Q: Why are www.video99.co.uk services so much cheaper than the other
companies?
A: Because this service is run by a video engineer who is more interested
in doing a good job than making a huge profit. Profits are largely fed
back into video equipment so I can provide more options, video formats and
services, and keep my video equipment collection all running. The
quality goes into the recordings, I don't waste your money on fancy
packaging or "free" printed covers. The disks supplied in
sleeves and are printed with the video99.co.uk logo and have your title
carefully handwritten on them and space for you to add more detail if you
wish. We also save you 17.5% (soon to be 20%!) because we operate
nicely below the VAT threshold limit.
Q: Do the DVDs come in boxes or sleeves?
By default the DVDs are supplied in plain sleeves to keep the costs
down. If you would like your DVDs in boxes with colour printed
inserts, these are just £3.50 per DVD (falling to £1.50 per DVD when taking
extra copies), and are ideal for gifts. These boxes show a number of
still shots taken from the tapes, and are very attractive. When taking several DVDs,
boxes may be doubles, triples or quad to save space unless you specify single boxes only,
and this lowers cost too. Each box is £3.50 plus £1 for each
additional DVD, so £3.50 for a single single box, £4.50 double box, £5.50
triple box, £6.50 quad box. Boxes for extra copies are £1.50 for
single boxes, £2.50 for double, £3.50 for triple, £4.50 for quad.
These boxes are made up to a very high standard, a lot of work goes into
carefully selecting beautiful shots for the covers, and they are printed by
colour laser printer so they will not fade. Normally each DVD box
design is specially made showing pictures from the DVDs within that box, but
for large jobs where some customers would like the same design for several
boxes, the price falls to the "extra copies" price for the first
set too.
Q: How do I pay, where do I send the tapes?
A: Please contact
me first and I'll send you the postal address to send the tapes, it's
near Plymouth. Special Delivery is the best option for precious
recordings. I don't want to publish the address here, I think you will
understand. If you know roughly how much the transfer will cost from
the information on the www.video99.co.uk
web page, or from having received a reply from me, then you can pay by
cheque to video99. Sometimes I will suggest I look at the tapes
and then give the exact price. In this case you can then send a
cheque, or if you have access to Nochex
or Paypal you can use
these. In cases of payment from abroad, a bank transfer may be
acceptable provided all charges are met at the sender's end. It's
risky to send cash of course but UK Pounds or the equivalent in Euros is OK
if it can be sent safely. Please avoid use of staples in the
packaging.
Q: Is the quality good?
A: The quality is excellent. Very often people have commented on how
much better the DVD results are than they remember the tapes. This is
because I use top quality equipment and I know how to get the very best out
of it. Of course, if your original recordings are very poor, were
already copies, or the tapes have become damaged, then the results may be
less than perfect but still generally much better than you will get on your
home equipment. Most recordings are run through an expensive Digital
Timebase Corrector which allows me to make subtle technical corrections to
the picture. Sound is also very important, so I use Hifi Stereo
equipment for any video tape which might be in stereo including Betamax.
Q: Can you fix problems with the recordings?
A: Sometimes, it depends what is wrong. If the colours are wrong,
too green, too blue, or too dark for example, then I can often improve upon
these problems. I have expensive Digital Timebase Correctors which
allow for some adjustment of picture imperfections. But they can't
perform miracles, if the recording is very grubby and shaky then it will
not completely fix the problems. A common problem with copied tapes is
that the colour "shifts" downwards or to the right of the rest of
the image, and I can compensate for this and other defects. Here
is a picture of a tape which I recently repaired and recovered the
recordings.
Q: Are tapes safe?
A: Absolutely. You can send them by Special Delivery if the
recordings are important to you, and they will never leave my location until
returned to you. I usually send the DVDs on ahead so you can be sure
you are happy with them before I return the tapes.
Q: Some tapes contain sensitive material, is this safe with
video99.co.uk?
