Archive IQ: Know What Is on Every Tape, Reel and DVD | Forever Studios
By Zachary G.
Archive IQ · only at Forever Studios
Know what is in the box before you press play.
Archive IQ is our own indexing service, built in-house and only available at Forever Studios. Add it to any tape, film or DVD order and every item comes back with a description of what is on it, up to 12 stills, its runtime and format, and a duplicate check.
Launch offer: Archive IQ is $25 per order for tapes, film or DVDs. Right now it is free with code ARCHIVEIQ, through October 15, 2026.
Last updated: September 2026
“I used Forever Studios to digitize some old Digital8 tapes and MiniDV items since I no longer have anything to play them on. The process took some time. But the output is great! They even made notes of everything found on each tape with screenshots so I could easily locate items.”
Wes Finley · Google review, September 2026
Wes wrote that before Archive IQ had a name. The part he singled out is the point of it: finding what you are looking for.
Quick answer
What is Archive IQ? Forever Studios' own indexing service, built in-house and only available here. Add it to a tape, film or DVD order and you get a written report that indexes the whole order: what is on each item, up to 12 stills from each one, runtimes and formats, a duplicate check, and notes that separate problems in the original recording from the transfer. It is $25 per order, however many items you send, and free right now with code ARCHIVEIQ through October 15, 2026.
What you get
What comes back with Archive IQ.
One report per order, delivered with your files. You will not find it anywhere else: Archive IQ is our own software. Six things in it:
01
What is on every tape, reel and DVD
A written description of each one, in the order things happen. Home video and recorded television are called out separately, and dates are noted when the camera printed them on screen.
02
Up to 12 stills each
Frames pulled from across each tape, reel or disc, start to finish, so you can see what it holds without pressing play.
03
Runtime and format
An inventory table of the whole order: number, runtime, format and a one-line summary. Video tape: VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Video8, MiniDV, Digital8 and DVCAM. Film: 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm. DVD: the video DVDs in your order.
04
A duplicate check
Whether anything was transferred twice, and when two items only look alike because the same event was recorded on both.
05
Picture and sound notes
Where the picture or sound has problems, the report names the item and says whether it comes from the original recording, so you are not left wondering about the transfer.
06
Plain answers on the hard ones
A blank tape is checked start to end and reported as blank. A tape, reel or disc that cannot be played is named, with the reason.
Why it helps
Why an index matters.
Tape labels are optimistic. A cassette marked Family Vacation can hold ten minutes of a beach and two hours of recorded television. Plenty of tapes have no label at all.
Once your tapes are digital, the files carry the same problem. A box of thirty tapes can run to sixty hours of video. Without an index, finding the first birthday means opening files one at a time and scrubbing through each one, however good the VHS, film or DVD transfer was.
Archive IQ does that work first. You read a page, look at the stills and open the file you were after. It is also a document you can pass around the family, so everyone knows what exists before anyone asks for a copy.
How Archive IQ is made
Every file is read
Runtime, format and a fingerprint of each transfer.
Stills are pulled
Up to 12 frames from across every tape, reel and disc.
Duplicates are checked
Fingerprints and content compared across the order.
A person reads it
Every report is reviewed at the studio before it is sent.
Archive IQ is software Forever Studios built in-house, and it uses AI. It runs after your tapes, film or discs are captured, takes in the notes our technicians made during capture, and writes the report from the files themselves. A person at the studio then reads every report before it goes to you.
It is a summary, and it says so. It tells you what is on each item and where to look. It does not list every minute.
Included on every order
Separate from Archive IQ: five checks on every order.
Archive IQ describes your collection. The transfer itself is handled by people, and every order gets the same five checks by hand, whether you add Archive IQ or not.
01
Receiving
Every item is inspected by hand and logged the day it arrives. Broken shells, snapped tape, brittle splices, scratched discs and mold are recorded before anything is played.
