Six years ago we helped move my mother-in-law out of her house. My husband and I packed up every photo album, film canister, and most of her framed photos and took them to our house.
Our intention was to transfer the film and VHS home movies to dvd and then return everything to her. Sadly, two weeks later she died.
My husband and I were devastated by her loss. In the years since then, we’ve been unable to go through the large storage containers of film and photos we’d removed from her old house.
It had become a source of stress for me to see the bins. We were happy these precious items hadn’t been lost too, but going through everything was too painful.
Last month I dug out three things to finally transfer to dvd; the most special was a canister of film my husband thought was of a family trip to Disney World in the 70’s.
I packaged them up and sent them to YesVideo. Before I even got my order and originals returned to me in the mail, I had been e-mailed a link to view my order securely on-line.
When we got our completed order in the mail, I was pleased with how well things were packed. YesVideo even included a free shipping slip if I want to order from them again–and a bag of popcorn!
That night we ate popcorn and spent hours laughing (and crying a little) over how big my wedding dress and hair were, what my grown sons were doing on the exact same day 18 years before, and this highlight:
my husband, age 8, dancing like a crazy person to Greased Lightning. If you can see behind him, that is original Star Wars wallpaper.
That is what viewing the clip on the secure website looks like. You can send a clip to Facebook, Twitter or via e-mail. YesVideo will store my order on-line and password protected for free for 90 days. After that, I can keep it there as a backup for a fee.
I thought the service was fast and for a low price. They will also transfer photos,slides, and images on SD cards. And if you recorded in High Def, they can put that on regular dvd or on Blu-Ray, Fancy Pants. 
Also you can choose music for the background when you transfer media that doesn’t have its own sound. Since the 70’s film had was silent, I selected a bouncy disco tune. I thought it made it fun and I could turn the sound down if I didn’t like it.
I always like to give a balanced review, so I didn’t like having to mail everything in, even if I’d had digital media. There’s not yet a way to upload anything via the Internet. I look forward to being able to upload all the pictures on my computer onto a dvd.
The sound from the transferred VHS tapes was very low and not good quality. There is no way for me to say if this was from the quality of the transfer, or from the age of the originals. That’s what you get when you wait too long!
Overall, I was very pleased with YesVideo. I intend to spend my own money to have more of our old memories transferred to dvd. I think that’s a pretty good recommendation.
If you would like to try YesVideo for yourself, use the coupon code “BLOG15” for 15% off any transfer order.
The very best part was seeing images of my father- and mother-in-law. Priceless. I think they would be pleased we took the time to preserve their special moments.
I received complimentary transfer services from YesVideo and was reimbursed for my shipping and time. I was not required to give any certain opinion and all thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.
What is your most precious photo or video memento? I was so pleased to be able to give my husband back some of the special times from his childhood.
I can so relate to wanting but not wanting to see the photos because of the pain of loss. The last thing my sister and I did at Mom’s last summer was tackle the big box of old family photos. I had sorted through the slides and had them transferred to .JPEG files the year before (a process I highly recommend!), but the prints were still there. We opened a bottle of wine and sat on the floor with the box. Sadly, a lot of them were people of my grandparents’ generation, unknown to us and unlabelled photos. I scanned things, then mailed the originals to my cousin. I was sad and surprised not to find any of the Super 8 movies Mom took when we were kids. The funnies thing we found was a cassette tape from the last 1960’s. My sister took tap dancing lessons and this tape was the music to which she practiced. We didn’t have a hard floor, so she tapped on the cement back patio and hoped the boys who lived behind us didn’t come out and tease her. We laughed ’til we cried over the poor sound quality. I wish we’d had video of her dancing, black leotard and all 😀 I’m glad you found that treasure and a company who did a great job with your transfer. I was SO nervous when I sent off our 35mm slides. No way was I going to send them to India to save a dollar or two.
That stinks to not have your old home movies. I wonder where they are.
It’s funny how memory lane can make you happy and sad at the same time. My son turns 19 this week and one of our dvd’s was of his first birthday. So many mixed emotions watching my sweet baby on screen with my sweet-ish young man sitting next to me.
India? Too far. YesVideo’s transfer facility is in California.
Thanks for another great review, Nota! I’ve tried another video transfer service, which did not give me an option to add music. I’ll check out YesVideo for the 8mm tapes I’m planning to transfer.
The music is generic, but I though it was fun. Also, you can select a theme for the cover art and menu screen of the dvd.
We are so happy to hear you were pleased with your transfer. Thank you for taking the time to review our service.
We understand the fears of shipping in your precious memories and although we do secure all media once we receive it, there are options of transferring at local retail locations. Ritz and Wolf Camera both offer on site transfers using our YesVideo service and other retailers offer the drop-off option to avoid shipping hassles.
The anticipation of uploading digital media to be transferred online has kept us all on the edge of our seats. We agree with you and can’t wait for that option to launch in just a short couple of months!
We look forward to preserving many more of your memories in the future!
The longer I have my dvd’s the happier I am am with your service. It was quick and easy, I love the on-line access, and I feel like I have done something to make our video memories last.
Thanks so much for commenting! I need to hurry up if I want to get something done for the grandmas before Mother’s Day!