Frequently asked Questions
Here are some common questions we get asked.
If you have a query and can’t find your answer here, send us a message and we will be happy to help!
General Questions
The transfer time can vary depending on our current volume of orders. On average, we complete most small transfers within a week of arrival. Sometimes we can even transfer indiviudal orders on the same day they arrive!
Larger orders will of course take more time to complete, as well as orders that require repairs or cleaning.
If you need your tapes transferred urgently, then please send us a message first on the contact page so we can discuss if it is possible to meet your deadline.
You can use any courier you prefer to send your tapes to us. We personally use Royal Mail when posting out orders and would highly recommend their service. At the Post Office, we would suggest using a tracked service, such as ‘Signed For’, or ‘Special Delivery’. These services are tracked right to our door so greatly reduces the risk of your parcel getting lost along the way.
Some couriers such as ParcelForce, UPS, DHL etc allow you to order online and your parcel will be collected from your home, which ideal if you are unable to get to a Post Office.
While we believe our service is great value for money, it is true that there are some people who offer the ‘same’ service but at a cheaper price, but are you really getting the ‘same’ service? We think not.
The transfer methods our competitors use are much inferior. They use domestic vhs players with very cheap ‘USB Capture’ devices, which you can buy from China for less then £3! I have used and tested multiple types of these devices and the results were very poor. They are built using low quality hardware, resulting in a pixelated, compressed video. Not to mention the technical issues such as incorrect de-interlacing and dropped frames.
Your memories are special, why settle for poor quality cheap transfers when you can get the very best for only a fraction more.
Yes, our methods use high end machines, originally manufactured for studio and broadcast use. We also use ‘time base correctors’ which stabilise the video signal and improve playback. The resulting image is then captured digitally and losslessly into a computer. We then encode this capture into your format of choice. Our method takes more effort and time than most other sellers, but the results speak for themselves. We have years of experience and fully understand the equipment and formats, and we are always investing in new machines and experimenting with new methods to achieve the very best results out of your video tapes. Is it really worth saving a couple of £ and risking your priceless tapes with an inexperienced seller who found an old VCR in their attic? We think not!
We completely understand this concern, but please be reassured that since we started this service, we have not yet had a single parcel go missing. We have had minor issues such as customers putting the wrong post code or street name on their parcel, resulting in minor delays while Royal Mail redirect the parcel to us. And another problem has been unsecured packaging, were parcels have ripped or opened in transit, and repackaged by Royal Mail. So as long as you double check the address, and securely wrap or box your tapes you should have nothing to worry about!
Tape mould is the same as any other mould that you might see in a damp environment. If your tapes have been stored in an attic, garage, shed etc then there is a good chance they have developed mould over the years. You can usually see this by looking at the inner reels of tape on your cassette, if there are any white specks on the black tape then this is mould, and will have to be removed before we can transfer it. The mould acts like glue, and sticks the fragile layers of tape together. If you tried to play the tape as it is, there is a good chance it will snap when it reaches the contaminated area. The mould may also contaminate my equipment, as the spores will be released from the tape and settle inside the machine.
We are one of very few comapnies who offer mould cleaning, and we do it in a safe, and careful way. We do not take advantage of this however, and charge very fair cleaning fees.
The cleaning process involves dismantling your cassette tape, and removing the inner reels of tape. We then need to very carefully manually unwind the fragile tape from the spools and free the stuck layers from each other. Once the entire length of the tape has been freed, we run it along an alcoholic cloth using our custom built machine. This cleans the tape and removes any mould residue, and does not damage your tape or video in any way. If anything, it will improve it as the mould would clog the machine and block the signal from being read.
Common Myths and Misunderstandings
Many video transfer companies use headlines like this as a tactic to scare potential customers into placing an order.
This would make you think that the clock is ticking, and one day your precious home videos will simply disintegrate and be lost forever. While it could be a risk in some rare situations, the vast majority of magnetic video tapes will be fine for the foreseeable future. I have transferred audio tapes from the 60’s with no issues at all, that is over 50 years old! So your home videos from the 90’s will still have many years left!
You should really be more concerned about how they have been stored. Tapes stored in poor conditions such as garages, sheds etc could be damaged physically or worse, develop mould – which is a genuine problem that can affect your video tapes. If you can catch mould during its early stages, then it can have little to no affect on the tape. Very severe mould growth can damage the tape and cause the recorded information to be lost or unreadable.
