|

Home
Our Mission
Why TC & ME?
About TC & ME
Contact TC & ME
Legal Notices
Privacy Policy
Storage
Security
Our Process
8mm Film & Video Tape to DVD
Our Pricing
Preferred Scrapbook Retailers
FAQ's
Site Map
Site Search
Acknowledgments
Services Summary
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| |
 |
Why TC & ME?
(What sets us apart.) |
 |
TC & ME, LLC Digital Archive Solutions is
dedicated to "Preserving America's heritage one scrapbook at a time".
Unlike other companies that provide digital imaging as part
of motion picture production or as a small part of their company's services, all we
do is digitally preserve still pictures, scrapbooks, and other personal
documents. It's
Our
Mission and it's all we do.
What about our:
Dedication,
Digital Scrapbook,
Video DVD,
Security,
Storage,
Pricing,
Future, sets us apart?
|
Dedication |
Other companies that provide digital imaging services
also provide many other services. They are not solely dedicated to the digital imaging of your photographs and documents
for the purpose of creating DVD's for long term storage. And they are not
setup to truly replicate your scrapbooks into Digital Scrapbooks.
TC & ME, LLC Digital Archive Solutions' equipment and
workflow has been designed around the process of digitally replicating your
scrapbooks onto DVD and protecting them from future disasters. This process also allows TC & ME to digitally
replicate all your personal documents and protect them too. Please read
Our
Mission page to see why we are so dedicated to this unique form of
reproduction. And please read our
Storage page to see how we protect your DVD.
|
|
Back to Top. |
|
Digital
Scrapbook |
Other companies only create slide shows of your
photographs and that's the extent of their service.
TC & ME not only digitizes your scrapbooks and images,
but we
will also digitize any personal document that you wish to have stored on a DVD.
The digitized documents can be part of a slide show of documents or they can
be stored individually on the DVD for safe keeping.Other companies take
all of your images and create a single slide show on a CD or DVD. They
do not offer, as a basic service, the ability to have multiple slide shows
or to handle scrapbooks in total. All of them will, of course, consult
with you and give you an estimate for what they can try to do for you.
TC & ME creates a true Digital Scrapbook from your
scrapbook. You will turn the pages of your Digital Scrapbook just like you turn the pages of a real scrapbook. We also create
individual slide shows of each page's pictures that you can view at any time.
This Digital Scrapbook gives you the ability to see only the pictures you want
to see and the ability to get to a picture in the middle of your Digital
Scrapbook quickly without having to wait for the slide show to get to it.
See how to navigate our Digital Scrapbook on our
Instruction page. And why go to them for an estimate when this is all that TC & ME does and
all of our
Prices are right up front.
Other companies do not make the original digitized images available
to you outside of the slide show. They also do not provide any way for
you to add to the existing slide show after the original DVD is created.
TC & ME not only creates a Digital Scrapbook on a DVD from your images, but we also place all of the original digital images onto the
DVD. We also put all of the project files necessary to recreate the DVD
and the Digital Scrapbook onto the DVD. TC
& ME also recognizes that these images are your property. We do not encode
the images or copy protect the DVD. All of this means that you can view,
edit, or print any individual image that you wish at any time as long as you
have a computer equipped with a DVD player. It also means that if you
would like to add other images to the Digital Scrapbook, TC & ME can do that
without having to rescan all of your previous images. This saves you a
great deal of time and money and provides you with the flexibility to gradually
digitize your documents, photos, and scrapbooks.
Other companies only write your pictures to a CD.
TC & ME stores all of your digital data and the
Digital Scrapbook on DVD's. DVD's provide you with the ability to put much more
into a single Digital Scrapbook and to archive many more images and documents
than with a CD. Also, unless you and your extended family members and
friends all have computers with CD players in them, sharing your images on CD is
impossible. With a DVD, however, anyone with a DVD player connected to
their television can enjoy watching your Digital Scrapbook; it is not necessary
to have a computer. So even if your grandmother hates computers and will
never have one in her home, she can still enjoy watching her copy of your Digital Scrapbook
right on her TV.
Other companies digitize your images into compressed
format.
TC & ME never uses compressed digital formats like JPEG.
