Formats and materials we handle
Not sure if we can handle what's in your collection? Browse the formats and materials we work with across audio, video, film, paper, objects, and data.
Archives rarely hold just one kind of thing.
A single collection can span reel-to-reel audio, glass plate negatives, costumes, engineering drawings, and a stack of hard drives nobody has opened in years.
We work across all of it. Learn more about the formats and material types we handle, what we can do with each, and where to go next.
Can't find yours? Tell us what you have. We've probably seen it before.
Audio
Audio is where format diversity gets extreme. Track configurations, tape widths, noise reduction schemes, and sync standards all vary, and getting any one of them wrong produces a transfer that sounds close enough to pass and isn't. We maintain playback machines for formats manufacturers stopped supporting decades ago, along with the technicians who know how to align them.
What we handle
Analog tape
- 1/4 inch: full-track mono, full-track with centre track pilot (bi-phase), quarter-track stereo, 2-track half-track (NAB track width), 2-track with centre track timecode, and 4-track
- 1/2 inch: 2-track stereo, 3-track with centre track pilot (bi-phase), 4-track, and 8-track
- 1 inch: 4-track, 8-track, 12-track, and 16-track
- 2 inch: 12-track, 16-track, and 24-track
- Audio compact cassette and microcassette
Digital tape and disc
- DAT (16-bit and 24-bit, with timecode), ADAT (16-bit and 20-bit), DTRS, DASH (2-track and 24/48-track)
- Pro Digi (2-track and 32-track), 3M DMS)
- Sony PCM series, MiniDisc)
- Magneto-optical discs)
- DDPi, PMCD, Exabyte DDP)
- iZ RADAR 24)
- JVC 900)
Vinyl and disc
- 12 inch, 10 inch, 7 inch, and 16 inch transcription discs
- Lacquer and acetate discs
Noise reduction decoded
- Dolby A, B, C, and SR (24-track capability)
- dbx Types I and II (24-track capability)
- Telcom C4
What we can do
Audio digitization, migration, remediation, and condition assessment. Preservation-grade masters plus access copies in the delivery formats your systems need.
Audio ServicesVideo
Videotape has produced more dead formats than any other medium. The Library of Congress tracks well over a hundred distinct videotape formats introduced since 1956, and not one is still in consumer production. If the deck that played your tape no longer exists on the open market, that's the situation we're built for.
What we handle
- Betacam and Betacam SP (NTSC and PAL)
- Digital Betacam (NTSC and PAL)
- Beta IMX and SX (NTSC and PAL)
- Betamax (NTSC, PAL, and SECAM)
- HDCAM and HDCAM SR
- DVCAM (NTSC and PAL)
- MiniDV and HDV (NTSC and PAL)
- DVCPRO (NTSC, PAL, and HD)
- XDCAM 35 and XDCAM 50 HD
- Digital8 and Hi8 (NTSC)
- 3/4 inch U-matic (high band, low band, and SP)
- VHS, S-VHS, and VHS-C (NTSC and PAL)
- D1, D2, D3, D5, D9 (Digital S)
- EIAJ (colour and black and white)
- 1 inch Type C (NTSC and PAL)
- 2 inch Quad (high band colour)
- 1/4 inch CVC (Funai)
- 1/2 inch CV and skip-field (Sony)
- CED
- LaserDisc (NTSC and PAL)
Delivery formats
Delivery formats Apple ProRes (all versions), DNxHD (all versions), uncompressed YUV 10-bit, IMX30/40/50, XDCAM 35 and XDCAM 50, JPEG 2000 (OP1a, AS-02), MPEG 1/2/4, H.264 and H.265, Motion JPEG and Photo JPEG, AVC-Intra 50 and 100, DVCPRO 25, 50, and 100 (HD), MKV (FFV1 v3). Subtitle extraction to .CAP, .STL, and .SRT.
What we can do
Video digitization, migration, remediation, and assessment. Tape baking and stabilization for shedding or sticky-shed tape before transfer.
