Believe it or not, it's almost Thanksgiving and just a few short weeks until Christmas. Time moves fast. Everyone loves personalized gifts for the holidays, and The Photo Finishers video services can transform old and new video into custom keepsakes that friends and family can enjoy all year-'round, a news release said.
In July 2016, the last VHS VCRs were manufactured by Funai Electric in Japan, and the last Beta machine rolled off the assembly line in 2002. Now is the time to have those family movies on videotape transferred to DVD.
"There will come a time when consumers will no longer be able to play their videos, and we continue to ensure that we can work with any video format our customers have so their memories won't be lost," Waco Hill, owner of The Photo Finishers, said in the release.
Videotape has a limited life span, depending a great deal on the temperature and humidity condition that the tape has been exposed to over the course of its life. Under ideal conditions, a magnetic polyester polyurethane tape such as VHS could expect a usable life of up to 30 years, but if the tape, especially poor-quality tape, is stored in an environment with higher humidity and temperature, or played in unmaintenanced equipment, it can degrade quickly and have an expected life of five years or less, the release said.
"Your home movie video will be lost and unplayable if not converted to a newer format like DVD. All your hard work, time and effort put into creating the video will be wasted and your memories lost forever," it said.
"We do lots of videotape transfer to DVD including VHS, 8 mm, Beta, MiniDV, and more, we even have very substantial volume discounts, as low as $9.99 right now, so it's a very affordable service," Hill said.
Video formats and recording devices are constantly changing. The Photo Finishers is equipped to transfer video and photos to formats that are permanent and easy to enjoy.
"In addition to tape transfers, we are now offering services to take your video from your phones and tablets and put it on media (DVD, Flash Drives, Blu-ray, etc.) that make it safe, secure and easy to enjoy. We see people all the time whose phone crashes or is damaged and they lose all the photos and videos they had created. It's heartbreaking to us. Don't let it happen to you," Hill said.
"We have been doing film to video and video slideshows for over 25 years, and we have continued to invest in new technology and training to provide services for all the new digital video file formats as well as the capability to migrate all the memories you have stored on film and analog media to modern storage devices such as DVD, CD, Blu-ray or drives. In short, we can take all your old tapes, regardless of format and transfer the video to a modern DVD format so you can enjoy them as new. We can also create custom-edited video for that extra special someone or event," he said.
Since 1996, The Photo Finishers has been serving the photo and video imaging need of clients in Hot Springs and all over the United States. "From very humble beginnings, the list of basic photo/video services has expanded to encompass truly dizzying amount of services performed locally by the experts at the Albert Pike location," the release said.
"My goal with this business is, and has always been, to offer the most complete variety and highest quality of photography and video services available anywhere under one roof, and I think we have been very successful with that," Hill said.
"It's really hard for me to think of any photo or video imaging service -- traditional or digital -- that we have not provided over the years. It seems like we do it all. If we don't we will find a way to make it happen for you; we always have."
In addition to video, The Photo Finishers transfers analog audio tape like cassettes, records or reel to reel to CD format. Audio and video restoration and repair services are available if needed to improve on originals.
All printing and video transfer service is done locally inside The Photo Finishers' Albert Pike location, "so there are no worries about sending them through the mail to some far-off place you've never seen or met the people doing the work," the release said.
For over 25 years, The Photo Finishers has been located at 1819 Albert Pike, Suite F, in Hot Springs.
For more information about The Photo Finishers Services, call 501-624-4029 or visit http://www.thephotofinishers.com or The Photo Finishers Facebook page.