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.

It’s a serious responsibility to be entrusted with your irreplaceable home movies, photos, slides, audio and other precious media. So we can sleep better at night, we live by 10 safety procedures – some of which may surprise you (play video below).

Handing over your precious irreplaceable home movies to a stranger is a very scary prospect. What if it gets damaged, lost, or mixed up with another customer’s media. It’s unthinkable.

For us at Play it Again Video, it’s a serious responsibility. So we can sleep better at night, we live by 10 safety procedures we’ll show in this video. Our target? Zero Loss, Zero Damage, Zero Mix-Ups .

1. We do the work on-site

We do not ship your precious media out of town, out of state, or out of country. Your precious media stays in the building until you pick them up.

2. We are insanely organized

Each order goes into a separate bin on designated shelves to prevent mix ups.

3. We tag and ID every item

Every item is tagged with a unique job# and item number. Even if your tape gets separated from its job bin, we know where the tape belongs to.

4. We track every job with a unique barcode

Orders are tracked with a unique barcode. They are scanned as they progress from one station to the next. A system of alerts raise red flags if a job is not moving along for any reason.

5. This may surprise you. We have no unlidded exposed trash bins

We process hundreds of jobs a week. Do you know how easy it is for your precious media to accidentally leap into an open receptacle? So, lids on all exposed waste baskets.

6. We count over and over again

We count when you drop off your tapes, we count when the lab starts to work on your job, we count before you pick them up. We want to make sure you get back ALL of what you dropped off and none of what somebody else dropped of.

7. We don’t allow open beverage containers

All of our staff members drink from cups with lids and bottles with caps. You will find no open beverages here.

8. We protect your fragile media with extra care

Loose slides, SD cards, hard drives, fragile photos – we protect them all with extra care .

9. Pick-up bags are labeled clearly

Completed jobs are put in clearly-labeled, bags with barcodes to prevent mix ups.

10. Are these yours?

When you pick up your order, we show you the tapes, reels or slides to confirm that they are yours (and nobody else’s).

Here are the basic steps to convert your VHS to DVD. It’s part 2 of a 2-part series. Click here for Part 1 – How to set up the VHS to DVD transfer equipment :

Step 1. Connect the TV screen to the converter deck so you’ll be able to see the controls and monitor the video transfer as it progresses.

Step 2. Dust off your tapes, flip the lid (press the small button on the side) to make sure the video tape is still attached.  After careful inspection of your tape, put your tape on the VHS tape holder of your video to digital converter deck and close it.

Step 3.  Insert a reputable and reliable brand WRITABLE DVD (we use Verbatim -R) onto the DVD holder of the converter deck.

Step 4. Review your VHS or VCR tape so you know where you want to start the video transfer.  The first few seconds of tape is usually static blue zig-zag screens, forward your tape past that before you start the video transfer.

Step 5. Forward the video tape to the end so you know how much video is on it.  For example, most tapes are 2 hours long, but only partially filled with video.  If your video is only 34 minutes long and you let the recording continue until the end of the tape, you will have about an hour and a half of black screen.

Step 6. Press Copy or Record on the converter to start the copying.  Start your timer to the length of the video (e.g. 34 minutes in Step 4).

Step 7.  As the converter deck transfers your tape to digital signals, monitor with the attached TV screen that 1) the video is clear  2) the sound is clear and 3) the video and sound SYNC up.  If you see any zig zag static going across the screen, adjusting the tracking often helps.

Step 8.  When your timer rings, stop the recording.

Step 9.  Finalize your DVD.  This is a step that novices forget often.  If you don’t finalize your DVD, you will be able to play it on the VCR player that you used to transfer the video, but that unfinalized DVD will not play anywhere else.

Step 10.  Test out your DVD.  Do not pass your DVD to friends or family without first testing your DVD on at least 2 different player: your computer, or your DVD player in the living room.

Your VHS tapes, VCR tapes, 8mm tapes are at least 10 years, many are 20 years or older.  It’s important that you don’t take any short cuts like not inspecting and dusting off your tapes.  It’s important that you use high-grade equipment to maximize the digital output of your aging home media.

If you decide it’s not worth the money and time investment to set up the gear and learn the process, you have another alternative: video transfer service.  At Play it Again Video, we’ve been transferring video – VHS tapes, VCR tapes, Hi8, 8mm film, Super 8 and 16mm film – since 1986.  We’ve gotten very efficient at it so we are able to charge only $20 a tape.  If the video on your tape is over 1 hour, it’s $5 more.  20 tapes or more, you get a volume discount.  Because we do all our work in-house, our turnaround is very quick.

You live in America, so anything and everything can be “Do it Yourself”. We even create a name for it: DIY.
Want to convert your VHS to DVD yourself? All you need is the right gear, some technical knowledge, and the standard requirement of DIY projects: Patience and Willingness to Learn.
First, you need to decide if you are converting your VHS tapes to DVD or to a digital computer file. If you are not sure which way suits your needs, check our video tutorial. The steps below are to transfer VHS to DVD. First, you need to set up your gear, you will need:

1) a Video Converter Deck to convert the analog (your VHS or VCR tape) to digital signal

2) a small TV screen to hook up to the Video Converter Deck so you can see the video

3) cables to hook all the components up

4) a VHS cleaning tape to clean the video converter deck. Your tapes are probably at least 20 years old. Without applying the cleaning tape after every couple tapes, you risk ruining your expensive Video Converter deck.

5) DVD Blanks

6) Printer that can print on DVD blanks – got to have a way of labeling your DVDs or you won’t know what video’s on it. Never use stick-on DVD labels – they peel, blister, and cause imbalance when the DVD rotates at high speed.

For the basic steps to convert your VHS to DVD with the setup above click here.