FREE COLLECTION & DELIVERY AVAILABLE
Call 01474 569 390
Monday-Friday, 9am to 5pm
Saturday by appointment

FAQs

Frequently asked questions
How to I place an order?
When and how do I make payment?
What equipment do you use to digitise or transfer tapes?
Do you film or scan 8mm, 9.5mm, 16mm and 35mm films?
Should I convert to DVD or USB?
What is the turnaround time?
Can you supply DV files?
Do you keep a copy of my files?

There are no online forms. If you’re local then simply bring your tapes to our office in Gravesend. We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, no need to make an appointment. If you live in Kent then we have drop off points situated in Ashford, Folkestone, Ramsgate, and Tonbridge. Alternatively just post us your tapes along with a note including your name, address, telephone number, and email address.

For more information see our place an order page.

Payment is taken when the job is complete, either on collection if you are collecting from our studio, or before we drop back to the drop-off point or post back to you. We don’t take payments in advance as we need to know the tape lengths for the final price.

Payment can be made by credit/debit card (including America Express) either in our studio, online, or by telephone. We also accept cash and bank transfer payments.

This all depends on on the format of your tape. Nearly all tapes are run through professional broadcast decks which are linked via SDI cables to our computers via Blackmagic capture cards/devices. Some older formats only have Component or Composite connections but these are still connected to our computers via Blackmagic capture cards/devices. Dependent on the deck being used, an extra device may be present called a Timecode corrector.

We scan all our films! Cheaper companies will simply play your films back in an old 1950’s projector and then film the projector screen. This leads to over exposed whites (a wedding dress would appear completely solid white instead of all the details visible for example), and extremely poor colour reproduction. All our films are scanned, each frame at a time (typically 16/18/24 frames per second), producing a near perfect colour reproduction, and much sharper images.

See our 8mm film scanning page for an example image.

There are benefits to both formats, but MP4 on a USB gives you the most future proof version of your transfer.

Storing as a digital file enables you to convert to other formats in the future via a couple of clicks of the mouse, and gives you a better picture quality. The files are also easy to copy and share with friends and family. The MP4 files are also a higher quality than DVD.

DVD is a “finished” format so it is harder to edit this material without further conversions.

If you plan on editing your footage then let us know and we can supply higher resolution or uncompressed files.

Typically 7-14 days. Mouldy or broken tapes will require longer.

During out Christmas period a turnaround of 4-6 weeks is typical as our workload increases by 600% during this time and we prioritise work in certain batches to ensure we run as efficiently as possible, and everyone has their jobs back before Christmas. We always make sure your job will be with you before Christmas. If you have a specific deadline, please let us know in advance and we can usually help.

Yes – although we would advise on converting to ProRes if editing on a Mac or PC. The files are much easy to edit with, and better quality.

As we capture all footage in an uncompressed format, we can then provide them in any number of formats for you – Just let us know what you need!

We keep a copy of all files for at least 120 days unless you instruct us not to. This is to make sure you have time to check all the files over and that you are happy with them, and so we can also recall the files easily if you misplace your DVDs/USB.