www.video99.co.uk
all kinds of video tapes copied to DVD
This page provides news and updates relating to the
video99.co.uk audio and video transfer
business. Regular customers can come back here to see what is
new.
It's a kind of mini-blog.
December 2011. Now have a Tascam 52 tape deck which
means we can handle up to 10.5" audio spools with/without NAB hubs at
up to 15 IPS running speed. Exactly where we will store this 35kg monster we are yet to work out!
November 2011. November was hideously busy at
video99, and your engineer did rather burn himself out a bit.
Also "burnt out" several pieces of equipment which will have to be
serviced or replaced over Christmas.
October 2011. Another Grundig 2x4 Super V2000 format
machine now added to our collection, which is our favourite model for
this format. Now that we have two of these, I'm happy to clear
out the older Philips VR2023 and similar machines (so if you want to
buy one, let me know).
We now also have another Sony EV-S9000E Hi8 edit deck, taking the collection up to five of
these.
A seemingly simple upgrade to a computer system went hideously
wrong, as these things can! We our main computer system was not
fully operating for over a week. But at the end of it, we now have
another machine running Windows 7, and a Solid State boot drive with
HD5570 graphics card.
I've had a customer job for a data transfer from 3.5" floppy
disks (Mac formatted in this case). This has prompted setting up
equipment to also retrieve data from 5.25" 1.2MB floppy disks, which I
am now setting up, let's see if there's an interest in this.
September 2011. A very busy time for us!
Secam Umatic capability has now been restored with a
replacement machine.
August 2011. We
now have a BluRay writer so we
will in due course be able to make up BluRay HD films with that. In the
mean time, it already allows for a useful way to provide BDRom
disks of large DV-AVI files for customers who don't want to provide a
hard disk.
Oh dear, a breakdown: We have temporarily lost Umatic
SECAM capability since our Sony VP-5040 multistandard Umatic player has
developed a dead spot on its capstan motor. A replacement part,
or more likely whole machine, is actively being sought.
Our off-site storage space has moved and there is now more space
to allow for easier access to equipment as required. Actually
there is too much stuff there, so if someone is interested in a
collection of Philips VR2021/2/3 etc. machines for spares, and spares
for them, just let me know. Other scrap machines I have too many
of may include various Beta (Betamax) machines from Sanyo and Sony,
GPIB test equipment cables and ancillaries, certain BetacamSP players
and more.
July 2011. We now have a Twitter account and will
be blogging information there in due course. As they say: Follow
us on Twitter.
After a bit of a disaster at the printers (to be fair, they sorted it
out), we now have some lovely new business cards and will send them out
with DVDs. If you could use extra ones for your friends and
colleagues, just ask.
June 2011. Another Canopus ADVC-55
video capture unit purchased, which helps with setting up tricky and
non-standard capture configurations such as certain NTSC tapes to
DV-AVI files. Our UVW1800P BetacamSP recorder is now in place and
working nicely. Bought in some service kits so I now have added
another Panasonic NV-HS950 S-VHS deck to the collection, these are
amazing machines with an integral Digital Timebase Corrector, and along
with the similar NV-HS1000 make up most of the machines I use for VHS
and S-VHS transfers.
May 2011. Now a JVC DR-MH300 recorder
added, this is particularly useful for some of my casting agents
customers who require off-air programmes to be captured for
actors. Also new in, a UVW1800P which will allow us to record
onto (as well as from) BetacamSP tapes for studio use.
April 2011. Yet another JVC DR-MH200
Hard Disk / DVD recorder added to the collection, we really like these
machines and also know how to service the power supplies to get the
best from them. They offer more flexibility than other brands but
it's a shame JVC have pulled out of the DVD recorder market. One
more Panasonic S-VHS deck in place too.
March 2011. We now have a new Digital
Compact Cassette deck to get the very best from this quite obscure audio
format. Added a new PCM-701 decoder for (usually Betamax) PCM
audio, which is addition to the PCM-F1 unit we already had.
Repaired a Sony SL-T50 so we now have extra multistandard Beta
equipment available, just in case.
February 2011. PCM-701 and PCM-601 digital audio
on video cassettes (usually Betamax)
can now be handled.
January 2011. Oddly enough January is always a
busy time, this year is no exception.
No VAT rise here, since video99 quite deliberately works under
the VAT threshold.
Bought in a replacement NV-HS950 S-VHS video recorder since I
was concerned that one of these was getting tired, and I'm only happy
when I'm providing the very best results for my customers.
Web form problem experienced in December is completely resolved,
it was caused by a well-intentioned change made by my ISP.
Off-site local storage finally filling up with about a ton of
obsolete machines, spares, cables and other "will come in handy one
day" clobber.
