How it works
Most VHS conversion services treat your tapes like batches. We treat them like the irreplaceable home video that they are.
- 1
Place your order online
Choose how many tapes, which quality tier, and whether you want originals returned. Pay securely — we charge your card up front. Cancel anytime before shipping.
- 2
We send you a packing kit (or a label)
Choose: free downloadable UPS label and a one-page packing guide, OR a physical kit with bubble wrap and an inventory sheet ($9.99). Both include round-trip tracking.
- 3
Pack carefully
Place each tape in its sleeve, wrap in bubble or paper, and pad the box so nothing rattles. Our guide walks you through it. Insurance up to $200/box is included.
- 4
Ship to our facility
Drop your box at any UPS location. Tracking notifications come to your email — you'll know the moment we receive it.
- 5
We inventory on arrival
When the box arrives, we open it on a clean, padded surface, photograph each tape, and log it in your account. You get an email with the inventory photo within 24 hours.
- 6
Digitization
Each tape goes through calibrated capture equipment. We don't use bulk batch converters — every tape is monitored. We watch for issues like dropped audio, tracking errors, or fragile sections and adjust mid-capture.
- 7
Quality review
Every converted file is spot-checked before delivery. Premium tier gets a full frame-by-frame review and light editing (titles, trimming dead air).
- 8
Delivery to your private library
Files appear in your TapeRevive dashboard. Only you can see them — we use Row Level Security and signed URLs. Stream, download, share with family via expiring links.
- 9
Originals: return or recycle
By default we ship originals back ($8 flat). Or choose 'Recycle for me' — we partner with a certified R2 e-waste processor (VHS contains chromium) and email you a disposal certificate.
What happens if a tape can't be recovered?
Sometimes VHS magnetic media is too degraded to read. If we can't recover usable footage, we refund that tape's charge in full and notify you with a brief explanation of what we tried. No questions asked.