Frequently Asked Questionss

Orders:
  • Is it safe?

    Yes!

    We've designed The Kentucky Archivers Heritage Box to be a safe way to digitize home movies and photos. We have been profecting home movie and photo conversion for the last 20 years. We've served Kentucky families and now customers all over the country.

    Mail-in processing isn't new, it's something you've done through Kodak for generations. At Kentucky Archivers, we are building on a process that we have been making safer with every order.

    Those safety advancements include:

    Twin Checking – At Kentucky Archivers we twin check (a numbering sticker) each tape or other item so we can track your items through every step of our process.

    Return Shipment Label — Included with your Legacybox is UPS Return Service label. This label is the same return service offered to large companies like GAP. This trackable, pre-paid label allows for drop-off at your local UPS shipping location.

    Experience — Kentucky Archivers is constantly growning. Our team of 14 has completed orders in all 48 contiguous states, and has preserved 10s of thousands of home movies for consumers.

  • What is the video quality?

    There's a lot of factors to take in when it comes to video quality. Here's some helpful definitions.

    • TV resolution is the measure of how crisp your TV’s picture appears. Pixels are responsible for resolution – the more pixels, the better the detail. For example, HD resolution starts at 1080 pixels wide and 4K goes up to 2160 pixels.
    • Your TV’s screen size is the diagonal measurement from one corner to the other. As a result, screen size has very little to do with resolution – that’s more of an aspect ratio problem. Most VHS tapes were filled full screen to fit the old 4:3 tube TV aspect ratio, versus the more modern 16:9 widescreen. So, playing an old VHS on a new TV may stretch the picture.
    • Video quality is only as crisp as it is smooth. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the video. And that’s achieved by how quickly a pixel can change color “or refresh” in one second. Old CRT TVs that were standard when VHS tapes were popular typically had a 32 hertz refresh rate. Modern TVs can go all the way up to 240 hertz! Given these definitions, what does that mean for your digitized videos?

    Your digitized tapes will be converted to 480p at about 24-29 frames per second –that’s half the resolution of HD and a lower refresh rate than today’s TVs.

    Digitizing your videos can preserve them, but it probably won’t look like the HD you’re used to today. We make sure to provide a 1 to 1 transfer, retaining the original quality! But we are not able to improve or enhance the quality in anyway.

    The quality fades quick though, so make sure to digitize your videos ASAP!

  • Will you edit my Files?

    Great question! We understand the need to remove footage that is blank or unnecessary. However, at Kentucky Archivers we value each possible memory so we do not edit any footage or format that we receive.

    Fear not! While we won't edit the files we are happy to let you know that we don't restrict access to the files so take the thumb drive, make a backup copy and go to town. Have questions? let us know and we will be happy to help where we can or send you in the right direciton.

  • How much does a USB thumb drive cost?

    Your original order includes one (1) thumb drive. If you need extras the price varies to accommodate the size of the heritage box ordered. Listed below are the number of items with the corresponding thumb drive cost:

    4 Item - $5.99
    10 Item - $19.99
    20 Item - $39.99
    40 Item - $79.99
    75 Item - $119.99

Shipping & Returns:
  • How long does it take?

    It all depends on the number of items to be digitized. Please allow 7 to 21 business days. Boxes of mixed items will take longer as they have to go through different departments for digitizing.

    We are working with your originals. Once they are digitized we will return them to you along with the digital files. They usually ship within 2 days of us completiting the digitization.

Payment:
  • When do I pay?

    Once you make checkout & pay we will send you a box to start putting items in.

    Really that's it!