Time is NOT on your side.
Those of us who grew up in the 80's and 90's likely have boxes full of old home movies and video tapes that we've inherited from our parents. Think camping trips, birthday parties, sports and band concerts! But did you ever stop to think that one day, those tapes may not even work or be viewable? (Gasp!)
Unfortunately, while those boxes of tapes are sitting in your attic or basement, they are combating years of environmental damage and deteriorating at a rapid rate. In other words, they are "aging out". Not to mention, VCRs are almost non existent these days! This type of damage can be found in most video formats, including; VHS, VHC-C, Mini-DV, Betamax, PAL, Digital 8 and Hi8. Audio tapes included!
How to identify damage:
To truly know if your tapes and media are salvageable, first look for visible damage on or inside the cassette. Check the magnetic tape itself to see if there is cracking, wrinkles will appear as noise and static on the image so be very careful during the inspection. If the tape is broken, we can splice the tapes together, Tape Repair Infor Here. Any visible mold, or powdery mildew on the tapes make those tapes useless to copy or convert.
If you don't spot any problematic signs, your tapes are likely in decent shape. However, there is still a possibility that invisible damage can be exposed once we play a tape using our equipment.
"Drop outs" were a common problem back in the day, and those are simply the magnetic material coming loose from the tape and falling off. Other invisible problems could be in the form of Magnetic damage- storing the tapes on the TV where heat from the Tv or magnets slowly degrade the image quality. Speaking of magnets- and magnet will damage the tapes, again no way to see this until the tapes are played.
Sometime we have issues of the original recording head not being aligned correctly and there are lines or waves in the playing tape. There is little we can do to remove or correct these issues.
If the tape plays well in our video studio, your home movies can successfully be converted to digital format. Our experts will transfer your home movies and videos to .MP4 (H.264) file format so you can view them on a variety of TVs, computers, tablets and devices.
Each DVD can hold up to 2 hours of video, If your total video length is longer than 2 hours, it will be split onto 2 DVD's and be billed as a new DVD. If your tapes are less than 2 hours, we could put up to 4 different videos on the same DVD, as long as you put them in the order you want, and each tape is less than 30 minutes. Some simple editing is allowed.
Converting you tapes to a memory stick will allow you to hold more, possible several hours. But make sure you backup any digital image, since like magnetic media, digital media is not permanent and can degrade or forget over time.
Use the order form in the right column or bring your tapes in so we can evaluate and quote you accurately. It is always a good idea to put them in chronological order and make sure that they are just home movies and not pre-records TV, sports shows or movies.
Sorry, we will not copy any copyrighted materials without written permission form the copyright holder. Federal law prohibits us from copying copyrighted videotapes and music without express written permission. So basically any TV broadcasts, movies, football or other professional sporting events cannot be copied. Not sure, call us and we will let you know
We can even make copy slides, prints and negatives and save them on a DVD. Call us today for details, prices and turn around times: 864-583-6835.
Use this order order form for VHS & Tapes to Digital