GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Most of us have old videos on tape or film with memories that we can no longer watch. Now thanks to a new program at GRTV, it is possible for you to see them again.
“We got our archives downstairs; we got 8,000 of these,” said GRTV Production Manager Joe Zook.
GRTV has a lot of videos on VHS that need to be preserved digitally.
“We started looking at our own tapes and thought if we got tapes, everyone else in the community has thousands of tapes too. So we are [part of] the Community Media Center; let’s make this accessible to everybody,” said Zook.
And that is exactly what they have done.
GRTV now has a media preservation suite that everyone, regardless of where they live, can use to convert their videos.
“This is truly an obsolete media format. So, anyone who has a VHS at home, unless they digitize these tapes… these are memories. This is history at risk of being lost forever,” said Zook.
Besides VHS, the suite can digitize many other formats.
“Compact cassette, mini DV, DV cam… We can also do 8 mm film, Super 8 film.”
To use the suite, you have to pay $40 to become a Grand Rapids Media Center all-access member, then take a one-time $40 training course.
“If you have dozens of tapes, you could spend hundreds of dollars getting those digitized. Or you could come in, do a one-time certification here, and digitize these tapes yourself,” said Zook.
Once certified, the suite is free to use; you just have to schedule a time.
“We find people who go, ‘I've been sitting on these tapes for 20, 30 years.’ Some people have never even seen the tape. ‘We filmed it, but we never watched it back,’” said Zook.
Once converted, you just have to download the video to your cloud or hard drive, then it’s preserved and easy to watch.
“If you’re working with VHS, if you're working with these old formats, or if you have them stored in the basement somewhere, this is a great place to resurrect or preserve those memories,” said Zook.
GRTV is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 12–8 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
The GRCMC all-access membership is $40 annually.
Media Preservation Suite certification $40 one-time charge
For more information, visit GRTV’s website.
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