What's the best way to convert family photos and videos to digital ?
 

hi,

i was helping me parents do some spring cleaning over the last few weeks
we found a lot of old VHS, video cassette's, photo negatives and we decided to convert these to digital and DVD before they deteriorate any further

so i was hoping that ye guys could advise me on what machines will allow me to do this and what kind of standard they will produce

i wouldn't have any knowledge on this area so any assistance would be greatly appreciated,
thanks

In North America, I believe it is common to see advertisements by photo stores to convert a shoe box full of negatives to digital, for about $99. Perhaps that is an option for your locality.

For converting a lot of VHS tapes, hiring a service is probably too costly. Depending on how much quality matters to you, there are a range of options. I've been able to buy enough equipment for <$100 to do it myself, and I even have one of the VCR's this site recommends, plus an extra quality option called a TBC. However, I'll let others respond in more detail. They will probably suggest a quality-minded approach which would require an investment of a few hundred USD.

To put it simply however, you need a VCR and a capture device. You may wish to add to that a device called a TBC as an extra quality option. The status of the tapes themselves make a difference. If they are in very good shape, you will have less trouble getting good results. If they have some problems, the investment in more expensive equipment will give you good results.

There is also the investment of time. You can spend some days learning the process. If there are problem tapes, they will require extra time to learn the skills to give good results. Some people have found this an enjoyable hobby in fact.

In order to do a high quality job of video conversion, you're really looking at
- a couple thousand dollars in hardware and software,
- countless hours of time,
- and working your way through a learning curve that could take weeks, months or even years.

That's why using a quality service is suggested, when you have 50 or less tapes to be archived, and quality matters.

For scanning negatives, there's no easy way to do this at home. Your best bet it to send them to a service that both cleans the negatives, and the them on a drum scanner, and using ICE to remove dust/scratches. It won't get any better than that.