8mm Film to DVD Transfer

Good morning everyone.

I wanted to spend just a moment this morning talking about your 8mm Film to DVD transfers (and 16mm to DVD transfers too).

First, I want to let you know that there is a difference between a professional, frame-by-frame system and the projection systems that the cheap guys use-A BIG DIFFERENCE! Remember the adage "you get what you pay for?" Well that proves true here. There is no comparison between our transfer and the cheap guys. Just take a look at this video for a comparison.




Second, I know that Puyallup can be a drive for some but let me tell you that it is worth the effort. There are not many people in this business anymore that can deliver something different than the "cheap guys" and certainly nothing beyond the DVD. They won't even edit out the leader. We have had film transfer customers from New York and Florida, California to Alasksa and many places in between. If driving to Puyallup is burdensome, contact us for mailing instructions and we'll get you taken care of. Remember, only our studio will treat your film as if it were our own.

Lastly, if you make an appointment to come down and see us for cannot make it for whatever reason, please give us the courtesy of a phone call. The time that we schedule for you is for you alone, and we arrange our day to ensure that the time is uninterrupted by other customers (who also schedule time), the telephone, and our production work. Please give us a call, in advance, and let us know that you need to change plans so we can free up that time for others or so that we can get back to work (email is ok if we have enough advance notice). We sincerely appreciate it. 

And as a post-script, if you need a format other than DVD, such as MP4, or quicktime .mov, Windows Media .wmv, we can do that!

Blessings,

Chris.

16mm Film Transfer to DVD

I have not taken to bash the competition--that is something that I just don't do. I let others, primarily my customers, do it for me.

Case in point, I received an email today from a former client regarding a 16mm film to DVD transfer that they were currently working on. Here is what it said:

"Hi Chris, 

You transferred a bunch of 8mm film for us a couple years ago, and now we are hoping you might be able to do a couple of 16mm reels. One is a 9" reel and I believe the other is an 11" reel.

I sent both reels to (name withheld but you can probably guess who it is), but the company that transfers film for them cropped the images, making it so we cannot see the subtitles or the credits in full. It is essential that we see the subtitles as part of the film is narrated in Chehalis (the films are about the Nisqually and Chehalis tribes) and the translations are as important to me as the narration itself. The (name withheld) company has said I could send the film back, but if you are willing to take on the project, I would rather send the film to you, knowing what a great job you did with our 8mm film, and the fact that it is more likely you would check to see if the image is cropped properly before transferring it. 

Thanks for your help! I hope to hear from you soon." 

Ok, I don't know why they didn't bring me their film to begin with except that they didn't know that I also transfer 16mm film or that some of the competition may be a little cheaper-I will be honest about that. Nevertheless, there is a reason that they are cheaper.

First and foremost, the quality of their transfer is substandard. The picture quality cannot compare to the transfer that we offer and things like what this customer says happen. I hear it all the time. They just don't care about the quality of their transfers and it shows in the product they deliver. Now, if quality doesn't matter to you, then by all means go to the cheaper guys. You know that you get what you pay for. :-)

Secondly, that company also sells pizza and dog food. That company doesn't specialize in anything and can spread their operating costs over all the other items that they sell, including the aforementioned products and their car tires, garage tools, bakery items, frozen meat, breakfast cereal, books, dvd's--well, you get the point.

And third, they are intent on destroying the small business. Ok, I know, sour grapes, but I genuinely believe that this company doesn't care who they hurt and why and what the ramifications are, they just want to dominate and will use the resource of their big corporation to drive the small guys out of the market, whatever market that may be. They got their paws in so many different things, many of which they shouldn't. The only rationale explanation that I can come up with is because "they can."

Now that I am done with my complaint for the year, I urge you to consider having your film transferred by someone whose sole business is in the video and photo services industry. As you are aware, we treat every project as if it were our own and not just another order.

And for those that don't know what the quality difference looks like, enjoy the following video.

Blessings,

Chris.

