Preserve and Protect Your Family's Most Precious Memories Today - to Save and to Share.
Creation

How We Create Your Digital Memories

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO WHAT WE DO TO CUSTOM-CREATE YOUR PRECIOUS MEMORIES INTO THE FORMATS YOU WANT AND NEED

STEP ONE: WE DIGITIZE

When you bring your videotapes or motion picture films  to us, they undergo the process of digitization, and the result is that each videotape/film reel becomes a single, unbroken, unedited, high-definition video file in the universal format of AVI (Audio Video Interleave) and it will contain both the audio and video files.


The AVI file format was introduced by Microsoft and has been in use continuously since 1992, and Microsoft continues to support it.  Furthermore, in 2010 the US government's National Archives and Records Administration defined AVI as the official wrapper for preserving digital video.  If there is a stronger endorsement of a preferred format to preserve your digitized audio-video files, we don't know what it might be.  So when your digital video files emerge from the digitization process, they are in AVI format.


Because the AVI files are not edited in any way, they are what we refer to as "RAW" files.  They are big and beautiful and contain your film or video in its best, as-close-to-original-as-possible condition.  If we were mining for gold, then these would be the gold "nuggets." 


In their "RAW" form, these files can be viewed on computers (both PC and Mac) as well as "smart" flatscreen TVs, and many mobile devices (i.e., laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc). 


STEP TWO: WE BURN THE DIGITIZED ORIGINAL "RAW" FILE(S) TO DISC(S)

Because these "RAW" digitized files are the source material for everything that will follow, it is important that we take immediate steps to preserve these "RAW" files to the safest storage method possible.  Based upon our decades of experience we have found that immediately making a master set of one or more 30-year archival discs virtually guarantees the safety and integrity of your files.  Discs are much safer than hard drives or flash drives so this is our recommended and default action when you bring files to us. 


NOTE: Making a single "master copy" of your files to data discs is the default method that we use to protect your memories and your economic investment in having them digitized.  Therefore, if you do NOT want your data safely backed up to the 30-year master disc(s), you MUST tell us that at the outset of the project, or archival disc creation will be the default preservation step that we take as soon as your digitized footage is created.  Please let us know early on if archival discs are not part of your preservation plan.



AND THIS MIGHT BE YOUR STOPPING POINT RIGHT HERE, IF DIGITIZING AND ARCHIVING TO STORAGE DISCS ARE YOUR ONLY GOALS.


HOWEVER...

 

IF YOU WANT COPIES TO TRANSFER TO YOUR DEVICES, OR TO SHARE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER A "STEP THREE"...KEEP READING FOR MORE DETAILS.


IS THERE A STEP THREE?  YOU DECIDE



STEP THREE OPTION: HARD DRIVES AND/OR FLASH DRIVES

IF YOU WANT COPIES OF THE ARCHIVAL MASTER DISC INFORMATION SAVED TO PORTABLE STORAGE DEVICES SUCH AS HARD DRIVES OR FLASH DRIVES:

The costs will just be for the hard drive(s) and/or flash drive(s) hardware (which you will then own) and a small one-time transfer fee of $25 per hour based upon actual transfer time.



STEP THREE OPTION: MOVIE DVDs OR MOVIE BLU-RAYs

IF YOU WANT DVD VIDEO/MOVIE DISCS MADE FOR TABLETOP PLAYERS:

A DVD-friendly copy of the video footage that you want on DVD, will be made directly from the "RAW" digital master files, and then be burned to DVD disc(s).  Since this process involves copying and re-formatting the already-digitized "RAW" footage, creating the new DVD-friendly movie files goes TWO AND A HALF TIMES FASTER than the digitizing process.


IN ALL CASES, WHEN YOUR DATA IS COPIED TO A DRIVE OR BURNED TO A DISC, IT IS VERIFIED FOR ACCURACY.  EVERY TIME.

When you ask us to make copies for you, we understand how serious that seemingly simple action is:  If there is a flaw or an error in the copy, you may not find out until you go to use that disc or hard drive, possibly years or decades from now, and there may not be a way to fix it afterthefact.  So it is in everyone's best interests that WE GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.


We want to let you know that, since we make all copies directly from the source files (no "copies of copies"), we double-check every copy against the original "RAW" file data.  If ANYTHING is less than perfect in the copy, it is discarded and we start the process over, AT OUR COST.


THIS BIT-BY-BIT VERIFICATION IS PERFORMED AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU


When you receive your discs and/or hard drives, you know that we have verified the integrity of all of your data, regardless of which format you have chosen for storage.

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