I’m an affiliate AND a customer of YesVideo. I was not asked to write this post but did so because I believe the service is amazing and worth sharing.
My family got a camcorder in 1987, and my father lugged that thing around for the next 12 or 13 years, capturing my childhood, from learning to ride a bike, to walking across the stage at my high school graduation. We have a whole lot of memories sitting on VHS tapes at my house.
I think my parents’ VHS player finally gave up the ghost 3 years ago, and all those videos, which they love to watch from time to time, have been inaccessible. I try to imagine what it would be like if I couldn’t look at videos I’ve taken of my little ones, and they are still little! I would be heartbroken.
But my parents have no idea how to go about conducting a Home Movie Transfer. And you know what? They don’t need to learn. This is something I can take care of for them, and in so doing, I can give them one of the greatest gifts possible: good memories.
Here’s the truth: I don’t own the equipment or have the know how to conduct my own video to DVD transfers. I lack the time, and quite frankly, the interest in taking that step. But I LOVE YesVideo. I’ve had great success as a customer of theirs successfully getting my parents’ videos converted to DVDs. I’m going to break down the costs for you, and then I’m going to tell you how to get a better price. I’m looking out for you! 🙂
$24.99 gets you the EasyShip kit, which is all the shipping and packing materials you will need to ship to YesVideo as many tapes as can safely fit inside the package. I asked customer service about how many tapes can fit in the package, and they said that it depends on how you pack it, but you should be able to get 20 in there. You don’t have to send that many, of course, but you’ll pay $24.99 whether you send 1 or 20, so I’d go big.
Next up, you pay a $12.99 fee per video for processing. At this point, you’ll be able to view your videos on a computer, smartphone or tablet (yay!). They say that process takes about 15 days.
Then if you want a DVD copy of your video, and you don’t want to do any editing or compilations, but instead just a straight video to DVD transfer, that costs $6.99 per video. If you want to do editing to it (which you can handle online), the cost is $9.99 per video. I’m cheap, so you know which one I’d do!
Finally, if you want your old VHS tapes back for any reason, there is a $10.99 charge to send them all back to you. That’s the total charge, and not the per video charge. So once again, it is better to send a lot because this fee is the same no matter how many they are sending you (up to the amount that fits in the ship kit).
So let’s do the math about what it would cost to get 20 home videos transferred for your family:
- $24.99 (ship kit)
- $259.80 (processing for 20)
- $139.80 (DVD creation for 20)
- $10.99 (shipping tapes back. Skip this charge if you don’t want them).
total: $435.58
How to Make It Cheaper
Now I’m not going to beat around the bush: that’s a lot of money. But remember, we converted 20 videos (which in my parents’ case, that would be the majority of their collection…they would often use the same tape to record multiple events in an effort to save money…good thing!). Your cost would obviously be lower if you didn’t convert as many DVDs.
But whether you send 1 or 20, I want you to save money!
So first and foremost, let’s make it cheaper! YesVideo Coupon Special – Get 20% Off your entire first order by using Coupon Code: 20TR at YesVideo.com. Bring your favorite memories back to life!
Second, I also know of a discount offer to get 1 video transfer FREE (I haven’t tested if you can combine offers, so someone please chime in if you try it). That discount code is FREEYV1.
If your parents are like mine and have a bunch of tapes that they can’t even watch anymore, help them out. Being able to go back in time and watch their children when they were young will fill them with joy and be one of their favorite gifts ever.