The Cost of Quality

Two experiences this week prompted me to write this blog entry. Ok, two this week and one last week.

A month ago, I had a former customer call me and ask me to substantially discount the cost of an 8mm film to DVD transfer. My response was to give him my generous repeat customer courtesies, but he was looking for something more. He knew about the high quality of our products and services compared to others in the business (that is why he was coming back) but after explaining that we couldn’t match the price for the “other” guy, he informed me that he was going to go to him and give him a shot. Ok.

Last week, he called me back and the first thing he said was that he was wrong to go to this guys and “was going to eat crow.” I asked what was wrong and he wasn’t shy about how bad the film transfer from the "other guy" looked and how there were missing reels of film of DVD (the most important reels by the way). We were happy to help get his transfer right.

Now this week. Another individual called and told me that he had taken his film to the big discount wholesaler (the same one that sells pizza and dog food) and once again I was told how bad that transfer was—not to mention how long it took. He got his money back and decided to have it done right. Once again, we are happy to help out.

And today, an individual called looking for a quote on a 100 CD duplication. I gave him a great quote but he took the opportunity to rip me a new one instead of saying “no thank you” and hanging up. Forget for a moment that he called me, one needs to remember that there is a reason that we that we might, and I repeat might, be more expensive than others—QUALITY.

Yes, there is a cost to quality. I know that we all like the Walmart prices, but let's face it sometimes "you get what you pay for."

In my last story, the individual reminded me that CD’s are dirt cheap. Yes, some CD’s that you buy at the local retailer are dirt cheap, but premium quality CD’s and DVD’s that we use (you can’t buy them in Best Buy) cost more money and I can’t simply eat the difference. Simple. Right? Store labeled media is usually a grade C quality. McKenna Video Services uses A+ quality discs. A cost difference? Absolutely! A difference that you will appreciate when we work on your project.

Second, in terms of the actual work, we work on every project we receive-I work on them. Not some minimum wage clerk that doesn’t have the training, the expertise, the experience and the concern for giving you the best quality possible. I don’t ship your project to Mexico like the big discount warehouse does (and despite what they might say that is where your transfer ends up). And next time you take your project to one of these places ask them what their “in-factory” loss rate is. Last time we checked it was in the neighborhood of 10%. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a huge number, but what if your film or video transfer was one of the 10%? Is it worth the risk of never seeing Grandma doing the hula-hoop again just to save a few dollars?

And as far as 8mm and 16mm film transfer goes there is a difference between the method that we employ vs. the method that others do. We employ a frame-by-frame digital transfer method and not a projection method like the others do. Visit the following page on our website for a side-by-side comparisons (http://www.mckennavideo.com/demos.html http://www.mckennavideo.com/f_docs/film_xfr.html ). The reason that we can’t charge as little as the others is that our transfers are better, complete, timely. Period. The others cannot promise that. And if they do, remember the adage “you get what you pay for”.

Finally, we are a specialty company. The big discount warehouse is not. We don’t spread all our costs among the dog food in aisle 12 and the toilet paper is aisle 3. We don’t sell frozen yogurt and pretzels in the waiting lobby (but if you want some I can probably dig some up). Also, not to take anything away from our friends that work at these places, but most of the clerks that take your order there wouldn’t know the difference between quicktime and realtime, between a replicated DVD and a duplicated CD.

There is a cost of quality!

Who do you want working on your project?


God's blessings,

Chris.

Price is not the only consideration!

Too many times, the only question that is asked of us is “how much?” How much does it cost to transfer my videotape to DVD? How much does it cost to transfer my family film to DVD? How much does it cost to videotape our wedding? How much does it cost too….well, you fill in the blank.

We here at McKenna Video Services are very conscience and sensitive to price-we make some of our decisions based on price too. Decisions like where do we go to get the best price on a particular box of cereal. Or maybe what particular store is that coupon redeemable at. Or even where we get our next tank of gas (with some exception since cheap gas can actually damage a car engine). But we certainly do not shop price when it comes to unique or important items.

Such is the case with transferring video tape or 8mm film to DVD. While McKenna Video is certainly not the most expensive video services company, we admit that we are not the least expensive (there are lots of fly-by-night, discount, and online companies). Having said that, there are questions to ask when trusting your treasured memories to the hands of others.

Here is a list of considerations to factor in when determining where to send your media:

• Quality, both in terms of the DVD media and in terms of the process (be sure to ask what the process is and if there is an intelligible answer);
• Timeliness: how long will the transfer take;
• Location: where is the transfer being completed (FYI-McKenna Video does not send your tapes and films to Mexico like our competitors do);
• Loss Rate: what is the loss and error rates with the companies that you are considering;
• Do I get my original media back;
• Can we edit, move reels around, place custom titles, add a soundtrack, voiceover or other audio content, can I custom author a DVD?

Of course, there are many other factors that you personally might consider important, but in terms of actually completing the transfer these should be highest on your list. Be sure to look beyond the lowest price when determining who to trust your precious memories to. Remember the old adage “you get what you pay for?” The same is very true with video services.

God’s blessings.

Chris.

Always get a backup copy of your film transfer

I'm reminded today of a customer that spent several hundred dollars to have thousands of feet of his 8mm film transfered to DVD but refused to get a copy for backup. About a year after his transfer was complete, he discovered that he either lost the DVD or it was in his car when the car was stolen. Either way, the DVD was gone!

The morale of this story is to always get two copies of your film transfer-one to view and the other to put away for safekeeping. Most companies, including McKenna Video Services, offer extra copies at significant discounts to normal retail pricing when the order is placed at the same time as the film to dropped off for transfer. And from time-to-time, McKenna Video will offer a free backup copy of your film transfer. Just remember to ask!

Gods blessings,

Chris.

Don’t let them loose your stuff!

During the Association of Video Professionals (www.aovpros.com) conference call today, the topic of wholesale warehouse, discount chains and drug stores offering video transfer services came up. Specifically, our discussion revolved around the fact that they are now offering these services (as well as selling prescription drugs, dogfood, pizza, and toilet paper) and the fact that they actually don’t do this work themselves (they outsource this work to a company that has “factories” in California and Mexico).

Each of the members of AVP has a story of a customer who has had a bad experience using services provided by America’s largest warehouse store’s new provider/partner. One of the stories that surfaced was of an elderly woman who had her 8mm film transferred to DVD, only to have another customer’s film returned to her. Another story was of a gentleman who also had film transferred but had the wrong DVD returned. And, as you can imagine, there were numerous stories of customers who had entire orders lost. One of our members told of a discount store clerk who was discouraging their customers from using the services that they were selling because the loss and error rates were too high.

In fact, the track record of some of these companies is quite scary. We heard today that their “LIF” (loss in factory) rate is somewhere just above 4% and their percent of orders with errors was much higher. While this doesn’t sound like a significant number, imagine being one of the 4% that experiences a complete loss of their precious memories and then tell me that this number is not meaningless.

Needless to say, each of the members of the Association of Video Professionals is very proud to say that our track record is much better. While I can’t speak for anyone else, McKenna Video Services has a ZERO loss rate. We have a 100% return rate of all materials (some in even better condition than when we received them)! We have never lost an order, nor have we ever completed a job with errors. That is something we are proud of and that is something that warehouse and discount stores cannot claim.

I, personally, take the time to talk with each of our customers and to work on their project, whether it is an 8mm or 16mm film transfer, a single videotape to DVD transfer, a photo montage, or something else entirely. Can a minimum wage employee working in an obscure factory in California say that they personally talk with each customer? Can a minimum wage employee working in obscure factory in California say that they value the project they receive as if it were their own?

As always, we appreciate your trust in handling your precious memories and we value those tapes, film and photographs as if they were my own!

Thank you for your trust!

God's blessings,

Chris.