The UK's most affordable and flexible Umatic transfers.
A personal service by an engineer with 20 years of video experience. Transfers to DVD, computer and more.
Costs just £17 per tape DVD, extra copies £3.50 or less. Discounts for quantity. Lowest prices in the UK but the highest quality.
U-matic tapes are an old semi-professional and studio format which has remained in use for decades. Announced in the late 1960s it is still occasionally used today making it much the longest lived video cassette format in the world. It has been extensively used in the advertising industry and there are vast archives of material on these tapes. Early machines were simply U-matic, often known as U-matic lo-band. Later an enhanced U-matic hi-band was developed, and then the ultimate U-matic SP. There are two tape sizes, and my equipment can take both, as well as international recordings. I've carried out dozens of Umatic transfers recently and people have been very impressed with the quality of the results.
Large Umatic tapes (left) and small
ones (on the right) are both covered.
Tape transfers for any of the Umatic formats are £17 per tape, making me one of the cheapest transfer services for these tapes. Furthermore, note that other UK transfer companies cannot take all of the High Band or SP variants and international TV systems and so may well let you down. We are probably the only transfer service in the world who support essentially every kind of Umatic recording.
Basic Menu, £17 per tape: The menus are limited to just a title, but you get a chapter point every 5 minutes so it is easy to move around the DVD. Extra copies of these DVDs cost just £3.50 each and are recommended.
Deluxe Menu £22 per tape: Nice menu icons showing what is on that part of the recording, and if you email me with titles I will put them on the DVD for you too. I place the chapter breaks at points of interest or new recordings. These menus look like professionally recorded DVD films. Extra copies are very cheap, just £2.50 each, and well worth taking.
DVD-ROM £20: Up to 1:30 hours on one DVD-Rom in top quality MPEG2 video files or up 20 minutes of DV-AVI files for short recordings.
Umatic to hard disk DV-AVI files are just £15 per hour for 10 tapes or more (or less for for very large orders), minimum charge per tape applies for short tapes. Ideal for further editing on PC or Mac.
For more complex assemble editing of many short items, email me and I'll work out a price for you. You can also request Umatic to miniDV or Umatic to DVCAM.
| Umatic recording type | PAL | NTSC | SECAM |
| Low Band | YES | YES | YES |
| High Band | YES | (YES)=SP | NO * |
| SP | YES | YES | |
* Umatic Secam High Band is technically possible but very rare, whereas Umatic Secam SP is believed not to exist. NTSC recordings are handled in Low band and SP recording types here at video99, but few (if any) other transfer companies in the UK fully support these. NTSC High Band recordings are actually SP, we have specially imported equipment for them. NTSC recordings cost £5 extra due to the extra setup time, but it's a small price to pay for the only known fully capable Umatic NTSC transfers in the UK.
We have a new and easy order page, just select what kind of tapes you have and supply your details. I will then confirm the price, or best guess at the price, and let you know the address to send the tapes. Umatic recordings sometimes require particular personal attention, just let me know of any particular requirements. Usually I transfer to video-DVD but options include transfer to computer file, miniDV tape and more.
If for any reason you get stuck filling out the form, just email me and I'll help you personally. It's a personal service I offer, not like some of the big video editing houses. I understand that in many cases you will not be able to tell how much material is on the original recordings.
If recorded on equipment from another country, see the Television systems explained. I can handle low band, high band and SP recordings for the PAL television system. Recordings in NTSC or SECAM foreign television systems can be accepted on either tape size but only for low band recordings at present.
Not everyone
needs their tapes returned once they have the DVDs, but if you do, please remember to include postage costs. For a single
(small) video tape in the UK, this is just £2.50 For larger quantities, and tapes from outside the UK, I will let you know.
Ideally can you ensure you send the tapes in a package which is sufficiently large and robust for me to use to send back your original tapes. Usually I will send the DVDs to you ahead of returning your tapes, then when you've confirmed you are happy with the
DVDs, I will return your tapes. This way I can help you further if necessary - for example you can now see you want a different part of a tape transferred on its own or you want extra copies.
