• What audio formats do you transfer to CD or DVD?

• Do you have minimum or maximum quantity requirements?

• What payment methods do you accept?

• Is my credit card transaction secure?

• How does blue toad keep my financial information safe?

• Will PayPal charge me a fee to use my credit/debit card?

• How do I send you my tapes, photos or documents?

• I just placed an order and submitted payment, but when I was returned to your site I received an error? What do I do now?

• I live outside the United States . Can I submit an order?

• How much does shipping cost?

• Will I get my original material back?

• How many items can I send in at one time?

• What videotape and photo formats do you convert to DVD/CD?

• What photo formats do you convert to DVD/CD?

• How long does the conversion process take?

• Will the DVDs play in my DVD player?

• Can I send you my PAL (European) formatted tapes?

• What if my videotape won’t play for you?

• Can you make my videos look better?

• Are there any minimum or maximum restrictions on the total length of my videos?

• Do you convert copyrighted material?

• What do you mean by “an electronic document?"

• Do you store the documents on tape, CD, or DVD?

• Are there any hardware and software requirements?

• What electronic formats do you offer?

• How many documents can fit on one CD?

• Can I add notes to the scanned documents?

• Do I need special training to use a document CD?

• What if I want to add more documents to my blue toad CD that I had made last year?

• What if I want another copy of my document CD later?

• What file format are the scanned pages?

• Do you OCR documents as well? Can you convert the scanned files in Microsoft Word® format? What is the accuracy?

• What type of processing do the images undergo?

• How much does converting paper documents to CD cost?

• How do I make my documents "scan ready"?

• Is there a minimum number of pages that I need to send to you to have my documents scanned?

• How fast can we get our documents converted to CD?

• Can you upload the image files to our server?

What audio formats do you transfer to CD or DVD?

78's, 33 1/3, 45, cassette and reel to reel tape

Do you have minimum or maximum quantity requirements?

No.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept Visa, Master Card, American Express, Discover, debit cards, and Echecks via PayPal.

blue toad does accept checks; however we cannot ship to you until it has cleared our bank.

Is my credit card transaction secure?

Yes. Our credit/debit card processor is PayPal, a globally recognized leader in online payment processing. Please visit PayPal for detailed security information.

How does blue toad keep my financial information safe?

blue toad does not store customer financial information. In fact, we do not see your financial information at all! We simply receive notification from PayPal of your name, address, email address, and amount paid. No financial details are given. This PayPal process insures that your financial information is as safe as possible.

Will PayPal charge me a fee to use my credit/debit card?

No! PayPal will not charge you a fee to pay via credit/debit card.

How do I send you my tapes, photos or documents?

Email us for the shipping address. After you place your order, package your material with a packing slip (any format or handwritten as long as it is legible) describing the type and quantity of the contents and send them to us. You will be notified immediately upon receipt of your originals with verification of the shipment contents.

I just placed an order and submitted payment, but when I was returned to your site I received an error? What do I do now?

If your payment was successful, your order almost certainly went through. However, due to the error, you may not have immediately received a receipt or instructions detailing how and where to send your materials. A receipt will be manually sent within a few hours. If you do not receive it within a few hours please email us.

I live outside the United States . Can I submit an order?

Currently, blue toad only accepts orders from the United States and Canada and the UK

How much does shipping cost?

You are responsible for the cost of shipping to and from us; that is why we highly recommend you use USPS Media Mail as it is the least expensive method that offers tracking information.

blue toad always tries to ship USPS Media Mail; by weight which is shown on the shipping label (NO HIDDEN CHARGES) Approximately $2.00 for one pound of any type of media- printed or recorded. Plus please note we ship all orders insured with a delivery receipt for tracking purposes (no signature required.)

If you prefer another shipping method (please make your request when ordering by putting a note on your order form and on your packing list. Media mail is generally delivered within 3-5 business days.

Photos or other paper documents can be hefty when shipped in bulk quantities so keep that in mind when choosing your carrier.

Will I get my original material back?

Yes, we'll return your media materials: VHS, Disks, Photos or documents along with your new CDs, DVDs bound albums or other printed materials.

Unless… you ask us to save you the shipping charges and destroy the originals 30 days after shipment; to give you time to verify satisfaction with your new media. If you decide you want us to dispose of the originals, we will shred and incinerate.

How many items can I send in at one time?

You may send in an unlimited amount to be converted to what ever format you prefer at once. For larger projects, please contact customer support so that we can schedule our process to prevent delays.

What videotape and photo formats do you convert to DVD/CD?

We'll convert most consumer videotape formats including: VHS, VHS-C, SVHS, Video8, Hi8. Just contact us if not listed.

What photo formats do you convert to DVD/CD?

We'll convert standard photographs up to 8 1/2 x 14, SmartMedia: 4MB - 128MB, 4MB - 2GB, Memory Stick: 16MB - 128MB, Memory Stick Pro: 256MB - 1GB, Secure Digital: 16MB - 512MB,: 16 - 512MB. We also convert computer formats including: .gif, .bmp, jpg, .jpeg and more! Just contact us if not listed.

How long does the conversion process take?

All orders are converted and shipped out within2-10 business days of receipt of your materials. Additional features like custom editing may take an additional day or two. You may email our customer support department for detailed up-to-the-minute order information.

Will the DVDs play in my DVD player?