02
Technician
Reads the receiving notes, handles each item again and decides how to run it: which machine, and whether it needs a repair first.
03
Capture
The footage is watched while it captures. Tracking, dropouts and sound problems are logged, and a tape is often re-run on another machine to tell a worn tape from a deck issue.
04
Department lead
The technical lead for the department checks the finished capture. Anything wrong goes back to the bench.
05
QC department
A separate team checks the whole order before it is released: the files, audio levels, aspect ratio and anything left open in the notes.
Capture stations in the Forever Studios building.
Sample report
Flip through a sample report.
This is a complete Archive IQ report, all 11 pages, for a small sample order: the cover, a picture of every tape, what we found, the index, a page per tape and the closing notes. Yours comes with your files.
Swipe or scroll sideways to turn the pages, or jump straight to one:
About this sample
The pictures are frames from public-domain family home movies: the Clark Family Home Movies in the Orange County Archives, digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project. The order details are illustrative. We never publish customers' footage.
This sample is a tape order. Film and DVD orders get the same report, item by item.
Every report ends with this note
Note: Analog wear and environmental factors may result in tracking and playback issues. Color (chroma) signal loss, color-hue discrepancies, tape quality variations, test bars, and unused (blue tape) are properties of original video cassettes and analog recording devices. This is a summary and does not detail all tape and project information reviewed.
Pricing
Price and launch offer.
Price
$25
per order
One flat price for the whole tape, film or DVD order, whether you send five items or a hundred.
Launch offer
Free right now, through October 15, 2026.
Use code ARCHIVEIQ on any tape, film or DVD order placed by October 15, 2026. From October 16, 2026, Archive IQ is $25 per order.
Ordering by phone? Ask for Archive IQ and we will add it.
Archive IQ is available on video tape orders (VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Video8, MiniDV, Digital8 and DVCAM), film orders (8mm, Super 8 and 16mm) and DVD orders. It does not cover audio (cassettes, reels or CDs) or photos.
Want your files online too?
Pair it with Forever Cloud.
Forever Cloud keeps your finished files on AWS servers, so you can watch them on any device, download them as often as you like and share them with family. It is a paid membership, $60 a year, separate from Archive IQ and its launch offer.
More about Forever CloudQuestions
Questions about Archive IQ.
Is Archive IQ included with every order?
No. Archive IQ is an optional add-on, only available at Forever Studios: $25 per tape, film or DVD order, and free right now with code ARCHIVEIQ through October 15, 2026. The five hand checks are included on every order either way.
Who writes the report?
Archive IQ software that Forever Studios built in-house writes it, using the transferred files and the notes our technicians made during capture. A person at the studio reads every report before it is sent to you.
Does it list every minute?
No. It is a summary. The description follows each item in the order things happen and the stills run from start to finish, so you know what each one holds and roughly where to look. The report says this on its last line.
What does it cover?
Video tape: VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Video8, MiniDV, Digital8 and DVCAM. Film: 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm. DVD: the video DVDs in your order. Audio (cassettes, reels and CDs) and photos are not covered.
What if two of my tapes, reels or DVDs look the same?
The duplicate check compares every file in the order. The report tells you whether something was transferred twice, or whether two different items simply recorded the same event.
Can I keep my files online as well?
Yes, with Forever Cloud. It is a paid membership, separate from Archive IQ, that keeps your files on AWS servers so you can watch them on any device and share them with family.
Can I get Archive IQ anywhere else?
No. Archive IQ is software Forever Studios built in-house, and it is only available on Forever Studios orders.
Do you publish customers' footage?
No. The sample report on this page is built from public-domain home movies, and its order details are illustrative.
Start your order and add Archive IQ.
Free right now with code ARCHIVEIQ, through October 15, 2026. Then $25 per order.
Tell us what is in the box. A real person answers the phone, Mon‑Fri 9‑6, Sat 10‑5.
Mailing your tapes? Add a Home Ship Kit when you order.
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