December 2010. A very busy time, I had to limit
the amount of work coming in so that I could keep all my promises,
which I did, to complete work in time for Christmas. A few
customers experienced a delay in my responding to requests on my
automatic web form, apologies for that, it was a technical failure
outside my control, which is now being worked on.
November 2010. Work overload! Having to
limit incoming work for this year now.
Offsite storage available at last, for storing spare parts for
older video formats such as N1500. Our loft can breathe a sigh of
relief as a ton of equipment has been moved out!
October 2010. The Christmas work is starting to
arrive already, so if you have a job to be done in time for Christmas
then please get it in as soon as possible before the big
rush.
More DVD recorder units (which include internal hard disks) are
now on-line and helping to get work done more efficiently.
Did you know: If you plug a miniDV camcorder into a PC via the
firewire cable for video capture, that if you manage to accidentally
fit the larger (6-pin) firewire plug in upside down, that it will fry
the firewire port of your camcorder, possibly with a burning smell and
a small puff of smoke? You do now. Guess how we found that
out!
To help with uploading video files for customers, we now have a
very large upload/download bandwidth allowance with our broadband
provider.
September 2010. I've built a new and super-fast
computer specifically for video capture in my small studio, which
particularly helps with video capture from Umatic and BetacamSP
sources. Now, unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, all
Umatic and BetacamSP transfers to DVD will be Deluxe Menu.
Furthermore, I have bought in a second Sony DSR-11 DVCAM deck to help
with video domestic format video capture, DV and DVCAM transfers - this
is also connected to the new computer system. All topped off with
a new faster network system between computers, the new systems really
help to get larger jobs done quickly and efficiently. (If you're
interested, new PC has solid state boot drive, 2TB data drive and
6-core processor, hooked up to two monitors. Nice. But not
forgetting our Apple Mac customers, the Mac Mini now has an internal
600GB hard disk which helps to speed up data transfers to HFS+ hard
disks.) The effect on our electricity bill may be less good, and
the gadget budget is well and truly blown for this month.
August 2010. Still house hunting! In the
mean time, I have put together another N1700
format machine since I had a large amount of these tapes come in.
It has brand new heads and gives super results.
22nd July 2010. The best laid plans.... Our
hopes for a move to larger premises came to nothing (apart from a great
deal of expense) when the seller changed his mind just as we were ready
to exchange contracts. So we are staying right here for the
timebeing!
July 2010. We expect to be unavailable for a few
days around 12th - 16th July, while we start moving equipment out ready
for the move to larger premises. Email will still be answered but
we may not be able to tackle much transfer work during this time.
Please bear with us and this time, it will all be worth it in the end.
June 2010. Well you know what it's like buying a
new place, it takes forever, but things are moving along. We
still have full capability here but we're asking a few large commercial
contract jobs to wait until later in the year where that is convenient
for the customers.
New in, an extra CD recorder system helps with larger audio
transfer jobs. On the other hand, with a move imminent, we're
selling off lots of spare equipment on eBay, see user name video99_co_uk
there.
May 2010. Watch this space.... We may be
able to announce a move to larger studios shortly...
April 2010. A little set-back. You hard
working engineer Colin has hurt his back. But there's no delay
for customers' work which carries on as usual. Some very obscure
formats may be just a little harder due to the need to move heavy
equipment around.
March 2010. Now in: DVCPRO (DVCPRO25) support,
this format is not easy to find transfer services for. That will
complete our portfolio of video cassette formats; we now cover
essentially every known format in the consumer and semi-pro arenas, as
well as the popular studio formats. So we can say now with some
pride: video99.co.uk covers the widest range of video cassette
formats in the UK. Well you have to be a bit of a video
enthusiast to get excited about that.
February 2010. Well we had a very stressful time
when one of our most important computers (server) died horribly.
Fortunately we were able to get a replacement motherboard in and
working the next day and so no work was delayed. We also
increased our storage capacity to over 4.5TB. Furthermore the
extra processing power allows us to turn around edited and Deluxe Menu
DVDs even quicker, so perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.
January 2010. Happy New Year to all of my
customers, new and old. There's plenty of work on already but I'm
still turning short jobs around next day, even the snow and ice doesn't
slow us down.
HDV (High Definition) miniDV tape capability for 1080i, the most
popular High Def resolution is now available. This will be added
to the miniDV
page shortly.
December 2009. It's been very, very busy over the
last few weeks with the build-up to Christmas. We're now taking
on work for delivery in the New Year and have plenty lined up.
Thanks to all my customers over the last year, especially those who
have even sent us Christmas cards, it's nice to be appreciated.