So don’t believe when a company tries to convince you that your tapes need to be transferred instantly, it is only scaremongering and not entirely true!
Studio 213 would encourage people to transfer their tapes to a modern format, as a backup from loss or damage to your original cassettes. We would not scare customers or trick them to believe the quality will get worse or lost entirely if they don’t transfer them soon. It is always recommenced to keep hold of your originals as well as another form of backup.
DVD is almost becoming as obsolete as video tapes, and is not really the best choice to go with. We do still offer DVD as an option for customers who may not have a computer, or for cases where the tapes will only be played on a DVD player, but would encourage to go with a digital file where possible.
DVD’s can also be scratched quite easily, being a potential risk losing your footage if you choose not to have the tapes returned.
Quality wise, DVD is also quite poor compared to our other options. DVD-Video uses an old MPEG2 compression, which by today’s standards looks quite blocky and low quality. By comparison, an MP4 video would be better visual quality, while also a smaller file size due to the better, more modern compression algorithms.
Technical Questions and Information
MP4 has become a universal standard for digital video, so almost any modern device can play them, including Smart TV’s, Games Consoles, Laptops, Tablets, Phones, Media Players – Fire Stick, Android Boxes, PLEX etc.
You can also universally upload MP4 files to online social platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube.
If MP4 is not ideal for you, then we can always try to provide a different format. Just send us a message with what you would like so we can be sure we can support it!
Our MP4 files use the video codec h.264 at a variable bitrate with a target of 3Mbps and max bitrate of 6Mbps.
The audio is encoded as stereo AAC at 192kbps.
If you need different bitrates, formats, or even lossless files, have a read of the ‘I need my transfer to be formatted for production or broadcast use’ question, or contact us.
Interlacing is a key part of analogue video that is often misunderstood.
Video is made up of individual still images, when played quickly give the illusion of motion. In the UK, we use a frame rate of 25 frames per second, so that is 25 separate images each second.
For broadcasting use, interlacing was introduced which still uses 25 frames per second, but give the perception of 50 frames per second. This makes the video look much smoother and realistic. How this worked was to split each of the 25 frames into 2 ‘fields’ of odd and even lines. This then gives us a total of 50 fields per second.
When played back, the video flickered quickly between the odd lines and the even lines, 50 times per second. It was not noticeable on old CRT monitors, but modern equipment can sometimes struggle to play it well.
Good deinterlacing methods will fill in the gaps between the lines on each field, producing 50 full frames per second. Poor deinterlacing methods will sometimes combine the 2 fields to produce 25 full frames, however, with fast motion this will introduce ‘combing‘ where the 2 fields do not match up correctly, as the image they captured where a 50th of a second apart.
By default, we keep your video files interlaced to match the original tape.
Many playback devices will automatically deinterlace the video without you even realising to give you smooth 50hz playback. Modern TV’s and equipment usually do a great job at deinterlacing.
In some cases, computer software may not be capable of deinterlacing video, in which case the footage will have a ‘combing‘ effect as both fields are displayed at once. You can check if there are any settings to amend this, or alternatively use different software.
If you would like your videos to be deinterlaced by us to avoid these problems, then contact us so we can arrange to do so!
As standard, we will produce DVD’s as DVD-Videos. For transfers of 1.5 hours or less we will use single layer, ~4.7gb discs. Transfers of 1.5 hours to 3 hours will be burned onto a dual layer disc, ~8.5gb in size.
By request we can also produce DVD’s as Data-DVD’s which will work on computers and act like a flash drive. We will use MP4 files in this case.
Where possible, we use FAT32 as the file system as this is the most universally compatible.
However, where individual files are above 4gb in size, we will use the ExFAT file system to retain compatibility with both Windows and Mac computers.
If you need the USB formatting to a different file system such as NTFS, please let us know first so we can arrange to do so.
We can capture video tapes in a range of formats to suit your production workflow. Perfect for editing or post production work.
DV-AVI
Uncompressed AVI
ProRes 422
ProRes 422 HQ
ProRes 4444
Files can be interlaced as the original format, or deinterlaced to 50 progressive frames per second via QTGMC.