Be Wise, Digitize: Saving VHS Before It’s Too Late

I was doing a bunch of spring cleaning at my grandparents’ house when I came across a box of old video tapes. The tapes must have been sitting up there for over 15 years with a thick layer of dust collecting at the top. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love legacy/retro media formats, so this was really exciting for me.  Considering their current state, I knew that the best way to preserve this media would be to digitize the tapes in the Vitale Digital Media Lab. 

In Vitale, we offer the ability to digitize VHS, VHS-C, and DVD (and certain other formats) using our OBS system. OBS is a free broadcasting software that is compatible with both Mac and Windows computers. Our system digitizes media in real-time, meaning if the tape you’re digitizing is 2 hours long, it will take at least 2 hours to render your file. I was so excited to use this system for my own videos for the first time, and I brought in as many tapes as I could fit into my bag. The system is super user friendly, and in no time I was converting my VHS-C tapes to .mp4 files. Watching my family’s memories play out on screen right in front of me, from a time where I didn’t even exist, felt like an out-of-body experience. Images of Old San Juan and the mountains of Puerto Rico, as well as footage of an unusually large (by today’s standards) New Jersey blizzard played out in beautiful static grain. 

In addition to home videos, the OBS system has come in handy when handling items from the University Archives. Over the last two years, I’ve had the privilege of assisting the alumni weekend committee with digitizing the senior class videos from 1994 and 1995. Each video is a compilation of dancing, speeches, and fun anecdotes from that year’s graduating class. It was fascinating to watch clips from a time where social media wasn’t present. The students in the video of the Class of 1995 event were clearly excited to be on camera with their classmates, totally unaware that I’d be digitizing their video over 30 years later. You could see the excitement on their faces as they waited for their turn to be on screen. 

I’ve included clips here both from my family videos and from the Penn Class of 1995 senior party for you to enjoy.
Stop by Vitale between 9-5, Monday through Friday and start preserving your old media today!