Videotape Transfer

We help you save and share your most precious memories!

Alpine Camera offers Videotape Transfer Services for both consumer and professional broadcast tapes. We are able digitize and transfer content for almost all types magnetic video tape types to DVD, Blu-ray Disc, or movie data file formats such as .mp4, .mov, .avi, and .wmv.

• Consumer tape formats include VHS tapes, VHS-C, S-VHS, Betamax, or Camcorder tape formats such as MiniDV, HDV, 8mm, Hi8, Digital 8, and MicroMV.
  
• Professional broadcast tape formats that we can transfer include ¾-Umatic, BetaCam, BetaCam SP, DVCAM, DVCPRO, and ½” open reel video tapes. 
  
• DVDs can hold up to 2 hours of video content, Blu-ray Discs up to 9 hours of standard definition video content or 3.5 hours of high def video content. If ordered, the data files are returned to you on data DVD or other optional digital media such as USB jump drives (flash drives) and external hard-drive, or over the Internet. 
  
• For an archive option, we offer the Millenniata M-Disc (rated to hold information for up to 1000 years) for a backup copy of the video DVD or Blu-ray Disc, or for saving the movie data files. 
  

What do we offer for tape transfer services that others do not?

Video Tapes to DVD or Blu-ray Disc

Very few service bureaus offer VHS and Camcorder tapes transferred onto Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray Disc players are becoming more common. Blu-ray Discs are a higher quality product than DVD, made to be scratch resistant and hold more video content, up to 9.5 hours of standard video or 3.5 hours of high definition video. You can save a lot of library shelf space when transferring multiple video tapes onto just one Blu-ray Disc.

We provide a customized table of contents (TOC) within the Blu-ray Disc that lists the tapes transferred to the disc, and separate chapter markers and motion scenes for each tape within the TOC. Please check out the TOC example below. 

Digital Noise Reduction

So that VHS tapes show better on HDTV - VHS and older camcorder tapes recorded fewer lines of resolution, only 300 x 480i, as compared to the newer digital formats that show well on HDTVs. When video tapes are transferred to DVDs, and then shown on a wide screen HDTV, images will appear fuzzy and not very sharp; this due to the original fewer lines of resolution being "stretched" to fill the screen. As an optional service, we can perform noise reduction (filling in the blanks) so that older VHS recordings look better and smoother on HDTV. See the example image to the right.
 

We offer the M-Disc as a backup archival video disc or as archival data DVD. The M-Disc is rated as the best optical disc by the US Dept of Defense, able to retain information up to 1,000 years. It’s the best way for you to save irreplaceable content and gain peace of mind.

Video Tapes transferred to .mov, .avi, and .mp4 formats - more of you are asking for data file formats (.mov or .avi) because you are DIYers; preferring uncompressed video files to edit and create personalized videos for presentations for families and friends. We can help by ingesting and transcoding the video content to suit your expectations.

Video Editing Services - for DIFMers (Do it for Me) we offer edits and information adds to the Video Transfer; we can add onscreen titles, make rearrangements, voice-over narratives, subtitles, and other notes to the tape transfers so that the content retains its value longer into the future. Examples: Onscreen titles are $5 each, third-party narratives added to the content (your own voice) are $50, and scene deletions and rearrangements require customized bid.

Video Tape Repair - we splice together broken tape, repair tape housings, and use a TapeChek 400 Series industrial tape cleaning machine to clean the magnetic VHS tape of loose particle prior to transfer.

Ninety (90) days free storage of customer content – we keep a copy of the transferred content in our storage network for 90 days for customers wanting extra disc copies, further editing, and protection against possible loss.