Are you worried about the degradation of your old family videos that were recorded back in the Eighties and Nineties on a VHS camcorder? Do you have a decades-old collection of 8mm short films that you haven’t been able to view in a long time? Have you been meaning to upload family photos from old albums to the digital picture frame you got as a gift? If so, you can visit the Pekin Public Library, where we have a Digital Media Lab stocked with video transfer equipment that can be used free of charge to turn videos created with old, obsolete technology into new DVDs, in addition to a scanner that can be used to digitally save photographs and documents. 

Most of our patrons who utilize our video transfer equipment use it for VHS-to-DVD transfer. The library’s video transfer equipment includes a video cassette machine that can be used to make DVD copies of old videos that can be in a broad array of formats, not just VHS. Those additional formats include VHS-C and MiniDV, as well as Video8, Hi8, and Digital8. The video cassette machine is connected to a computer equipped with Honestech Inc. software that includes a user-friendly “Easy Wizard” mode. For the simplest kind of video transfer, the Easy Wizard mode is the go-to option, but the Honestech software also allows for more advanced editing of the digital videos that are created using the transfer process. The library also has a Hammacher Schlemmer 8mm film transfer machine designed to turn old Super 8s and 8 mm film stock into DVDs. 

Our Digital Media Lab is free and open to the public. Before using our Digital Media Lab, library patrons will need to make an appointment with our staff for a training session on using the transfer equipment. After that, patrons may use the Digital Media Lab and scanner during regular library hours. Just call ahead at (309) 347-7111 to make sure the video transfer equipment is not already in use.

Note: the library’s Digital Media Lab may not be used to make illegal, pirated copies of copyrighted videos.