Services

Rebuilding Titles

When we restore old movies and television shows, part of our standard procedure is to build new opening and closing credits from scratch if possible. Ideally, the original elements would still be available for remastering, but this is frequently not the case with old shows whose creators assumed they would never be used again. In the absence of the original elements, we can often still build a clean plate and recreate all the titles and graphical elements in Photoshop so that they are virtually identical to the originals. This is an example from one of the most notoriously poor quality films out there, 1978's Rescue from Gilligan's Island. No film prints are known to exist, and it survives only on low-quality video sources, which has made a high-quality release impossible until now. This fully restored release will be available on streaming and Blu-Ray from our shop soon.

Film Restoration

This is an old 16mm print of a Marx Brothers film from 1933 that was dry scanned. Normally, a wetgate scanner will fill in the scratches with liquid to help conceal defects on the surface of the film, but with a dry scan all the dirt and scratches remain fully visible. There is also some noticeable gate weave that makes the image appear shaky. We can digitally remove all the dirt, grain, and sparkle that's visible on the print so that it looks as clean as if it had been scanned on a wetgate. Some people like the shakiness of the gate weave because it gives the film an authentic look, but our view is that it's a distraction to be removed. We want the image to look as smooth as possible on modern viewing equipment, so we remove it with digital stabilization. Finally, some modest sharpening with AI brings out additional detail in the image and makes it look brand new.

Audio Restoration

This is a screen test that has faint and indistinct audio because nobody on the set noticed that the boom mic wasn't plugged in. C'mon, seriously? Although there is no substitute for recording it properly in the first place, this shot can still be saved to avoid the trouble and cost of mounting a re-shoot. We can digitally enhance it to give it a rich, full quality that sounds as good as if the mic had been working as planned. The first version is the original, untouched audio recorded only by the camera's built-in microphone with a very faint, distant sound, and the second is the same audio after our enhancement. It has also had some color correction applied.

VHS Restoration

Magnetic tape is one of the more challenging formats due to the sheer number of things that can go wrong, but we can handle it like a champ. We can usually fix dropouts, offlock errors, chroma noise and shifting, fringing, banding, tracking, and other common videotape defects. We can bring your old tapes back to life, almost like magic. Many times, we can even recover tapes that are unplayable.

Videotapes

We use a professional video deck with a Time Base Corrector (TBC) to transfer your tapes directly to a PC in the highest possible quality. These decks are not cheap, and often just playing tapes on a professional deck will make them look leaps and bounds better. Then we manually repair defects in the tape, such as dropouts, offlock errors, banding, chroma shifting, bad frames, tracking errors, and other common problems that plague magnetic tapes. We round out the process with some digital noise reduction and color correction to make your videos look as sharp and colorful as the day they were shot.

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Cassette and Reel-to-Reel Tapes

This notoriously unreliable audio format was always a lousy format due to its poor sound quality, and it's rapidly becoming a relic of the distant past just like the 8-track. Although cheap "Walkman" type players are still available, extremely few high-quality cassette decks are still being manufactured, and the ones that are tend to be very expensive. We can't create new sound out of nothing in the clipped frequency ranges, but we can remove tape hiss, equalize it, and enhance the frequency response and dynamic range so that it sounds fuller and more natural.

Film

When you send us your 8mm films, the original film is carefully inspected and cleaned to remove dust, dirt, and any potential contaminants. Next, the film is threaded onto a specialized film scanner that captures each frame of the film as a high-resolution digital image. Specialized software is then used to process the captured images, correcting for color balance, exposure, and stabilization of any shaky footage. The end result is a revitalized, easily accessible digital version of your treasured 8mm film that can be shared, edited, and preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Photo Scanning

Got old family photos sitting in the closet that you want to share with family or friends? Let us professionally scan and retouch your photos so they can easily be shared on social media or archived in the cloud for future generations to enjoy. Our professional flatbed scanners scan at higher resolution and capture much more detail than home scanners. Don't risk losing your treasured memories to fire, water, or other disaster. 

Photo Restoration

If you have old photos that have been damaged by water, mold, heat, or other elements, we can professionally restore your photos so they look crisp and clean. Of course, we can't work magic, but we can get very close and make you believe it's magic. Let us give you a quote on your restoration project today and bring the past back to life.

Video Slideshows

We can create an animated slideshow of your photos or videos set to the music of your choice. These are perfect for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, and other occasions when you want to celebrate a loved one's life or accomplishments. We have a catalog of templates for different occasions that you can choose from, or we can create a unique slideshow just for you.

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DVD and Blu-ray Authoring

The demand for physical media is declining, but many people still prefer the DVD player as a convenient way to view and share their old home videos with friends. If this is you, we won't just stick your videos on a disc with an ugly static menu. We will create beautiful, professional full-motion menus from our catalog of themes for every occasion. Whether it's graduation, vacation, or holidays, we can create just the right look for your disc.

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