"This is what I love about the internet, finding guys like you who can do the business, I stumbled upon this old tape (as you do), in the loft on Monday by Thursday I have got them transferred to DVD and I am playing them at home...! you can’t get much faster than that. Thanks for a quality service mate, and a good price too, all is well they are all great sound tracks good as well. Regards Chris" Umatic SP tape to DVD with special Deluxe Menu for easy track selection.
"Great, DVD all appears to be all ok :-) Thanks again for all your help. Kind Regards, Jenny" Number of TV adverts for a well known chocolate brand, assembled to one DVD and also video files on DVD-Rom and web, for the manufacturer of the delicious product. Urgent job: Customer requested work on Friday afternoon, I received tapes on Saturday, customer had viewable video files waiting on Monday morning with DVDs on Tuesday. 26.08.09
"Many thanks for your first class service in transferring the very old but very precious content of my Umatic tape to DVD. I was amazed to receive the final copies back within 3 days of sending them to you, and so beautifully presented. I had trouble finding someone to copy a Umatic tape, and those I found were far more expensive, so your service was a real 'find'. I would definately recommend you to anyone looking to get tapes converted to DVD Thanks again Wendy" Wedding video on Umatic, copied to DVD and made up with boxes showing colour shots from the tape. 28.02.09
"Hi Colin, WOW! How’s that for service? The Post Office guaranteed delivery by Monday and you tell me the work is complete before we even get to Monday. I assume you are a small business. We worked in a similar way ourselves in a different field so we appreciate this level of service and attention to detail. Joy. " 28.07.09
"The DVSs have just arrived and work well. Thank you. Don't bother to return the tapes. I am very impressed by your service. Speed, technical competence, sensible arrangements and a very competitive price add up to excellence. I will certainly use you for any other transfers and would recommend you to my friends. Thanks. GP" Umatic tapes to DVD, 23.02.09.
"Hi Colin, I received the dvds today, thankyou very much, i'm very happy with the transfer and will most definatley use you again if i have tapes to transfer in future. I apreciate your great service. Thanks, Pete" NTSC SP band Umatic tape run to PAL DVD, turned around next day. This customer told me how another company based in Glasgow failed to run this tape and held onto his tape for 6 weeks. Some companies think they can run NTSC Umatic tapes, but video99 has imported SP Band NTSC Umatic equipment for the purpose.
"Hi Colin, I now understand why people have such a high regard for you. The 25year old umatic to dvd transfer was really quick and superb! You even sorted my mess up on paypal at no extra charge! I only hope a lot more people find your website and enjoy the results as I have.Well recommended. Thanks Colin Regards Mike" Umatic to DV-AVI files on DVD-Rom and also viewable video DVD. 04.10.08.
"for sure I am recommending you all over the shop! -) Sue". Umatic tapes to DVD for a renowned TV programme director. 03.10.08
"Video 99 showed considerable patience and skill in recuperating material almost lost forever on old nsc tapes. I thoroughly recommend their professional service and personal attention to detail. Excellent customer service." NTSC Umatic High band tapes restored and put onto DVD. 22.04.08.
"Hi Colin, Just a note to say thanks for the splendid job you did transferring the tape to DVD. This footage is over 10 years old and looks great. Cheers Dave" Umatic high band to DVD. 31.03.08.
"Again thanks very much for pulling out all the stops to help us with this at such short notice, it really helped me out of a tough spot and I’m sure we’ll be requiring your assistance in the future."
"Dear Colin, Many many thanks! ... will certainly reccomend you to others. Coco" Quantity of Umatic low and high band, PAL and NTSC systems, and also some N1500 format tapes. 29.09.07
"Good morning Colin I had a look at a DVD last night and was very pleased with the results. I had previously copied to DVD from a VHS tape from the same period but your results are much better, especially the sound quality. Many thanks. ... Again, thank you for a very professional service. Stephen" Umatic high-band to DVD. 25.09.07
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Last updated 26 May 2010