Most customers bring in their VHS tapes of their own personal memories and experiences. Weddings, family gatherings, their kids playing and learning together, just to name a few. Every so often, we will get an occasional customer who wants to digitize a commercial, Hollywood movie. They love the movie and want to continue watching it, but like many people nowadays, don’t own a VCR anymore.

So the big question is, is it legal to copy this type of commercial VHS tape to a DVD? If the answer “Yes” applies to all 3 criteria below, then it is 100% legal to digitize the VHS.

1. The VHS is not available on DVD. By this point a majority of well known movies are available on DVD. However, every so often you will find one that has not been converted and distributed on digital formats yet. There is a variety of reasons as to why. Maybe the movie is lesser known, or there hasn’t been a huge demand for the DVD version. Regardless, it is important to search online and offline to see if it is available. For example, did you know that Casablanca is not only available on DVD but comes in different versions that each have unique features such as a black and white version, a color version and a 70th anniversary version. Any of these versions could be found in the $20 price range, which is around how much you’d actually pay to transfer the VHS to DVD. For that same price, you’ll be getting the full studio-mastered DVD production with its graphic case insert.

Casablanca, and many other Hollywood films are already available on DVD

2. You actually own the VHS and you didn’t borrow it from a friend, taken if out of a library or borrowed it from the school you go to. The ‘Fair Use’ provision states that if you personally pay for something, you have the right to continue using it. Simply put, since technology has changed, and there are a limited number of VCR players available, you rightfully have the choice to change with technology so that you can continue viewing what you originally paid good money for.

3. You have decided to digitize your VHS tape for either personal or educational use. You’re not planning on turning your VHS tape of “Citizen Kane” or “Ben Hur” to DVD so you can sell it on eBay are you? That’s illegal and the main reason we can only make one DVD copy of your tape.
If you have answered “Yes” to all three conditions listed above, bring your tape over to us. Get your tapes digitized because VHS tapes degrade and become unwatchable.

Take a look at our official VHS to DVD copyright policy, you may find it helpful.

If you have any further questions about digitizing your tapes, feel free to give us a call at 617-332-3300. We look forward to hearing from you.

After you transfer your VHS tapes to DVD or to computer files, what to do with those space-consuming boxes of old video tapes?Most of our customers digitize their VHS tapes so they can toss those bulky tapes out.

Before you get rid of your tapes, check the DVD and computer files that replaced your tapes. Reputable video transfer service have quality checks when they transfer your old home movies, but you still want to make sure the DVDs or computer files work at home. You don’t want to find out those DVDs don’t work AFTER you discard your home movies.
Backup your DVDs or the portable hard drive your converted the VHS tapes to. In a sense, the old video tapes acted as a backup in case your DVD discs break or the hard drive crashes. But you won’t have that backup anymore if you throw them away.

When you are ready to dispose of your video tapes, you have several options:

1. Sort through your tapes for rarities, e.g. Gone with the Wind, Charlie Chaplin and put them on eBay or Amazon marketplace. You won’t find a big demand for them but the occasional collector do seek out these classics on tape for one reason or another.

2. Next stop is the nearby thrift store or local library. They may still take commercial tapes like Hollywood movies or how-to videos. You will be surprised how many senior citizens out there are still holding on to their VCR players.

3. Offer your VHS tapes to Freecycle and hope someone wants them.

4. At Recycle This, some suggested making scarecrows with the fluttering, black tape to scare birds out of your garden. The plastic housing can be tossed into your standard recycle bin.

5. If nobody wants your tapes, contact Green Disk. They will dispose of your outdated electronics including VHS tapes for $6.95 for a 30 pound box – that’s a lot of tapes.
Whatever you do, don’t just trash them and add to the landfill. The contents of CDs, DVDs, VHS and more can be toxic to the environment and the plastic casing can take hundreds of years to decompose.

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“A good planet is hard to find” – motto from GreenDisk.

I am often curious what triggers families to finally take that step to transfer their aging old home movies media. So when a customer came in today with a box of VHS tapes to transfer to DVD, I asked.

Her explanation was different from the usual ones I’ve heard. She said, “Well, I thought that if I wait, the price to transfer VHS to DVD will drop, but since I checked 10 years ago, video transfer prices actually went up.”

Even if prices will drop, the best time to get the best, sharpest transfer quality from your VHS/VCR tapes, 8mm, miniDV tapes is: Yesterday. Because VHS/VCR tapes have a shelf life. But for her, more importantly, video to digital transfer prices actually do not drop, they only go up. Here’s it will cost you a lot more to transfer your home movie tapes to DVD or to computer files the longer you wait.

