How Much Does It Cost To Have VHS & 8 mm Tapes Transferred Over to DVD?

Thanks so much for all your input on Saturday’s post about the hall/basement door I recently had replaced. After reading all the comments, I was leaning toward having the door installation redone. (Read the comments here: Is This Door Too Short?)

 

I’ve had such mixed feelings about this situation and that’s not normal for me. Normally when work is done in my home and there’s a problem, I don’t hesitate to ask that it be corrected. But this situation was difficult since I had a feeling it would probably look okay from the hall side once it was stained.

 

But I was worried that I’d always regret not having it redone when coming up the basement stairs. That’s where it really looked too short.

 

Yesterday I visited Home Depot to purchase the last four shelves I needed to complete the task of replacing all the shelves in the garage cabinets. Those are all done now, every shelf (except the fixed shelves) has been replaced. That’s one project that can be checked off my long to-do list!

Oh, and the old shelves–the ones I removed, they didn’t end up in the county landfill. I called a dealer who has a booth in an antique store and he was glad to get them (all 23!) since he’s always in need of shelving.

Cabinets for Storage, Garage, Basement, Laundry Room, Home

 

While in Home Depot today, I walked over to the door department and spoke with one of the associates working there. I asked what the normal height was for a door to be cut and without hesitation, he said 1/2 inch.

I showed him the photos of my door and asked what he thought. After seeing the photos he recommended I request a replacement. Between your comments on Saturday’s post and his input, I decided to go ahead and ask that it be replaced. He filled out some paperwork in their system and gave me a phone number to call.

 

Quotes

In the meantime, I’ve gotten a quote for having the house pressure washed (it’s been a few years) and for having the decks cleaned and stained. I’m getting a second estimate for that this week, then I’ll make a decision who to use and that process will get underway. Hopefully I can get the door replaced quickly since whoever I use for the pressure washing/deck cleaning and staining, will also be staining the door.

I’m probably going to hold off painting the basement…that project always seems to get tossed onto the back burner. The quote I had for that was $2000! That seems a bit much for priming, caulking and painting one room, even if it is a pretty large room.

 

Fence Replacement

I’m working on so many things right now, my head is spinning! I don’t know why I’m in such a nesting phase! Maybe my body knows winter is coming and it’s trying to get ready.

The sections of fencing that face the road on either side of my house have been taken down and put back up several times over the years when tree work had to be done in the backyard. You can see the fence in this older photo when I was in the process of landscaping the front yard. Part of it is actually missing since the post broke off when they removed the fence to take out some Leyland Cypress that needed to come out.

 

You can see that missing section even better in this photo taken from the backyard. By the way, the Leyland Cypress have grown so much since this photo was taken. I think by next summer, they will be well up above the second story again! They are already sticking up well above it, so another year and they will be really giving my neighbors and myself a bit more coverage.

Anyway, back to the fence…all that taking down and putting back up of the fence has taken a toll, so today I visited a local fence company and set up an appointment to get an estimate for having those two sections that face the road, replaced.

 

When they are replaced, I’d like to do something fun with the gates. Each side has its own gate. I’ll be googling and checking out Pinterest for some pretty gate designs, but I think I have an idea of what I may want.

 

Transferring Memories from VHS and 8mm to DVD

I visited a local company today to start the process of having all the VHS and 8 mm tapes of our family vacations, my son’s birthdays, Christmases, Swim meets, Disney trips, Scouting events etc… all converted over to DVD. The reason I’m doing this is mainly because I’m worried that these old tapes will wear out or deteriorate over the years. A DVD is a much better way to store those precious memories. Once they are on DVD, it will be so much fun to watch them again…and way more convenient.

The process will go something like this: They will take the 23 tapes I took in today and put each tape onto its own DVD. They are booked out 4-5 weeks so it will be a while before they get started.

