Many people have video home movies of weddings, holidays, school plays, special occasions, sports events etc but the problem is the day of the video tape is over with many people no longer having a video player in their homes.
A typical video tape will only last about 15-20 years but will lose its quality after around 5 years if stored in a dry location; manufacturers have stopped making video players, so the future is not good for your video movies.
Conversion Options
Your tape will be digitalised so it can be either stored on a USB stick which is a popular option or to a DVD disk. Though going out of fashion DVD's are of better sound and picture quality and last up to 100 years while the USB is a handy option for playing on multiple devices.
Rates:
€15 per standard Video Tape to DVD (€5 for extra copies, discount for multiple copies).
€15 if it’s to a USB stick, a USB can be supplied cost depends on the memory size.
Discount available if you have more than one video to copy, contact me for details.
Family videotape treasures at risk
A virulent mould is destroying the magic moments that were captured on audio and VHS cassettes in the 1980s and 1990s
A virulent infection is destroying the audio and videotapes once used to capture important moments of family life and great historic events. The fungal blight, or 'tape mould', has already ruined thousands of miles of audio and video tape and, according to specialist restorers, much more is likely to be deteriorating, unobserved, in storage. The infection of VHS cassettes and of the audio cassettes popular in the 1980s and 1990s is increasing at an alarming rate.
'We used to get around one or two cases a year, and now about 10 per cent of all the work that is sent to us is mouldy. But sadly there is nothing we can do about it here,' said Chris Frear, who runs a restoration business in Scotland.
The wet summers of the last number of years have taken the problem to epidemic proportions.
'It has got to the stage that we open up all the packages of tapes we are sent in a separate room, away from our playing equipment and then we wash and disinfect our hands, because it is so contagious. If it got on to the tape heads in our machines, it would spread everywhere. It's almost like the measles.'
Tapes of family footage stored inside cardboard boxes in damp domestic cellars or lofts are at particular risk, but curators of larger private and public archives are also often unaware that damp conditions or temperature variations can allow one infected item to decimate an entire collection.
Video and audio tape is made from cellulose coated with ferric oxide, but, just like the sticky tape on an old parcel, it dries out and becomes brittle with age. Modern techniques can combat this ageing process, allowing the tapes to be digitally copied, but mould that has eaten into a tape is defeating conservationists. Typically tapes with the fatal fungus look as if they are covered with a fine white dust.
'Mould is a much more serious thing than snapped or worn tapes, and it's heart-breaking to have to ring up a customer who was so thrilled to have at last found a missing tape, just to tell them it’s unplayable,' said Beth Frear, who works with her son in their family business, Precious Voice.
