A few years ago I was cleaning out a cabinet and came across a pile of old Super 8 tapes, and I’ll never forget the way my mother’s face lit up after I digitized the wedding video of her late brother, Harold Jr. Sadly, he died in a car accident one week after the wedding.
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Those memories are precious, but when was the last time you watched your family’s old videos? With VHS, it can get a little tedious. To make matters worse, over the years, the tapes start to deteriorate a little.
Satish from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania My National Radio Show I asked him for help digitizing some old tapes, and it turned out he wasn’t the only one.
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Going the DIY route
To convert your VHS tapes to digital, you’ll need a VCR or VHS camcorder. If you don’t have one, try eBay, OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, or other local selling platforms. Also, make sure you set aside a few hours if possible, as you’ll need to transfer your VHS recordings in real time.
After that, you have two options.
Option 1: Get Converters like this one from Elgato It’s a converter that digitizes video to your computer. It plugs into a USB port and connects your analog video source (VCR, DVD player, DVR, or camcorder) using the included cable. The software bundled with the converter guides you through the process.
Both DIY conversion cards and professional services are valid ways to digitize your old VHS tapes. (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)
Option 2: try out Handheld Video Digital ConverterNo computer or software required, just connect your video source and insert a USB drive or SD card into the converter.[録画]Press a button and watch your movie being digitized in real time on the LCD screen. Awesome!
Get someone to do it
Costco, Walgreens and Walmart also offer tape transfers, with prices starting at around $20 per tape – not bad – and they’ll burn your VHS footage onto DVD and give you a digital copy as well.
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You could try some specialized services to do this for you, though they are expensive.
- iMemories: Starting at $29.99 per VHS tape.
- Legacy Box: Prices start at $60, and starter packs include up to two tapes or 50 photos (and hey, we found a 50% off sale on the website!).
- capture: Prices start at $29.99 per tape.
It will take time to get all this done
It helps to take it little by little: gather your tapes, get the equipment you need, and figure out what services to use. I upload my old digital videos to YouTube with a private link so I can share the link with family and friends.
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Bonus: Don’t forget your old photos
I’ve scanned a lot of photos in the past, but when I want to digitize prints that hang in someone’s home, this is a quick and easy way to do it.
PhotoScan by Google is a free app iOS and Android It scans your photo multiple times and stitches all the images together to remove glare and improve the final quality.The app can be used for matte and glossy prints, as well as photos in and out of albums.
VHS tapes aren’t the only things you should digitize: there are apps available that can scan old photos with little to no effort. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
Here’s how it works: You take one image, then follow the app’s prompts to take four more photos. PhotoScan then uses algorithms to detect and crop the photo, automatically detecting edges, correcting rotation, and correcting perspective to give you a front view.
- Open the PhotoScan app and place your phone over the photo.
- Tap the capture button to take a photo and it will be saved to your device.
- Move your phone so that the circle is on each of the four dots.
- Once your photo has been processed, tap on the photo thumbnail.
- Select photos to rotate, adjust corners, or delete.
You can then use Google Photos to store and organize your scans. From there, you can edit your images and share them with others. It’s that easy!
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