I’m also thinking of having all the birthday recordings put on one disk and all the Christmas recordings put on another disk. If I do decide to do that, I will need to watch all the DVDs (once those are made) and note the times on each DVD of any birthday events. Ditto for the Christmas recordings.

Then the company I’m using will go through the DVDs using my detailed notes, and put all the birthdays on one DVD and all the Christmases on another. So there would be one DVD with nothing but birthdays, hopefully in chronological order, and one for all the Christmases.

 

The process to have all 23 tapes put onto DVDs is $350. It doesn’t matter how much is on a tape (5 minutes or 2 hours) the cost is the same per tape. Once I sit down and go through all the DVDs, noting the times of all the birthday events and Christmas events, the fee for them to take my notes, and copy over all the birthdays events onto one DVD and all the Christmas Mornings onto another DVD is $40 for every 1/2 hour they work. So it’s not cheap. He said it usually takes just an hour or two. They only charge for the time they are actively working, not for the time the machines are doing the copying.

I wish we had always started a fresh tape when we filmed a birthday or Christmas, but we didn’t. Fortunately, 3-4 birthdays are all on one tape but some are mixed in on other tapes with vacations, swim meets, etc… I’m just thankful there are places that do this type work because I wouldn’t want to even attempt it.

 

So, there’s a lot going on and I’m looking forward to sharing more about these projects as they get done. Oh, and did I mention that my desktop computer shut down this morning and refused to start back up. Yup, that was how the day started. It’s on the other side of Atlanta right now being repaired…typing this on my laptop.

New Phone

I also purchased a new phone, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8. It’s awesome! I’m still learning all the bells and whistles. The fingerprint unlock is working great, I haven’t tried the Iris Scanner or Facial Recognition, yet.

I love that whenever I’m home, it knows it and doesn’t lock my phone. Same for when it’s actively connected to my Bluetooth speaker in the car listening to a book on Audible. I’ve only had it about 3 days so I’ve just scratched the surface of what it can do, but so far I’m in love!

This is the theme I currently have on the phone. If you’re looking for an amazing theme for your Samsung Galaxy phone, look for those by Echo Visuals in the Theme Store. Her themes are amazing, my absolute favorite! I’ve purchased many over the years, they are only $2.99 each.

I took a screen capture below of the one I’m using right now, but it’s not the same as actually seeing it animated. In this theme, when the phone is locked, snow falls, owls fly right at you coming from the direction of the castle, the bunny moves his head like he’s eating grass from the snow, and the horse runs across the screen. 🙂

Update: Just found this theme on YouTube so you can see it in action here: Winter Castle. Click on the full-screen icon for a better view. Of course, it’s much better in person on a phone.

 

Here’s  just a few of her Halloween themes below, I have all three of these, purchased last Halloween. They are animated so lightning flashes and the pumpkins glow. lol

She creates new themes for every holiday, so I always love seeing what’s available in the Theme Store for the seasons/holidays. They are all beautiful, hope Echo Visuals never stops making them!

 

There are a few other smaller projects I’m working on, some I’m super excited about, but I think this is quite enough to share for now. lol If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, I understand! Me, too!

See you tomorrow for Tablescape Thursday!

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Comments

  1. Just something to think about…. when I had our Disney vacations and cruise converted to DVD, they added appropriate Disney clips and music from several Disney sing-a-long CDs and DVDs we already owned….. Music like Tomorrow’s Child from Epcot added so much enjoyment.

  2. jennifer moreland says

    Susan, my mom did this and it cost her over $700.00. But she did all the way back to the late 1960’s when she and my dad dated and before I was born. Now my twin brother and I share them to watch. It’s a lot but well worth it. Your son and his family will appreciate you doing this trust me.
    My best always, Jennifer

    • Thanks, Jennifer! I’m really looking forward to getting this done. It will probably kill me to watch them, my little boy is all grown up now with children of his own. Sniff.

