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U-matic

U matic

what we offer

high quality transfer of Umatic tape transfer to DVD or uncompressed quicktime / AVI files

With a collection of U-Matic machines including the late Sony BVU-950 with internal Time Base Corrector we are able to transfer all variations and standards or Umatic video tape. This includes, PAL, NTSC and SECAM, Low Band and High Band SP umatic to dvd.
Many Sony U-Matic machines featured a ‘Dub’ connector that can offer a higher quality than composite connection between machines, similar to the y/c connector. We have the correct cables and equipment to utilise this connection.
Using Blackmagic Decklink and AJA Kona video digitizing hardware we can capture to 8 or 10bit uncompressed video files to create a master that can be used for archival, editing or to encode to lossy formats such as MPEG for DVD creation, MP4 for online or iPod use, etc.

U matic

u-matic problems

As the U-matic format has been around since the 1970′s many tapes could be over 30 years old. The potential for tape degradation through poor storage and inherent binder problems in some tape stock can cause real problems when attempting to migrate some tapes.

As Umatic was a very popular format in schools, colleges and for news gathering many, many machines were sold so at the moment in 2011 the machines are still to be found but Sony in particular has stopped or run out of many key spares such as pinch rollers. Keeping a u-matic machine running well will become more and more difficult in the near future.

We have a good supply of new spares and service items so are confident we can continue to offer a high quality transfer and restoration service for some time into the future.