A service of Legacy Digital Productions
Video tapes converted to digital, by a lab that still has the decks.
VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Video8, Digital8, MiniDV, Betamax and more, captured in real time on maintained equipment in our own building in Orange, California. Priced per tape, blank footage never billed, originals always returned.
One lab, family owned since 2001. Walk in Mon to Fri, 9:00am to 4:30pm, or ship from anywhere. Call ahead so someone is free to log your tapes in.
The same lab Hollywood uses
When Netflix’s Lucy and Desi needed the family’s personal video tapes converted, they came to this lab.
Our parent lab, Legacy Digital Productions, converted the family’s personal video tapes for Netflix’s Lucy and Desi, and Steven Spielberg’s childhood films for the documentary Spielberg. Your tapes go through the same hands and the same decks.
Netflix
“Lucy and Desi”
The family’s personal video tapes, converted for the film.
Documentary
“Spielberg”
His childhood films, converted at the highest possible quality.
4.9 / 5 ★★★★★
Across more than 200 Google reviews of the lab, unedited and unfiltered. Read them on Google →
$19.95 per tape
at the current special, any consumer format, per two hours of content. $28.50 regular. As of September 2026.
Every format, one building
Working, maintained decks for VHS through Betamax. Nothing is outsourced, and your tapes never leave Orange, California.
Formats
Which tape do you have?
Six pages, one per family of cassette, each with what it is, what can go wrong with it and what a transfer involves. Mixed boxes are welcome. We identify every tape at intake.
VHS and VHS-C
The full-size cassette from the VCR, and the palm-size camcorder version that needed an adapter. Same tape, same price, and the one format that can run past two hours.
Hi8
The sharper analog camcorder format of the late 1980s and 1990s. Looks identical to Video8 and Digital8; we tell them apart by the recording.
8mm video: Video8 and Digital8
Small camcorder cassettes about the size of an audio tape. Not 8mm film, which is a reel with sprocket holes and a different job entirely.
MiniDV, HDV and DVCAM
The smallest cassette and the first digital one. Glitches on playback are usually dropouts, which is a deck problem before it is a tape problem.
Betamax and Betacam
The consumer format most people no longer have a player for, and the broadcast format that only looks similar. We keep working decks for both.
Not sure what you have?
You do not need to be. Every tape is identified at intake. If you would like to know first, the identification guide takes two minutes.
Pricing, before you ask
Priced per tape. Not per box, not per minute of blank.
Every consumer format is the same price per two-hour tape. Tapes that turn out to be blank or full of recorded television are edited out and not billed, so you pay for the family footage that is actually there. Betacam and Betacam SP broadcast tapes are priced separately at $40 each, or $35 each on orders over 25.
Published rates as of September 2026. Full pricing detail and worked examples
Per two-hour tape, any consumer format
$19.95 at the current special
$28.50 at the regular rate. VHS, VHS-C, Video8, Hi8, Digital8, MiniDV, Betamax: same price. A $50.00 minimum order applies. Blank footage and recorded television are edited out and never billed. Published rates as of September 2026; specials move, so ask for a current quote.
How it works
Real time, on a working deck, with someone watching.
1 · Intake
Every tape is logged by hand and tracked under a full chain of custody from the moment it arrives, whether you walk it in or ship it.
2 · Inspect
Mould, sticky binder, broken leaders and loose tape are found before anything runs, because a bad tape in a good deck damages both.
3 · Capture
Played in real time on maintained, professional-grade equipment. Troublesome tapes are tried in more than one deck to get the best signal the tape can give.
4 · Return
Low-compression MP4 files on a flash or hard drive, DVDs if you want them, and your originals back in the same shipment. Always.
Who is actually handling your tapes
A family lab, not a fulfillment center.
Legacy Digital Productions has been family owned and operated in Orange, California since 2001. The person who quotes your job is the person who inspects it, and the building it arrives at is the building it is captured in. That is why we can tell you where your tapes are at any point, and why the queue we quote is genuinely ours.
Drop off in person, or ship
202 W Lincoln Ave, Suite A
Orange, CA 92865
Walk in Mon to Fri, 9:00am to 4:30pm. Call ahead so someone is free to log your tapes in properly. Shipping from anywhere in the country is fine: every tape is logged at intake and returned in the same shipment as your files.
Reviews
Unedited, from Google.
These are Google reviews of Legacy Digital Productions, the lab behind this service. They are unedited, and these two happen to be about tape.
★★★★★
“I have used Legacy Digital Productions 3 different times now to convert my old vhs tapes to digital. Each time I am pleased with the results. I always get the originals returned to me, nothing has ever gotten lost.”
Terrell K · Google review, July 2026
★★★★★
“Blank areas on the VHS tapes were edited out, a service not done by many digital transfer companies. A friend who is very tech knowledgeable was impressed by the quality of the files created and stored on the thumb drive.”
Marina K · Google review, November 2023
A quote takes a photograph and a rough count.
Send a picture of one tape and roughly how many you have. If you are not sure what format they are, that is fine, because working it out is our job rather than yours. There is no obligation and we will not chase you.