Do you have a box of 35mm slides you’d like to convert to digital photos? You have two ways you could proceed. You could either buy a scanner that is capable of scanning film (both positives or negatives) or you could farm out the work. GT Recording, HomeDVD and iMemories are 3 such companies which offer slide scanning services. iMemories offers photo, negative and slide scanning.

If you want to buy a scanner you could consider something like the Canon CanoScan 9000F which has attachments that let you scan a few slides or negatives at a time at 4800 dpi. It costs about $200 or less. If you can get your hand on a discontinued Nikon Coolscan professional high-speed slide scanner, then you could use it. As I recall, these scanners could hold 20 slides at a time and would scan each one at about 4000 dpi in about 30 seconds and automatically move through the entire stack.

If you prefer to farm out this work you could drop off your slides at GT Recording in Seattle. They charge scan slides at either 3600 or 7200 dpi. They charge a flat $15 setup fee. They have different price tiers that currently look like this:

• less than 100 slides cost $1.25 each
• 100-499 slides cost $.99 each
• 500-999 slides cost $.89 each
• more than 1000 slides cost $.79 each

iMemories scans at 600 dpi and charges $0.49 per photo, slide or negative

Home DVD offers a range of resolutions at different prices. Refer to the table below for details. They’ll scan both photos and slides.

For photo transfer to DVD, your price is $0.99 per photo for any size up to 12 x 15 inches in size. All slides and photos needing to have additional adjustments to bring out the best image possible will be brought into Adobe Photoshop for repair at no extra charge.  Below is a chart that will help you determine which resolution would best suit your needs:

The per slide/photo charges described above include the price to burn your digitized JPEG images of your 35mm slides or photos onto as many DVD-R discs as necssary. There is a minimum charge of $45.00 per job.

In a previous Tech Tip I listed three companies that offer video tape to DVD services. In each case, it cost about $25 per tape. Do you have a box full of tapes that you want to convert? If so, it might be more economical for you to do the conversion yourself. A colleague, Tim Lusk, wrote the following about his experience using a Sony DVDirect to convert VHS tapes to DVD:

I used a Sony VRDMC6 DVDirect. It works great for transferring VHS tapes to DVD. Amazon currently sells this device for about $240. Here is a basic overview.

The DVDirect is a great investment for someone who has VHS tapes that are going to run more than $200 for conversions. It has multiple connection choices for camcorders (USB, FireWire 400), SD cards and Memory Sticks, as well as Composite Video. I was able to easily connect a Panasonic VCR to it and quickly have things up and running to transfer the video. The LCD display was a great addition, as you could quickly view what you’re recording without having to guess where to start and end.

The DVDirect allows each DVD to be formatted prior to buring and gives roughly 60 minutes of recording time per DVD. (So, this isn’t meant to copy VHS movies over to DVD) The DVDirect is also smart enough to know when the tape is finished with the recorded content–I transfered a few school presentations that were 5-9 minutes long.

Once a DVD is finished with the transfer and you press the eject button, the DVDirect will ask if you would like to finish. By doing this it goes through a few steps to ensure that the DVD will play in a DVD Player. (NOTE: If you choose not to finish the DVD or cancel this request, the DVD will fail and will be wasted.)

Even though I did only a few transfers, I know that I could have consolidated the school presentations onto 1 DVD by swapping out the VHS tapes after a transfer and continue to hit record, allowing up to 6 10-minute presentations to live on 1 DVD.

I have yet to transfer the DVDs onto my hard drive, but the DVDirect definitely did what I was looking for.

GT Recording, HomeDVD and iMemories are three companies that clients have used to convert VHS tapes to DVD. All companies also convert audio tapes and film and will scan 35mm slides.

GT Recording is located on Aurora Avenue in Seattle. They offer quick and friendly service. Turn-around time is typically just a few days. You can drop off a variety of types of video tapes and they’ll convert them to DVD. They support VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, Super 8, Beta Max, Mini DV and a number of other types of video tapes. Alternatively, they can convert your video tape to a digital video (.dv) file that you can import into iMovie. If you choose this option then you’ll be able to edit the video using iMovie.

GT Recording can also handle 35mm slides, audio tapes and a variety of film formats including 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm. They’ll convert your slides to digital files such as jpegs or TIFFs. They’ll convert your audio tapes to CD or audio files, like mp3s which can be edited.

Cost varies based on the length of the recording. It cost $25 to convert an hour-long VHS tape to a .dv video.