A: I'm often asked this. Transfers in the past have included
court case evidence, irreplaceable footage of deceased friends and family,
"private" personal recordings, and of course lots and lots of
children growing up. Your tapes are always treated with the utmost
care, and neither the tapes nor the video files created from them are ever
copied, distributed, placed on vulnerable computer networks or otherwise
compromised in any way. I'm a family man myself with a wife and young
children,
so I absolutely share your concerns with security of your recordings.
Q: How long with DVDs last?
A: It's not really known how long DVDs will last, but if you
are careful with storing them it should be long enough that you can consider
it to be a very long time indeed. I use top quality (expensive) DVDs,
not the cheap ones I know some of my competitors use. Furthermore, the
great thing about DVD is that you can easily copy them using a computer with
no loss of quality. I don't use any encryption on the DVDs I supply,
so software such as Nero (PC) or Toast (Mac) can easily make exact
duplicates. If you want to be very cautious, you could make copies of
the DVDs I supply, in about 5-10 years from now, and then keep making
replacements every 5-10 years. Alternatively, you can use Nero etc. to
make an image files of the DVDs (the file type will be .iso for example) and
then readily make up extra copies from these images at any time in the
future. There's an interesting
item on BBC news about this subject. The most important thing
anyway is to look after your DVDs, don't scratch them or subject them to
temperature extremes or moisture. Any questions, just
ask.
Q: Will you transfer copyright tapes? What if the tape is "copyproof"?
A: I am only providing the transfer service, I must leave copyright to
you, the owner of the tape. In most cases, making a single copy of a
recording you already have, such as a film or a TV programme, would be
considered to be "fair use". Copyproof VHS tapes (those
encoded with Macrovision) may be copied but only for "fair use"
quantities.
Example: I was asked to copy a set of copyrighted training tapes from VHS to DVD for a
marshal arts instructor. I did this, and the instructor was so pleased
with the results he asked me to duplicate sets of them for his
students. I reminded the instructor of his copyright obligations and
we decided that the one set of DVDs was enough.
Q: I couldn't fill in your form, it didn't work
A: We have a simple
order form. If this doesn't work or isn't helpful, just email me and I'll
help you personally. Include your postal address, and any information on
how many tapes you have, and I'll get back to you promptly.
Q: Do you only copy to DVD, or can you copy to tapes or other disks or
computer file?
A: Most people want their tapes copied to DVD, but other options are
available. I can copy tapes to hard disk (see next question) for use with computer editing,
and I can also copy to video tapes including VHS, S-VHS, miniDV, DVCAM and more. I
can also take snapshots from your video and make a CD of pictures if
required. See next answer about computer files:
A: Increasingly popular is transfer of video tapes to computer
hard disk (usually as DV-AVI files) for use with a computer.
Most external Firewire or USB hard drives can be used, which you can supply
or purchase and have sent to me directly. If you don't already have a
suitable drive, just ask me for suggestions on suitable drives. The DV-AVI file format is the
same as modern digital camcorders produce, and is ideal for editing on both
PC and Mac systems. The format consumes 13GB per hour, so if you have
many tapes then it may require a fairly large hard disk. Please, do not send network or
multimedia drives. Prices start at £7 per hour plus post. Contact
me for more details. Apple Mac users: Note that
OS X 10.3 or higher is recommended in order to access the large file
sizes. Usually the files are provided on hard drives in
the NTFS file format so they are accessible by both Mac and PC. Generally Macs cannot write to drives of this
format, so once you have copied the video files you can reformat the drive
and use it for read and write again. About half of my customers for
hard disk transfers are Mac users and many take their files on NTFS hard
drives. But
if you only use a Mac and would prefer your drive to be fully accessible for
writing as well as reading, I can upon request use the HFS+ (Mac OS
Extended) file system. I have both PC and Mac systems. I
always recommend that we work with external USB or Firewire drives, but
internal IDE or SATA drives can be accepted for both PC and Mac, though they
incur a £6 setup charge. External eSATA drives can be accepted,
presently for PC only.