  3. SharonFromMichigan says

    Make sure to really check out the power washing company really good. Had our house power washed a couple years ago and it was awful. The guy doing it not only knocked off some siding from the house and didn’t tell us, but didn’t replace it until we pointed it out. He also knocked part of the gutter on the second story loose and then refused to come back out and fix it. I found a better company this year that I want to try. Around me there aren’t many power washing companies that wash houses. I look at it as a hard lesson learned 🙁

    • Wow, sounds like he didn’t know what he was doing. Thanks, Sharon! The company I’m leaning toward using, I’ve used before and they have really great reviews. Of course, you never know which of their many employees they will send out, but I’ve had a good experience with them in the past. Thanks for the warning!

  4. You are BUSY! I bet your dealer friend was excited about the shelving – we use a lot too. Glad you’re getting the door taken care of to suit yourself. Pressure washing the brick on your home? I’m always concerned about the breakdown of mortar, no matter how light the pressure. I’ll be following that with interest.
    We’ve had the Samsung 7 for about 18 mos and both like it. My husband has gone from paper books to using his phone as a reader, almost exclusively (as in not only does he never buy books anymore, but he rarely even uses his phone as a phone!). We use the fingerprint lock, but am not sure if the 7 has the option of knowing when you’re home to keep unlocked (note to self to check). I use the facial recognition on my Surface Pro 4 and love the feature (except I notice when the natural light is very sunny, it sometimes has a hard time distinguishing and recognizing id).
    One of my sons-in-law converted my VHS a few years back to DVDs as a Christmas present – love!

    • They don’t pressure wash the brick…just the molding, windowsills trim, porches and the back of the house which is siding…oh, and the eaves on either side of the house. They are siding, too.
      Oh, what a great son to do that! 🙂

  5. Susan, you are one amazing gal!! I love reading your blog – and I often read it to my husband! He is most impressed! You’ve given us so many helpful hints & neat items to purchase!! The VHS conversion to DVD has been an item on my list. I haven’t found anyone locally & do not want to send them out anywhere. If they get lost, that’s it, they’re gone. Quick Story. My dear brother-in-law has a machine that does that conversion. He was going to copy a special event of their daughter leading her high school marching band (she was the Drum Major) down Main Steet at the Magic Kingdom from VHS to DVD. He had both the VHS & DVD in the machine, but but for some reason didnt copy it that day. Then something came up on TV he wanted to record. Apparently he forgot to switch the recording over to DVD, (I don’t know exactly how this machine works) so he ended up recording over that monumental event…….sad lesson in procrastination.

    • Thanks so much, Gina! I don’t blame you…the idea of mailing them away is terrifying to me. Since they are about 4-5 weeks out being able to do my order, I didn’t even leave my tapes there. I just paid a deposit so they would know I was serious, then took the box with my tapes back home. I was worried a fire or something could happen…highly unlikely, but I just didn’t like the idea of them sitting there on a shelf for 5 weeks in the shop.
      Oh noooo! That sounds like something that would happen to me. I’m so sorry that happened. I kinda grilled the guy at the place I went, asking how they made sure they didn’t erase anything. lol He probably thinks I’m a nut!

    • Concerning transferring of VHS to DVD. It is not hard to do, just time consuming. I bought a recorder that will transfer from VHS to DVD or DVD to VHS. I use a small TV that is not connected to the cable/satellite so no worry about taping over something. Also break the tab on your VHS tapes so you can not erase or record over your memories. By doing it yourself you can make as many copies of each tapes as you need.

  6. We need to get ours transferred too. Good to know what kind of costs are involved. That is really great how you found a place for the extra shelves to go. That was a long process of events for you. I hope you can get the new fencing taken care of with gates without too much cost. It seems like everything is so high priced these days. That does seem rather high on the painting quote for the basement. I’d definitely ask for other quotes. In the winter they may be less busy and offer better prices. These new phones are amazing aren’t they! I’m a committed iPhone user but no matter what brand it’s incredible how many fun things they are capable of doing.

