jpakendal

Has anyone bought footage for private use from ITN Source? I'm not asking them to trade, just wondered if anyone has experience: what's picture transfer like, turnaround times, etc.

I understand they charge about £100 for 0.5 hr of footage so it's expensive, but at least they make the footage available to buy...

ican

Last July I bought a very obscure programme that featured a friend of mine from the early eighties. I ordered it online and was informed that someone would ring me. They rang within minutes, they asked me what I wanted it for and I told them that a friend featured in the programme. They said they didn't generally offer a public service and that it would be the standard £100 + Vat for a viewing copy on DVDR. They took my card details over the phone. They told me that the tape archive was in Leeds and that it would be with me shortly. It was with me less than 48 hours later. The programme has the VT clock at the start but thankfully no burnt in timecode. The picture quality was excellent and obviously from the source tape transferred via a Panasonic DVD Recorder.

The service is fantastic, very quick and professional. I had read somewhere (maybe this site!) that its important to say that its for personal use as a friend or relative was involved in the production. I did get the feeling that this is the case as it was the first thing they asked.

If the thing you want is so hard to come by and you are willing to fork out £117 for a viewing copy then I would recommend it. My friend was over the moon.

jpakendal

Thanks for the reply ican

I went ahead and ordered from ITN source and the dvd i wanted was with me in a week. Great picture quality and no timecode, as you suggested. Think I got a bargain though as it was £99 inc.

It seemed really expensive at first, but it's not bad if you think about it... an archive programme, not aired since 1977, burnt onto DVD for you.