Q: How quick is the turnaround?
A: Very quick. Smaller jobs are usually done same day, and longer
ones with lots of tapes only take a few days. The reason is that I
have several sets of DVD recording equipment and more video recorders of
various types than I wish to count, so often I can carry out more than one
job at once.
Q: You do a lot of different kinds of video tapes, are there any you
don't do?
A: Unless someone would like to tell me otherwise, I believe video99.co.uk
has the largest selection of video cassette transfer formats on offer in the
UK. I don't do reel-to-reel video tapes of any type, nor film but can recommend Chris at Save
Those Memories
who does cine films and slides. Nearly all recordings from equipment sold outside the UK are
possible. Just email me
if you can't find what you want on my video99.co.uk
web page because I am adding new formats and capabilities all the time.
Q: Should I send original camcorder tapes or send VHS copies?
A: Always send original tapes rather than copies, even if you have to ask
me to edit some parts out of the tapes for you. I would rather do that
than have you lower the quality of your precious recordings by using
VHS. All modern camcorders and almost all camcorders built in the last
20 years, are much better quality than VHS.
Q: Are the testimonials real? Are there more comments not listed?
A: All the testimonials are very real. I leave in spelling errors
and grammatical styles so you can see this. There are other replies
which I don't include just because they say nothing more than "DVD
works, please return the tapes now, thanks", and that wouldn't make
very interesting reading. Also I have some people who leave a comment
the first time they use my services and come back with more batches of
work, but don't do new testimonials. Some people don't have email
so don't send a testimonial.
Q: Do you do discounts?
A: Yes of course. Generally a Deluxe Menu DVD is £18 but
if you have more than 10 tapes this drops to £15 each. Basic Menu
DVDs are mostly £12 and fall to £8.50 each for 10 or more. Quantity
discounts can apply to other options too. With VCR N1500 and VCR-LP
N1700 formats the discounts are smaller, I'm already around one third of the
price of the competition and these tapes tend to be a lot of work. I
may also offer a discount if you would be kind enough to place a link to
video99.co.uk on a popular web site which you may run. Repeat
customers are also welcome to a car sticker if
they will display it.
Q: Will you take my old machine as payment?
A: Some video recorders will be taken as part or even occasionally full payment for a transfer. Mainly I am interested in Betamax models such as any Sanyo front loader, or top loaders VTC5000 and VTC5150. Sony models of interest are SL-C9 and onwards, but really I can't use any top loader Sony including the SL-F1 nor the SL-C6. As well as Betamax models, I may be interested in almost any video recorder which is not VHS.
Generally I do not require camcorders, with a few exceptions. Most video recorders can be posted for about
£12 and I'll give discounts of maybe £20 or more so sending a machine can be a good way to reduce costs.
Q: Will the DVDs play in my DVD player?
A: I use the most compatible DVD-R type of disk which will play in around
95% of domestic DVD players. A few computer drives, games consoles or
old DVD players might possibly struggle with any kind of recorded
disk. If you find you cannot play a DVD, I can send an alternative disk for you to try at no charge.
I use the highest possible quality disks for maximum compatibility, so
playback problems are rare. Sometimes a recorded DVD won't play
on Windows Media Player; I would recommend avoiding this particular program,
use alternative DVD player software such as the excellent Nero Showtime which comes bundled
with Nero CD/DVD writing software.
Q: Will you transfer tapes recorded in another country? What does
"Television System" mean?
A: Tapes recorded on equipment intended for use abroad will be recorded
using the television system from that country. There are generally
three television systems; PAL as used in UK, NTSC used in USA, SECAM used in
France. For an explanation of all this, see
this page. I generally
record DVDs with the PAL system, but the tapes could be recorded in one of
the other systems. If your tape is recorded on equipment intended for
a country which does not use the PAL television system, then email me
so I can advise whether my equipment will accept your particular recording,
but I can accept almost any recording from anywhere in the world. If
you require NTSC DVDs for use abroad, this is possible but there may be a
small extra cost.
