miniDVD

What are MiniDVD’s

This disc is basically a mini version of your standard DVD.  The miniDVD measures about 3 inches (8 cm) in diameter whereas a standard DVD measures 4.75 inches (12 cm) in diameter.  MiniDVD’s are used primarily in miniDVD camcorders.  The camcorders record directly to these discs. Typically the discs hold about 30 minutes worth of video.

Issues with these discs

  1. The number one issue with these discs is that people are not aware that these discs need to be finalized before they can be removed from the camcorder and used in other players.  The discs will play-back fine in the camcorder, but if they are not finalized in the camcorder they will not play back in any other machine.  It is strongly recommended that be finalized in the original camcorder or finalization may not work.
  2. Another issue we have found common with these discs is corruption.  Of every 10 discs that we transferred, one will be corrupt and not readable or not able to finalize.
  3. Many of the discs we found have drop outs where certain areas of the disc cannot be read.  We’ve found that 50 to 60% of the discs have a least one read error and maybe more.

What Can We Do For You?

  1. Corrupt discs: We have been successful in recovering at least most of every corrupt disc that we’ve transferred.  This process is however very time intensive.
  2. Not finalized: We had customers that have non-finalized miniDVD’s and cannot get the original camcorder to finalize the disc, some have borrowed the camcorder and cannot get it again, and for some the camcorder is broken.  Whatever the reason, we can extract all the video and audio information from the disc and create a new DVD.
  3. We can transfer the miniDVD to a standard DVD.

Prints

Do you have boxes of photos. Imagine having them all on your computer to share, put into a slideshow, or into a digital frame. We can scan your photos. We even handle estates where we can duplicate photos and pictures into digital images for siblings to share.

Whether they are in a shoebox or in storage your prints are at some risk. This risk can be solved by scanning these valuable historic records and having multiple duplicates stored in a  few locations; if not to share, at least for safe keeping.

IX240 Cartridge

The Advanced Photo System was an attempt of a major upgrade of photographic technology for amateurs, but was soon overtaken by the popularity of digital photography. Despite the added features, APS never really caught on with professional photographers because of the significantly smaller film area (56% of 135 film). Color slide film, popular with professional photographers, proved unpopular in APS format and was soon discontinued (although chromogenic black-and-white IX240 film continued to be produced). Color print film was normally available only in a limited selection of film speeds and color formats. These developments, combined with the fact that auto-loading 35mm cameras could be made almost as compact, as convenient, and as inexpensive as APS-format cameras, prevented APS from attaining greater popularity.

Advantix Cartridge

The Advanced Photo System was an attempt of a major upgrade of photographic technology for amateurs, but was soon overtaken by the popularity of digital photography. Despite the added features, APS never really caught on with professional photographers because of the significantly smaller film area (56% of 135 film). Color slide film, popular with professional photographers, proved unpopular in APS format and was soon discontinued (although chromogenic black-and-white IX240 film continued to be produced). Color print film was normally available only in a limited selection of film speeds and color formats. These developments, combined with the fact that auto-loading 35mm cameras could be made almost as compact, as convenient, and as inexpensive as APS-format cameras, prevented APS from attaining greater popularity.

Postives or Slides

Let Lifetime Heritage Films preserve your family’s irreplaceable memories.  We can transfer your 35mm slides to easy-to-use DVD.  We can take those slides sitting on boxes or trays and restore them to their original clarity or even better so that your family can cherish those unforgettable moments forever.

How can we serve you?

We can scan slides into a number of digital formats, typically jpg or tif, but other formats are available.  Our standard slide scanning is done at 4000 dpi (dots-per-inch) however we are able to provide lessor or greater dpi’s.  During our slide scanning we also have the ability to fix and cleanup your slides.  What does this all mean to you….well the digital image that we produce can be used to print and very large photo and it will look amazing.

What does 4000 dpi mean?

A 35mm slide scanned at 4000 dpi can print a photo at about 21 X 14 inches (53 X 36 cm).

Your slides aren’t 35mm?

No problem, we can handle pretty much any transparencies.  Glass slides, large format slides, slides in metal frames….contact us today for a quote.

Sending Your Slides to Us

  1. Prepare or organize your slides.
  2. Send the slides to us.
  3. The preferred method is to personally deliver the slides to our office.
  4. But if you live to far you can mail or courier them to us.  Just make sure that you get the address correct and make sure that you ask for a signature so that you have evidence that the package was delivered correctly.

Audio Cassette

We transfer audio cassettes to audio CD’s to preserve those special memories.  We’ve had customers bring in their audio recordings of weddings, oral histories, and more precious memories.  Magnetic tape is a very fragile media to trust your memories to.