    • Thanks, Liz! It really was…what a job! The new shelves are so much better than what came with the units…can hold so much more without bowing, so it was worth it. Good advice! I think they gave me a pretty good price on the outside work but am getting a few more estimates before I decide who to use.

  7. The best thing I did was have our old childhood reel to reel films converted to DVD’s at Costco! I was also able to go online via Costco and retrieve some of the converted files that had my cousins and their parents in them and send them the file which they really appreciated. It was about $150 which was well worth it. I did not have as many reels to convert as it appears you do.

  8. I’m happy for you that you’re getting a new door. I didn’t comment, but I also thought it was too short. I admire your stamina to juggle all your projects! The Echo Visuals are so neat. The Halloween themes are adorable!

    • Thanks, Tammy! Yeah, I hate that it needs to be done, but I know it will look a lot better from the basement side…and that’s important when I put my house on the market to sell one day.

  9. I’m happy for you that you’re replacing your door. I didn’t comment, but I also thought it was too short. I admire your energy working on all your projects! I think the Echo Visuals are neat. The Halloween themes are adorable!

  10. After reading this post of activity, I feel like I’m just standing still over here 🙂
    The DVDs will take so much less room to store. Do you get the old tapes back, and if so, are you still keeping them? And the Winter Castle them looked familiar; it took a second, but then I realized it was much like the advent calendar Christmas villages (only a couple months til you can smash ornaments again).

  11. Susan, happy to hear that you are having the door replaced. Unlike myself and what occurred in one of my bathrooms and its baseboard; the replacement of your door is an easier fix so hopefully it will come at no extra expense as it shouldn’t. As for your fence; be sure to be home to oversee the project … . (Sharing a quick story about my daughter’s wooden fence when upon viewing it I knew there was something wrong as to my eye it just didn’t look right and sure enough after a little research it was confirmed that it hadn’t been ‘stepped’ correctly in accordance with the grade of the property. Fortunately, the owner of the company did make it right and redid it without any hassle. She was single at the time and on a strict budget, but learned her first lesson that ‘even dealing with a reputable company there can be mistakes but they will usually honour their reputation’. Regarding your memory tapes and their conversion to DVD; keeping my fingers crossed that all works out. Hugs -Brenda-

    • thanks, Brenda! I need to do a bit of research and educate myself on fencing. They are coming out next week to give me a quote. I’m so glad the owner of the company your daughter used did make it right!

  12. Regality (aka The Quing) says

    Not to stir up another beehive, but I just noticed that the door looks kinda short–at the top. Duck, here comes a swarm!

    • Linda S in NE says

      I also noticed the first new door is too short at the top when seeing the photo in today’s post. I don’t believe we saw a photo of the top in the original post. It’s quite obvious that the door does not fit, and I am so happy you spoke up and are getting it redone correctly. Believe me, Home Depot does not want someone with your “blog power” to be dissatisfied!

      • Thanks, Linda! I think that’s just an optical illusion…it actually pretty close to the top…there’s some molding around that area, and it looks like a big gap, but it’s actually quite close at the top.
        I don’t really blame HD for this since they contract it out and I know the company they used is a good one because I’ve almost used them in the past myself. They’ve been in business many years. I called the number I was given to call today and they are totally standing behind it and going to correct it, I’m just dreading having to go through another install. But worth it to get it right in the end.

    • I went downstairs and stood on a chair and looked and I think that’s more of an optical illusion. There molding around the door…kind of recessed in there, so it’s actually pretty close at the top. I know the photo kinda makes it look like there’s a gap.

  13. How did you find a local company to convert your tapes to DVD? I am hesitant to send ours out to Costco. Good for you to get the new door!

  14. So what do we do when dvd’s go out of style?

    • I don’t see that happening anytime soon, but if it did, it would be a lot easier to copy DVD’s over than all these tapes. lol I was really worried about not doing this because if you google, you’ll find all kinds of information online saying that old VHS tape and 8 mm tape can break or become damaged over the years. It’s just not a reliable way to store precious memories. A DVD should be a lot safer and I’ll have several copies made.