Q: What is Deluxe Menu?
A: New video title at the
start of each video tape, and chapter points inserted at the start of new
recordings and subject material. Titles
for each chapter of your choice, if the information is provided with the
tape. Icons show what each
chapter contains. This is all
very similar to the kind of professional DVD video you can buy and rent. Up to 90 minutes of video footage copied to each DVD for ultimate
picture quality, or around 110 minutes with very good picture quality. If necessary I may be able to extract small segments of
garbage recording (bits of TV programme mixed with your prized camera
footage for example), and I can also clean up the video material if
necessary using a semi-professional digital timebase corrector to help
improve wobbly recordings. Everyone who commented on this service has been delighted with the
results. Cost for most formats is £18 for the first DVD and just £2.50
per extra copy. See
more here.
Q: What is Basic Menu?
A: A
straight run of your video tapes onto DVD. A new title will start with each video tape, and I will try to name
these appropriately. Chapter
points approximately every 5 minutes, these will not be labelled. No icons, no fancy menus, and probably no editing of unwanted
material but I may be able to make small edits for you. A digital timebase
corrector is used to help clean up wobbly recordings. Up to 150 minutes per DVD. You
will be very happy with the quality of these recordings, it is only the DVD
menus which are basic. Cost for most formats is £12 for the first DVD and just £3.50 per
extra copy. See
more here.
Q: I have no idea how much it will cost...
A: If you don't know how long your recordings are, or whether there is
anything useful at all on the tapes, then I can look at them for you and
report back. If you tell me what you have, I'll give you a rough
estimate of the cost before you send them, and then an exact cost
later. You can then send payment as necessary. If you decide not
to go ahead, you owe me nothing apart from return postage on the tapes (if
you want them back). Most transfer services charge to let you know
what is on the tapes, but I like to be helpful.
Q: Can you do something special for me? Can you help with damaged
tapes?
A: Yes, I'm flexible with special requirements. These might
include your company logo and printed titles on the DVD, or DVD-Rom
rather than DVD-Videos, hard disk transfers and more. Other special requests include recording to S-VHS or miniDV rather than DVD, major editing jobs, repairing damaged / snapped cassettes
(repairs usually charged at £5) and more, just
ask. However I offer a tape transfer service, not a full tape
restoration service. I can try to run tapes which are mouldy, sticky or
otherwise damaged, and can clean up such tapes in some cases, but I do not
recover water-damaged tapes for example. Here
is a picture of a tape which I recently repaired and recovered the
recordings. I can also record audio cassette, open reel audio tape,
dictation machine tapes, DAT and MiniDisc onto CD or
computer. So if you want something special, just ask.
Q: Can it be done even cheaper by putting more onto each DVD?
A: My cheapest service with basic menus, will take up to 2 hours
and 30 minutes on each DVD. I would recommend limiting this to 2
hours where possible for even better results. It is true that
much more than this can be recorded on a DVD but the quality will
suffer, and I wouldn't want you to be disappointed. Furthermore
(and this may be the opposite of what you expect!), the lower the
quality of your original tape, the more important it is that we don't
squeeze too much onto a DVD. So if you have used Long Play on
your tape for example, it is best to keep the DVD recording as short as
possible. Do you really want to know why? In a nutshell it
is because the video tape "noise" (grubbiness on the picture) consumes
the DVD's "bandwidth". For example: If you had a very clean original
recording from two really good miniDV tapes which added up to 2:34, I might consider squeezing them onto
one DVD to keep your cost to a minimum; but if you have a mediocre quality full 4 hour
VHS tape then it really should be split onto two DVDs.
Q: Are the DVDs in widescreen?
A: Normally I will record your tapes straight to DVD with no change in the
shape of the picture, so older recordings will still be copied with the 4:3
picture shape they started in. This gives you the best possible
picture resolution, and you can usually adjust this with your TV set when
you play the DVD. If your recordings are widescreen, then the DVD will
reflect this, there are no black bars added. If you particularly need the shape to be changed to
or from widescreen, let me know and I'll see if I can carry out your
request. Recordings are of course in standard definition like the
original tapes, they can't be converted to high definition.
