How Long It Takes
The honest answer is that it depends on what you bring and what is already on the bench, and I will give you a real date when I have seen the collection. Here is what actually drives that date, so the answer is not a mystery.
Tape Runs in Real Time. Nothing Changes That.
A two-hour videotape takes two hours to play. There is no fast forward that captures a picture, so forty tapes is at least forty hours of machine time before anything else is counted. That single fact explains most of what people find surprising about turnaround in this trade.
Photographs are the opposite. They go quickly in volume once they are sorted, and the sorting is usually the slow part rather than the scanning. Film reels sit in between, because a frame-by-frame scan is slow but a 50 foot reel is only three or four minutes long.
What I will not do is give you a number before I have seen the work. A quoted turnaround that ignores what is actually in the box is a guess, and the person who finds out it was wrong is you.
A small job
Usually days rather than weeks. If you have one tape and you need it for something, say so when you book and I will tell you straight away whether I can do it in time.
A full collection
Weeks, and I will tell you how many when I have seen it. Big jobs also tend to come back in stages rather than all at the end, so you are seeing results while the rest is still running.
A hard deadline
Tell me the date first, before anything else. If I cannot meet it I will say so rather than take the work and hope. Often the answer is to do the part that matters for the date and the rest afterwards.
What Actually Holds a Job Up
Condition, more than anything. A tape that needs cleaning before it can be played adds a step, and a reel with dried-out splices has to be repaired before it can run. That work is worth doing and it is not instant.
Sorting is the other one. A box that arrives with everything labelled moves faster than a box of unmarked cassettes, because working out what is on an unlabelled tape means playing it. That is not a complaint, it is normal, and it is part of what you are paying for.
And honestly, the queue. I am one person, and if a large collection came in the week before yours then yours starts after it. I would rather tell you that than pretend there is a factory behind me.
Questions People Ask
Can you rush a job?
Sometimes, and I do not charge a surcharge for it. What I do instead is tell you honestly whether it is possible. If the answer is that your date is achievable for part of the collection but not all of it, we will do the part that matters for the date first.
Why can't you tell me a turnaround over the phone?
Because until I have seen the collection I would be guessing, and the person who gets hurt by a wrong guess is you. Bring it in or let me collect it, and you will have a real date and a written figure at the same time. Looking costs nothing.
Do I get everything at the end, or as it goes?
On a large collection, as it goes. Getting the first batch back early means you can check that the files are what you expected while there is still time to change something, rather than finding out at the end.
Tell me your date when you book.
If there is a day this has to be finished by, lead with it. It changes the order I do things in and it is much easier to plan around at the start than halfway through.