November 2009. We have gained two new pieces of
equipment this month. Firstly we have a Sony J3 Digital Betacam
player, so we can now run Digital
Betacam, BetacamSX and MPEG IMX studio tapes at last. This
was a major investment, being much and away the most expensive piece of
kit we have ever had to buy, but already it has been busy running tapes
for several customers. Next we have now imported and serviced a CVC
format machine suitable for NTSC tapes from USA. Video99 is
probably the only transfer business in the world to support both PAL
and NTSC recordings in the very rare CVC format. We can now also
run Betacam
tapes of the NTSC system for both small and large tape sizes, as well
as PAL of course. In other words, we really do have one of the
widest range of video cassette formats available in the UK. Other
formats planned are at least the most popular HDV High-Def formats on
DV tape, and perhaps the more popular DVCPRO tape sizes, though users
of both of these formats usually are aware that it's usually easier to
play the tape on the original recorder than try to find someone to run
them later.
October 2009. The postal strikes are not
causing us any particular problem. I always recommend people send
their tapes by Special Delivery, and this service is working as normal
throughout the disruption. I've had three customers tell me that
their disks did not arrive promptly, so I sent out replacements (free
of charge) and in both cases those replacements arrived next day.
So far, then, so good.
From December 2009 we plan to support all Digital Betacam and
Betacam SX formats as a result of the purchase of a very expensive Sony
J3 player.
September 2009. We now have an extra two High Band
/ SP capable Umatic
machines available as well as the original one we've had for some
time. This gives us more backup and capacity for this important
format. Many transfer businesses say they run Umatic but will let
you down with High Band or SP recordings. We also cover
SECAM and NTSC Umatic recordings, and perhaps uniquely in the UK can
handle NTSC SP (High Band) tapes too. We love Umatic!
We are delighted to announce that we now have capability for the
obscure professional format called MII (or
M2, M11) and this will be added to the web order form
shortly. There are very few other UK businesses offering this
format.
We have increased capacity by adding a fourth Digital Timebase
Corrector / Standards Converter to our systems. These are
expensive units, and most small transfer businesses don't have them.
28th June 2009. Ours is a family run business, and
we're pleased to announce that the latest addition to the McCormick
household:
A healthy little boy called Scott arrived at 06:02 on 28.06.09,
weight 8lb 1oz. Mother and baby doing fine.
June 2009. Expected at the end of 2009, we plan
to offer the obsolete MII (M2) professional video cassette format, we
have a Panasonic AU-65H machine coming in for this, but it will need
servicing. Very rare.
May 2009. We have a new CD and DVD printer in for
improved print quality and to make custom DVD prints more
quickly. A spare BVW-22P has been purchased which is particularly
helpful for low band Betacam
tapes.
April 2009. We have a Sony SL-T30 multistandard
Betamax machine now in which helps particularly with foreign NTSC and
Secam Betamax recordings.
March 2009. We now have a third Digital Timebase
Corrector available to help throughput for larger jobs of many
formats. Also now available for use is our third BetacamSP
player and the fourth EVS9000E Hi8 edit deck.
Regarding the purchase in of hard disks for my customers:
I'm sorry to say that the discount shipping of hard disks for my
customers from SVPis no
longer available due to a change in their shipping systems. They
are still however very competitive and you can order a drive from them
for any DV-AVI hard disk transfer I may do for you, and have the drive
shipped directly to me. Other suppliers such as Ebuyer, DABS and
Amazon can often also accept an alternative shipping address in the
same way.
February 2009. We now have a brand new Apple Mac
Mini. This will help us to format hard disks for Apple customers
who have previously had to put up with the NTFS file format, which Macs
can read but not write to.
More S-VHS decks with built-in Digital Timebase Correctors have
been purchased, and these will be on-line soon and available to help
with "wobbly" VHS and S-VHS recordings.
January 2009. We now have a backup working CVC
deck. Not many transfer businesses have one of these ultra-rare
machines, let alone two!
Betacam
/ BetacamSP NTSC capability now available and tested, for the small
video cassette size. PAL tapes can be accepted in both small and
large cassettes.
A new Digital Timebase Corrector has been installed which
significantly increases our capacity for SVHS/VHS
and Betamax.
December 2008. We had a very busy Christmas
workload, but completed all work in time for Christmas that was
promised, and quite a few which were not promised too. We still
have plenty of work on, going into the New Year.
New equipment in to be serviced includes: Another Sony EVS9000E
edit deck which when serviced will take to four the number of these
highly capable units available to us. Also we have a V2000 deck
capable of Long Play (XP) recordings, which hopefully will be ready
next year. Also in to be serviced is a third BetacamSP
player. We now also have an NTSC compatible DVD recorder in,
which makes it much easier to create DVDs for viewing in
USA/Canada. Another DAT player has been purchased for more
capacity on this audio format.
The web site has a new
look, much trimmed down for a cleaner appearance, but all the
information is still available. Next year (?) it will get a
redesign with tabs for easy navigation.