Q: I've recorded over my precious tape, help!
A: If you have recorded over your footage, on any video cassette format
(VHS, Betamax, Video8, miniDV etc.) first remove the record tab or switch it
so you can't make the same mistake again, then if you have a suitable player
go through the tape to see if any of your original material remains.
Do you see a new recording, or just a blank screen? Maybe the
recording has not been overwritten but is not playing for some other reason;
if you think this may be the case then email me
and I'll see if I can help. If you have definitely recorded over you
wanted material then I'm afraid it is all over. All video recorders
make an excellent job of erasing old recordings before making a new
recording so there is absolutely zero chance of an overwritten recording
being recovered. Anyone who says otherwise is talking rubbish, sorry.
Q: Help, I've cracked a DVD!
A: Think I'm a miracle worker? Well yes I am actually.
Provided the DVD is not broken in two or more, then I may be able to recover
it. Here
is a DVD which a customer had of her once-in-a-lifetime skydive.
It was cracked in her suitcase on the way home. I was able to create
new playable DVDs from this which looked as good as the original, and all
for a very modest cost.
Q: What kinds of DVD are there?
A: Normally I will record your tapes to DVD-R because this is the most
compatible type. But I can offer DVD+R if you require, just let me
know if you think your player only takes this type. What other types
of DVD exist? There is DVD-RAM, and I can do this too if you require,
one customer has taken this format so he can edit the recordings
himself. Though I use rewritable DVD-RW disks internally, it would be
unusual for you to require these, and even more unusual to require DVD+RW.
These latter types are re-writable or eraseable and are used by computers
and some DVD recorders. Confused? Just
ask.
Q: I was just looking for some help on copying miniDV camcorder tapes
to DVD myself
A: What, expecting free help here? Well actually I don't mind giving a
little free advice, so here goes: There are three normal ways to do this. Basically: 1: Plug the camcorder into a DVD recorder with analogue cables (audio and video, or
preferably audio and s-video). Play on
the camcorder, record on the DVD recorder. Done with care, the results are very good, and it does give you the option of
displaying the date on the screen for a few seconds each time a recording begins on a new date. I use this method sometimes.
If the camcorder or DVD recorder does not have an S-video socket, then this is not really a good solution. If the DVD
recorder does not have a DV (or Firewire) socket, it may be the only
solution (next time buy a better DVD recorder!). You can edit as you go along. 2: Plug the camcorder into a DVD recorder with a DV (or Firewire) cable. The DVD recorder will have menus to guide
you through the process of copying this way. In theory it should give better results that the analogue method, but in
practice and can be a little fiddly, especially if there are gaps in the recordings on the tape or you want to do some
editing as you go along. 3: Plug the camcorder into a PC or Mac with the DV (or Firewire) cable. Then use software such as
Pinnacle Studio 14 to capture
all the recordings from the tape, and edit together as you wish. This is very swish, but it takes a lot of patience to
master the complex software, and it's easy to get problems with dropped
frames (stuttering on the picture) unless you know how to avoid that. The software lets you create menus for the DVD with titles and all, just like a professional
DVD movie.
Q: You didn't have my question here. Contact details?
A: Just email me and I'll
help you personally. Please read
our Terms and Conditions,
which form part of the agreement. If you would like to speak to me
personally, you can telephone Colin during normal hours on: 01752 881652.
We have a new and
easy order page, just select what kind of tapes you have and supply your
details.
Also see the video99.co.uk News
from video99 to see what we are doing each month.
