“I’m just an average person that wants to properly
preserve my family media without spending a
fortune. I want to trust the company I'm working
with, feel confident that they will take good care of
my media and give me something back that I can
easily use now and in the future."
Many times a week, we get a call like this from an average consumer client who is quite often confused
from all the information they read from the web. They want to make the right decisions to preserve their
family media. They don’t want to spend a fortune doing so, but they also don’t want to get a poor quality
conversion or digital versions that will quickly become out-dated. They don’t want to give their media to
someone or some company that may loose or damage their collection. They basically want a company
they can trust, who will do a nice job for them, offer them great service and give them what they need.
They also want to know how to properly preserve the digital versions of their family memories so that they
can be used and enjoyed far into the future.
As the owner of Media Transfer Service, I've been working with audiovisual media my whole career - almost
40 years. Although I don’t particularly care for the word “blog”, this page is devoted to covering some basic
topics to help the average consumer through the process of digitizing their family media collection. We’ll
add to this page on a regular basis and hopefully it will help guide you through the proper steps you need
to take, while enjoying the process. If you have questions that are not covered in this blog page, please
write us and we’ll include them with our answers in future updates.
The basic topics we intend on covering are:
•
How do I store my original media both before and after the digitization process?
•
Why should I digitize my media now and what are the costs of waiting longer?
•
What should I do to check my media for problems and organize my media before I begin
the digitization process?
•
How do I choose the right company to digitize my family audiovisual media?
•
What digital format choices are there, to digitize my media to?
•
How do I preserve the digital version of my family media so I don’t loose it?
•
What technologies do I use to easily play and enjoy my family audiovisual media?
How do I store my original media both before and
after the digitization process?
Many families choose to keep their media collection in the basement because it is cooler than the rest of
the house. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst places to store audiovisual media because basements
hold more humidity than floors above ground. We hear clients say all the time - "well my basement is
finished, I have forced air and I also have a dehumidifier in my basement so storing my media there should
be fine." Well actually, it's not - there's a reason people have dehumidifiers in the basement and not on the
first or second floors of their homes. The house our family lives in has a poured concrete foundation, no
sump pump. Our house has good drainage on sandy soil. Our basement is finished and we have forced air
heating and air conditioning. We have a dehumidifier in my basement with an automatic pump, so we
don't have to remember to change our the water collection bin in the dehumidifier, All this being said, the
relative humidity in our home is always higher in the basement than on the first floor. Sometimes 10
points higher or more.
Any room with more than 50% relative humidity for any length of time can develop mold and mildew which
loves to grow on videotape, motion picture film, audiotape, old disk recordings, slides, larger transparent
photographic media and photographic paper. Humidity also promotes sticky shed and soft binder
syndrome, a common breakdown which can effect your video and audiotapes to the point that they
require a baking treatment to stabilize tapes before they can be played back for digitization. Humidity also
promotes vinegar syndrome which commonly effects both acetate based films (movie film, slides, image
transparency negatives/positives) and older audiotapes. This is a common breakdown where acidic acid
leaches out of the acetate base. When acetate based media has been exposed to humid air, then stored in
an air tight container (Ziploc bags, Tupperware, metal tins or metal boxes) there is nowhere for the acidic
acid vapor to dissipate and the airtight container creates a micro-environment where the acidic acid
vapors build up and get stronger as time passes. This speeds up the breakdown process logarithmically.
The end result is media that becomes so dry and brittle that it cannot be digitized.
There's also the gravity factor. If a pipe in your house bursts, where does the water go?......down! We find
the safest place in the house to store your audiovisual media, is on the first or second floor - in a place
where no overhead water pipes exist. Attics, garages and rented storage spaces that are not climate
controlled should also be avoided.
Once your media has been digitized, we VERY HIGHLY recommend keeping your original media - don't
throw it out. Any media containers should let your media breathe. Motion picture films should be stored in
vented inert plastic reels and tins. Slides and other transparent film media should be stored in proper
archival sleeves. Photographs in acid free photo binders, boxes or inert plastic sleeves. Audio and
videotape can stay in their original paper packaging. Same with many disk recordings unless the sleeves
and outside album covers are contaminated. All media should then be kept in a vented plastic container or
cardboard box. Again, make sure your media can breathe. For links to companies that offer archival media
storage, please see the bottom of this page.
Please join us in the next section, where we will cover the best time to digitize your media - waiting for
even better technology or potential lower costs, verses the negative costs of waiting longer.
Why should I digitize my media now and what
are the costs of waiting longer?
I've said many times, "If your house was on fire, you only had one arm, you're headed down the stairs to
the front door and there's a bag full of money on the left at the bottom of the stairs and a bag full of your
priceless family memories on the right, which one would you grab as you headed out the door?". If you're
taking the time to read this article, the answer is obvious.
At the present time, you have a collection of unique one-of-a-kind family memories that can easily be lost
by one of many household disasters. Water, fire, theft, accidental physical damage along with playing your
media in an old playback unit, all put your media at risk. Your media is also aging both naturally and by
contamination issues as discussed in the first portion of this article and there are many less common
forms of aging that slowly effect your media.
While one considers all the ways media is quickly or slowly lost, it's also important to consider with each
year that passes, it gets more expensive to maintain legacy playback equipment to digitize your media. For
example, there are no new professional analog videotape or audiotape playback machines being made.
The last professional VHS format video deck made by JVC ceased production in 2012. The devastating
2011 Japan Tsunami wiped out almost half of all Sony legacy broadcast video deck replacement parts. One
of the best slide scanners ever made went out of production in 2011 and the company that made the
scanner ended support for repair and parts two years after. There is only one company remaining in the
United States that refurbishes video deck playback heads. When they close their doors, only used heads
cannibalized from older players will be left. Original manufacturer "new in box" replacement rubber belts,
pinch rollers, etc, for playback decks are becoming harder and harder to find as the rubber parts begin to
decay. Simply put, the longer you wait to digitize your media, the more expensive it will be.
Some clients ask if there are any advantages in waiting for new technology or equipment that will offer a
measurable difference in quality or lower costs from what is being used today? This is an excellent
question. There will always be technical advances but people have been digitizing audiovisual media in
earnest for many years. Most of the technical development in equipment for digitizing audiovisual media
has already been made. We feel the small gains to be made in waiting for another 4-6 years are not
outweighed by the disadvantages of waiting longer.
On the upside, once your media has been digitized, think of how often it will be used, shared and enjoyed
by members of your family. Copies are made quickly and easily. And now you also have the peace of mind
that it is far less likely that your family media will be lost forever. Digitizing your family media is an
investment - no doubt. But if you lost your family media tomorrow, what would you pay to get it back?
Probably more than 10 times the cost of digitizing your media today.
In the next segment, we'll cover how to organize your media before you begin the digitization process.
Some simple techniques and processes will help to make a better outcome and save both time and money
in the process.
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Media Transfer Service, LLC
317 Main Street
Eyer Building - 3rd floor
East Rochester, NY 14445
(585) 248-4908
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info@mediatransferservice.com
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