Why Should I Convert My VHS Tape To Digital

Why Should I Convert My VHS Tapes to Digital?
Posted by thevideoeditor.com
Respond The Video Editor 4500 Macarthur Blvd. Suite 500 Newport Beach [phone]
You might have just done some house or garage cleaning and discovered boxes of old media and videotapes gathering dust or perhaps you took possession of your parent's old home movies, films, photos, and tapes and you’re thinking of getting them digitized.
You have a neighbor who had a digital transfer service done and they can’t stop talking about how great it is. Well, beyond the obvious, you can’t watch your old analog VHS tapes anymore because you have no working VCR, why should you convert VHS tapes to digital? Like dinosaurs, record players, VCRs, and VHS are obsolete and extinct. Videotapes have a 20-to-30-year life expectancy; I would bet your tapes are well beyond that timeline. Transferring and converting VHS tapes is only logical. Here are a few more reasons.
#1 It Makes Sense
What are you going to do with the media? You’ll kick yourself later for throwing them out or ignoring them. It’s finally beginning to dawn on you that you can’t pawn this chore off to someone else, that you must step up and begin the process. The biggest obstacle is the beginning. You can envision this costing thousands of dollars, or hundreds of hours of your time if you tackle this yourself.
It is human nature for people to make the project bigger and more difficult because in our minds we come up with roadblocks and unanswered questions that stall us. To get this project started adopt Nike's famous marketing slogan, “just do it.” Stop procrastinating, just do it.
You should know that commercial store-bought VHS tapes, like Disney movies, are copyrighted. Many have a copy guard signal embedded within the tape which prohibits illegal copying and transfers. Professional video transfer companies will not even attempt to convert them, the fine is upwards of 250,000 dollars and the FBI is involved.
#2 They Don’t Get Better with Age
Tapes are not fine wines that can sit for years and become better tasting and more valuable with time. Your videotapes whether VHS, VHS-C, MiniDV, 8mm video, or hi8 are old analog magnetic tapes. With every viewing, (that is if you can watch them), the magnetic particles on the tape come off little by little causing dropouts and static and pops in the video and audio. The life expectancy of a video or audio tape has run out. Ignore this fact and the media continues to degrade even if you don’t view them.
By thevideoeditor.com
Years of dust, temperature extremes, humidity changes, and moisture can lead to damage like dangerous mold, showing up on the top of the tape, seen when looking through the VHS windows. If the tape plays it is releasing the highly dangerous mold particles into the air. If we spot mold on tapes, we will refuse the transfer. Dying before our time is not cool.
#3 Tips to Digitize Your Old Tapes
Given the fact that you have photographs, films, and tapes, here are some tips to digitize your old tapes. Organize as best as you can, gather all similar items together, photos and slides together (organize by dates if possible). Next move on to organizing home movie reels again by dates if known. (an inside tip: organize and group similarly looking reels Yellow boxes, blue reels, etc.) Gather the VHS together; bunch the other tapes by size or dates.
#4 Research
Now that your media treasure trove is organized, approach a photo scanning service and video transfer service company. Tell them what you have. Our company offers a free consultation to tell people what they have and to quote a price. For companies and individuals that are not local to us, we can estimate by looking at photos of the media.
Length in business, types of equipment the company has, how trained are the staff, turnaround time, and of course pricing and a guarantee to stand behind their work are some of the things to evaluate a video transfer service.
#5A Viewing and Sharing
Another reason why you should convert your VHS tapes to digital is the ability to now actually watch 40 to 60-year-old movie reels or videotapes. You no longer have to hunt down an old projector or VCR or buy someone’s tired machine. Videotapes, films, and photos are converted digitally. No longer will the picture or audio degrade, it is now a stable digital file. Once you digitize an image it is now a .jpg image that can be viewed and emailed, printed out, and more. Not only will a photo scanning service scan slides and photos but they will convert your films and videotapes regardless of format to digital. Films and videotapes are converted to .mp4 video files.
Your entire media library can be stored in one of three ways. One option is in the cloud, Google Drive, or other services for a fee will store and maintain your files. Most people also order a USB thumb drive. Another option is data discs like DVD.