The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is a magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Compact cassettes come in two forms, either already containing content as a pre-recorded cassette, or as fully recordable “blank” cassette. It was designed originally for dictation machines, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel tape recording in most non-professional applications.[1] Its uses ranged from portable audio to home recording to data storage for early microcomputers. Between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, the cassette was one of the two most common formats for prerecorded music, first alongside the LP record and later the compact disc.

Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording technology. It was popular in the United States from the mid-1960s to the late-1970s, when the Compact Cassette format took over, but aside from a brief early period of moderate popularity in the UK was relatively unknown in many European countries.

Reel-To-Reel Tape

Have you got your treasures on a reel to reel audio tape.  Maybe your grandparents used reel to reel audio tapes to record “letters” to send back to the old country.  I’ve seen many reel to reel audio recordings with precious audio of relatives that have long since passed away.  Do you have reels of tape like these?

Physical Description

Typical Reel Diameters:  7.6, 10, 12.7, 18, 27 cm (3, 4, 5, 7, 10.5 inches)

Width of tape:  6.35mm (0.25 inches)

Reel-to-reel audio tape or open reel audio tape is a form of magnetic audio recording media that is held on an open reel rather than being contained in a cassette.  These tapes were popular from around the mid 1950′s into the mid 1980′s.  Most reel-to-reel tapes have either one or two stereo tracks recorded on them.  This means that the tapes typically have four tracks (a left and right for each stereo pair).  One stereo track was recorded on the tape and when the end of the tape was reached, the tape was flipped around and the second stereo track was recorded.  This results in the two stereo tracks being recorded in opposite directions.

Hi8 Video

To counter the introduction of the Super-VHS format, Sony introduced Video Hi8 (short for high-band Video8). Like S-VHS, Hi8 used improved recorder electronics and media formulation to increase the recorded bandwidth of the luminance signal. Both Hi8 and S-VHS were officially rated at a  of 400 lines, a vast improvement from their respective base formats and are roughly equal to laserdisc quality. Chroma resolution for both remain unchanged.

To convert Hi8 into modern media, please contact us here.

3/4" U-matic & U-matic SP

Years Used: 1971 – early 1990′s

History (highlight summary):

  • 3/4″ U-Matic             1970
  • 3/4″ U-Matic SP        1986

Formats: low-band, high-band, SP

This format was introduced by Sony in 1971.  Although introduced as a consumer tape, it actually caught on more as a Pro tape.  By the mid ’70′s TV stations started using it.  There was also a U-Matic S format (max 20 mins) like the VHS-C tapes….designed for the portable units.  Many of the newer frontloading machines can accept the S format tapes without an adaptor (earlier top loading ones required an adaptor).  By the early 90′s Betacam SP had more-or-less replaced U-matic.

Over the years improved video deck machines and format changes provided the following Improvements:

  • TBC circuitry….drop out compensation.
  • Dolby noise reduction
  • SP (superior performance) technology…improved video picture

How To Identify The Tape:

The cassette of a U-matic or U-matic SP video tape are the same size.  The cassette comes in a large and small size.  The cassettes are thicker than a VHS tape and thinner than a Betacam tape.  Dimensions for a large tape are: 21.9 cm X 13.7 cm X 3 cm and a small tape are: 18.5 cm X 12 cm x 3 cm.

To convert it into modern media, please contact us here.

VHS Tape


VHS (Video Home System) tapes is one of the most popular video formats around.  Many of us stored many treasured memories on these tapes.  Unfortunately many of did not realize that the VHS tape is an extremely poor media to store anything on for a long term.  Sadly we have come across customers who transferred their precious films, film being a very superior media, to VHS tapes and then be advised to throw out the films now that the films are on VHS tape.

What To Do Now?

If you have any memories on VHS tape that have not been transferred to another media, transfer them NOW!  Even with our professional equipment we cannot recover VHS tapes where the information is gone.   Fortunately, most VHS tapes still have most of the information on them, it’s just that the image is not what it used to be.

Again the quality of the image left on the VHS tape has to do with a number of factors some of which are:

  • The original VHS tape quality, was this a cheap tape or a quality tape to start with.
  • How was the VHS tape stored?  Was the VHS tape upright (best) or lying flat.
  • How often were the VHS tapes played….too often wears the VHS tape, and not often enough can have the VHS tape layers stick together.
  • Was the tape rewound (best)?
  • Was the tape damaged?

Urgently call us to see what we can do to help get your VHS tapes transferred.  Even if the tape is damaged, contact us first before further damage occurs.

4K & 5K Film Scanning & Digitizing | Archival Film Scanning

Enjoy and preserve your memories before it is too late!

 

WHY US?

  • We are the only Northwest company offering 5K archival film scanning

  • Past satisfied customers include archives, museums, film industry, and consumers

  • Archival approach to digitizing your films

  • Same leading edge scanner technology used by Nasa and Warner Brothers.

