WHY IS PICTURES TO DIGITAL RIGHT FOR ME?

Pictures to Digital offers easy and convenient services to transfer your old media into digital formats. Conveniently located in Soho Cafe in Carmel, we make digitizing your vintage videotapes, film reels, photos, slides, negatives, albums and audio tapes a breeze. The ordering process is easy! Simply drop off your materials with our helpful and knowledgeable staff and we'll get to work creating our our magic. When your order is ready, we'll let you know by phone or email.

WHY SHOULD I TRUST PICTURES TO DIGITAL WITH MY MEMORIES?

Pictures to Digital is a small company only staffed by experts in what we do--We love what we do and it shows. Your materials stay safe and sound in our studio lab, never leaving us until you come back to pick up your finished order. You never have to worry about your treasured memories being shipped or mailed across the country to a third party to be shuffled through a giant factory, treated like "just another order."  Once we receive your materials, we handle every part of your order with care, and will transfer all your timeless moments to digital videos and pictures that you will be able to share and enjoy for years to come.

WILL MY ORIGINAL MEDIA BE RETURNED?

Absolutely! All original media is returned to you after your order has been processed. For 8mm & Super8 film orders, the film is cleaned and spliced as needed and returned on the original reels you provided.

WHAT PAYMENT METHODS DO YOU ACCEPT?

We accept cash, Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, and Paypal.

WHAT ARE YOUR PRICES?

Every order varies and depends on the type and amount of materials you would like transferred. Please also refer to the page that relates to the type of media you have to be converted to digital format. Examples of some common orders might include:

3 VHS tapes: Transfer to DVD $69.97

4 VHS-C tapes: Transfer to DVD $49.96 (When 4 30 minute vhs-c tapes are put on one DVD)

3 three inch film reels: Transfer to DVD $24.00

100 slides: Transfer to DVD $99.00

250 photos: Transfer to DVD $155.25

Again, the cost of each order depends on the amount of materials you would like transferred.

CAN I GET VIDEO FILES INSTEAD OF DVDS?

Absolutely!  We offer video transfer to video files in your choice of either AVI or MPEG for all videos. To get your videos as files, you will need to provide a portable hard drive or a USB flash drive large enough to  hold the files or you may purchase a suitable hard drive or USB flash drive from us. Pricing for the transfer is the same as transfers to DVD. Purchase of a hard drive or USB flash drive, if needed, is separate.

Please note that we only recommend video files on a hard drive or flash drive for individuals who wish to cut/splice/edit their own video at home. Hard drives are not a good long term medium to store any files you intend to keep for long term. Please see the FAQ about “How long does storage media last?”

Please contact us for further information regarding video transfers to files at info@picturestodigital.com or 317-607-4984.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO GET MY MATERIALS TRANSFERRED?

The amount of time it takes to carefully handle and transfer your materials depends on the amount of materials you submit and their original condition and the current volume of orders being processed at the time you bring in your order. At Pictures to Digital, we hand clean materials for dust, scratches, repair minor damage and color correct. The level of repair depends on the type of media (tapes, film, photos, slides, and negatives) and the quality of the original materials. There may be cases where we cannot make improvements due to these factors. This process takes time but ensures the highest quality product. Most orders take 14-21 days from the time we receive your materials to the time we notify you that your order is ready. When you drop off your materials, we will be able to give you a more accurate time estimate.

I HAVE A BROKEN VIDEOTAPE, ARE YOU ABLE TO REPAIR THIS?

We can repair videotapes if the ribbon is snapped or wrinkled or if the case is broken. When we repair a wrinkled ribbon, the footage in that section will be lost. We charge $10 per tape repair.

WHERE WILL MY ORDER BE SENT FOR PROCESSING?

All work is performed in our studio lab. Nothing is ever shipped away to a third party, ever. We are the experts and we do everything in-house. There is no need to worry about your materials being lost in a large processing warehouse somewhere across the country or the world.

I HAVE MEMORIES STORED IN A FORMAT THAT IS NOT LISTED IN THE LIST OF MEDIA TYPES. CAN THEY BE TRANSFERRED?

At Pictures to Digital, we are continuously striving to improve our media transfer process and increase the types of media we accept.  If you have a special media format that is not listed on our web site, please contact us to see if it can be transferred. We can be reached at 317-607-4984 or info@picturestodigital.com.

CAN I SUBMIT CONTENT THAT WAS MADE BY A PROFESSIONAL?

We are capable of transferring professionally produced work, but we must follow the US Copyright Laws when converting all media types to digital.

