VHS / Betamax transfer to disk or thumb drive recommendations-who, where, & how much?

[DaddyD]

My 86yr old father has probably 100+ tapes (mix of VHS, Betamax, and maybe even Super 8?) of family videos that I'd like to have transferred to either the cloud and/or a thumb or hard drive.

I've called two local places, and they quoted $20 per tape. That seems high to me, as I'm not asking them to do any editing or anything--just transfer the videos to a different format--so presumably they don't have to do much beside pop the tape in the player, hit play, and then record on their computer.

Anyone got any better (and by better I mean cheaper!) suggestions?

[Byte1]

Good question.

[Arctic Fox]

My 86yr old father has probably 100+ tapes (mix of VHS, Betamax, and maybe even Super 8?) of family videos that I'd like to have transferred to either the cloud and/or a thumb or hard drive.

You can get video tapes onto a DVD relatively easily if you have a DVD recorder (rather than just a player). Should be able to connect via RCA cables from one to the other.

[villagetinker]

No idea on the Betamax, as I have not seen these for a long time, however, there are sources for VHS/DVD player/recorder. In the simplest from, you insert a blank DVD disc, and the VHS tape, press a few buttons and walk away. The more complicated ones require a few more steps to finalize the DVD. If you have several tapes, this is probably the best solution. As for 8mm film, I have a projector and a copy kit (never used), but another villager recently used the projector and his own camera to copy films. Finally, if you can beg or borrow a Betamax player the previously mentioned VHS/DVD 'should' have RCA audio and video jacks as well as a way to select an external source, then using the same procedure for making the DVD. I have done all of these in the past, but currently I am short on time and cannot commit to do this. I may be able to loan out my equipment.

[retiredguy123]

You can buy a VHS to DVD recorder on Amazon. I don't know about Betamax or Super 8.

[Pinball wizard]

Digitize Home Movies, Photos, Slides & More with Legacybox(R) (http://www.legacybox.com)

[retiredguy123]

You can try Costco. Here is the link.

Video Transfer | Home Video & Photo Transfer | Costco Photo Center (https://www.costcodvd.com/services-and-pricing/videotape-transfer)

[hosegooseman]

I digitized all of our tapes on:

Digitize Your Home Videos, Film Reels, & Photos | iMemories (http://www.iMemories.com).

Pretty much any format to a digital device of your choice.

Not sure if cheaper but definitely very good. You can even keep the digital versions online too, if want that option.

[Berwin]

I saw a place on 441/27 in Belleview the other day coming back from a doctor appointment in Ocala. It's called Video Vault Productions and they do transfers like this. No idea of pricing or quality.

[RiderOnTheStorm]

My 86yr old father has probably 100+ tapes (mix of VHS, Betamax, and maybe even Super 8?) of family videos that I'd like to have transferred to either the cloud and/or a thumb or hard drive.

I've called two local places, and they quoted $20 per tape. That seems high to me, as I'm not asking them to do any editing or anything--just transfer the videos to a different format--so presumably they don't have to do much beside pop the tape in the player, hit play, and then record on their computer.

Anyone got any better (and by better I mean cheaper!) suggestions?

You can buy analog to digital converters for $150-200. Suggest a Google search. These units will usually take VHS, Beta, cassette audio tapes and vinyl discs and write the information to a DVD or memory stick. At 100+ tapes the costs for the VHS/Beta conversions would be about $1.50-$2.00 per tape. You could then convert all that vinyl as well. Good luck.

[Tyson]

They are the worst. I called them twice to get 8mm and VHS tapes transferred and never got a call back. Dont waste your time.

[garrykolb]

I used Digitize Home Movies, Photos, Slides & More with Legacybox(R) (https://legacybox.com/) and they did an outstanding job. Individual media is all barcoded and tracked. They send updates and progress emails regularly. All converted media is returned on a thumb drive - they offer other options as well.

They aren't the cheapest, but they provide an outstanding result and right now, they're having a Valentine's sale with major discounts. Sometimes, the cheapest solution isn't the best, and paying a little more for excellent outcomes is worth it.

[Nana2Teddy]

I digitized all of our tapes on:

Digitize Your Home Videos, Film Reels, & Photos | iMemories (http://www.iMemories.com).

Pretty much any format to a digital device of your choice.

Not sure if cheaper but definitely very good. You can even keep the digital versions online too, if want that option.