Most image compression algorithms are "lossy" algorithms. This means that
when an image is compressed and then uncompressed it is not exactly the same as
the original. Since our business is
preserving your images and documents,
we do not use compressed formats. We store all of your images on your DVD in windows bitmap format. This
ensures that there is no loss of data in your digital images. For more
information on digital formats start here:
JPEG.
Other companies "enhance" or "digitally correct" your
images as part of their digitizing process.
TC & ME never alters your images. What you give us
is what we scan and what you get back in digital format. The reason for
this is simple. We are in the business of preserving your documents and
images. Taking out shadows or photographically uninteresting parts of a
photograph is not preserving it, it is changing it! If you ever want to print your images
exactly as they were in your scrapbook, you can. If you want to take the digital images
that we place on the DVD and digitally enhance or correct them later you can.
TC & ME gives you the freedom to have your original images and correct them to.
This is the best of both worlds! What could be better?
Other companies will only digitize 35mm film.
This saves them a lot of time because they have machines that do all of the
processing without human intervention. But this means that you only get the
digitized images. You do not get developed pictures. These same
companies will make hardcopies of your images from your digital copies for a fee.
(This is where they make their real money.) And you also have to send your photoCD back and forth between you and the company and pay all of that shipping
and handling.
TC & ME digitizes your already developed pictures.
This way you can have your hardcopy and digitized images at the same time.
You can make a scrapbook from your hardcopy images, or frame them.
And with our
Storage option we can make copies of your DVD and print copies of
your images without you having to pay any shipping and handling charges.
And don't forget that your DVD and images are delivered directly to your door.
|
|
Back to Top. |
|
Video DVD |
Other companies place chapter points according to scene
detection or preset time intervals.
TC & ME does not do this type of automated hands-off
processing. Using preset time intervals will not place chapter points
at the beginning of an important part of the video. Scene detection
does not always correctly identify true scene changes. And scene
detection does not allow you to place a chapter point within a detected
scene. TC & ME realizes that your video tape is a record of something
that is important to you. That is why we allow you to determine where
chapter points are to be placed and how you would like to navigate to them.
Other companies do not provide title menus.
TC & ME always allows you to add a custom title menu to your video DVD.
Other companies do not provide thumbnail menus.
TC & ME provides you the ultimate flexibility when setting up the navigation
of your video DVD. We can place chapter points where ever you would
like them placed and will gladly link them to thumbnails on menus to provide
you with the best way to navigate your video DVD.
Other companies will not add text to your menus.
TC & ME will add any text to your menus that you would like! As long
as it does not violate any of our
Policies to do so. Other companies
do not provide you with a custom printed DVD and Jewel Case.
TC & ME can create a custom printed DVD and Jewel Case for your video DVD.
This is the same service that we provide to our Digital Scrapbook customers.
Other companies have preset packages and that is all they
offer.
TC & ME does have preset packages. But, these are provided to help a
customer choose what options are important to them. If there is any
other option that you would like us to add to your DVD just ask! We
will always try to meet any customer's demands. After all, it was
customer demand that caused TC & ME to start converting videos to DVD in the
first place! |
|
Back to Top. |
|
Security |
Other companies will actually remove your photographs from
your scrapbook pages to scan them!
TC & ME will never do this! We will not risk
damaging your photos or your scrapbook pages by trying to remove and then reapply
the photos to your pages.Other digital imaging services ask you to send your
valuable pictures through the mail where they could get lost, damaged, or even
stolen before they are received. Most of them also destroy your pictures
after they have transferred them to either a CD or a DVD unless you specifically
request that your originals be sent back to you. (And you pay for the
shipping and handling!)
TC & ME prefers that you do not send any of your pictures,
scrapbooks, or documents through the mail. All of our customers receive
door-to-door pickup and delivery service. None of your items will
ever be intentionally destroyed by TC & ME. Please read our
Security and Safety page to learn more about our pickup and delivery
service.
Other digital imaging companies actually keep your digital
images on their system for up to a year. They do this so that they can
make you another copy of the CD or DVD if the first one has problems or is
unsatisfactory. But it also means that if anyone breaks into their system
they could copy your images! And employees of the company can look
at your images any time they want.
