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One of the main benefits of digitizing your camcorder recordings and VHS home movies is that the content is much more sharable. You don’t have to send a physical copy of the video to your relatives and you don’t have to wait for them to visit to relive those memories. With just a few clicks on your computer, you can share family videos with almost anyone.
If our video transfer service digitized your videos and placed them on the cloud or on a USB thumb drive, there are multiple send them across the web to your family. Here are five ways to share these family videos and home movies with the people you want to share them with.
1. Create a Private YouTube Channel
It’s possible to share family videos and home movies on YouTube while still controlling who sees the content. You don’t have to make a public account or upload videos that anyone can see. Instead, consider making a private account just for your family. You can upload each video with settings that restrict access unless the viewer has a specific link.
YouTube is one of the most popular websites to watch videos. The average YouTube user spends 30 minutes at a time clicking on videos and exploring new content. More than 2.5 billion people access YouTube once a month – that’s more than half of the world’s population! This means that your relatives and their young children won’t have a hard time finding your content. You can share family videos with the next generation who spend more time watching YouTube videos than TV.
Facebook is another social media platform that most people are familiar with and have access to. This platform also comes with similar concerns as YouTube: how can you share family videos without everyone on the web seeing them? You have multiple options:
- You can restrict who sees your Facebook posts to share updates with a small group of people. This is ideal for sharing posts with only a few relatives.
- You can create a family Facebook group to share memories. This way all of your relatives can upload photos and share family videos with each other throughout the year.
- You can send a direct message if you want to share a home movie with a single person.
- You can create a group chat with multiple relatives to share family videos directly.
Each of these options allows you to share family videos easily and with a private group of people. You don’t have to worry about friends-of-friends seeing the content and commenting on it.
3. Upload Memories onto a Google Drive
If you already have a Gmail account, then you have a Google Drive. You don’t have to go through any additional set-up processes and instead can find these folders within your email interface. If you do not have a Gmail account then it is free to create one, which will give you access to the entire Google Suite of products.
There are multiple ways to share family videos through Google. You can store videos in your Google Drive or you can upload images to the Photos app. Google also owns YouTube, which means you can use your Gmail login to access your YouTube channel. You may decide to upload some videos to YouTube and keep others on your drive.
It’s also possible to make your Google Drive collaborative. Consider making a family email address (like JonesFamily @ gmail . com) that multiple people can access. This can turn your Drive into a hub for family history that can last for decades.
Another alternative to share your home movies is to use Vimeo. This is a competitor to YouTube where people can upload videos and store them for long periods of time. Just like YouTube, you can use the Vimeo settings to make sure all videos are private and access to them is restricted.
There are drawbacks to using this option. While you can use the Vimeo Basic plan, there may be some features on the site that you need a paid subscription to access. Additionally, Vimeo isn’t as well known as YouTube. Your relatives might have a hard time finding the videos unless you send them links directly. Consider talking with your family to see if this is an ideal option if you need a video platform.
5. Create a Family DropBox Account
Another option to share family videos is to invest in a DropBox account. Like Vimeo, this online option offers both free and paid subscriptions. The more you pay, the more storage you can enjoy. DropBox is used by businesses and individuals who need to share documents and files. While it is a useful place to store photos and videos, the storage options can be limited.
DropBox also isn’t the most social or collaborative system. This website is ideal if you want to make sure your relatives have digital copies of home movies that are organized and easy to access. You won’t get the social benefits of uploading the content to YouTube or Facebook where people can like and comment on specific memories.
Understand why you want to share home movies when you choose your platform. You don’t have to create a social hub if you are only looking for an online storage space for your content.
Digitize Your Videos With Memory Fortress Today
Digital videos are so much easier to share than old tapes and movie recordings. It only takes a few minutes to find the right memories and upload the content so your family can enjoy it. If you haven’t taken steps to digitize your home movies yet, now is the time to do so. Every year those VHS tapes will break down a little more. If you don’t store the videos properly, they could wear out and break – causing you to lose the memories forever.
Learn more about our process to digitize photos and videos, then start gathering your tapes. We can help you preserve these memories so you can share them with future generations.
We digitize everything right here at our facility in metro Atlanta, processed by US citizens.