Video Digital Transfer Type

Described in order by cost/quality, low to high

Thrifty DVD transfer B/W printed

• When you play the DVD transfer we produce, the video/audio will look and sound EXACTLY the same on your TV as if it were played by your video player directly into your TV set. No audio/video degradation will occur. The DVD and DVD case jacket are printed in black and white (no pictures).
  

DVD - printed in Black and White Title and subtitle(s) Images for illustration purposes only.
DVD Case Insert - printed in Black and White Title and subtitle(s) Spine

NOTE: The quality of the DVD transfer for the Thrifty DVD transfer (described above) and the Pretty DVD transfer (described below) is identical. The difference is in the appearance of the DVD and DVD case jacket. The Pretty DVD transfer is (drumroll...) pretty!

Pretty DVD transfer color printed

• The video/audio quality of the DVD will be exactly the same as described for the Thrifty DVD transfer above. The package will be prettier, though, as the DVD and DVD case jacket will be printed in full color, with a picture scanned from the video case. If there is no case/jacket, you may supply us with a nice picture. Alternatively, we can extract (screen grab) a "standard definition" (read: "small") picture from your video and use that. (A jacket/cover/picture scan looks better than a screen grab.)

DVD - printed in Full Color We scan jacket or picture submitted or we capture a frame from video Title and subtitle(s) Images for illustration purposes only.
DVD Case Insert - printed in Full Color We scan jacket or picture submitted or we capture a frame from video Title and subtitle(s) Spine

Transfer to HEVC H.265 MKV file on USB stick

• If you like your videos to be stored as digital files, we can convert your videos to an MKV digital file that can be played by a variety of software players. The video is in HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) H.265 format. This format is verified to play back correctly in VLC media player. The video file will be on an USB stick (flash drive) with a USB 3.0 connector.

Broadcast-quality DVD transfer

• We perform your video transfer to our Broadcast Suite and we use the same equipment a TV Studio or Production Company uses in reproducing SD video. Playback video and audio parameters will be improved the way only a broadcast studio can do. We will digitize at a very high data rate, using studio-quality digital converters. We will then author a DVD optimized specifically for your video, for best playback. When you play the DVD transfer we produce, the video/audio will look and sound EXACTLY the same as it would look when played with broadcast equipment on broadcast monitors. In other words, "don't do this at home" because you can't. The DVD and DVD case jacket are printed in black and white (no pictures). The audio is digitized as uncompressed PCM at 48 kHz and 24 bits.
• IMPORTANT: 
  • Don't forget to send us your HDD or SSD!
  • The following formats are NOT eligible for Broadcast-quality DVD transfers:
    • VCD - not available - please do not order
    • DVD - not available - please do not order

Video transfer to RAW (uncompressed) video file

• The video transfer to RAW (uncompressed) is preformed using the same broadcast equipment as described for the Broadcast-quality DVD transfer above. The huge difference comes into digitizing. Not a drop of the original video/audio quality will be lost. Your video will be digitized to uncompressed video using the R210 codec at the incredible bit-rate of 358 Mb/sec. For the techies out there: the R210 codec is used in TV & film production and stores raw 10-bit RGB data. Each red, green, and blue color component is 10 bits wide. RGB pixels contain 30 bits of information and are stored in 32-bit blocks.
• IMPORTANT: 
  • Don't forget to send us a fast 1TB HDD or SSD!
  • The following formats are NOT eligible for Video transfer to RAW (uncompressed) video file transfers:
    • VCD - not available - please do not order
    • DVD - not available - please do not order

Enhancement-Restoration-Upscale to 4K-UHD

• Digitizing will be done exactly the same as described for the Video transfer to RAW video file transfer above. This is only the starting point.
• Using a proprietary process we will reduce video noise, remove color casts and rebalance the colors (more in line with what we are used to see on a UHD TV set). We will enhance detail that is still present and recover some of the old detail that may have been lost.
• As this is a transfer from SD (standard definition), your video master will play at 29.976 interlaced frames per second.
• If your video master is a FILM (or MOVIE), it was shot at 24 fps (or 25 fps if it was shot in Europe). The numbers 24, 25 and 29.976 do not have an integer (one frame) common denominator. 24 and 25 fps are progressive. 29.976 fps is  interlaced (one frame is made of two half resolution images which even when superposed do not form a correct full resolution image. The first half was shot at a slightly different time than the other half.) A mass duplicated tape is at the end of a long processing chain of conversions. This results in a mess of interlaced and repeated frames in bizzare patterns. Our process will revert the frame confusion and re-create the 4K UHD video as it was projected originally on a movie screen in the USA (or it would be projected today), at 24 fps. That is the same as a 4K UHD commercial Blu-Ray release.
• If your video master was never a movie, it was shot as a video by your video camera or camcorder or it was a show or documentary always meant for TV broadcast or distribution, we do not have the 24 fpm conundrum. We have the "interlaced" conundrum (half resolution frames, non-symultaneouos frames, frames that cannot be superimpose). In addition, such material today is presented on commercial Blu-ray releases and commercial television as "60 fps progressive". As the original was shot at (roughly) 30 fps and now we need 60 fps, we are missing half the needed frames, which have never been shot. The easy solution, playing each frame twice, is used today as a low-budget workaround. We will do better. We will use very intense computing power to "create" the missing frames. In the final resulting enhanced video, every other frame did not exist on the master, but was created by drawing a completely new image, taking into account what is moving in the frame, by how much, and the relative position of every element. 

You may close this page and resume ordering.