Don't risk your precious
memories with any old video transfer outfit, some people just use a tired old video machine and a cheap DVD
recorder connected up with an aerial cable. See testimonials of my work below, to know that
the extra effort I put in really pays off. My video recorders are properly
cleaned, aligned, serviced and thoroughly tested before your tapes go anywhere
near them. Almost all of my transfers are done with the benefit of a full-frame
Digital Timebase Corrector to stabilise the image, and I use the most compatible
DVD-R format of blank disk unless you specify otherwise. I've been doing Betamax
to DVD copies for several years, being one of the
first in the UK, and I've now extended this to other formats. As as a
qualified electronic engineer with a strong consumer electronics background, I
know what I'm doing. Also see my Questions and
Answers (FAQ) I'm based near Plymouth, Devon, so you can drop tapes in
personally if you live nearby.
Analysing a video test signal in my workshop using the latest equipment.
Antique
Video2000 machine running with chassis in service position.
Since VHS is
now obsolete itself, there is little point transferring any video tapes to
VHS (though I can if you wish). Instead people choose DVD since the
quality is very good and they will last much better than any video tape. I
charge a modest fee to cover time, equipment and materials, starting from £12
per DVD, plus post. Extra copies
once I have done the first one are very cheap and highly
recommended. The quality is
dependant upon the original tapes of course, but my equipment will extract the
best possible results from your tapes. Each DVD will hold 90-150 minutes of recording
depending on quality settings, and I can put in sensible chapter breaks to
assist navigating the finished DVD, depending on the service you select.
These DVD-R disks will play in around 95% of domestic DVD players.
You
will have to take responsibility regarding copyright material. If the
recordings are your own work, then you own the copyright. However if the
recordings include TV programmes, films etc., then you should try to gain
permission from the original artists or broadcasters. I have to leave this
with you and your conscience! I will not get involved in any blatant
copyright infringement of course. Confidentially and security is assured,
previous customers have trusted me with tapes including:
Company Confidential
Court case evidence
Very personal private
Irreplaceable footage of deceased family, of weddings, of children growing
up
This site is run for the purposes of keeping
my collection of video equipment in good working order, and to make people happy
by providing a useful video to DVD service. This is why I am prepared to
accept some models of old video recorder as part or full payment for DVD
transfers, and why my prices are lower than the large London based
companies. It's also the reason I can put more time and effort into your
transfers, because I take pride in getting the best possible results. What
you get are top quality transfers at the UK's lowest prices, not fancy packaging
that some companies include "free". Smaller jobs are often done
same day, no need to wait three weeks like a certain company in Glasgow has been
known to do. You also get flexibility, I will always try to help if you
have special requirements.
We have a new and
easy order page, just select what kind of tapes you have and supply your
details.
I don't do cine film transfers, but can recommend Chris at Save
Those Memories
who do.
Though I will handle work from across the globe, if you are looking for
a Video tape to DVD Conversion Service within Australia then please
consider http://www.videotapes2dvd.com.au
I buy all my blank media from the very helpful people at SVP:
If you have a dead or unwanted Beta video recorder in the UK, I will happily pay the postage (typically less than
£12 with Royal Mail Parcels) to have it sent to me, so that I can try to repair it and find a
new home. In can use all Sanyo front loader machines, also the
Sanyo VTC5000 and VTC5150, and any Sony machine from SL-C9 onwards.
Unwanted Video2000 format machines may be welcome too, and early Philips N1500 or
N1700 machines or other oddball formats. (Generally I do not want VHS
video recorders, nor analogue camcorders of any format.) Also, if you have any service manuals for old video equipment which you don't need, they would also be useful to me. My
wanted list also includes:
V2000 machine with XP (extended play) capability such as Grundig 2080 or
Philips V2840
Secam compatible V2000 recorder from France.
N1500 / N1502 video recorders or video heads for the same
Sanyo/Toshiba V-Cord video
recorders.
I can be contacted here if you have
any of these, and I may accept non-working but intact video recorders of the above mentioned
models, in full or part exchange for transferring your recordings to DVD.
Analysing a video test signal in my workshop using the latest equipment.
Antique
Video2000 machine running with chassis in service position.
