Video Recordings

Protect Your Home Videos Before They’re Lost Forever

Video tapes were never designed to last forever. Over time, the magnetic coating that holds the picture and sound starts to break down, causing colours to fade, images to become unstable, and sound to distort. The longer they are left, the more likely they are to deteriorate.

Storage also plays a big part. Tapes kept in damp or humid places can develop mould, which makes recovery of the video much more difficult and, in some cases, may cause permanent damage.

When we transfer your recordings, the final digital video will reflect the condition of the original tape. Any damage, wear, or age-related issues are usually carried over. However, digitising now will preserve your recordings in their current state and prevent further loss.

To give your tapes the best possible playback, we use some of the best video machines made by companies such as Panasonic, and the signal is passed through Time Base Correction hardware before capture. This process helps stabilise the picture and correct timing errors, ensuring you get the highest possible quality from your tapes.

Once transferred, your memories are safe in a digital format that can be copied, backed up, and shared without any further loss of quality — something that’s not possible with the original tapes.

  • Camcorder Tapes

    Many families have precious memories stored on old video tapes. These can come in several formats: 8mm, Hi8, and Digital 8 tapes were used in small camcorders from the late 1980s through the 2000s, often holding family holidays, birthdays, and everyday moments. VHS-C tapes are a compact version of VHS that were popular in camcorders and can be played in a regular VHS player with an adapter. Mini DV tapes, introduced in the mid-1990s, recorded in digital quality on very small cassettes.

    All of these tapes are now long out of use, and the equipment to play them is hard to find, but they often hold once-in-a-lifetime memories worth preserving.

    8mm, Hi8, Digital 8, VHS-C, Mini DV

    £16.00

  • VHS Video

    VHS tapes were the most popular way to record and watch home videos from the late 1970s right through the early 2000s. Families often used them to capture birthdays, weddings, holidays, and everyday life with a camcorder, or to save favourite TV programmes. Today, VHS is an obsolete format, and video recorders are increasingly hard to find. Over time, the tapes themselves can lose quality or even stop playing, meaning many treasured memories risk being lost if they aren’t preserved.

    VHS Cassette Tape 1- 3 Hours

    £18.00

    VHS Cassette Tape 3- 8 Hours

    £28.00

  • Betamax

    Betamax tapes were introduced in the mid-1970s as one of the first home video formats. Although smaller than VHS and known for their good picture quality, they lost out in the “format war” of the 1980s, meaning far fewer people used them compared to VHS. Families who did choose Betamax often recorded weddings, birthdays, and special TV programmes. Today, Betamax players are very rare and the tapes themselves can easily deteriorate, making it important to preserve any recordings before they are lost.

    L-125, L-250, L-370, L-500, L-750: Standard Betamax tapes with recording times up to 180 minutes.

    £18.00

    Betamax

    L-250, L-370, L-500, L-750: Standard Betamax tapes with recording times from over 180 minutes.

    £28.00

  • Sharing Your Downloads

    Every Video transfer includes a private online link to your video, available for 30 days. It’s easy to share with friends and family so everyone can enjoy the memories. For long-term storage, we also offer your videos on a Samsung USB drive for £18.00, securely kept in a custom film canister for safekeeping.