November 2008. The Christmas rush has most
certainly started, and we're very busy. We aim to guarantee that
all work received by 12th December will be completed in time for
Christmas. Work received later than that, we'll do what we
can. Turnaround for smaller jobs is still just a few days to a
week.
We are proud to announce that now have the exquisitely rare
Technicolor/Funai CVC
format online at last. There may only be a dozen or so of these
machines left working in Europe.
The main video99 web
page has undergone a major overhaul to reduce its size and
complexity. If you find any bugs, please let me know.
October 2008. You would think that video99 never
gets caught out with a tape we can't run. But occasionally even
we get a tricky one! In this case, we discovered that Digital8
equipment, whilst capable of playing both PAL and NTSC analogue Video8
and Hi8 tapes, is not capable of playing NTSC Long Play
recordings. Not to be outdone though, we bought in suitable
equipment just for a single job (so effectively made a loss on the
transfer), but still were able to complete the work promptly for the
customer. He was delighted, and so then were we. Also this
month we have bought in more minidisc equipment so we can carry out
pure digital transfers of LP2 and LP4 minidiscs.
Sept 2008. We are now back from our well earned
break, and clearing a backlog of tasks over the next week or so.
Thanks to my customers for their patience over the last couple of weeks.
Aug 2008. Now with more BetacamSP equipment
available for even faster turnarounds on this format.
July 2008. The ComputerActive magazine for
this month carried an item on video transfers, and included a mention
of the video99.co.uk web site under the Betamax format. Of
course, we do all formats, but the recommendation was nice and we are
getting in lots of Beta tapes lately as a result!
June 2008. We can now handle Betamax tapes recorded on very early NTSC equipment which ran
at the BetaI or Beta 1 speed (1 hour on an L500 tape), as well as the
more common BetaII and BetaIII speeds. We are probably the only
UK transfer outfit with NTSC Beta1 capability, and even in NTSC
countries it will be pretty rare. We are using a professional
Sony SLO-320 machine which is in excellent condition.
We presently have on loan a CVC format machine, but may have to
return this to its rightful owner (depending on being able to source
spares for a second machine). So now is a good time to ask about
CVC format tapes from the Technicolor portables of the early 1980's.
Your video transfer engineer Colin is recovering well from a
Wisdom Tooth extraction and has now caught up with all transfers so
there is no significant backlog. Short jobs are often turned
around same day.
We now can cover both the mini cassette and microcassette
dictation / answering machine formats. as well of course as regular
Compact Cassette and other audio
formats.
May 2008. We try to have backup equipment for all
important formats so that you will not be let down in the unlikely
event that equipment requires service. We are pleased to say that
we now have duplicate video equipment online for Digital8 and micromv formats, which joins the duplicates we
already have available for VHS, SVHS, Betamax, Betacam, Umatic, V2000,
Video8, Hi8 and miniDV.
We also now have in a DCC (Digital Compact Cassette) machine for
audio transfers, but require a cassette to fully test this
facility. If you have a DCC tape, let us know.
April 2008. We now have an arrangement set up
with the excellent supplier of computer equipment and consumables, www.svp.co.uk who will
provide hard drives directly to us for customers. You can select
any Freecom external hard disk from their web site, and have it sent
straight to video99 for your video transfers, at just 99p
shipping. This is ideal for customers who require tapes put onto
hard disk in DV-AVI format but don't have a suitable drive
already. Just contact us
for details on the necessary shipping address and coupon code with SVP.
March 2008. For a long time we have been able to
handle video tapes from any part of the world. The only exception
has been the studio BetacamSP format, where only PAL equipment has been
available since very little NTSC equipment was ever sold in the
UK. However we now have in a BetacamSP portable player BVW35 in
NTSC format. This takes the smaller Betacam tapes only, the ones
of the same physical size as domestic Betamax. However we do not
yet have an NTSC BetacamSP tape to fully test this equipment. If
you have a small BetacamSP tape with an NTSC recording on it, we will
do a free transfer for you (provided the equipment proves to be fully
working of course)
February 2008. After a short break due to
difficulty in obtaining spares, the N1500 (Philips VCR) format is now
back and fully available. We have also obtained sufficient spare
parts that we hope to be able to continue with this format
indefinitely.
January 2008. We are pleased to add the exquisitely
rare Grundig SVR format to our portfolio, Grundig model SVR4004.
This is useful because recordings on VCR tapes could be any of the
N1500, N1700 or SVR formats, and you can't tell which until the tape is
played. We believe that video99 is the only transfer company in
the world capable of handling all three of these variants. See
the VCR format transfer page.
I can be contacted here if
you have
any questions or comments.
We have a new
and easy order page, just select what kind of tapes you have and
supply your
details.
www.video99.co.uk
all kinds of video tapes copied to DVD
Visitors since this counter installed on November 13 2005:
