Preserve Your Memories
Recent natural disasters, including fires, hurricanes and flooding, show the importance of preserving your offline tapes, photos, videos and more.
Digitizing these assets enables compact storage and the ability to store these permanently and safely in the cloud.
Mixonic can work with you on a custom program to digitize your business or personal collection.
What is Tape & Film Digitizing?
Tape & film digitizing is the process of converting analog media into digital form for ease of playback, repurposing and long term preservation. Video & audio tape or film can be digitized into a variety forms: digital files or disc.
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Digitize 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm film. |
Digitize professional and home video tape formats to permanent Digital Media. |
Digitize and save analog audio recordings to digital. Cassettes, reels, mini discs, DAT tapes, etc. |
Why digitize?
Chances are your tapes are over a decade old and you don't have a machine for playback, but the content is important to you. Video & audio tapes deteriorate a little each year, so it's time to act.
Digitizing your tapes & film preserves your media assets while giving you access to your precious content. DVDs & CDs can be easily played back and digital files can be viewed, edited, uploaded, shared and archived.
We accept many formats for conversion to digital
Acceptable Formats:
Pro Video Formats |
Consumer Video Formats |
Film Formats |
Audio Tape Formats |
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We offer many Digital Options
We can convert your old video and audio tapes and film into any of the following formats:- Pro Res 4:22 Used for long-term archiving; use with Final Cut Pro Editing Software
- DV Quick Time Used for long-term archiving, for general Mac use, iMovie, Adobe Premier Pro & Avid Software
- DV AVI Used for long term archiving, general PC use and Windows Movie Maker
- H264 Best format for use on YouTube, Vimeo, iPhone, iPad, Android and more.
- DVD Plays on all standard DVD players
- .WAV File Archive quality audio output
- MP3 Great for uploading and sharing audio files
- Playable Audio CD Plays on all standard CD players
Audio/Video Transfer FAQs
DVDs and CDs are excellent viewing/listening formats and an economical digitizing option. However, digitizing to DVD/CD is lower in quality than a digital file (.wav for audio) and is not a great long term storage solution. Discs can get scratched or lost and will deteriorate over time. A digital file will last forever if stored properly. Files can be imported directly into an editing environment, whereas a disc cannot. If you want DVD/CDs as a final product, you can make your own discs from a digital file with simple computer software and a disc burner. We can also include a physical disc as an optional add-on with your digital file.
Look at the manufacturer logo on the tape itself and match it to our media guide. A few formats can be identified by measuring the width of the tape or film itself. For example 1" video tape is 1" wide, 3/4" video tape is 3/4" wide, 1/4" audio tape is 1/4" wide. It's the same with16mm film or 8mm film/tape. If the tape is in a case, you must first open the "front door" of the tape to measure the tape itself. If you are still not sure what kind of tape or film you have, take a photo and e-mail it to us at customercare@mixonic.com
There are over 70 different video & audio tape formats in the world. Mixonic promotes the most popular consumer and professional formats for digitizing on our website. However, we can digitize and transfer most tape/film and media formats including PAL Video, 35mm motion picture film, Zip/Jazz drives, floppy discs and many others. Send us an e-mail with a photo of your media and we will give you a custom quote for items not listed on our website.
There are many different file formats. Mixonic is offering the most common, formats. However if you need a different file format, we are still likely to be able to make it. Please contact us to discuss your specific needs.
We get tapes, films and other media sent to us every day from all over the country via US Mail, FedEx & UPS. To help ensure that your tapes/films arrive safely, please make sure to:
- Pack your media with care, including a sturdy box and plenty of packing material.
- Double check that you are mailing your tapes to the correct address & zip code before shipping.
- Keep your tracking number; Although we will take good care of your precious media once it arrives, we are not responsible for any errors or omissions by a 3rd party carrier. When the media is in our possession, Mixonic is only responsible for the replacement cost of the physical media itself, not the content.
We can process most jobs on a rush basis. Please call us for availability and pricing.
We recommend that you keep film unless it is already deteriorated. Store it in a cool, dry and dark place. If your digital files are functional and backed up, there is no reason for you to keep tapes after the digitization process. Unlike film, you cannot preserve a video or audio tape, only the content on it. Tape is a temporary storage medium; it deteriorates little by little each year. By having Mixonic digitize your tapes, the content will live forever in digital form. Please make sure to protect your digital files and make back-ups. A combination of multiple hard drives, flash memory, data tapes or cloud storage is the best long term preservation approach.
Yes, we charge by tape format regardless of program length. However, for film we do charge by program footage length. Please see guide for lengths.
There is no charge for sending Mixonic blank media. We will mark it "blank" and send it back to you when your order is complete. If there is content on the tape/film we will digitize it and you will be charged regardless of the subject/quality of the content.
In most cases we can fix a broken tape housing, snapped or badly wrinkled tape and digitize it. Just add how many tapes that you have in need of repair when submitting your order. We will need to splice out the portion of the tape that is wrinkled in order to digitize the uncorrupted part. You will lose that portion of the programming. If we cannot fix a broken tape there is no charge for trying. We will return it with your order. In some cases we will need to "bake" a tape before digitizing it. We do this professionally, so there is no danger in harming the tape. Please DO NOT send us moldy or melted tapes, as we cannot repair these.
Clearly label your media and we will use the title as the name on your discs or hard drive files. If we cannot read the title or there is none, we will put a number on the tape/film and the corresponding number on the disc or file.
Yes, Mixonic is subject to the US copyright laws and you must agree to our intellectual property rights policy (please click here)
