I realized I have a bunch of family movies on 8mm video as well as some transferred to VHS. I no longer have a VCR or the video camera that makes the 8mm movies. Then there are the old home movies my mom wants me to take, I guess along with old projector, which is not happening.
Part of me doesn’t even really care but then I guess it would be fun to see some of them. And I would feel guilty about just tossing them out!
I guess I should have them transferred by some kind of service? Ideally, I would want to edit them myself I think. Has anyone done this recently? Any advice?
Back in 2007 we bought a machine from Costco that coukd transver VHS tapes to DVD. It wasn’t expensive but the process was time consuming. And before I knew it, ten years had passed and I hadn’t finished the task.
There are companies out there that can digitalize and transfer old tapes to DVD. Costco has one such service. There are a number of others. The problem with these services is that they require you to ship your original tapes and film, and trust that the task will be done correctly, and that your treasures will be returned to you. These services are also really expensive if you have more than a few transfers to do.
A year ago a neighbor was asking for the same recommendation on a neighborhood Facebook group, and low and behold, a local teenager had started a transfer business that was highly recommended. Over the course of five months, she and her brother transferred a hundred old tapes of ours to both DVD and to a digital platform where we could download them to a hard drive. It was quick and cheap, and our old tapes didn’t need to be mailed anywhere.
I’d suggest you ask around locally.
Also, if anyone has a kid with an entrepreneurial spirit, this is a need that is begging for solutions. These local teens are running a really good business out of their house.