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To continue ordering you are asked to actively indicate your agreement (or not) with our Terms and Conditions.

• I do not agree, DO NOT PROCESS this order.
  • When making this selection, the order will not processed. Ordering a service is a legal "contract". It commits us to performing work (people and equipment time, building  and equipment costs, electric bill, and such) in exchange for payment. In order to avoid mutual unpleasantness, there are situations in which it is best to make the DO NOT PROCESS selection and move on. Here are some examples:
    • Having a pre-defined expectation of what the final video transfer "should" or "would" look like ("this video is hard to get and expensive, it is still shrink wrapped, it should result in a flawless transfer"). The "contingency" is a fixed expectation. We are not able to work to an imagined standard and do not work on contingency.
    • Some people are used to order and return things for a refund ("I'm sending this back for a refund as it does not fit right"). Producing a transfer/restoration/enhancement takes 10, 30 or 50 hours of people and equipment time. We cannot put time and resources back on the shelf and resell to someone else.
    • There are some with, let's say it politely, questionable ethics. "I'll order this, get everything back and then dispute the credit card charge and get my money back". We thoroughly and lawfully disclose all our policies, including the above "All sales are final". We document and trace every single step of our work, down to the second, proving that we did our work. In decades of accepting credit card payments not one such attempt at fraudulently "gaming the system" has ever worked (there were some spectacular backfires). Anyone on this "plan", please do not order.

• I acknowledge that this is a final sale, please process this order.
  • Thanks for your trust! Just as we have been doing for the past 30 years, we will do our very best to make you happy (and come back for more transfers from us). Ordering may continue.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• Possible audio issues caused by video tape Hi-Fi Stereo. In 1983 Beta introduced Hi-Fi Audio Stereo sound. It works fairly well even today. One year later, in 1984, VHS introduced a "me too" (discount, like everything else VHS) copy of the system. It worked OK 40 years ago. Fast forward to our time. The VHS tapes are now 40 years old. The tape is possibly stretched. The VHS cassette mechanism does not move as freely as it moved 40 years ago on cheap (mass produced) tapes, putting more tension (or uneven tension) on the tape. Consequently most VHS tapes out there do not play Hi-Fi Stereo 100% reliably, from the beginning of the tape to the end of the tape. There is no "premium" or "super premium" VHS player (we own all of them) that can "guarantee" correct playback of VHS Hi-Fi Stereo correctly from the beginning of the tape to the end. There is no fancy "tracking adjustment" or "auto tracking" that can accomplish that. The average store-bought (or ex-rental) VHS tape Hi-Fi Stereo may play back anywhere from: "correctly most of the time" (with a few glitches now and then) to "complete garbage" (Hi-Fi Stereo loses sync and cuts in and out every few seconds). The "in-between case" is correct playback for a while, a few glitches, more correct playback, more glitches, repeat to the end of the tape. Our ears are today accustomed to multi-track digital awesomeness. Any audio glitch immediately stands out. Our solution is to evaluate VHS Hi-Fi for each tape submitted. We try playback on different players and choose the best. If the VHS Hi-Fi Stereo audio is complete and continuous garbage, we will turn off the Hi-Fi track and use the lame mono linear audio track (better than a 90-minute continuous root canal). If we can get the VHS Hi-Fi Stereo audio to play back correctly for the duration of our testing (15 minutes or so without losing sync), we will use the VHS Hi-Fi Stereo, knowing full well that at some point glitches may occur. If this procedure is not satisfactory for you and you have another sensible solution in mind to deal with poor Hi-Fi audio performance, please let us know in the "Special Instructions" box at the end of ordering (or enclose a note with your master video). Obviously, entering something like "only record/transfer this tape if you can be sure that the Hi-Fi audio will play correctly 100%" is not workable and will void your order. If that is the case, it will be best not to place an order.
• Video drop-outs, tape (mis)tracking. You already know about all of that. Video dropouts are there to stay. Correct tracking depends entirely on how well the recording deck was calibrated (home decks as well as mass duplication machines were not always calibrated to spec). It also depends on the wear of the tape (stretched tape?) and how well the cassette mechanism works today. No amount of prior tracking adjustments or using "auto tracking" can guarantee that tracking will not be lost at some point. Here is our policy: if after initial setup we notice mistracking at some point and we are convinced that we can improve the situation, we will stop the recording and start all over. We will charge a "Recording" or "Repair" fee for having to start recording over. If we notice some temporary mistracking and we know that there is nothing we can do to improve it, we will continue the recording (no fees). If tracking slips permanently and there is nothing we can do to make things better, we will abort processing on your order, charge for the work we have done up to that point, and return your materials. If this procedure is not satisfactory and you have another sensible solution in mind for tracking issues, please let us know in the "Special Instructions" box at the end of ordering (or enclose a note with your master video). Obviously entering something like "only record this tape if you can be sure that tracking will be locked in correctly 100%" is not workable and will void your order. If that is the case, it will be best not to place an order.
• Frame rate conversion. Our top-of-the-line service "Enhancement-Restoration-Upscale to 4K-UHD" will perform frame rate conversions as needed. We correct difficult frame timing issues, such as reconstructing 24 fps for FILM (or MOVIE) material or creating 60 fps (where only 30fps where shot) for video camera material. There are possible mathematical impossibilities (equations without a solution) in trying to correct some frame sequences caused by repeated telecine processes. In other situations, there may be missing frames in the master video or there may be excessive repeated frames. This may result (very infrequently or never, depending on the source material) in an almost impossible to see glitch. This cannot be avoided with the current state of technology. If the potential for such infrequent timing glitches is a deal breaker for you, best not to place an order.
• Video noise reduction and color grading. Million-dollar restoration projects have a budget that allows for scene-by-scene color grading, noise reduction, video enhancement and restoration. Your project has a lower budget. We will use our "human" and "machine" intelligence to analyze as much material in your video as practical and find settings that bring the most improvement for the entire video as a whole. We will verify that the settings we chose do not cause incidental harm to some of the material. The safest way to "guarantee no damage" anywhere would be to apply no changes. Safe but lame. We will give our best to find the best settings that will create visible improvement without creating visible artifacts. Can we "guarantee" that we will get "zero frames" that will show some artifacts? No. If this will cause you distress (or worse), it will be best not place an order.

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