If you have decided to digitize your old VHS tapes and camcorder recordings, you have multiple options to preserve your memories. You can, either on your own or through a video transfer service, turn your VHS tapes into DVDs or keep the content on your computer with USB drives and external hard drives. At Memory Fortress, we can also help you upload your memories onto the cloud so you can store digitized videotapes without taking up space.
Companies don’t make TVs with built-in VHS players anymore. If you recently upgraded your TV, you might not be able to play your favorite memories that were recorded in VHS format. Some people buy VHS players or try to play the videos off of their camcorders, but they don’t always have the right wires to make this happen.
You don’t have to worry about your memories getting locked away in old technology. We have multiple options for how to help you store digital videos in almost any format you want. Here are a few digital storage options to consider.
1. DVDs
One of the most common requests by customers who need to store digitized videotapes is to convert VHS tapes into DVD format. Many TVs come with DVD players and DVD drives are easier to find than VHS players. Additionally, many computers can play DVDs, which means you have multiple options to access the videos.
At Memory Fortress, we developed a sliding scale for pricing our digitization services. If you need a single VHS tape or camcorder recording turned into a DVD, we charge a flat fee of $20. The more content you need to digitize, the more money you can save. If you have 10 DVDs worth of content, you will only pay $18 per DVD. The price keeps dropping until you need more than 100 DVDs from our team, where you will only pay $14. Please keep in mind that we have a minimum order size of $99, to encourage customers to send in more of their memories at once.
Our sliding scale makes it affordable to digitize your memories all at once. You can pull together decades of recordings, family gatherings, and notable memories in one shipment. By sending us all of your recordings at once, you could save hundreds of dollars on your digitization project.
2. Flash Drives
Another way to store digitized videotapes is on flash drives. These are also called thumb drives or USB drives. These small drives take up less space than DVDs and provide a variety of storage options. When you want to watch one of your videos, you simply plug the flash drive into any computer that supports it (most do) and click on the content you want to see.
Flash drive prices are based on their storage options. When you go to an office supply store, you will see that smaller flash drives are pretty affordable and the price increases based on what they can hold. At Memory Fortress, our smallest flash drive option is eight gigabytes (8GB) and costs $12, fully loaded with your memories. You can also opt for flash drives that store 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, all the way up to 256GB. Our largest flash drive costs $65. All of them come loaded with your memories, organized the way you want.
For context, the average DVD has 4.7GB of storage space. It would take 55 DVDs to store the same amount of video information that our largest flash drive can hold. If you want to know how to store digital videos in a way that doesn’t take up space, consider opting for a flash drive.
3. External Hard Drive
Another way to store digitized videotapes is with an external hard drive. The internal hard drive is the brain of your computer. It stores all of the information it needs to run programs and respond to commands. It also stores your files, including everything you have saved on your desktop and in various folders. To take the pressure off your computer, many customers want external hard drives to store larger quantities of memories.
Your internal hard drive has limited storage space, and the more you download and save, the more your hard drive fills up. Some people use external hard drives to store extra information and large files – like digitized videos.
The external hard drives we provide to customers can hold one terabyte of data. One terabyte is made up of 1,000 gigabytes – more than four of our largest flash drives. It would take 213 DVDs to store the same amount of information as a single external hard drive.
If you are looking to store digitized videotapes and have several decades of memories to secure, consider selecting our external hard drive option. You can save significantly by opting for a hard drive instead of flash drives or DVDs.
4. The Cloud
There is one final storage option for people who want to know how to store digital videos without taking up space or clogging personal hard drives. The cloud refers to services that run across the web instead of on your computer. Most smartphone apps, for example, have some element of cloud storage or functionality.
Cloud content lives online, which means it can be shared across the web easily. If you want to send an old video to a relative across the country, it only takes a few clicks for them to access it.
Cloud storage is ideal because it doesn’t rely on physical technology, which could potentially become dated in the future. There was a time when your VHS tapes were considered high-tech. Even DVDs aren’t considered as modern anymore with the rise of video streaming.
When you store digitized videotapes in the Cloud, you can continue to access them online regardless of how technology changes in the coming years.
Store Digitized Videotapes with Memory Fortress
If you are ready to start your digitization project, start your order with Memory Fortress. For only $29 down, you can let us know how many VHS tapes and other recordings to expect. You can say exactly how you want the content stored and delivered to you. Let us help you preserve your memories for the future. Order today.
We digitize everything right here at our facility in metro Atlanta, processed by US citizens.