAIGHT FROM THE CAMERA TO DIGITAL FILE - OR - SOME MINOR EDITING
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On camcorder and VHS tapes it was common to have a lot of footage where eg. the camera was pointing at the ground or left on record by accident creating a lot of dead footage. Also VHS can aften leave an uneven edge to the video. Also colour can be quite washed out looking.
If preferred I can do some editing to remove and clean up a bit to make it a better viewing experience.
I recommend getting your transfer done and once received and watched, let me know what you’d like removed or adjusted in the footage as I can keep a master copy to do further editing with. This would make it easier and quicker to get back to work on it. Unless you ask for the tidying up to be done at the time of transfer and preparation before returning to you.
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This is a sample of video from an old VHS tape of my family to compare direct transfer to one with minor editing (insert link to vimeo clip) Any editing requested will be quoted before proceeding