  15. Oh my goodness! After all THAT I need to go lie down and rest! You are TIRELESS my dear!!! And juggling so many balls in the air I cannot believe it! Good for you! I can’t wait to see what you do with the fencing/gates. I know it will be wonderful. IMO, very good decision to replace that door that was cut too short. Love following your “exploits”…as always, you inspire me!!!

  16. Cyndi Raines says

    You will love the films on DVD. Back in the 80’s, I convinced my dad to let me take the family films and have them made into VHS at that time. He was very relunctant at first, afraid something would happen to them, but finally agree. Well, it turned out great and I had copies made for all my siblings, (5)

    And everyone loved it. Since then they have been made into Dvd,s. What a treasure. Well worth the cost. We just had them make it as they were on the films, but in date order and it turned out fine. Love the great music that they matched to whatever scene was going on. You will be so happy that you did this. Excited to see what you do for your gate. Will you get a “moon gate”? I love mine.

  17. Susan! Can’t keep up! I want my old films transferred for a Christmas gift to my husband but worry the reel to reel might be too brittle. To put them in order…yikes! Some go back to the ’50’s. How do I date these without him knowing!?! Any Readers with sneaky ideas?

    Can’t wait to see gate ideas. Oh, the “moon gate”, be still my heart.

    • I had know idea what was on my dad’s reel to reels so mine are not in order but I am perfectly okay with that – I just wanted the images to not deteriorate any further.

  18. Don’t worry, Ann…it makes you also pick a 4 digit code that you can use if for some reason the fingerprint doesn’t work. So it can be unlocked either way. I guess you would just need to make sure that a family member knows that code. Or they could just visit my home because anytime the phone is at my physical address, it automatically unlocks the phone…love that feature!

  19. My Sister had our 8 mm films from our childhood converted to DVD a few years ago and gave each of us a copy for Christmas – best gift ever! She also had her VHS tapes of each of her children converted to a DVD and a Family DVD with Christmas, vacations, etc. For their Birthdays she plays their DVD while the party is going on, it is so fun to see them grow up, everyone enjoys it. It is expensive, but so worth it!

  20. Marilynn Harmon says

    Susan…love your ideas!!! When we put new cupboards (similar to yours) in my craft room, knowing that some of the objects are fairly heavy, we put in good shelves, but also put a small support in the middle of each shelf, in the front. We just cut a 1 x 1 piece of wood in lengths matching the height between shelves, and stood it between the shelves . They are not secured, the weight of the shelf holds it in place, but if you have a very large item to put in, you can easily remove and then replace the support. It seems like no matter how good the shelves are, they eventually will bend in middle, and this prevents that! Love your suggestions on the DVD…my next project!

  21. Do you ever rest? You make the Energizer Bunny look like a slug.

  22. Hi Susan ! Did you know that Costco also transfers onto DVD’s ? We had all of ours done by them a few years back and they did a fantastic job ! I honestly cannot remember the exact total, but I remember thinking it was such a bargain ! Here’s a link to their website that explains the process: http://www.costcodvd.com

    (I don’t work for Costco ! Just like to spend all my hard earned cash there ! )

  23. What is the name of the local company converting your tapes to dvd’s? We have some that need to be transferred too.

  24. Karen Likens says

    We have mini tapes from the late 80s and early 90s that we want to convert. I hope the videos are intact. I accidentally taped over a video of the first year of our daughter’s life. I’m still feeling the pain.

    On another note, I know you were pretty excited about the Talbots polkadot blouse. It’s sold out now. Here’s another pretty cute one.

    https://www.lyst.com/clothing/the-shirt-by-rochelle-behrens-the-icon-shirt-in-black-and-white-dots/?reason=feed-product

  25. I store a copy o my DVDs in a small fireproof/waterproof file box, so they will be safe. I have given copies of transferred VHS and super 8 movie tapes to family members. They make great gifts.

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