  • Using an archival scanner that is gentle on your precious film and reproduces stunning digital moving images and pristine sound.

  • Your films will be returned in better shape than when we received them

  • We can scan damaged film that others cannot

  • Affordable – don’t waste your money on the promises of others, we deliver the best

  • We are passionate about preserving film

HIGH RES DATA SCANNING FOR 2K, 4K AND 5K!

  • Perfect for filmmakers who want flexibility in post production

  • Perfect for families or organizations with large collections they want to preserve

  • Check out our sharp images and pristine audio

ABOUT OUR NEW 5K ARCHIVAL FILM SCANNER

The 5K archival film scanner can scan 8mm, Super8, 9.5mm or Pathe, 16mm, Super16, and 35mm film (if you have 17.5mm and 28mm please contact us). The scanner is capable of scanning all gauges of film at anything from HD to 5K. The scanned results are stunning and amazing. Film audio, magnetic or optical, will be scanned and synchronized as the film is being scanned. One nationally renown audio lab stated that the quality of the audio produced is some of the best they’ve ever heard. Our own scans have resulted in major accolades from industry audio and video engineers.

WHY NOW?

Don't wait, your film is not getting any younger.  Imagine the joy and laughter the film can bring to those that were in the film and to new generations that have yet to enjoy the film.  Have the grandparents or parents narrate the film so that the stories are not lost.  Enjoy the film today, tomorrow my be too late.

FAQ’S

Can you do film audio?

Yes, both, magnetic and optical

What digital outputs will you offer?    

We can produce many different outputs.  Some of these outputs are:  AVI, MP4, ProRes, DPX, TIF, FFV1.3.  Colour space of 422, 420, 4444.

Is the film audio synchronized with the image?

The film and audio are scanned and synchronized at the time of scanning making for a perfect match.

How does your pricing compare?

We try to make our pricing affordable.

What types of film can you scan?

We can scan 8mm, Super8, 9.5mm, Pathe, 16mm, Super16, and 35mm.  Contact us if you need 17.5mm or 28mm scanned.

Specialists for 4K & 5K archival film scanning & digitizing

 

16mm Sound

16mm film is silent if the sprocket holes are on both sides of the film.  For sound, one side of the film’s sprocket holes are replaced by the soundtrack.  The sound track could be magnetic or optical.  Magnetic (or Co-mag film) is generally found on film used in news gathering and this track was recorded as the film was being shot.  Optical sound track is created when the film is put together (sound is recorded separately from the film media) for creating a print and this is typically found on films that were sold or distributed.

16mm Film

Format: 16mm Movie Film

Popular: Eastman Kodak introduced 16mm film in 1923. RCA developed sync sound for 16mm cameras in 1933.

Transferability

These films contain many precious home movies, but due to the chemical and physically frail nature of film, they can be damaged or degrade over time. The main concerns are physical damage to the film (usually caused by malfunctioning projectors), and full decomposition of the film (sometimes caused by improper storage).

We are well practiced at preserving your memories by transferring them to digital in resolutions up to 5K.  We can also digitize any audio that may exist on the film.  The precious digital files can be further enhanced with colour and contrast correction. Our specialized process will ensure that your valued home movies will last for many decades to come, preserved in digital.

Our Specialized Film Transfer Process

Our archival film scanning process is gentle on your film and scans the film to bring out the best possible image and audio that the latest technology can produce.  The resulting digital video looks and sounds better than it did when it was projected on a screen.

If you'd like more information on the film scanning process, click here.

Check out our 5K Archival Film scanning service and get the best in film scanning.  Contact us today.

Super8 Film

Format: Super8 Movie Film

Popular: Released in 1965 and widely used until early 1990s.

Transferability

These films contain many precious home movies, but due to the chemical and physically frail nature of film, they can be damaged or degrade over time. The main concerns are physical damage to the tape (usually caused by malfunctioning projectors), crystallization (artifacts forming on the surface of the film possibly as a result of improper finishing), and full decomposition of the film (sometimes caused by improper storage).

We are well practiced at preserving your memories by transferring them to digital in resolutions up to 5K.  We can also digitize any audio that may exist on the film.  The precious digital files can be further enhanced with colour and contrast correction. Our specialized process will ensure that your valued home movies will last for many decades to come, preserved in digital.

Our Specialized Film Transfer Process

Our archival film scanning process is gentle on your film and scans the film to bring out the best possible image and audio that the latest technology can produce.  The resulting digital video looks and sounds better than it did when it was projected on a screen.

If you'd like more information on the film scanning process, click here.

Check out our 5K Archival Film scanning service and get the best in film scanning.  Contact us today.