We transfer your videos into high quality DVDs ensuring that almost all DVD layers can play the DVDs we produce. DVD Players older than 3 years old can have difficulties achieving playback. We honestly can only make a 99% promise. If you know another service that can promise 100% …well…you know…

Can I send you my PAL (European) formatted tapes?

No, we only transfer NTSC (North American) formats.

What if my videotape won’t play for you?

We will analyze the problems with your videotape. You will be notified however before we attempt any repair. In some cases, additional charges might apply depending on how serious your tape or its cassette is damaged. Tapes that are unfixable will be returned to you without charge. Please note also that VHS tapes recorded in the "LP" mode often are unplayable after just a few years. You will be notified if we cannot convert your "LP" tapes.

Can you make my videos look better?

The quality of the DVD does depend on the quality of your video and the amount of video transferred to the DVD. Your videos will look much better after we convert them than they do when you play them back now. It is one of the advantages of the digital age.

Are there any minimum or maximum restrictions on the total length of my videos?

For a single DVD, 2 hours of video is the maximum a DVD can hold. If your tape is longer than that we just transfer to more disks, however many are required. We have yet to need more than 3. There is no minimum restriction.

Do you convert copyrighted material?

No, we cannot transfer any copyrighted works from pre-recorded tapes, unless you are the copyright holder or you produced the content. Content recorded from broadcast television is allowed, for private use only.

What do you mean by “an electronic document?”

An electronic document is a digital picture of the original paper document. When a piece of paper or photo is run through a scanner it makes an electronic image, similar to a digital camera which then can be saved in several ways, as a file on your computer or design to be part of another paper document or placed on a CD or DVD.

Do you store the documents on tape, CD, or DVD?

blue toad stores electronic documents on high quality CD-R media. The "R" stands for "recordable.” CD-RW (Rewritable) can be altered or erased, so it is not a good archive medium for either security or legal reasons. While we do offer DVD+R and DVD-R formats for special applications, blue toad does not recommend the DVD format for most document archiving at this time as not all customized DVD disks are usable in all DVD drives.

Are there any hardware and software requirements?

A computer with a CD drive capable of reading CD-R disks and imaging or document management application software. CDs can be formatted to be read by Windows, UNIX, Linux, OS/2, and Macintosh systems. We can provide the documents in a format that can be imported into your existing document management system.

What electronic formats do you offer?

blue toad offers a variety of formats including those listed below. If you don't see the format you need, please email us..

• Adobe Acrobat
• ASCII Text
• JPG, TIF, PNG, BMP
• Microsoft Office formats: MS Word, MS Excel
  

How many documents can fit on one CD?

Approximately 20,000 letter-sized, black and white pages will fit on a single CD. Color documents and photos can also be scanned to CD, but because they require more memory, fewer will fit.

Can I add notes to the scanned documents?

You cannot add notes directly onto the CD. By its nature it is a read-only medium. You can edit the documents once you copy them to your hard drive or other read/write media.

Do I need special training to use a document CD?

No special training is required to view or print the documents when using intuitive software such as Microsoft Office formats. Most computer users are able to get results in just a few minutes.

What if I want to add more documents to my blue toad CD that I had made last year?

If there is room, we can add to your existing blue toad CD.

What if I want another copy of my document CD later?

We can make multiple copies anytime as long as your blue toad CD is still in good condition.

What file format are the scanned pages?

blue toad offers many file formats, but as a default format we recommend Microsoft Office formats for most document storage applications due to its wide support by software developers, small file size, and ability to store multi page documents in one file. If you require a special format, just ask.

Do you OCR documents as well? Can you convert the scanned files in Microsoft Word® format? What is the accuracy?

blue toad does offer conversion of paper documents to editable file formats, called OCR or Optical Character Recognition. Accuracy is entirely dependent on the quality of the original. Expect average of 95-99% based on our industry experience. Documents with non-standard fonts, and documents with poor contrast due to similar colors of paper and ink, will probably require manual processing to improve accuracy.

blue toad will perform one-pass processing on most OCR jobs. One-pass means that there is one edit for correction of the document by blue toad. You would then take your file and use tools such as spell check to find any errors it may have, and adjust formatting for your printer or other final output.

What type of processing do the images undergo?

Images go through quality control for straightening, and visible flaw removal before being recorded to CD.

How much does converting paper documents to CD cost?

blue toad will call and email you before service begins if they note any anomalies that would impact costs posted the Documents page.

How do I make my documents "scan ready"?

"Scan ready" means all the staples and other paper fasteners have been removed from the files and the pages are not excessively wrinkled, torn or otherwise damaged. The files should also be separated and labeled in a way that is logical to you as that is how we will arrange them. We will assign a file name based on the label on the physical folder, unless you request something different. Each electronic file should contain no more than 100 images because of the limits of many computers' RAM memory prevents viewing of larger files. If a particular physical file is more than 100 pages or if there are more than 2 unique file names for each 100 pages if we will  manually assign file names.

If you wish, blue toad will prepare your documents for scanning, for a nominal fee.

Is there a minimum number of pages that I need to send to you to have my documents scanned?

There is no minimum number of pages; however blue toad does have a minimum charge. Our current minimum charge is listed on our costs spreadsheet on the Documents page.

How fast can we get our documents converted to CD?

Turn around time depends on the volume of documents, the level of service requested, advanced notice, the condition of the paper files, and our work in process. Contact blue toad if you have a time constraint.

Can you upload the image files to our server?

Our suggestion for this level of service is www.sageteknow.com