HomeDVD is based in Canada but that didn’t pose any problems for my clients who have used their services. They charge $19.95 per hour of video or a minium of $19.95 per cassette. There is a minimum of $45 per transfer job. You can have your tape converted to a DVD movie or an editable digital video file, just like GT Recording offers. HomeDVD make it easy to get started. All you have to do is click the “Request a Shipping Kit” button on their web site. Fill-out the form and then they’ll send you a box with explicit instructions for mailing in your collection of tapes. They cover these shipping costs, but you pay to get the finished product and your original tapes sent back. You’ll receive an email confirming their receipt of your box as well as a summary of the work to be done. They’ll call you when your conversion is completed and will confirm the return shipping address. From beginning to end then entire project will take about 3 weeks.

iMemories is located in Arizona. They offer direct transfer services in which they’ll transfer your tape to a DVD. However, they also offer a fancier service which lets you review the digitized movies online and edit and re-arrange the  video clips to build your own custom DVD. Here’s how they explain their process:  http://www.imemories.com/howitworks/

With this fancier service they give you 30 days of free access to the online version of your converted video. During this time you can edit your video and share it with others. At the end of the thirty days you should order a DVD copy of your video. If you want to continue to be able to view and share your video (or slides) via your online account you can pay about $5/month.

iMemories has a very well-organized and user-friendly web site. You can ship your tapes to them using your own box. However, if you’re worried about sending your precious memories on tape through the mail, they’ll send you a high quality, crush-proof box and using a shipping service that’ll let you track your package so you can be reassured that it arrives safely.

iMemories prices are clearly listed here. You can convert a videotape to DVD for $19.99. Turn-around time varies based on the size of the project and time of the year but a project typically takes a few weeks. If you choose the option which gives you 30 days to edit your project then you’ll need to add more time to the overall duration.

There are a number of easy ways to convert an .mp3 song file to a ringtone for your iPhone. I typically use Garageband since the method is quick and easy. I realize that not everybody owns Garageband, so I’m pleased to share this other free method. Compared to using GarageBand there are more steps, but it’s not difficult to do.

Important: This process doesn’t work for copyright-protected songs (.mp4) purchased from the iTunes store.

• Open iTunes, go to the iTunes menu and select Preferences.
• Click on the General button, then click the Import Settings button.
• From the pick-list next to “Import Using” select AAC Encoder. Click the OK button. Click the OK button a second time to exit out of Preferences.
• Play the .mp3 song file you want to convert to identify the 20-30 section of the song you’d like to use for the ringtone. Specifically, you’ll need to write down the start and end time of your desired section. You can do this by watching the timer that iTunes displays near the top of its window.
• Click once on the mp3 song file. Go to the File menu and select Get Info.
• Click on the Options button so you can enter the Start and Stop times to set the 20-30 section that you want to become your ringtone.
• Go to the Advanced menu and select Create AAC version. [Update March 2013: In iTunes 11, instead of using the Advanced menu, right-click or  control-click the song and choose Create AAC Version from there.] This will cause a duplicate copy of the song file to be created. This duplicate copy will only be the length you selected when you set the Start and Stop times.
• Before you forget, return to the original mp3 song file and clear the Start and Stop times. You don’t need to re-enter the original times. I simply leave these fields blank and iTunes automatically knows to play the entire song.
• Click on the newly created AAC song file to select it.
• Go to the File menu and select Reveal in Finder. It may be listed as Show in Finder instead. This will open a Finder window showing you this AAC song file. Leave this window open. We’ll return to it in just a minute.
• Go to iTunes and make sure your AAC song file is selected.
• Go to the Edit menu and select Delete.
• You may be asked if you’re sure you want to remove this file from your iTunes Library. You’re sure, so click the Remove button.
• Next, you’ll be asked, “Do you want to move the selected song to the Trash or keep it in the iTunes Media folder?” Click the Keep File button.
• Return to the Finder window that you left open. You’ll see the AAC version of the song file. You can identify it since its filename ends with .m4a file.
• Change .m4a to .m4r
• Drag this .m4r file onto the iTunes on the Dock. This will import this .m4r file into iTunes and it’ll show up in the ringtones section.
• Sync your iPhone and make sure that you’ve selected to sync all Ringtones. This will add the ringtone to your iPhone. Then you can assign it to a particular person listed in Contacts.

Zamzar, an online file conversion service, is an easy way to save a copy of a YouTube video on your Mac. To do this you enter the YouTube video’s address at Zamzar’s web site and it will convert the YouTube video into a file type which you choose, then send you an email containing a link to download the  converted file.

Zamzar is actually a very versatile file conversion service. I’ve used it to convert Microsoft Visio drawings, Microsoft Works files and Microsoft Publisher files. To read Zamzar’s huge list of supported file types visit this web page.  Zamzar offers several levels of service. Their free accounts are ad-supported. Free accounts are limited to processing upto 20 files per day which add up to not more than 500 MB. Paid accounts let you overcome these limitations as well as offering additional features.

Update: Here’s another possible option. Jaksta is a commercial application which claims to let you save a copy of any audio or video file that you stream in your web browser.