Film
Film carries its own vocabulary and its own risks. Vinegar syndrome, color fade, shrinkage, and warping all narrow the window for a clean capture. We inspect before we scan, repair what needs repairing, and match the capture approach to the condition of the element in front of us.
What we handle
Gauges
- 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, 35mm
Element types
- Camera negative, intermediate, interpositive, and print
- Color and black and white
- Magnetic film sound (1 to 6 channels)
Capture output
- 16-bit DPX, TIFF, and ProRes mezzanine files
What we can do
Film digitization, film scanning, inspection, condition and preservation assessment, remediation and restoration. Repair of scratches, color fade, and frame deterioration.
Film also has specific storage needs. Acetate-based film in particular benefits from cold or below-zero storage environments to slow chemical decay.
Photography and transparent media
Photographic materials are among the most fragile things in most collections and among the most requested. Handling them repeatedly is what damages them, which is the argument for capturing once, at high resolution, to a standard that means you never have to go back.
What we handle
Reflective media
- Photographic prints, black and white and color, at any size
- Albumen, silver gelatin, and chromogenic prints
- Mounted and album-bound photographs
- Oversized prints and panoramas
Transparent media
- Negatives, all common sizes
- Positives and slides
- Glass plate negatives
- Lantern slides and transparencies
- Microfilm and microfiche
What we can do
Preservation-grade imaging, access-copy scanning, condition reporting, rehousing into archival-grade enclosures, and climate-appropriate storage.
Imaging ServicesDocuments, bound volumes, and works on paper
Paper collections are usually the largest thing an organization owns and the least well documented. Boxes get moved, labels fall off, and the only person who knew the filing logic retired. We handle both the physical care and the digital capture.
What we handle
- Manuscripts and personal papers
- Bound volumes, books, and ledgers
- Newspapers and periodicals
- Maps, plans, and oversized formats
- Posters, postcards, and ephemera
- Artwork and works on paper
- Corporate and institutional records
- Legal, financial, and regulatory files
What we can do
Imaging at preservation or records-management resolution, OCR and full-text search preparation, archival processing and arrangement, finding aid creation, rehousing, condition reporting, and storage.
Objects and artifacts
Not everything in an archive is flat. Costumes, instruments, awards, props, and three-dimensional objects all need storage environments, handling protocols, and documentation approaches built for their material makeup rather than for paper.
What we handle
- Costumes, textiles, and accessories
- Awards, trophies, and presentation pieces
- Instruments, equipment, and props
- Three-dimensional objects and models
- Mixed-material and composite objects
What we can do
Climate-appropriate storage, custom mounts and supports, condition reporting, inventory and metadata capture, 3D imaging for research and reproduction, and secure relocation.
For fine art specifically, Crozier provides specialized handling, storage, and logistics.
Data and digital media
Born-digital material has a shorter shelf life than most people expect. Drives fail, formats go unreadable, and backup software from twenty years ago won't open on anything you own today. Recovering it is a different discipline from digitizing a tape, and we treat it that way.
What we handle
Magnetic and optical media
- LTO, all generations
- DLT and SDLT
- 8mm Exabyte and AIT
- 4mm DDS (DATA-DAT)
- 9-track tape
- Floppy disk, 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch
- Iomega Zip, Jaz, and Rev
- QuikDisk
- CD-R, DVD-R, and Blu-ray
Drives
- Hard disk drives and solid state drives
Backup and archive formats
- NT Backup, Veritas, NetBackup
- Retrospect
- RAR and TAR
What we can do
Data restoration and migration, format conversion, and delivery into your current storage environment or into Iron Mountain InSight® DXP.
Specialized and technical imaging
Some material needs capture standards set by an industry rather than by an archive. We work to those standards where they apply.
What we handle
- X-rays and radiographs, medical and industrial, captured to DICOM and DICONDE-compliant standards
- Engineering drawings, blueprints, and technical schematics
- Oversized technical records
- Aperture cards
What we can do
Compliant digitization, metadata capture, indexing, and secure delivery.
Imaging Services