1. Use the equipment you have. If you are fortunate enough to still possess the equipment to play the video tapes, the equipment is functioning correctly, the tapes are in good condition, and you either don't mind the project taking a lot of your time or you just have a few tapes to digitize, you only need to spend between about $90 and $230 for the hardware/software to do the job.
*If there is mold on your video tapes, chances are they won't play. Even if you're lucky and they do, you will most likely ruin your player from playing any future tapes.
**If you have a large amount of pictures and/or slides to digitize as well that you are considering having a service do, you may still want to have them do it all, since the savings you'll get by doing videos yourself will be negligible, if any.
2a. Buy the minimal equipment needed. This is where you will be surprised to find out how units that were sold at garage sales for $7 or donated to the Goodwill are now fetching hefty prices. A decent VCR is $50 to $200 (VHS-C tapes require a $40 adapter), a good Video8/Hi8 camcorder can run you $120 to $240 (one compatible with Digital8 tapes also is $170 to $280+), and even MiniDV camcorders, younger than all but digital, are priced from $85 to $170.
Since these are all used units, you are forced into 'rolling the dice' as to whether they will work or not, and whether all the AV connector and power cables are included. To minimize tape damage and wear and tear on your players, it's a good idea to buy tape rewinders, which are $25 to $60+ for VHS, $50 to $150 for 8mm.
Add to this the $90 to $230 for the conversion hardware/software. *8mm Reel and Super8 Reel videos/movies (the really old ones), have the players and converter contained in one unit, but these cost between $250 and $400+.
*I know this seems obvious, but bear in mind if you have multiple video formats--VHS, VHS-C,Video8/Hi8, Digital8, MiniDV, and 8mm Reel--you will have to purchase players for each format. Most players are not compatible with other formats (some Video8 and Hi8 are the exceptions).
2b. Do it quicker, buy sufficient equipment to streamline the process. Contrary to photos, the reality with digitizing videos is, it takes a lot of time. A one hour movie takes one whole hour to process. For those of you who have 10-15-30 or more tapes to convert, reducing the processing time to something more manageable requires extra equipment. You should buy at least two or more of the various players and conversion hardware/software to set up multiple lines of simultaneous processing like the digitizing service companies.
As you can imagine, this is the priciest of all the options. A common example would be two Hi8 camcorders for $320, two video conversion units for $190, and an 8mm rewinder for $70, for a total of $580. That is considering only one format, and will still take a formidable amount of time to process a large volume of tapes!
3. Have one of the internet digitizing companies do it. You can find enough companies online to choose from that convert videos. Some are more expensive, some less, some are out of state, some local. In all of these cases, you will be required to ship your videos to the companies, and, more often than not, forced to wait out the lengthy turnaround times before getting them back.
4. Let Archive Moments handle your video conversions. Along with having very competitive prices for our services, we have turnaround times measured in days instead of weeks. We also don't require shipping your videos.
The processing can either be done in your home (depending on the number of videos, and if we're also doing your photos), you can drop-off and pick-up the videos from our Woodstock office, or you can use our pick-up and drop-off service to handle it for you. *Remember, we can rapidly digitize all of your photos too.
