We recently published a short article exposing the unfortunate closure of many of the UK’s public libraries. Libraries in the UK have been suffering due to the spending cuts that have been imposed by the UK government, meaning that local authorities have been forced to make some tough decisions. There will always be a need for libraries in society, however, the nature of libraries may have to change somewhat in order to keep up with the ever-evolving digital world that we live in. As more resources are made digital and available online, VHS to digital conversion services are going to be more and more useful to these local authorities.

What is VHS to Digital Conversion?
There are a number of different analogue to digital conversion processes that can be done, and a VHS conversion is just one of them. It is one of the most popular, due to the fact that it was such a prevalent format throughout the 80s and 90s before digital took over. Millions of people throughout these decades were making home videos on their old school video camera. This means that there are literally millions of old analogue archive formats that hold all kinds of information that could potentially be useful.

What Other Formats Can I Convert?
We can safely say that almost every single analogue format that was used throughout the 80s and 90s can be converted in some way into digital. While this list is not exhaustive, here is a brief rundown of all of the main ones you can convert:
Camcorder tapes such as:
MiniDV – one of the most common camcorder formats- launched in 1995 by several of the worlds leading video manufacturers
VHS-C – an older format that was launched by the Victor Company of Japan in 1982
Video8 – these tapes are found in three related systems for the NTSC and PAL/SECAM

Hi8 – is a continuation of Video8 that offered better quality
Digital8 – a further continuation of the previous Video8 formats that was released by Sony
MicroMV – introduced towards the end of the tape timeline by Sony it is the smallest format
Revive Those Old Tapes
These are not all of the tapes that were around in the golden ages of tape, however, these are certainly the main ones that most people will find lying around their attic. Many people recorded all of their home videos to tape, but never actually bounced them to VHS so that they could watch them, so these types of conversion services are very useful. If you want to bring back some of your old memories, then start converting now.

Don’t Wait Too Long
Not many people know this but time wreaks havoc on these delicate old tapes. Even if they are just sitting in storage, they will be slowly degrading until the point where they are no longer watchable. Once this damage is done, it cannot be undone, and the master tape will be affected forever. This means that if you are thinking of getting a conversion done to your old tapes, get it done sooner rather than later.