Back to the Past Video

At Back to the Past Video, we convert your precious home movies to digital! Tapes/film degrade over time. We convert home videos to digital and put them on a flash drive, DVD or Blu-ray. Video files will be cut and spliced into separate events and labeled for organization. We spend the extra time to organize your memories for you so you can watch the exact clip you want with no fast-forwarding!

We are based in Victorville and will travel, free of charge to our community in Victorville, Apple Valley, Hesperia, Lucerne Valley, Oak Hills, Phelan, Piñon Hills, Adelanto & Helendale. We will travel farther (20+ miles) on a case by case base with small driving fee of $1 per mile, south of the Cajon Pass (CA-138 & I-15) or west of Lucerne Valley. Barstow is +15 miles from my location near Victor Valley College so $15 delivery charge will be included. This fee is just for pick up. To deliver all items back is free.

Shipping is also by a case by case base, at your own risk of shipping with USPS.

We work hard to keep our turn around time short, so you can start viewing your memories as soon as possible. Depending on your collection, we can get them digitized in just a few days! Your videos will also be backed up for at least 1 year, just incase you misplace your flash drive or just want more copies made for family.

Save your memories with us today!

About Us

We started converting tapes in early 2022, after hearing about people wanting to convert their taped memories to digital. Not many wanted to ship out their only memories of loved ones via the mail. We decided that we’d start a pick-up and delivery service where people could meet us in person and know that we’d take great care of their taped memories.

We currently work with
VHS tapes, VHS-C tapes, Video8/Hi8/Digital8 tapes, miniDV tapes,
DVDs, miniDVD discs,
cassette tapes, mini cassette tapes, audio reel-to-reel,
color and black & white negatives (135, 110, 126, 120medium and 50mm slides and KODAK disc negatives),
printed photos (up to 8.5″ x 11.7″)
&
8mm/Super8 reel-to-reel!!

Services

$20 MINIMUN FEE
Any service will cost a minimum of $20.
(If you only have 1 VHS tape with only 30 minutes on it, the service to make it digital is $20.)

VHS, VHS-C, Hi8/Digital8 & miniDV

$10 per hour of tape to flash drive
Video files will be cut into separate events and labeled for organization.
We do our best to date and describe the video in the file name.
The price DOES INCLUDE the flash drive and a USB-C to USB adapter.

If you later want all or certain videos on a DVD, the price is $20 per DVD
(2-3 hours can fit on a DVD).

Some VHS Tapes can have up to 8 hours of footage or maybe just 3 minutes, that’s why we charge by the hour of footage. We will always view the whole tape, beginning to end, to make sure every memory is recored. If you accidentally recorded over your memories with TV shows, movies or the news, we won’t charge you for the time, unless it is something you want.

Average tape lengths:
VHS tapes : 2 hours (max 6-8 hours)
Video8/Digital8 tapes : 1 hour (max 2 hours)
VHS-C tapes : 0.5 hours (max 1.5 hours)
MiniDV tapes : 1 hour (max 2 hours)

CD/DVD to flash drive

$5 per CD / $10 per DVD
If you have a CDs/DVDs or miniDVDs with audio tracks or family videos on it, we can extract those files and put them on a flash drive as well. We will still edit the videos by event and relabel them, just as we would do for tapes.

Copies

$10
If you’d like a copy of all your videos on an additional flash drive, the cost is $10 + the cost of the drives [32GB ($10), 64 GB ($20), 128 GB ($40), 256 GB ($75), & 500 GB ($100), 1TB SSD ($300)].

If you’d like a copy of a DVD, the cost is $10 per copy.

Audio cassette/reels to CD or flash drive

$20
To convert an audio cassette tape (side A & B) to CD or flash drive, is $20.
If wanted, we can separate the audio into tracks throughout the CD (like songs split up).

We can also do audio reel-to-reels at a cost of $30 per reel, whether it is 3-inch, 5-inch, or 7-inch reel. These reels will not be edited into separate tracks, just side A and B.

Film Negatives to digital

$.50 a photo
For color and black&white negatives (35mm, 110, 126, 120medium, *KODAK disc negatives) and 35mm slides to digital. Just $.50 a photo you will get a flash drive with all of them digital (w/ minimal touch up, cropping and rotating)
If over 250 photos (10 “rolls of film”) it will be $.45 per photo.
*KODAK disc negatives are $20 per disc.
A slideshow with music can be done for $30. A DVD can be included if wanted.

For pictures that you want color correction/major editing/AI enhancements, it will be an additional $4 per photo. This service can be added after you view all work.

Fix broken tapes or clean moldy tapes

$20
We can fix most broken casings of VHS, VHSC, Hi8/Video8, MiniDV tapes. If we can’t, then you don’t pay for us for trying. We also can clean tapes that have mold on them, so they can be playable.

8mm & Super8 to digital

Price is $15 for a 3″ reel, $40 for a 5″ reel, $80 for a 7″ reel.
We can take your old 8mm reel to reel (no audio) and Super8 reels (no audio) and convert them to digital.
3” reel = about 50 feet, is average of 3-4 minutes of footage = $15
5” reel = about 200 feet or four 3″ reels, is average of 12-15 minutes of footage = $40
7” reel = about 400 feet or eight 3″ reels, is average of 27-32 minutes of footage = $80

Printed Photo Scans

Scanning photos that are 3 x 5 or 4 x 6, will be $.15 per photo at 600dpi.
You will get an original scan “photo_0001”,
the back of photo “photo_0001b”,
and a secondary image with Epson auto enhancement “photo_0001a”.

Photos will be organized in folders by film roll sleeve or by how you have them grouped. If you want picture files relabeled with date and info from back of photo, it is an additional $.15 per.

If photos are in an album, add an additional $10 per album will be charged, in order to remove and placed back in album just as it was received.
No scrapbooks or sticky pictures.
Pictures larger than 4×6 will be scanned at 1200dpi at a cost of $.50 each.
If you want any photos enhanced further with editing software, the cost is $4 per image.

Example: 300 pictures scanned it would cost $45. To have them relabeled with date and description it would then be a total of $90. If they are in an album, then a total of $100.

Contact Us

Have other questions? Send me a message with the city you live in (we’re in Victorville, CA), what media formats you need converted and quantity of items. I’ll get back to you usually same day.

Thanks!

Stephen@backtothepastvideo.com

“Thrilled to have 83 miscellaneous format tapes now consolidated into one external digital drive! We didn’t even have a way to view them anymore. Great to be able to open the computer and watch memories at the click of a button. Reassuring to know these memories are now on a format that won’t deteriorate. I’d encourage anyone to use this service to archive your memories now before your tapes degrade from time. Stephen is great to work with and completely the conversions faster than anticipated. Highly recommend!!”

DonnaSeptember 25, 2022

“Fast, friendly, professional, quality service! If you have VHS tapes you want to watch and save, Steve is your guy! He transfers them to a USB drive so you can upload and share with your loved ones. Thank you for preserving our family memories. Highly recommend! 5 star service!”

KathyDecember 19, 2022

“I highly recommend! I was hesitant for the longest time about choosing a service that I could trust with my treasured memories and I’m so grateful that I found Stephen. He is professional, friendly, convenient, prompt and most of all trustworthy. If you’re on the fence about using this service, just do it! You will be glad you did.”

Nicole April 14, 2023

Start saving your memories before time takes them away.