What Should You Do With Your Family Videos?
Let me guess: somewhere in your house is a box of family video tapes you haven’t watched in over 20 years or film reels you’ve never watched.
You are NOT alone.
Many people have old VHS tapes, miniDV cassettes, and even reels of film hidden away, and that makes us so sad. Think of all the magical moments and everyday loveliness trapped in those videos.
So now what?
My number 1 advice to people when they ask me about their old videos is “Get them converted ASAP.” There isn’t a single type of physical video (like VHS tapes, film reels, or miniDVs) that isn’t disintegrating as we speak.
So now is the time to take action to preserve your family’s video memories.
It’s Time To Convert Your Videos
Here at Good Life Photo Solutions, we love converting your old family videos to a more modern format so you can enjoy them again. If you are looking for someone to help you digitize your videos, here are a few questions to consider.
What Formats Can Be Converted?
Be sure that the conversion company can handle the format of your videos. At Good Life Photo Solutions, we convert common home movie formats such as VHS, VHS-C, Video 8, Hi 8, Digital 8, and MiniDV right in our local office. We have a partner who helps with film reels and more obscure video types. Make sure that your conversion company isn’t sending your film away without your knowledge.
What Format Do I Get Back?
You don’t want to accept random video formats. You want a file at this easily read on a variety of platforms. Good Life Photo Solutions delivers all videos as MP4 files with high-quality H.264 compression, which is industry standard and easily shareable.
Another consideration is how you will get your videos back. We do NOT deliver video files on CDs or DVDs. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that CDs are very vulnerable to breaking and corruption, and most homes don’t have a way to play them anymore. Good Life Photo Solutions delivers all files by digital download or on a USB or external hard drive.
How are Your Files Named?
Some conversion companies assign an inventory number to each tape, and that becomes the file name of your digital file. You end up with a folder of file names like 435.mp4, 436.mp4, and 437.mp4, which really isn’t helpful when trying to find the video of your daughter’s 1st birthday.
At Good Life Photo Solutions, we use clues from the tape box, the tape itself, and the video to come up with a customized name for each video. Using a standard naming convention, a tape marked 1987 Easter at Grandma’s would be named 1987-04 Easter at Grandmas.mp4. The great thing about this is you can now search for all the videos of Easter at one time. Is this part of your conversion company’s service?
What about Blank or Junk Tapes?
It’s important to understand the conversion company’s policy on blank tapes or tapes with non-family videos, like your college-era tape of 5 episodes of Beverly Hills 90120.
When we get a new batch of videotapes, we will quickly preview each tape, and if it’s blank, we set it aside and don’t charge you for it. The same is true for tapes with TV shows and movies. Because of copyright laws, we do not convert commercial videos like TV shows. Most of those are available elsewhere digitally anyway.
So what are you going to do with your family videos? We truly hope you dedicate some time to having them converted so your family can enjoy them again.
If Good Life Photo Solutions can help with your family movies, please reach out. We’d love to talk to you about your precious film memories.
About the Author
Andi Willis started Good Life Photo Solutions after searching for photos of her late father and realizing how easily a family’s memories can slip away. Now a Certified Professional Photo Organizer with more than 15 years of experience, she helps families across the country bring order to overwhelming photo chaos and preserve the stories that matter most. She works from Smithfield, Virginia.
If your own photos feel like too much to face alone, that is exactly the kind of puzzle we solve.
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