FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

If you don’t see your question answered here or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to call/text us on (203) 208-9447 or email [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help!

GENERAL SERVICES

  • We’re based in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport, Connecticut.

  • We predominantly serve Fairfield County, CT and the neighboring communities, but we have customers who ship their media to us from all over the country.

  • Absolutely. We accept shipments from anywhere. Just be sure to use a tracked, insured service for peace of mind.

    Just be sure send us an email or call us to let us know it’s coming and put your contact information in the package so we can get in touch once it arrives!

  • We currently provide free pickup and delivery within 15 miles of Black Rock (06605 zip) with a $1 fee per mile outside of that area. The fee covers both pickup and delivery.

  • Most orders are done within a few days to a week, but larger orders may require a little longer.

    Around the holidays our service tends to be very sought after, so as such, be sure to place your order early.

  • Yes, for an added fee. Availability depends on our current queue.

    Contact us and we’ll do our best to fit you in.

  • Because we’re small and personal. One technician handles your entire order and is right there on the line if you have questions or if they have questions for you.

    It’s not batch-processed or treated as just another order by someone who just wants to get through their day at work and go home.

    We treat your memories with the care and attention that big-box companies simply cannot offer.

  • Yes. Everything stays local, organized, and secure. Nothing is ever outsourced or sent off-site unless discussed with you first and agreed upon.

  • Yes. You get your originals and your digital files. We don’t toss anything unless you’ve asked us to.

  • Yes, but only if you explicitly ask. Otherwise, we return everything.

  • Absolutely. We have vast experience working with libraries, archives, universities, governments, non-profits and families with large or historically significant collections.

    We can help with planning, sorting, and preservation strategy.

  • Not at this time. But we can recommend good local print shops if you want physical prints made from your scans.

  • You don’t need to, but it definitely helps us if you need things organized digitally.

    For instance if you have a group of photos from a certain vacation that you’d like to be put into a digital folder and have the folder titled, just put the photos in a zip-loc bag and write the title with a sharpie and we’ll transfer that across to the digital version.

    Your organization becomes our organization.

    If any of your media has a date on it, we will try to keep it in chronological order once digitized.

VIDEO TAPES

  • Yes. We can usually repair damaged, broken, or chewed tapes and even rehouse them if needed.

    If the tape is stuck in the VCR we can usually remove that too.

  • Sometimes. We use professional equipment with stabilization and noise reduction, which helps a lot. But if the tape is too far gone, results may be limited. We’ll give you a realistic assessment.

    Sometimes it just needs to be played back on a different machine and we have a few different kinds we can use to get the best possible quality.

  • Yes. We clean moldy tapes before transfer to protect our gear and improve playback. There’s a small extra charge for this.

  • No. If a tape is totally blank, we don’t charge.

  • With our Premium Transfer service we have the ability to correct for the color fading that tends to occur over the years on video tapes, adjust the brightness/contrast/color curves and improve the audio clarity.

  • We do not have a preview service, but if there’s something you specifically don’t want, like TV shows or movies, we can make a note to keep tapes of that nature aside, or not record that footage if it’s on tapes with something you do want.

  • Unfortunately, we cannot transfer copyrighted video material.

FILM REELS

  • Sometimes the film can be too brittle to transfer, but we’d be happy to inspect it for you and give you a recommendation on how to get it digitized.

  • If the color on your film has shifted (you’ll usually see a blue/cyan or purple/magenta tint to the film) we can usually restore a more natural color balance and often restore the color completely with our Standard film transfer service.

PHOTOS, SLIDES, & NEGATIVES

  • No, if you want to leave them as they are, we’ll carefully remove them from the album (if possible), scan them and replace them to the best of our ability

    If you want to save some money on your order, you can remove the photos yourself and bring them to us loose!

  • No. Leave them as-is. We’ll handle the removal and replacement of the slides from their respective housing.

  • We cannot curate your images for you as it’s incredibly subjective, and there’s no way for us to know what’s important to you and what’s not.

    For images you can see clearly like photos, it’s best to either bring us only the images you want us to scan or mark the images you want scanned with post-it flags.

    Slides are best viewed with a light box and loupe, both of which are fairly inexpensive to acquire.

  • It’s often best to keep the photo in its frame and have a digital photograph taken by a professional, so as to not damage the photo upon removal.

    We have businesses we can recommend for this service if needed.

AUDIO

  • Yes. We can reduce hiss, clicks, pops, and hum, and boost clarity.

    We can go all the way from gentle noise reduction to full remastering of your media.

  • Nope. Just pack them securely and we’ll take care of the rest.

PHONES & DIGITAL MEDIA

  • Unfortunately we do not offer this service at this time.

FORMATS & OUTPUTS

  • Our standard file type is .MP4 (H.264 codec) as it’s the most compatible across the board.

    We have the option to provide .AVI or .MOV files upon request, and ProRes files are available for our Premium tape transfers.

    If you have a particular file type that you need, just let us know.

  • Our standard is MP3 as it’s incredibly compatible, but we’re happy to create WAV or FLAC/ALAC upon request.

  • JPEG is our standard for all of our image scanning orders, however we can scan as TIFF files for an extra fee.

    Please be sure to let us know when you place the order if you need TIFF files.

  • You can, we don’t add any copy protection - but keep in mind DVDs use older compression formats that aren’t ideal for editing or archiving. We recommend also getting MP4s for long-term flexibility.

CONTENT POLICIES

  • Yes, if it's legal and personal (i.e., not commercial). We treat all content with professionalism and confidentiality. No judgment, just digitization.