Do you have vacation home movies sitting in a pile at home? You could transfer them to a digital format for easy viewing and editing but where do you start? I recommend a professional digital transfer service. In the long run it should save you time, money, and energy – and it should give you a higher quality digital video. Read on.
Packing the family camcorder is often at the top of many a vacation checklist. But will the new vacation videos end up on a shelf with all of those older vacation videos? Just the thought of going through all of those VHS and Super 8 movies can produce anxiety. Sadly, these older movies and videos are recorded on media that can – and will – lose quality over time.
To save as much quality as possible we will need to transfer these older videos and films to safer formats before it is too late. DVD VHS and Super 8 film all provide different benefits but the format that is now most reliable and easiest to watch in our homes is DVD. It is definitely a good idea to transfer the images from the older media to DVD or - even better - to digital files, which can be copied to DVD.
Rather than do the digital transfer oneself, I suggest a trusted and professional digital transfer service. A seasoned transfer company, while possibly more expensive in the beginning, can make the process much easier, more efficient, and save you money in the long run. One of the first questions to ask is, “Do you want your home movies to be digitized to DVD or do you want them to be digitized to an external hard drive or a data DVD so that you can edit the images?” If it’s to go straight away to DVD then one of the less expensive services is your best choice. Home Movie Depot and Yes Video are known for converting to DVD for some of the most economical rates. At the end of the day you receive a DVD that will play in your home DVD player or your DVD/VHS combo machine.
As I mentioned earlier, if you want to edit your digital movies, you are going to need to convert the videos to an external hard drive or several data DVDs as high-quality uncompressed files. Home Movie Depot provides this service as well as their direct transfer to DVD service. There are also companies that utilize even more advanced tech and the results are amazing. Some companies even use equipment that is used in feature film post-production so you know that the quality is going to be incredible. Some of the best transfer houses can even correct photographic errors in the original media when it is converted to digital. The better the tech, the more expensive the digital transfer.
So now you have some guideposts to help map your journey in preserving your family’s video treasures. If you need more info, please contact me (see below) and I will be happy to help you further. Be patient and diligent and you will reach your goal. Good luck!
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