Match the tapes to the confirmed formats
The video transfer page explicitly names standard VHS, S-VHS and the smaller VHS-C cassette. If your collection mixes full-size tapes with compact camcorder cassettes, make a short inventory of the labels and sizes. Photograph any unfamiliar cassette and ask about it separately, rather than assuming that every kind of home-video tape falls within those three formats.
The published address is 3 Lovell Close, Swindon, SN3 5BT. Before travelling, agree how the tapes will be handed over and collected. Use that first conversation to describe the number of cassettes, any running times written on them and any visible damage. Ask for a quotation, the expected completion time and what happens if a tape turns out to be blank or unreadable.
MP4 or DV AVI: decide how you will use the files
Save Those Memories describes standard-definition video files at 720 x 576 pixels. Its published figures are 6GB of data per hour for MP4 using the H.264 codec, or 13GB per hour for DV AVI. These are video-transfer figures; they should guide this discussion without being confused with the much larger file sizes on the separate cine-film page.
For everyday viewing and sharing, MP4 is a sensible format to discuss first. If you intend to edit the recordings, ask which option suits your editing software and whether you need a separate viewing copy. Choose with the devices you actually use in mind: a family member watching on a phone has different needs from someone assembling a longer film on a computer.
For larger DV archives, the provider recommends returning the files on a passport-sized hard drive. For smaller archives or MP4 transfers, it says it normally uses its FromSmash PRO file-transfer service, which is free for the customer to use. Confirm the delivery arrangement for your order, including any drive costs and how long a download will remain available.
Keep the family information attached to each recording
Give each cassette a simple reference number and keep a matching list of its handwritten title, likely date and people shown. Ask relatives to help decipher names while the original labels are still to hand. Avoid removing labels or trying to clean a tape yourself. A cracked case, loose tape or suspected mould is something to describe to the transfer service before playback, not a reason to promise that the recording can be restored.
When the files arrive, check that every cassette reference has a corresponding result. Play the beginning, a middle passage and the end, listening as well as watching. Note any missing section or unexpected silence and raise it with the provider. Keep the physical originals, retain the delivered files unchanged and make a second digital copy on a separate device before you start editing or sharing.
Build a private archive after the Swindon transfer
Memrial is a separate private family archive for the digital memories you receive after conversion. It does not digitise tapes and is not part of Save Those Memories. You can organise photos and home videos into albums, invite relatives and add comments or stories that explain who appears in a recording.
The free allowance is 2.0 GB shared across the archive, with no card needed. That is smaller than the provider's published size for an hour of either video format, so plan storage before uploading a whole collection. Keep your full delivered archive backed up independently and choose the memories you want to bring into the family archive first.
Timeline uses exact or approximate dates to help you find memories by year. A summer holiday labelled only with a probable year can still have a useful place in the family history. Relatives may recognise a location, a birthday cake or a younger cousin and add the missing context without needing to agree on a precise day.
Watch an old recording together, then collect new memories
A Live Watch Party synchronises an uploaded home video for relatives nearby or far away. The host controls play, pause and seek, with voice and text chat alongside the recording. Memrial's free plan includes 3 hours of Watch Parties per month and up to 6 participants. For an anniversary, you could pause an old celebration when someone recognises a guest and let the conversation fill in the story.
Event Memories can collect the new photographs and videos from that anniversary through a secure occasion contribution link. Contributors sign in but do not need archive membership; their uploads go into the event album. Closing the link keeps the collected memories. It is a practical way to place the family's present-day gathering alongside the older recording that brought everyone together.