Do you have a box filled to the brim with VHS tapes that have a bunch of old home movies on them? If so, there is a good chance that you haven’t been able to watch them in years.
There are still some people who have old VCRs lying around that they can use to watch VHS tapes. But most people have gotten rid of their VCRs at this point and can’t watch VHS tapes anymore because of it.
For this reason, you should think about trying to digitize home movies. You might even want to go as far as to take your old home movies and transform them into memorable gifts this holiday season. Digitized family memories will make fantastic holiday gift ideas.
You may not understand how to go about doing this, though. Converting VHS to digital files isn’t something that most people know how to do on their own.
Here is a guide that will help you digitize home movies so that you can pass them out as gifts during the upcoming holiday season.
Collect All the Old Home Movies That You Have in Your House
If you haven’t watched any of the old home movies that are in your house in a long time, the first thing you’ll need to do is go around and collect them all. This might be easier said than done.
If you just so happen to have all your old home movies in one single box, that will make things easy on you. But if you have them spread out in various boxes, that will be a different story.
The average home has upwards of 300,000 items in it. Many of these items are tucked away in storage in basements, garages, attics, etc. You will want to spend at least a few days trying to find as many of your old home movies as you can so that you don’t forget to digitize any of them when the time comes.
Look For a Company That Specializes in Digitizing Home Movies
You can technically buy a consumer grade machine that will enable you to digitize home movies if you want to do it on your own. But it can be a huge hassle trying to do this job yourself, especially when you have a million and one other things going on during the holiday rush.
So instead of trying to digitize home movies on your own, you should hire a reputable company to help you. They will be able to take your old home movies from you and utilize the latest and greatest professional equipment to convert VHS to digital files for you.
This company should also be capable of converting other formats to digital files as well. These formats should include:
- Betamax
- Mini DV
- Mini DVD
- DV Cam
- 8mm Film
- And More!
No matter how you used to shoot old home movies, the company that you select should be able to take these movies and digitize them for you so that you can use them as gifts. Your goal should be to locate the best company for the job so that you feel confident in their ability to send you back digital files fast.
Send Your Old Home Movies to a Company You Trust
In order for a company to convert your old home movies into digital files, you will obviously need to send them your movies. You can either package the movies up and ship them to the company or drop them off if you live close enough to their headquarters.
Either way, it’s going to be very important for you to be careful when you’re handling your old home movies. If you aren’t, it could lead to damage being done to them, and a company won’t be able to digitize them anymore.
You should place the movies into a sturdy box and seal it up tight so that nothing is able to get into the box. You should also speak with someone from a company to see if there are any additional steps you should take to ensure your movies are safe and sound.
Let a Company Know How You Want to Digitize Old Home Movies
There are a number of ways in which you can digitize home movies through a company that specializes in doing it. You can, first and foremost, have the company put your old home movies onto DVDs if you want to go in that direction.
That being said, if the decline of the VHS tape has taught us anything, it’s that DVDs and even Blu-Rays could become obsolete in the not-too-distant future. And when and if they do fall off the map, it might leave you in a position where you’ll need to save your old home movies again.
So rather than having your old home movies put on DVDs or Blu-Rays, you might want to have them converted into digital files that you can put on USB sticks or, better have, have them put into the cloud. You won’t have to worry about them disappearing anytime soon when you do one of these two things with your videos.
Give a Company Enough Time to Digitize Home Movies for You
A professional company will know how to digitize home movies fast. But you should be aware of the fact that many families are starting to take steps to turn old home movies into holiday gift ideas each year.
Because of this, you shouldn’t wait until Christmas Eve to decide that you would like to convert your home movies into digital files to use them as holiday gifts. You should try to give a company as much time as you can to work its way through the digitizing process.
The company that you call on for assistance should be able to shed some additional light on how long they’ll need to get your old home movies in advance to digitize them. Don’t be afraid to ask about this right from the very start.
Watch Your Old Home Movies Once You Get Them Back
After you send your old home movies off to a company to have them digitized, they’ll get to work on them and send you the DVDs and/or digital files that you requested back. From there, you should watch your movies again to see how they turned out.
Ideally, they’ll look every bit as good as you were expecting them to. But just in case there are any issues with them, you’ll want to bring them up ASAP so that you can get them corrected.
You’ll also want to watch through your old home movies so that you can determine which ones to give to people as gifts. You might want to give certain digitized family memories to your parents and others to your siblings. It’ll all depend on what is actually in the videos that you had digitized.
Figure Out a Good Way to Give Your Old Home Movies as Holiday Gifts
Once you’ve watched your old home movies and figured out who is going to get which ones as gifts, you should put some thought into how you’ll give them out on Christmas and throughout the holidays.
Do you want to put the home movies on USB sticks and have people unwrap them? Do you want to invite people to your home for a surprise watch party? Or do you want to come up with some other way to provide your family members with digital home movies?
You’re welcome to take whatever approach you would like to actually give your old home movies out as gifts. But since they might need some explanation, you should prepare in advance for how you will give them out to the most important people in your life.
Find a Safe Spot to Store Your Digitized Home Movies
One of the best parts about digitizing your old home movies is that you shouldn’t have to worry about them getting destroyed or going missing anymore. As long as you have the digital files from these movies on your computer and/or in the cloud, they’ll be safe for many years to come.
But you should still try to take steps to make sure that nothing bad happens to them. For instance, you should put DVDs or Blu-Rays with your old home movies on them into a fireproof safe if you can. You should also save the digital files from these movies on multiple devices, including computers, hard drives, etc.
By doing these things, you’ll guarantee that you don’t ever have to be concerned about what might become of your old home movies. Backing them up in a few different places will ensure that you’re able to watch them back for a long time.
Go Back and Watch Your Old Home Movies Early and Often
If you’re going to go through the trouble of digitizing your old home movies, you shouldn’t let them sit on a shelf and gather dust or sit in some random folder on your computer that will be difficult to find in the future.
You should make it a point to watch your old home movies as often as you can. It might be a good idea to pull them out every holiday season so that you can watch them with your fellow family members.
You’ll get some great laughs out of your old home movies. You’ll also see family members who aren’t around any longer in these movies and talk about your memories of them.
Your digitized family memories will eventually turn into the best holiday gifts that you’ve ever given. You and your family members will cherish them and will start to look forward to watching them regularly.
Want to Digitize Home Movies and Give Them as Gifts? Contact Us Now!
Would you like to create some of the most memorable gifts of all time this holiday season? Then you should start searching for old home movies and digitize them for your family.
We can lend a hand to those who would like to digitize home movies so that they can use them as holiday gifts. All you’ll need to do is get your movies to us and we’ll work on digitizing them as quickly as we can so that they’re ready to go on Christmas morning.
Get in touch with us to discover more about how to transfer your videos and relive some of your fondest family memories.