greatbear analogue and digital media ltd. » umatic

Umatic transfer and video preservation of Bristol reggae band Black Roots

greatbear — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:57:22 +0000

2 u-matic video tapes were discovered of a Black Roots live performance in Bristol in the 1980′s. We were able to restore, digitise and make the umatic transfer of this recording as a high quality, uncompressed Quicktime file then encode and author a DVD for future release by Bristol Archive Records.

Some information supplied by the label:

Black Roots were Bristol’s premier Reggae band throughout the eighties and having gone their separate ways in the nineties they reformed last year and will be rekindling the magic with an intimate hometown gig at the Fleece on Friday September 9th, the show coincides with the release of “Black Roots – The Reggae Singles Anthology”, released on Bristol Archive Records in collaboration with Nubian Records, this release showcases all of the band’s singles released during their first decade and as an extra bonus the CD issue comes coupled with a DVD of the band’s 1986 video release “Celebration” recorded at the long gone Studio nightclub in Bristol. This show will be something special and likely sell out so book your tickets early and don’t miss out.

www.thefleece.co.uk

NTSC umatic transfer of The Members – Solitary Confinement

greatbear — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:29:32 +0000

Unseen to 32 years, although there could possibly be other tapes in the vaults at Abbey Road.
This ntsc umatic transfer to uncompressed quicktime files was a damaged tape that at some point in it’s life had been ‘eaten’ by a greedy u-matic machine! The tape shell also had some plastic debris inside that needed removing before it was safe to attempt loading and migration.

U-matic transfer to DVD, Uncompressed Quicktime and Digi Beta

greatbear — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:04:52 +0000

We’ve been honored recently to have won a large contract to help in the digital migration of an extensive educational video archive by the transfer from U-matic archive copies to uncompressed video files.

While the archive had been stored in an suitable environment and rarely if at all played, they had not survived well. The Sony branded tapes from the 1970′s and 1980′s all exhibited binder hydrolysis or sticky shed syndrome. We were still able to get good transfers though using our range of umatic machines, particularly the Sony BVU-950P and For-A Time Base Corrector.