For grandparents who have everything, a good Christmas gift is their own old home movies, film reels and photos, digitized so the family can watch them again. A printable gift certificate from imvideotransfer.com/gift goes under the tree now, and the tapes go in the mail after the holidays.
Gift forums fill up every fall with the same question: what do you buy for someone who tells you to stop buying them things? For a lot of families, part of the answer is already in the house, on a closet shelf of old tapes, film reels and photo boxes.
Why old media makes a good Christmas gift
Most grandparents already have more plates, sweaters and gift cards than they need. What they usually do not have is a way to watch the VHS tape of a grandchild's first birthday or the Super 8 reel from a family vacation fifty years ago. That footage exists. It is sitting in their house right now, in a box or on a basement shelf. The problem is that the player for it is gone, and the tape itself degrades a little every year.
Digitizing that footage does not add more clutter. It moves something they already own into a format everyone in the family can use, on a phone or a television.
What gets converted
iM Video Transfer started in 2002. The work is done in its own office in Warren, Ohio, and orders come in by mail from anywhere in the US. It converts VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Video8, Digital8, MiniDV and Betamax tapes, Mini DVD camcorder discs, 8mm and Super 8 film reels, 35mm slides and photo prints. Video and film come back edited, color-corrected and upscaled. For film, only 8mm and Super 8 are accepted, and audio cassettes are not converted.
Old or damaged tapes and film may not come back perfect. Results depend on the condition of the media: a tape kept in a cool, dry closet usually fares better than one that sat in a damp garage for thirty years. iM Video Transfer says so up front.
What the family gets back
Every order comes with a shared Google Drive download link. That link stays open for 90 days, and anyone in the family the grandparents share it with can open it on a phone, tablet or computer. That means a grandchild across the country can watch the same footage on Christmas afternoon that grandma is watching on her television.
For grandparents who want something to hold and play themselves, there are add-ons. A USB drive works on most smart TVs and computers. A DVD comes with background music and chapters, so they can hand it to someone and press play without any setup. Extra DVD sets can be ordered for other family members. For photo scans, a slideshow video is available as an add-on. The originals come back too, returned free at pickup or shipped by USPS.
How to give this as a Christmas gift right now
The tapes, film reels and photos most families want saved are often already in the grandparents' house, in a closet or a box in the basement. So you do not need to find them before Christmas morning.
A printable gift certificate is available at imvideotransfer.com/gift. The code on it pays toward any order, and it is good for 5 years. Print it, put it in a card or a frame, and give it Christmas morning. After the holidays, the family goes through the closet together, packs the box and mails it in. That trip through grandma's closet looking for old tapes is part of the gift.
How the order works
Other memory gift ideas to pair with it
Some families go further once the digitizing is done. Photo prints from the scans can go into a photo book. A slideshow video made from scanned prints works well played at a holiday gathering. If there are old photo prints that need repair work beyond a standard scan, photo restoration is available by quote. Call 330-574-8749 or email contact@imvideotransfer.com to ask about that.
Start an order at imvideotransfer.com/order, or go to imvideotransfer.com/gift to get a printable gift certificate to put under the tree.