TC & ME never retains any of your digitized images on our
computer systems. As soon as your Digital Scrapbook has been created and
has been delivered to you, your digital image data is removed from our
system. If you use our services, you will never have to worry about
your images ending up on the internet one day. Please read
Our Process page to learn more about how we convert your documents into
digital format stored on a DVD. To learn about how we protect your DVD
from disasters please read our
Storage page.
|
|
Back to Top. |
|
Storage |
Other companies that do digital image processing only
go as far as digitizing your images and copying them to CD or DVD.
TC & ME, however, goes one step further.
Our
Mission is to preserve your history for your family for generations to come.
We do this by providing you a way to store a copy of your DVD in a safe place
away from the original DVD and the original images. By taking
advantage of our
Storage option, you can be assured that if anything were to
happen to your DVD, a copy of that DVD could be made at any time and delivered to
you. No other digital imaging company does this! This means that if
any natural disaster, or fire, or burglar, or any other calamity strikes your
home, your memories are safe. The
Storage option gives TC & ME the ability
to make you a copy of your DVD and to reprint pictures or documents from the
stored DVD for you. The ability to ensure that your memories are safe is
the reason TC & ME is in business. Please read
Our
Mission statement for more information on why we care so much about your
heritage.
Other companies promise things that simply aren't true.
We can't tell you how many web sites that we have seen touting that you can use
their services to store your images on CD or DVD forever. This simply
isn't true!
TC & ME will never knowingly place any untrue or hyped-up
information or claims on our web site. The true life
expectancy of DVD-R media is between 40 and 250 years. The true life
expectancy of DVD-RW media is between 25 and 100 years. For everything you
ever wanted to know about DVD technology go here: The Official
DVD FAQ.
But don't panic! TC & ME has plans for the
Future of your data.
|
|
Back to Top. |
|
Pricing |
Other companies charge hourly rates to digitize your images.
With an hourly rate structure you cannot be guaranteed how much it will cost you
to digitize all of your images. Some of these companies do provide
estimates. But, they can vary from those estimates.
TC & ME has complete upfront
Pricing. Once you
understand our per-picture and per-page Digital Scrapbook pricing, you can
easily determine the cost of transferring your documents, pictures, and scrapbooks to
DVD. There are no hidden charges or fees. And once you
truly compare our
Prices and services with other company's pricing, we are sure you will
find us more than just competitive.Other companies charge by the amount of storage your
digitized images will use on their system. And at first these companies
seem to beat our prices. But, normally these companies digitize your
pictures at a much higher resolution than is needed for a digital slide show, or
for reproducing your images. And since they use high resolutions, your
digitized images take up a lot more space and you end up paying a lot more
money. Then when you have sticker shock they offer you less resolution for
less money. In sales this is called the high balling, or the sticker shock,
technique. That is give the customer a really high price at first so that
when you show them a slightly less price they take it and you still make a
killing! Don't fall for this. Always compare the total cost for
their services with ours.
TC & ME always digitizes your images at the correct
resolution for displaying your Digital Scrapbook, for reproducing your
documents on quality paper, and for reproducing your images on photo quality paper. TC & ME
will never ask you to waste money or degrade the quality of your pictures by
manipulating resolution. Our prices are based on the amount of work that
we do, not the quality. That is why we charge on a per-picture and
per-page basis. And by the way, our quality is always the best! For
more information on the resolution we use please read
Our Process page.
|
|
Back to Top. |
|
The Future |
Other companies do not offer you the ability to convert your
DVD to future data formats.
TC & ME, with our
Storage option, offers you this service.
Let's face it, the DVD is not the end of storage media evolution.
Something will come along to replace DVD's just like DVD's have replaced VHS
tapes, video discs, and will soon replace CD's. When you purchase the TC & ME
Storage
option, TC & ME will automatically contact you when a new media format replaces
the DVD and ask you if you would like your stored DVD to be converted to the new
media. No conversion of you data is done without your expressed written
permission. We at TC & ME realize that these digital images are your
property and not ours. We never access or modify any DVD stored with us
without the expressed written consent of the owner. |
|
Back to Top. |
If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions about
what sets TC & ME apart from other digital archive businesses please
email us.
This page last updated
11/29/07 16:59
|