If you have a content recorded or photographed by a professional, you must obtain their permission for us to convert it. Orders containing copyrighted material which are not accompanied with a signed copyright waiver will not be processed. Please contact the photographer or videographer to obtain permission in writing. If needed, please contact us for a waiver form which you can provide to your photographer or videographer. All waivers should be written by the photographer or videographer and must mention the title or the content of the material. We do contact photographers and videographers when their copyrighted content is presented for conversion to digital.

CAN I HAVE VIDEOTAPES OR FILM REELS OF OLD MOVIES AND TELEVISION SHOWS THAT I OWN TRANSFERRED TO DIGITAL?

No. We do not offer transfers of copyrighted commercial material.

WILL THE COMPLETED DVD BE COMPATIBLE WITH MY DVD PLAYER?

Yes. Your new DVDs will play in almost all standalone DVD players today.

On your personal computer, you can play the DVDs on your DVD drive. If you have difficulty playing your DVD on your computer, contact us for assistance.

HOW LONG DOES STORAGE MEDIA LAST?

Often, we find that our customers are not aware of how long various storage media will last. And, contrary to what many of us believe, most all digital media will fail in relatively short periods of time. We could write an entire web page on storage media alone!

First, let’s state, we offer M-DISC DVD’s at Pictures to Digital. M-DISC DVD’s are a type of DVD that can last up to 1,000 years. We offer the M-DISC for scanning & restoration, video transfer and film transfer. M-DISC costs us 9 times as much as standard DVD’s, so they are offered at a premium. We highly recommend M-DISC DVD’s over all other types of media, because they cannot be erased and will never fade. The data will be accessible for up to 1000 years.

Here is the short of it:

• Regular DVD’s (ie most DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, etc) last on average 7 years. Our competitors use these types of DVD’s. (We do, too, for standard transfer service.) Regular DVD’s record the video or other data onto a thin layer of organic dyes on the write-able side of the disc. The organic dyes fade easily when exposed to light, heat, and even just from playing the DVD. This type of recordable DVD is not the same as the DVD’s that your Hollywood Movies come on!
• Gold Archive DVD’s may last up to 100 years. However, gold archive DVD’s are still constructed using an organic medium that can fade and fail similar to regular DVD’s.
• Flash memory lasts on average 8 years.
• Hard drives are fairly unpredictable and are well known to fail within 1 year of use. A hard drive should not be trusted as a long term single storage device for anything important. An exception to that may be in the case of running multiple hard drives in a RAID array that can maintain data almost indefinitely. Still, as the hard drives eventually fail, the devices must be replaced in order to keep the data integrity.
• M-DISC can last 1,000 years. The data is etched onto an inorganic data layer, made out of a material that is close in structure to obsidian. A special type of DVD burner designed for M-DISC permanently etches the data layer using a special laser. The US Dept. Of Defense has tested the M-DISC along side of other well known archive DVD’s and only the M-DISC passed their tests. Additionally, independent testing of the M-DISC demonstrated that data stored on the M-DISC can last 1000 years.

A final note about data storage: If you asked an archeologist what he/she would choose to store pictures for a 1000 years, they would likely tell you that rock lasts longer than anything. Think: rock carvings, cave drawings and stone tools. The M-DISC data layer is made with an obsidian-like material as the recording media. Obsidian tools and dishes have been found intact in archeological digs dating back 1000’s of years.

HOW DO I ORDER? WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

Ordering is easy.

• Decide what items you want converted to digital (Photos, slides, negatives, video tapes, and/or movie film)
• Organize your media. (Especially important if you want a slideshow from pictures or if you have multiple reels of 8mm or Super8 film to make into one longer movie.)
• Bring your materials to Pictures to Digital.
• We collect your name and contact information and work out with you any special details pertaining to your order. There aren’t any forms you have to fill out because you get to tell us in person what you want.

After you decide which items you want converted, we recommend organizing some of your materials, if you want a slideshow from pictures or if your have multiple reels of 8mm or Super8 to make into a movie.

• Slideshows. We need to know what order the pictures in your order should appear in the DVD slideshow. All you need to do is put the pictures in the correct order in a stack. We will put the slideshow in the same order as your stack going from top (first) to bottom (last).
• Film reels. We need to know what order your 8mm reels should appear in your movie. You should number your reels in the correct order. If you are not sure what is on the reels, we are happy to capture each reels separately and then have you come back to show us what order to arrange them when you can see them visually.
• Video Tapes. Please be sure to write the title on each video. You can write the title on an attached post-it or you can use our simple video title form. Get the form. If you do not know what is on your video, we will leave lined blanks on the case and DVD where you can handwrite the title after getting to see the video.

We are happy to accommodate special requests! Bring in your materials and let us know what you need.

Frequently Asked Questions