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Converting your VHS tapes to DVD format is a big step. You are actively protecting your memories and ensuring they will be watchable for decades to come. Not only will this project free up storage space in your home, but you can feel more comfortable knowing your favorite home movies are safe. As you sort through your wedding videos, graduation footage, and other memories, make sure you are prepared to convert them to DVD format. Here are five things you need to know about the transition from VHS to DVD before you send us your memories.
1. VHS Tapes Break Down Over Time
The first thing you need to know about your VHS to DVD project is that your home movies might already have lost some of their quality. Most VHS tapes break down by 10 to 20 percent every decade. If you have home movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s, they are nearly 40 years old by now. Before you send us your VHS tapes, try to watch the footage to make sure you can still access the memories. There are multiple ways to watch VHS recordings before you send the tapes to our office. You also might need to repair some of your damaged VHS tapes to see if they will work again. We ask that you do this so that you know that the VHS tapes you ship to our offices are in good working order. Our team cannot enhance footage or repair broken tapes. We can only digitize existing recordings. By checking your VHS recordings beforehand, you won’t waste your time and money sending us broken tapes.
2. One DVD Can Hold One to Two VHS Tapes
The next thing you need to know about your VHS to DVD project is the storage capacity for DVDs. The average DVD can store 4.7 GB of data, which comes out to about two hours of home movie footage. The average VHS tape can hold between 60 and 180 minutes of footage with an average storage size of 120 minutes. This means that you can expect a new DVD for every two hours of video content you have recorded. As you evaluate the amount of VHS footage you have, decide whether your goal is to minimize the number of DVDs you need or to streamline the organization of your family memories. For example, if you have two videos that are shorter than an hour, you can combine them on one DVD. Alternatively, if you prefer to keep these memories separate, you can order multiple DVDs.
3. Your First DVD is Free
Our goal at Memory Fortress is to help customers preserve family videos and photos for decades to come. This is why we have some of the most competitive pricing on the market. As you plan your VHS to DVD project, know that your first DVD is free. We provide this as a gift to our customers as a way to thank them for trusting our services. Another thing to remember in regard to your VHS to DVD conversion budget is that the more VHS tapes you need to convert, the lower your per-tape cost will be. Our team has developed a sliding-scale pricing model where your project gets cheaper the more home movies you have. If you only have a few movies to convert, you can budget around $20 per tape to digitize. However, if you have more than 50 memories to digitize, your costs drop to $15 per tape. That is a 25% savings on your project!
4. You Can Also Save Your Memories in the Cloud
We are happy to help with your VHS to DVD conversion project and can transfer your memories to this hardware. However, know that there are alternative options for storing your video footage. For example, you can save your memories as MP4 files and receive them through the cloud. With this option, you won’t have to pay for DVDs and instead will only pay a small per-tape conversion fee. There are multiple benefits of saving your memories on the cloud instead of on hardware like DVDs. First, you don’t have to worry about the technology going obsolete. While DVDs replaced VHS tapes, streaming is replacing DVDs. It is getting harder to find DVD players and many TVs and computers no longer have DVD players built into them. By saving your memories in digital files, you will always be able to access them, no matter how technology changes. Once you have your memories saved digitally, you can decide whether you want to keep them on your computer’s hard drive (where you can access them without the Internet) or if you want to keep them stored online where they can be viewed on any device. Either way, you won’t have to always keep a DVD player in your home in order to watch your home movies.
5. We Return Your VHS Tapes After Scanning Them
If you are nervous about sending your memories to a digitization service instead of trying to do this yourself, do not worry. We have several policies in place to protect your footage and return your original VHS tapes to you. If you still have a VCR at home and enjoy watching family movies, you can keep the tapes and use your DVDs as backup files. If you no longer wish to keep your VHS tapes, you can dispose of them after we ship them back to you. Your tapes are completely safe as long as we have them. You only need to pack them up and ship them safely so the VHS to DVD conversion process can begin.
Start Your VHS to DVD Project Today
It doesn’t matter whether you want to save your home movies on DVD format or in the cloud, the main thing is that you move this footage off of your VHS tapes. Your memories will start to break down over time and they could get damaged if there is a fire, flood, or other emergency in your home. The sooner you start this project, the sooner you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with protecting your memories. Learn more about our process at Memory Fortress and start your order when you are ready. For only $29 down, you can take the first steps to digitize your files and preserve them for the future.