Canada's most affordable and flexible U-Matic To USB or DVD Transfer service.
- A personal service by a videographer with 10 years of video experience.
- Transfer to 10-Bit Uncompressed AVI for High Quality Video Files.
- Costs just $25 for USB per 60 minutes of video
- Costs just $30 for DVD per 60 minutes of video; extra copies are just $12. Lowest professional transfer prices in Canada, but with the highest quality.
- Turnaround time of 2-4 days for 6 hours or less. 6.5 - 10 hours require up to 7 days. More than 10 hours will require additional time.
- NTSC U-Matic Low, High and SP to DVD or Computer file.
- Resume reels of actors, camera operators and producers provided for TV, movie industries and casting agencies.
- Verbatim AZO DVD's used for all DVD transfers.
Transfer Your U Matic Tapes To DVD Today!
In the U.K., the BBC has reported that it has about 10,000 hours of video on Low and High Band U-Matic alone that was recorded between 1971 and 1990.
You may come across U-Matic Low Band or U-Matic SP tapes which have been recorded by a professional video company, for example in creating training, advertising or promo films. But how can you view the recording?
By getting your U-matics transferred to Digital File or DVD by Trevor Thurlow Productions. I am able to transfer your U-Matics in very high quality, as you can tell by the frame of video above with the waterfall. Transfers to DV are also high quality; DV is equal in quality to Betacam SP. All U-Matic transfers are run through a Digital Time Base Corrector for the ultimate picture stability and quality. Uncompressed AVI's are made through a Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle, while DV-AVI's are made through a Canopus ADVC-700 (I also use the ADVC-700 to convert the U-Matic's balanced XLR audio to unbalanced RCA audio for the Intensity Shuttle, however, the video of the U-Matic goes straight from the Digital TIme Base Corrector to the Intensity Shuttle and not through the ADVC-700, so you are not getting any DV compression in the Uncompressed Video.) I can also provide DVCPRO50 MXF files through the Intensity Shuttle as well.
(The first machines from the 1971-1984 era were simply known as U-Matic, but in later years this format has come to be known as Low-Band U-Matic. 1984 saw the launch of High-Band U-Matic in the PAL and SECAM regions, while NTSC had to wait til 1986 when U-Matic SP was released (although NTSC SP is sometimes referred to as High-Band). Currently I can play both Low Band and High Band/SP NTSC 3/4 U-Matic, plus I can play both the large and small size U-Matic tape.)
NOTE: AMPEX BRANDED TAPES. In the 1970's and 1980's Ampex was known as one of the best U-Matic tape manufacturers around. Unfortunately, in the recent years it has been discovered that the tape formula that Ampex used has not lasted and as a result, many Ampex tapes have video in vastly degraded or unrecoverable condition due to tape shedding; even if they were stored in the best conditions possible. I will try my best to get whatever video I can off these tapes, but I do charge an extra $30 for Ampex tapes because they do take extra care and restoration work to recover. Now then there is the odd Ampex tape that does not require this extra care, but this is extremely rare with this brand. Should you have a "lucky" Ampex the $30 charge will be dropped. Other U-Matic brands such as Fuji, Scotch, and Sony seem to have been manufactured with a better formula, but due to age some of these tapes also exhibit tape shedding. BASF (in the late-90's/earl-2000's they were called EMTEC---I do not know if any U-Matic's were made under the EMTEC name) used a very different formula for their tapes, because their tapes were made from chromium dioxide, whereas all the other tape manufacturers used ferric oxide and a binder that was very unstable.
Just received the package. I viewed it and it looks good. - Greg, December 2017, 3/4" Umatic to DV-AVI on USB Hard Drive
I’ve reviewed the conversions and am quite satisfied. Great job - including the titling on the discs and the disc cases! Thanks a lot. - David, October 2018, 3/4" U-Matic to DVD and DV-MOV on Hard Drive
I just wanted to thank you for an great job on my videos. The quality of the USB files were excellent, and everything arrived back safe and sound and I really appreciated the quick turnaround service. - Mary Anne, August 2019, 3/4" U-Matic to DV-AVI on USB stick.
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you
Thank you Thank you Thank you
I can’t thank you enough!!!!!
I will be in touch with important vhs transfers in future.
-Diane, September 2023, AMPEX U-Matic to MP4 and DV-AVI on USB stick.
AMPEX tape had to be baked for 20 hours before I was able to copy it.
Please fill out the form at the top of the page and I will get back to you with in 2-3 days with an estimate. If you are not sure of how long the tapes are. Please be advised that I will not transfer copyrighted, pre-recorded tapes (i.e. Star Trek : The Motion Picture), as I will not be involved in blatant copyright violation.
Foreign Conversions
Presently Trevor Thurlow Productions is unable to convert PAL or SECAM U-Matic to DVD. However, I am able to convert NTSC U-Matic's to PAL DVD's or digital files.
Transfers To DVD
Considering that U-Matic was used for a lot of Broadcast work, DVD is not recommended, however, if you want a DVD, I can put them on DVD.
All
DVD transfers use Verbatim AZO DVD-minus-R discs. I've used Verbatim
for many years and these discs are, by far, the most reliable discs out there.
Transfers To Video Files
Options include transfers to MP4 and DV-AVI on USB stick or hard drive. (You can either supply the USB stick or hard drive when you send/drop-off your order, or I can purchase one and then add the cost to your bill.) Or another option is that I can upload the files to OneDrive and then send you a link to download them once I have received payment. If you do not want your tape(s) back, then this also gets rid of return shipping costs.
Transfers To Other Tape Formats
Conversions To Other Television Standards
Transfers to PAL are currently only available on DVD or as a PAL video file. Ask for more details.
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VHS 3.4 - 4.4MHz; 629kHz
S-VHS 5.4 - 7.0 MHz; 629kHz
Regular Betamax 3.5 - 4.8MHz; 688kHz
Super Betamax 4.4 - 5.6MHZ; 688kHz
Going by the figures above, as you can see, Betamax used U-Matic's chroma channel, but U-Matic always stored the lumiance better (although by 1986, Sony introduced the Super Hi-Band 6.0Mhz mode to the SL-HF1000 Super Beta Editor that offered in the B1S mode picture quality that rivalled the picture of a U-Matic SP recording, since Betamax's could now be recorded with a 6.0Mhz luminance channel, and with the SL-HF2100 in 1991 Sony only made the image quality better by allowing recording and playback through S-Video). The majority of the time U-matic also produced a superior picture when compared to VHS on the black and white level (although it knocked VHS's color into the dirt all the time). Compared to S-VHS, U-Matic SP was about equal on the black and white level, but again it featured a far superior color.
Return To Video Transfers
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None of your information is passed on to other companies.
Canadian residents please note that the appropriate tax shall be added to your total.
For more information on video transfer and video production services, please go to
www.trevorthurlowproductions.ca