Blog — Sisters for Financial Independence

May 8

May 8 Product Review: Legacybox for Digitizing Home Movies and Photos

When our parents sold our childhood home, I was responsible for a lot of things. In one of the boxes, I found a box of Hi8 tapes that my dad had kept. Labeled: Cat’s 8th Graduation, H.S. Graduation, Anna’s Confirmation, Elaine’s 5th Birthday, New Year 99, and so on. I honestly wasn’t sure if the images were still intact and if I wanted to see them, but of course, curiosity got the best of me so I started researching how to digitize the tapes. If I remember correctly, Hi8 was popular in the ’90s and very early 2000s. My dad had a camcorder that he would take everywhere and would also set up in front of our living room to capture the action. He was an early vlogger.

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According to The Museum of Obsolete Media, Hi8 camcorders were popular with amateur enthusiasts and were also used in television productions which required lightweight portable equipment. Hi8 camcorders were available until 2007. Can you believe that was only around 11 years ago? My dad didn’t keep the camcorder after all so I needed a way to play them. A few rounds of research online led me to a few options. Option 1 was to buy a Hi8 player, along with a few other gadgets so I could convert the tapes myself. This seemed time-consuming, to be honest. While I highly rate my technical skills, I had no experience with these kinds of tapes and I did not want to even bring an obsolete technology into the house. Option 2 was to find a trusted service to do the digitization. Costco had one, but after reading reviews, many were disappointed at the quality and cost and that it was done via a few third-party services. I then found Legacybox and the way they described their process and the myriad of positive reviews convinced me to send the tapes to them.

Going through the process of digitization was important to me because when we left the Philippines to come to America, we left a lot of photos behind and our departure also meant that we would not be able to spend a lot of time with family members, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins so it’s important for me to hold on to some of these memories in a way that doesn’t take up too much space and it’s easy to share.

As the oldest in my family and as a mom, one of my roles now is Family Record Keeper. While almost everything we handle today is in some digital form, I still remember a time when it wasn’t and I need to preserve some of those things for future generations.

For those that have a hard time letting go of tangible items, this could also help in the process of letting go of stuff and things. What’s the point of keeping VHS tapes or 8mm films if you cannot view them?

My reasons for going with Legacybox to digitize the videos:

I wouldn’t do it myself due to time and lack of expertise.
I wanted a one-stop shop to do both tapes, CDs, and actual photos.
I knew the tech to play this was getting more obsolete by the day so I wanted to get them converted before it got too expensive or impossible.
I didn’t want to keep tapes around that served no purpose. I’m, after all, a practicing minimalist.
I also wanted the family to see what was in them.

Background & Process

Legacybox is a digitization service based in Tennessee where they convert various media into digital forms. They can digitize a wide range of products: tapes, film, photos, audio recordings, and analog media types from VHS tapes to Super8 film.

Their process is fairly simple and straightforward. From their website, you choose a box that will correspond to the number of items you want to be digitized. For me, I had around 10 Hi8 tapes I needed converted, plus around 60 photographs. For this, I choose the 10 Piece Family Set and just added the photographs as extras. You order the box and pay for the whole thing upfront. The price was around $300, but I used a coupon code that the site often advertises which reduced the overall cost. I then opted to receive a digital version so that I can just store it in the cloud instead of a USB thumb drive or CD that I would eventually lose.

Once you purchase online, Legacybox sends you a box for all of your items along with barcode labels for all of your items so that they are handled together. You pack them up, ship them to their facility in Tennessee and wait for them to finish the process. Throughout the process, you get notifications on what’s been done. This was icing on the cake because I had a chance to see the videos on those tapes after a few days and got a crack out of watching our memories. The process takes 4-6 weeks depending on how much you have. They will ship back your originals once the process is done. Shipping and all shipping labels are included in the price you pay for the box.

Conclusion

The end result is pretty great. I opted for the Digital Download and received a link to Google Drive to review and download my data. This will make it easy for me to access it later on.

Here’s what I paid for in total. The original price was $260 + $40 for the Digital Download option. Minus 25% off + $10 shipping and the final cost was around $245. For how much time this probably took, I think it’s a great value. Instead of me doing the work, I instead spent that time watching the videos and reminiscing.

I’m thinking that this is actually a great gift for the holidays especially for grandparents. Why not order a box and help put together items to digitize so that the family can preserve the memories? We sometimes take for granted all of the new content we are creating and generating today, but what about those from the past? It’s nice to preserve them to show to future kids.

I highly recommend a service like this as a present. I absolutely believe it’s worth it.

To learn more, head to Legacybox.com.