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Video to DVD Transfer: Give Your Parents Back Their Memories

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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.

video to dvd transfer from yesvideo

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.

photo credit: foshydog via photopin cc

How to Transfer VHS Memories to DVD: YesVideo

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I’m assuming that most of you out there are old enough to have videos from your childhood and teen years still on VHS tape. My parents got a camcorder in 1987 and we have at least 12 years of videos tucked away. When I got married, I took a few of those tapes with me to keep as my own. They mostly included high school choir performances.

Tim and I got rid of our VHS player at least 3 years ago. It was so coated with dust that we realized it was just taking up space. And at that point I knew that converting tapes to DVD was a possibility. I would get around to doing it someday.

And finally that someday arrived! I worked with YesVideo to turn 3 of my choir tapes into DVDs, and I cannot emphasize strongly enough how very glad I am that I did it.

Just this past week my BFF came to visit. She was in choir with me, and I found that to be the perfect opportunity to break out my new dvds. We laughed so hard as we looked at our ridiculous choir uniforms, our hair dos, and even remembered some folks we hadn’t thought about in years. We also found ourselves singing along, remembering the songs we were taught some 13 years ago (wow….that just made me feel pretty darn old).

I’m absolutely delighted to have these memories available to watch again. While I don’t anticipate watching them on a regular basis, I definitely will pull them out when I’m feeling nostalgic. I’ll also really enjoy showing them to Darah and Layah when they are older. Leslie and I actually joked about how I could break out my old show choir routines in front of Darah’s friends when she is in middle school and how mortified she would be. Just the thought of that cracks me up. Yup…I’ll be doing that! 🙂

I know you have some old VHS tapes gathering dust in your home. It’s time to give them new life as dvds! YesVideo is really quite simple. You can place an order online and then print a mailing sheet and ship off your videos. OR….you can drop off your videos and place your order at one of over 34,000 different locations! There’s almost certain to be a drop off business near you!

The next step is to sit tight and wait patiently while YesVideo works their magic. It took about 3 weeks before my videos came back. I got my old VHS tapes back and I also had 3 new dvds! Each dvd was packaged with its orginal VHS tape so that I’d know what goes with what. If you place your order in the store, your order comes back to the store and you can pick it up there.

And here’s what makes YesVideo even more awesome. Your videos are also available online in a private, secure account, that you can share with others. That means that you can post videos online for your friends and family to see! One of my videos has some footage of my 16 year old brother as a 2 year old…that will be getting posted on his facebook wall in short order! 🙂

My parents still have their VHS player (way to hang on, ‘rents!). I will be giving them back the choir tapes since I now have my own copies! I’m also going to encourage them to start making the switch over to dvd so that our childhood memories can continue once the old VHS player goes the way of the buffalo.

I spent a total of $60 getting 3 tapes converted. I think it was worth the price, especially since I can also share the videos with people online.

I definitely recommend YesVideo. I found their process to be easy, their final product to be high quality, and their customer service to be stellar. I would trust them with my cherished childhood memories again! AND…I have a discount code for you! 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!

I’d also suggest keeping up with YesVideo on other social media outlets, like Twitter, Facebook and their blog. They post discounts and great tips on these sites!

Disclosure: I received a $50 credit to YesVideo to help cover expenses incurred reviewing the service. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.