This is who I used too many years ago. They did a great job on 100+ VHS and Super 8 tapes. I chose to not get them on DVD as that’s outdated technology in my opinion. I asked for the digital versions on an external drive, but you have the option to download the file yourself from their site if desired. I also pay $50 annually to store them in the cloud at their site as an extra backup.

[rmagee]

My 86yr old father has probably 100+ tapes (mix of VHS, Betamax, and maybe even Super 8?) of family videos that I'd like to have transferred to either the cloud and/or a thumb or hard drive.

I've called two local places, and they quoted $20 per tape. That seems high to me, as I'm not asking them to do any editing or anything--just transfer the videos to a different format--so presumably they don't have to do much beside pop the tape in the player, hit play, and then record on their computer.

Anyone got any better (and by better I mean cheaper!) suggestions?


Video Doc Productions
Video Doc Productions | Video Tape Transfer and Conversion Services (http://www.videodocproductions.com)
1314 W North Blvd, Leesburg, FL 34748 · ~21.3 mi
(352) 728-0602

[genobambino]

About '20 years ago I bought a Samsung dvd player recorder with vhs. Just drop in the vhs tape and a cd and hit record, sounds simple enough, not. Problem was the dvd's wouldn't play on the same machine they were recorded on, or hardly any other dvd player, rarely on a computer. I think it was too many different formats of dvd's, I used the one's they recommended, but no luck. I want to transfer the tapes to a flash drive so I can play them on my big screen tv, hopefully those will play on anything.

[retiredguy123]

About '20 years ago I bought a Samsung dvd player recorder with vhs. Just drop in the vhs tape and a cd and hit record, sounds simple enough, not. Problem was the dvd's wouldn't play on the same machine they were recorded on, or hardly any other dvd player, rarely on a computer. I think it was too many different formats of dvd's, I used the one's they recommended, but no luck. I want to transfer the tapes to a flash drive so I can play them on my big screen tv, hopefully those will play on anything.
Note that flash drives have different formats also. You can check the format for a flash drive by inserting it into a computer, right click on the flash drive, and select "properties". If you are playing the flash drive on a device, you need to check the device specifications to see if it is compatible with the flash drive format. You can reformat a flash drive, but doing so will delete everything on the drive.

[Tunesmith]

My 86yr old father has probably 100+ tapes (mix of VHS, Betamax, and maybe even Super 8?) of family videos that I'd like to have transferred to either the cloud and/or a thumb or hard drive.

I've called two local places, and they quoted $20 per tape. That seems high to me, as I'm not asking them to do any editing or anything--just transfer the videos to a different format--so presumably they don't have to do much beside pop the tape in the player, hit play, and then record on their computer.

Anyone got any better (and by better I mean cheaper!) suggestions?

We are from a small town (population ~7000) in Wisconsin. At the local library they have a variety of equipment that I used to convert video tapes to digital format (for free). You might try checking the local libraries to see if they have something similar.

[retiredguy123]

About '20 years ago I bought a Samsung dvd player recorder with vhs. Just drop in the vhs tape and a cd and hit record, sounds simple enough, not. Problem was the dvd's wouldn't play on the same machine they were recorded on, or hardly any other dvd player, rarely on a computer. I think it was too many different formats of dvd's, I used the one's they recommended, but no luck. I want to transfer the tapes to a flash drive so I can play them on my big screen tv, hopefully those will play on anything.
When copying music and videos to CDs and DVDs, the most common and universal formats for blank discs are "CD-R" and "DVD-R".

[villagetinker]

About '20 years ago I bought a Samsung dvd player recorder with vhs. Just drop in the vhs tape and a cd and hit record, sounds simple enough, not. Problem was the dvd's wouldn't play on the same machine they were recorded on, or hardly any other dvd player, rarely on a computer. I think it was too many different formats of dvd's, I used the one's they recommended, but no luck. I want to transfer the tapes to a flash drive so I can play them on my big screen tv, hopefully those will play on anything.

This was a problem i had with mine, it turned out that I had to go back to the machine and preform s few steps to finalize the CD or DVD. For some reason these were MANUAL steps and were not completed automatically.

[newgirl]

Following

[Zincbemi]

Do you have a vhs player I could borrow or rent??

[rogerk]

I saw a place on 441/27 in Belleview the other day coming back from a doctor appointment in Ocala. It's called Video Vault Productions and they do transfers like this. No idea of pricing or quality.
Not sure about pricing anymore but they do a great job. I used them a 10-15 years ago and they were very reasonable and did an excellent job.