Tapes to discs: the price, the wait, and the rules
Old family tapes, recorded through once and put on a disc you can actually play. Here is everything before you hand anything over.
Local only, to start. This service is for Durham Region, Ontario. If you are outside it, ask first rather than book and be cancelled.
What it costs
- VHS to DVD: $20 per tape.
- Cassette to CD: $15 per cassette.
- The disc is included. You are not buying a blank DVD on top of the price.
- Boxes are cheaper. The rate drops from 5 tapes. A shoebox of family tapes is one job, not twenty separate ones.
How long it takes
About 48 hours per tape. That is honest time, not a queue I can jump: the work happens around a day job.
So pickup and drop-off are set when you book: weekday evenings around 6pm (4pm on Fridays), or any time on the weekend. If those windows do not work for you, say so before you pay and we will find one that does.
How the transfer actually works
Each tape is recorded through in one go, start to finish, then the blank stretches are edited out. Nothing is cut from the middle. If a tape has ten minutes of family video and two hours of static after it, you get the ten minutes, not two hours of static.
If a tape will not play, and if it plays badly
Some tapes are too far gone: mould, snapped ribbon, a machine that chews them. If a tape will not play at all, there is no charge for that tape. You are paying for a recording that exists, not for the attempt.
A tape that plays with lines across the picture or distortion in places is a different case. It plays, so it is transferred and charged like any other tape, and those lines and noisy stretches stay in the recording as they are. Nothing is invented or smoothed over to hide a worn tape.
Book it
Pick the line that matches what you have. The booking takes a few minutes, and it asks how many tapes and which pickup window suits you.
Booking needs a card. That is how the slot is held; nothing is charged until the work is accepted.
What to tell me when you book
- How many tapes, and what kind (VHS or cassette).
- Whether any of them look damaged, mouldy, or were stored in a garage or basement.
- Which pickup window suits you.
Anything that needs a decision, a message reaches me and I answer it.
Not sure, or outside Durham Region? Write to julian@plainanswers.ca before you book and a real person answers. The prices, the wait and the rules are the same on the booking page and in the newsletter, so nothing depends on which one you read first.