If you are looking to preserve your video or photo memories, but are worried about mailing your one-and-only copies of tapes, photos, or slides to some far-away location, I’d like to let you know about my media digitizing services, right here in Ridgewood. Offering personalized service, your mementos never leave town!

I recently had a project that involved over 8,000 images; feel free to read about it here

Background

What kind of tapes/media can you digitize?
I can digitize video and stills:

•Digitize video: VHS Tape, 8mm/Hi8/Digital 8, DVC (aka mini DVC, DV), and 8mm/Super 8 mm film (old school style)
•Digitize stills: Slides, Prints, Negatives
•Curate/convert/restore digital memory cards (see the section on this further below)
•Curate/convert DVDs

So how does this work?
You organize your media, and we arrange for a time when you drop them off at my house. Or I can come by and pick them up. After completion, you get the original media and the digital files.

Where do you digitize the media?
Right in my home; it never leaves 07450 zip code.

How do I get access to the digital files?
I can provide an online link or supply them via USB flash drive/thumb drive with the files on them. I suggest flash drive for videos due to the size of the files. Alternatively, you can supply your own hard drive.

Videos

What kind of files do I get? What quality/resolution?
For videos, you get “mp4” formatted files. MP4 is viewable on both Windows and Apple devices. The size of the files can get large (count on 4-5 gigabytes per hour of video;  if you have 10 2-hour tapes, that’s about 80-100G of data. Videos are delivered with 1080P resolution. You get one file per videotape (9 tapes, 9 files).

1080P for videos..so all the videos will be high def?!?!!?
Not really; the 1080P refers to the display format. This does not increase the quality of the original source material. VHS tapes will still have that VHS quality.

However, if a DV tape was recorded natively in high definition in the camcorder,  you will get full high-definition quality.

I now have a bunch of files and a bunch of tapes; how do I know which file goes with which tape?
I physically label each tape (01, 02, 03), and the corresponding digital file has the same label as a file prefix. You look at the physical tape, look at the file and match them up!

More details, please?
I label each tape with a slip of paper and write an ID number on the paper (01, 02, 03, etc). I take a photo of the tape (or more than one photo if you have a hand-written annotation on the tape or the case).

Each tape has a corresponding digital file; I make sure that the file name starts with the label I assign the tape. For example, a given tape will be given the label “13”; the file name for that tape will start with 13 (i.e. 13_.mp4)

I return back to you the tape, the slip of paper, the photos of the tape/paper, and the digital files.  The result is that you can pick up a physical tape, verify the ID number for that tape, verify the ID number in the photo, and verify the ID number in the file name. This way you have confidence knowing which file represents which tape.

OR..if you include an ID number for each tape,  I’ll use that in the file name for that tape.

Can I get the videos on DVD?
You CAN, but the video resolution on DVD is lower than that of mp4.

Now that I have these video files, what do I do with them?
Great question! You can upload to a file-sharing service (dropbox, Microsoft Onedrive, Google Drive, etc.) and share the links with friends and family; or you can make copies of the files to other drives and mail them out to friends & family, or you can edit the files and upload to youtube/Vimeo, etc.

Do you ever get “those” types of tapes?
Regardless of whether I do or don’t, the answer is always “no” :).

What is your quality control?
I start a tape and make sure the audio and video are being recorded. Then I let the digitizing process go till the end. I may occasionally look to make sure things are still working well, but I am not looking at the video all the time while it’s being recorded. After the recording is done, I make sure the file is intact and playable. If the tape is not recording cleanly at the start, or during my casual perusal, I will try another machine for playback. This might fix things up (especially for VHS tapes).

What contributes to a bad video on the tape?
Video quality depends on the signal recorded on the tape and on the degradation of the tape over time. The original signal could have been dubbed from another tape (2nd generation), or recorded at low resolution or, in the case of VHS, at low recording speed (LP/EP). Tape degradation can include loss of signal strength on the magnetic media due to age or temperature, or physical degradation of the tape (flaking, creasing). For VHS tapes, some are getting to be 40 years old!

There is a bit of a personal judgment regarding “how bad does it have to be to not even bother digitizing it”. For the occasional marginal (i.e. really bad quality) tape, I will digitize and discount the cost. If it’s not usable, let me know and I’ll refund the price.

I have a bunch of tapes, and not sure what’s what. Can you triage them before digitizing them? I don’t want to pay for copies of old tv shows!
Contact me and we can work something out.

How can I get started?
Box up your media,  (label them if you wish), contact me and we’ll arrange a drop-off.

Slides/Prints/Negatives

What kind of files do I get? What quality/resolution?
For slides/prints/negatives, I can supply JPG or TIFF files. TIFF files are much larger (10-30x as large) but preferred if you plan on doing extensive post-production editing of the images. JPGs and TIFF are viewable on both Windows and Apple devices.

Prints are digitized at 300 dpi; slides/negatives at 2400 DPI. If you request something different, let me know ahead of time.

How do you organize the files?
You get one file per print/slide/negative. If you separate the media (envelopes, boxes, etc), I will deliver all the corresponding files in the same directory.  If you need special naming conventions, we can discuss them.

What is your quality control?
Typically, prints are scanned as they are.

Slides/negatives are a bit touchy since they easily accumulate dust. I scan them “as is”, or can do dusting/cleaning before scanning. However, this does not guarantee that all dust specks are removed. Further, post-production may be needed in order to get a “speckle” free image. But the images are useful for general viewing,

File are checked to make sure they are viewable.

Converting/Restoring Memory Cards

If you have memory cards with file formats that you can’t use, I can likely convert them to a standard format.

If you have memory cares with lost content (due to overwriting or just aging), I can attempt to retrieve the contents. Contact me for further details.

BTW – contrary to popular opinion, solid-state/flash memory cards DO age and can degrade over time. They are NOT designed for long-term storage, with an expected lifetime of 2-10 years, depending on the core technology used in the device and how much the device was used. Don’t delay in curating your memory cards “because they will last forever” – they don’t!

DVDs

If you have home-recorded DVDs that you want to be converted to MP4 files, contact me.

Post-production services

I also offer post-production services for video and still images, including image restoration. Contact me for details