Reason #1 – Video transfer equipment is becoming less and less available.  Already, certain types of transfer equipment that our labs prefer – the 8mm tape player walkman, for example, have stopped production.  Our lab manager had to scour the web for stores that might still carry it as we can no longer purchase them from the manufacturer.

Reason #2 – With age, one of several bad things can happen to your VHS tape: the tape ribbon becomes fragile with age and can detach from he plastic housing, tear, ripple.  If that happens, your VHS to DVD transfer cost will not be a mere twenty something dollars.  It costs $25 to $45 to repair a tape – assuming it can still be repaired.

Reason #3 – Editing costs required to restore image quality.    It is more than tongue-in-cheek that professionals refer to the VHS tape as a ‘Ribbon of Rust“.  The iron particles on the magnetic tape shift with time, subject to the  magnetic forces around it, including the Earth’s natural magnetic fields.  Over time, static lines, and noise drop-outs appear.  It is very expensive to restore this kind of video, if at all possible, to its original quality.

Reason #4 – Fewer video transfer labs.  As the supply of old audio/video media dries up, fewer and fewer businesses will be around to offer video transfer services.   A few years ago, it is common to find video transfer services at photo labs stores.  Where are the photo labs now?  They are all gone.  Almost overnight, you went from finding a video transfer service in every city, to finding only a few in the state.

Reasons #5 – Increased Labor.   As fewer and fewer video transfer labs exist, you will find fewer and fewer experienced video transfer technicians.  You know what happens when a service becomes ‘niche’, it becomes more expensive, not cheaper.

So, you can be 100% sure, that while waiting may serve other purposes, it will not save you money.  The cheapest time to transfer your VHS/VCR tapes to DVD is also: Yesterday.  If you live near Newton, MA, you can call us, we are still around.  We plan to be the last one standing, to rescue that last VHS tape out there.

It is no secret that VHS/VCR tapes have passed their prime in the audio-video timeline, but you might still be holding on to the nostalgia or just have been too busy to transfer your home videos over to DVD. After all, it isn’t like a VHS tape has an expiration date, right?

Wrong. VHS Tapes do have a shelf life. Here are six bad things that can happen to your vhs tapes.

1. Mold
Very few families would suspect that what looks like a chunk of plastic could be a breeding ground for mold. Spots with white powder or dust could be destroying your cherished memories and videos as you are reading! A touch of mold powdering can be cleaned from VHS tapes, but if not caught soon enough it becomes thick white confectioners-sugar-like coating on your magnetic tape ribbon. If that happens, you will not find a video transfer lab that would be willing to risk their equipment to run your tapes to convert them to DVD.

2. Tape Warping
Extreme temperature changes over time can cause serious damage and warping to the magnetic ribbon in the video tapes. Warping causes image disruption and static noise. Beyond a point, the tape ribbon is too warped to run smoothly in the tape player.

3. Sticking
Along with extreme temperature changes air quality can be a major factor in your VHS memories’ shelf lives! Humidity can be the kiss of death for your recorded wedding vows, causing the tape in VHS housing to stick together. Over the years, we have received a couple of hockey pucks that were once loose reel of tape.

4. Tape Detaches from Housing
Tapes become fragile with time. Over the years, the multiple rewinding takes a toll on the tape and its housing case! There is a chance that the tape could detach from the housing making it impossible to rewind and watch your favorite family memories and firsts. This one is actually easily reparable. Most video transfer lab has knowledgeable technician that has the fine tools to unscrew the housing, re-attach the tape the the mechanism and screw it back again. Once repaired, transfer it immediately.

5. Housing Cracks or Housing Mechanism Jams
If you had children or were a young child in the VHS era, you might remember the beating your old VHS tapes have taken over the years. They have been dropped, thrown, and stepped on – ok, your family home videos probably didn’t receive the same treatment as the kids’ favorite Disney movies. Still, simply watching, rewatching, and rewinding puts wear and tear on the housing case of your VHS tapes. It’s not indestructible. A cracked case could jam the housing mechanism, causing it to jam in the player.

6. Shredded Tape

VHS video tape is fragile and with temperature changes, humidity, and wear and tear the tape can tear. Needless to say, once your video tape is shredded it is beyond the point of repair and your recorded memories have “gone with the wind”.

Even though your VHS has no expiration date printed on it, you can see how it definitely has a shelf life. Your cherished memories could be lost due to a number of reasons. So what is that shelf life? 10 years? 20 years? VHS tapes stopped being used in the 90s. Time flies when you are not watching it. This is the year 2013, which makes your tapes are likely to be 15-20 years old. And the best time to transfer your VHS/VCR tapes to DVD or to other digital format? Yesterday. Don’t wait any longer, your kids and their kids are counting on you to safe their family home movies.