Two published prices to clarify before booking
Photo Finish publishes video to DVD transfers at $15 per hour, per video per cassette. The same service page also lists VHS videocassettes at $30 each with an asterisk. These figures should not be combined into an assumed total or treated as interchangeable: ask which applies to your tapes and what the asterisk covers. A cassette containing several short recordings is a useful example to discuss when requesting an estimate.
The website says each DVD can record as much as 2 hours. For longer tapes, ask how the recording would be divided and whether additional discs affect the cost. Also establish how part-hours, blank sections and multiple cassettes are counted, and whether any taxes or other charges apply. The published wording gives you a starting point for that conversation, rather than enough detail to calculate every order yourself.
DVD playback and archive files serve different purposes
The confirmed video offering is transfer to DVD. If watching on an existing DVD player is your main aim, that may be the output you want. For uploading, editing or sharing a recording as a file, ask Photo Finish whether it can supply a separate digital version from VHS, what file format it uses and how that version is delivered. Do not assume that a video DVD automatically includes a ready-to-upload file.
Photo Finish does advertise USB flash drive or external hard drive delivery on its film transfer page, at $15 per 5GB. That offer concerns digital films and does not establish the same option or price for VHS. If your collection includes both reels and cassettes, ask for the output and charges for each separately. Choosing a short, meaningful recording first can help you decide how you want to handle the rest of the collection.
Separate the reels, sound recordings and video tapes
This is also a business to ask about a mixed family collection. Its film transfer page names 8mm, Super8 and 16mm films, including Super8 with a magnetic audio track. Its video transfer page separately advertises audio cassettes and vinyl records transferred to CD at $15 per cassette side or per record album side. Those audio charges are distinct from video cassette charges.
Before contacting the business, make a simple inventory grouped by medium. Give each tape or reel a number and copy any handwritten labels into a note. Keep uncertain descriptions uncertain: 'possibly a summer holiday' is more useful than a confident but incorrect date. Ask a relative who remembers the events to help identify people and places. If a tape has a damaged case, visible contamination or previously played badly, describe that condition and ask whether it can be assessed before trying to play it again.
Plan the visit, then check what comes back
The website places Photo Finish at Auburn Mall, at 550 Center Street, #9007, Auburn, Maine 04210. Its hours need confirmation: the home page labels Wednesday through Saturday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm as summer hours, while the contact page shows 11:00 am to 5:00 pm on those days. Confirm the current schedule before traveling, along with the expected completion time and arrangements for returning your originals.
When you receive the transfer, play material from the beginning, middle and end of each recording. Check that speech is audible, the footage matches your tape labels and the ending is present. Report any questions while your inventory is easy to follow. Keep the original tapes, and retain another copy of any digital files on a separate drive. Name files consistently so relatives can match the recording to the occasion without having to watch it all.
Use the finished recordings to reconnect the family
Once you have suitable digital files, Memrial provides a separate private family archive for photos and home videos. It does not convert physical tapes and is not part of Photo Finish. The free plan includes 2.0 GB of storage shared across the archive, with no card needed. Check file sizes before choosing what to upload, then invite relatives to add names, comments and stories.
Timeline accepts exact or approximate dates, making it easier to find memories by year even when a tape label only says 'early childhood.' Live Watch Parties synchronize an uploaded home video, with the host controlling play, pause and seek while relatives nearby or far away use voice or text chat. The free allowance is 3 hours per month with up to 6 participants.
For a family anniversary, Event Memories can bring newly taken photos together through a secure occasion contribution link. Contributors sign in but do not need archive membership; their photos and videos go into the event album. Closing the link keeps the memories already collected. An older anniversary recording can then sit alongside the new celebration, with relatives supplying the context that a cassette label never captured.