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I want to place an order, but how does it work?

A quick reference for the questions most commonly asked

HOW DO I PLACE AN ORDER?

To place an order you can use any of the online “ORDER NOW” options on the website – or simply call 021 055 3102 / 03 546 4148 and speak to a friendly human who will assist you with all the information that you might need.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?

Under normal circumstances, most orders are usually completed within 10 working days from the date we receive your parcel, but larger orders may take additional time. Please contact us if you have a specific timeline in mind. Current completion date is 35 working days.(Updated 19 November 2024)

DISCOUNTS

Applicable discounts will be deducted from your final invoice. Discounts exclude GST, USB drives and postage

HOW DO I PAY?

You only need to pay once your order has been completed and you have received our invoice by email. Payment is required on presentation of the invoice. We will dispatch or deliver your order once payment has been received. Our Prices per conversion quoted on our website pages, does not include GST.

METHOD

 By direct internet banking (our preferred option)
 By credit card – PayPal, VISA or Mastercard on request (credit card fees will apply)

Credit card payment

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I PLACE AN ORDER?

• We will confirm receipt of your order by email.
• Upon receipt of your material we will inspect the contents and take a photograph or video of them for our records.
• We will advise if there are any issues with your material if need be.
• Your order will be processed.
• You will be notified with an official invoice and the details about how to pay.
• We will dispatch your order and your original material (unless requested otherwise) to you by secure post after your payment has cleared.
• Your videos and all other digital files will be completely deleted from our system within 25 days after payment has been received.

WHERE DO I SEND MY VIDEOS, 8MM FILM REELS, SLIDES AND PHOTOS TO?

Send your parcel to:

PHOTOFRIEND, 6 Huntaway Close, Stoke, NELSON, 7011

Please use a secure NZ Post or courier service to ship your order to us

BUT YOU'RE IN NELSON - IS IT SAFE TO POST MY STUFF ?

No problem! Nelson is a lovely place and ideally suited for our online business. We service the whole of New Zealand and get orders from Kaitaia to Invercargill, and everywhere else in between. We seldom wait more than 1- 2 days for a couriered parcel to reach us, and we find that the return tracked courier service is equally as fast.  If you would prefer, and for your peace of mind, you may want to consider sending your parcel by courier with signature required. 

RETURN TRACKED COURIER POSTAGE

Return tracked courier post is $12.00 + GST for parcels under 3kg. Rural is $5.50 + GST extra.
• We will advise you of the return cost for parcels over 3kg

HOW DO I PACKAGE MY MATERIAL?

The best thing you can do to protect your original material is to ship it to us in a sturdy box, a padded envelope, or in a small plastic container placed inside a cardboard box. In general, the sturdier your box, the safer your shipment will be. Use a zip-lock plastic bags for negatives, slides and photographs, and seal them before placing them in your container.

PLEASE DON’T USE NORMAL PAPER ENVELOPES WHEN POSTING SLIDES, NEGATIVES OR PHOTOGRAPHS.
When you use a box make sure it’s filled, even if you need to pad it a bit with something soft. Take care not to scratch the surface of any slide or negative and don’t touch the insides of video tapes. Please include your contact details and any further instructions.

We advise that you use a secure NZ Post or courier service to ship your order to us.

I'M AFRAID MY VIDEO TAPES, FILMS, SLIDES OR NEGATIVES WILL GET DAMAGED!

We take the utmost care with your material as we understand that they are precious, irreplaceable memories.
We can’t control any actions from the couriers while in transit, but when they arrive at our premises they are treated with the utmost care .
We have not damaged any of our clients material since we started. Reviews of our service and work is testament to that. 

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN MY ORDER?

 

Personalised introduction title (with information requested by you, or taken from the original video/case label. 
• Personalised USB and DVD packaging 
 Black screen gaps and static noise screens edited out
• Basic video enhancements where possible

• DVD case with a personalised cover design 
• DVD video disc with printed label – disc starts automatically when inserted into DVD player
• Basic physical inspection
of tape
• Normal quality check every 10 minutes of full tape 

WHAT WILL THE QUALITY OF MY TRANSFERRED VIDEOS AND 8mm FILMS BE LIKE?

Video tapes deteriorate every day – some more than others, and some are beyond recovery. We can only transfer the tape in its present condition, however we can improve the quality slightly to some extent – we can clean the tape if it’s moulded, and adjust brightness, colour, contrast and sharpness if needed. 
We do not compress any video or use cheap USB conversion and transfer devices – all our transfers are done with high quality equipment at maximum resolution. For 8mm film reels, we use HD digital film scanners and not the projection method.
You will get the best possible image quality the tape or film will allow us to extract from it. We will notify you before we attempt the transfer if your video tape has deteriorated beyond recovery.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S ON MY TAPES - I ONLY WANT FAMILY/HOME VIDEO CONTENT TRANSFERRED

We are often asked ‘I don’t know what’s on my tapes. I only want family/home video content transferred. I don’t want any recordings of films or TV shows. Is that possible?’

The answer is yes, no problem!

Empty / blank videotapes

If the tape starts with no content, we will check it for the first hour at 10 minute intervals. If we do not find any footage to transfer we will then consider the tape to be blank. There is no charge for this service.

