Which service provider to use to fix a VHS tape?
 

Hello to all, I am new here so please be gentle. I have been doing some reading on another forum (VideoHelp) and was led to this site and forum. I was told to try to talk to Lordsmurf but after reading his entry about himself I figured I would just come in here and give it a try.

I have a very valuable (to me) vhs tape that was made back between 1985 and 1990. It contains a significant portion of my and my wife's life. There are people in it that are no longer with us. So, with that in mind, I will ask my question. I live in Huntington Beach Ca. and I want to take the tape to someone that is reliable to have a good copy made of it and possibly have it transferred to dvd. This whole thing started with me trying to make a copy to dvd back in 07 and when I finally tried to play it, it was not good. So that brings me to this point. I hope that someone who may live in my area has some firsthand knowledge of who to take/send it to for what I need done.

I will now sit back and wait for an answer. Hopefully. Thanks for your patience,

Ray

best to have the site staff here do it:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/services/v...ape-to-dvd.htm

Thanks for the help. I should have been able to figure that out. Oh well................I'm old.

Ray

Never an issue at this site. :congrats:

We handle important tapes all the time, just like this.

When sending a tape in, there's really only 3 rules:

1. Have it in transit as least as possible. Overnight is great, but 2-3 days is suggested. Nothing slower. Slow mail gets lost.
2. Use a small but sturdy box, not an envelope (padded or not). Envelopes provide zero protection.
3. Wrap the tape in a clean plastic bag (grocery bag is fine). But DO NOT seal it. Loosely wrap it, so it breathes. You want to keep water out, if anything happens to the box.

And then all mail (UPS, Fedex, SUPS, carrier pigeon, whatever) is sent to a secured mailbox. No PO boxes, doorsteps, etc.

Just contact us if you'd like us to do it.

For the past few years now, 95% of our work is for studios, not for folks at home. It doesn't pay as good, and most business would have discontinued these non-B2B services.

But archiving family history is important to us, and that means helping the folks at home. That's why we have the other 5% of clients. Otherwise your only choices would mostly be junk services, that do the same thing you could do at home on your own. And that's a shame. We have the ability to help others, so that's the choice we've made.

We're back in Texas again.

Your percentage split on business vs. home conversion is interesting. I've found that when I tell people I can convert home movies to DVD there is mild interest at best. Even when I volunteer to convert for free there is no follow through on their part. I'm curious what you think might be the reason for this tepid response? I have my laundry list of reasons but the main one seems to be just a basic overall lack of interest. Home movies are nice but not THAT nice. I've yet to run across someone like the person above that truly cherishes home movie memories. Maybe it's just me? :eek:

It really varies.

- Some want the best possible job done, as family matters. That includes converting videos to archival digital formats.
- Some want it done cheap, and quality comes second.
- Some don't care at all.

It's really a 33-33-33% split from my experience.

- We only rea;;y worry about that first group. We provide services, and as you can see, even give advice in the forum for the DIY'ers.
- We'll help the second one in the forum, too, but give ample warnings. Cheap is rarely good in the realm of video.
- And the third group? I don't care either. Not my family! I think it's unfortunate, and can only hope others in that family are not so heartless.