I really appreciate this thread and everyone commenting on it. For years I have been considering transferring my stuff to DVDs/digital files given that the current format is more than dead. However I have always been very unsure about hiring people or doing it myself. I guess that doing it myself would be very educational and why not also say "lots of fun," but I'd rather rely on something professionally done since the least I'd expect is a final product that would look exactly what the VHS recording looks like. But there are several companies doing offering said service and I don't know how to go about picking one of them. They all want to throw in stuff like color correction, scaling, etc, to sweeten the deal it but I never know what is really doable in a transfer like this. Let's face it: besides the actual state and quality of the source material, there's not much one can do if the "remasterisation" isn't being done by a Hollywood like studio. Also, the more people you have working on it, the more you'll pay. And, as an example, in a process like color correction you do need human eyes instead of a computer software calibrating everything. I'd love to hear your impressions and suggestions regarding all I've just said.
Just one? Pay Scan Cafe (use Google) $20 and be done with it. They charge $20 per VHS tape and for that you get hand corrected color and a DVD menu with scene selections. The hand corrected color is with the price.
There are of course other services but this is the one I know. The DVD will actually look better than the old VHS.
Hey ChrisA, I hear that people are very satisfied with Scan Cafe's photo scanning service. I never met anyone who used their VHS to DVD service though. What do you think about it? Why did you pick them? I know they exploded in popularity back in '07 and by then they were the best online service... but I know nothing about how their service has been like lately.