Boston Area Film and Tape Transfer Options
Many of us have old VHS tapes or film reels that need to be digitized in order to incorporate into a legacy video.
Preserve your legacy video with these Boston area film and tape transfer companies.
At Legacy Video Stories, we love preserving family memories and helping our clients tell their stories. Often, that means we incorporate old movies and photos to tell a more complete story as part of their legacy video. More often than not, clients don’t have their pictures and home movies already digitized in a format that is easily incorporated into a legacy video. In those cases, we have to get them converted into a digital format. That means old VHS tapes or 16mm film reels need to be turned into Quick Time movies, slides need to be turned into JPEGS, and old photos need to be restored and converted to JPEGS.
In these cases, we refer clients to a third-party company to do the conversion. Here are some of the companies that have done it for our clients. If you live in the Boston area and need your legacy media digitized, these could be good options for you.
Legacy Box
You probably already heard of Legacy Box, the biggest player on this list. They run national advertising promoting their services. Fill a box with whatever media you want digitized and send it in. They take care of the rest. They digitize your photos, film reels, and video tapes and send them all back to you.
Video Tape formats: VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Mini DV, Betamax, MicroMV, Digital8
Film formats: 16mm, 8mm, Super 8, Regular 8
Most people don’t want to box up their precious media and send it off fearing it could get lost forever. For those who want to hand it off in person, there are several businesses in the New England are who could help.
Hunt’s Photo and Video
Hunt’s claims to be America’s oldest camera store and has been around since 1889. It has 6 Massachusetts locations and other stores in Providence, Manchester, and Portland
Although you can drop your media off in person at any of their locations, they still send it out to be digitized off-site. So if you want to be sure your memories are not lost in transit, you might want to try one of the other options below.
Video Tape Formats: VHS, Mini DV, DVD
Film formats: 8mm, 16mm
They also do Photos and slides scanning and photo restoration.
Everpresent
Everpresent has 15 locations in Massachusetts and many more in the other New England states. They will also do home pick-ups and have over 75 drop off locations. So if you want something close by, Everpresent might fit the bill. Their transfer team claims to digitize over 100,000 video tapes and over five million feet of film per year.
They specialize in all film reel formats and, unlike most services, can handle broken films, frayed reels, moldy footage or film with sound.
Video Tape Formats: VHS, VHS-C, Mini DV, Betamax, Digital8, High 8, Betacam, DVCPro, U-Matic (3/4”), PAL, SECAM
Film formats: 8mm, 16mm, Super8
Also, photo scanning, negatives, and slides.
Video Electronics
Video Electronics has a store in Reading does electronics and camcorder repairs, as well as video transfers and duplications.
Video Tape Formats: VHS, SVHS, Beta, Mini DV
Film formats: Super8, 8mm, 16mm
Also does photo scanning and slides.
Giro Studios
Giro Studios in Cambridge is a full-service production company that has two in-house studios, editing suites, and video and photo crews. They also do media transfers.
All of their transfer work is done on premises, which ensures protection and allows quick turnaround. Prices are competitive.
Video Tape Formats: VHS, Mini DV, DVCam, Digital 8, U-Matic (3/4”)
Film formats: Super8, 8mm, 16mm
Eclipse Video Services
Eclipse Video Services in Cambridge was founded in 1977 and offers 4K film scanning, uncompressed 10-bit tape capture at archival quality, and a full range of production and post-production service. Of course, they offer transfers too.
Video Tape Formats: VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, DVCam, Digital 8, U-Matic (3/4”), Mini-DV, HDV, DVC-Pro, HDCam, Hi-8
Film formats: 8mm, Super8mm, 16mm, Super16mm, and 35mm