Mixed TV and family content

If the tape starts with recorded TV content we will have to run the tape in real time to search for any home video content (for example if the tape is 4 hours long, we will have to run it for the full 4 hours in case there is home video footage in between the TV content).If there is only TV footage by the end of the tape, and you don’t want it, we will not transfer it. However, as this process is time consuming, there will be a charge for this service of $15.00 + GST per tape.

If we find sections of home video footage, we will edit out the TV content and this transfer will be charged at the normal rate. 

Longer than 4 hours
If your tape runs for longer than 4 hours an extra cost of $15+GST will apply for that conversion.

CONVERT TO DVD OR TO USB - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

Convert to DVD

Pros:

• If stored correctly a DVD disc could last up to 200 years. It is great as an archival choice

• Each video tape or film will have its own DVD with printed label, cover and case

• It plays like any video that can be bought in a store

Cons:

• DVD’s can only be played on a DVD player or a computer or media device that has such a device

• With current new technology DVD devices, older than 10-15 years, might struggle to play converted videos. However, it will play seamlessly on Blu-ray players and current DVD players

• DVD discs can be scratched easily causing them to stop playing

• They have limited storage capacity and are more expensive to produce

• The conversion process is different than that of a conversion to a digital MP4 video file

• It is difficult to copy or duplicate a DVD and it would need further conversion if you want to edit it on a computer

• The quality is the same as a USB and only as good as the current state of the video tape or film, but can be enhanced slightly with brightness sharpness and colour filters

Convert to USB

Pros:

• Modern technology

• Each video or film will have its own digital video file that can be played separately when selected.

• It can be played on most modern TVs, Smart TVs, computers, any media player or BluRay DVD player with a USB port

• It’s small and compact and can easily be copied to a hard drive or to other USB devices

• It can easily be edited on a computer, Mac or PC with video editing software

• Files can be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, Social Media providers, Dropbox or any other cloud base storage providers

• It’s not as expensive to produce.

• The quality is the same as a DVD and only as good as the current state of the video tape or film, but can be enhanced  slightly with brightness sharpness and colour filters

• USB devices have various storage capacities to choose from and you can have multiple video files on a single USB i.e. 8Gb, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, up to 8TB and more

Cons:

• It can get corrupted or broken and it is advisable that the contents should be transferred to a computer first, as soon as possible

• It’s small and can get lost very easily.

HELP, THE NEW DVD DOESN'T PLAY!

We test all our transferred DVDs on a variety of devices such as PCs (Windows7, 8 and 10), MACs (OSX 10.11.6+), BluRay players and modern DVD players. In the unlikely event that there is a problem, please contact us within 15 days.

If your DVD player is more than 10-20 years old it could cause playback problems or could be incompatible with playing DVD-R and DVD+R DL (double layer) discs. We only use industry standard Verbatim DVD-R and DVD+R DL discs (double layer discs hold longer videos).

Some older DVD players may have problems playing conversions from analog video to DVD due to advances in technology and disc media. In comparison, commercially mastered DVDs are made using ultra high-end machines costing tens of thousands dollars and the most modern software technology and media.

Therefore, they will play on almost any machine.

What can I do?

• On a computer, make sure that your DVD drive’s firmware and your computer’s operating system have the latest updates installed.
• Install the Free VLC media player for Windows or MAC and try to play the DVD: Click here to get the Free VLC Media Player 
• Try to use Windows Media Player if you have Windows 8 -10.
• You might consider having the lens cleaned, or investing in a new DVD/BluRay player. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive on the market. just make sure it can play DVD-R and DVD+R DL discs. Brands like Sony, Panasonic, LG and Samsung would be fine.
• Call us for further help. 

DO YOU GUARANTEE YOUR WORK?

GUARANTEE SEAL

Yes we do! We take great pride in our service and workmanship, and will guarantee to execute and deliver your order to the best of our abilities and to your satisfaction. Please refer to our reviews page and see what our clients says about us.

WHAT ABOUT MY PRIVACY?

• We provide this service for home videos and films only.
• We will not copy commercial videos to DVD without the formal permission from the copyright holder.
• We do not store any critical private data on our computers and neither do we share any other information like your email or telephone number with anyone.
• We will not copy or scan any adult or other sexually explicit material. If we have to return any material deemed unsuitable for copying then we reserve the right to charge an administration fee.
• We respect your privacy, as we do ours. We will never share, or show your video, film or information, to anyone.
• We do not watch your videos or films in full and we only do standard quality checks every 10 minutes.
• Once the transfer is completed, it is archived on our own secure in-house computer for 25 days after payment has been received, in case you need to change something.
• It is then deleted from all our computers and storage devices. Video files are large and we do not store or keep any of your footage after that.

Please phone 021 055 3102 or 03 546 4148, or visit our FAQ page, for more detailed information. 


CONTACT DETAILS

6 Huntaway Close, Stoke, Nelson 7011
Email: info@photofriend.co.nz
Tel: 03 546 4148  |  021 055 3102

A www.whitecloudcreative.co.nz service

 

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