Why Family History Centers Struggle With Digitizing Video (and How We help you Do It Better)

Mar 11

Family History Centers and local libraries are a wonderful community resource. They’re free, they’re accessible, and for many families they’re the first place people go when they decide it’s time to digitize their photo and video collections. But if you’ve ever tried using them, you may have walked away feeling frustrated.

The reality is: these centers aren’t set up for high-quality, efficient digitization. They want you to get the bare minimum quality that allows them to get your photos uploaded to family search. Family history is an incredible thing, but we should be getting the highest level quality so it’s preserved for generations, before its lost or destroyed. Let’s break down why—and how the photo scanners makes the process smoother, faster, and higher quality.

The limitations of Family History Center equipment

1. Composite-only video capture

Most centers use composite (yellow RCA) outputs for VHS and camcorder transfers. Composite was the cheapest, lowest-quality connection back in the day, and it shows:

Colors bleed together
Fine detail is lost
Edges look fuzzy
Noise is baked into the signal

Modern S-VHS decks with S-Video outputs provide a sharper, cleaner separation of video signals. Add time base correction (TBC), and you remove the wavy lines and jitter that composite-only setups can’t fix.

2. No time base correction (TBC)

Standard VHS decks and consumer machines don’t have TBC. Without it, you get:

Wavy video
Warped edges
Audio falling out of sync

Professional-grade S-VHS decks with built-in TBC stabilize the signal and keep the picture steady and the sound aligned.

3. Subpar capture cards

Most centers rely on inexpensive capture devices designed for low-cost consumer use. These compress the video heavily, causing:

Blocky images
Audio lag
Files that are hard to edit or improve later

By contrast, we use professional capture cards that retain every bit of detail, giving you a master file you can actually preserve.

4. The time problem

Even if you’re okay with lower quality, there’s the hassle:

You have to pack everything up (tapes, photos, reels, drives)
Drive to the center, set up, and hope the machine is available
Get through only part of your collection before time runs out
Come back another day… and another

What should be a joyful project turns into a drawn-out chore.

How we do it differently

At the photo scanners, our approach is the opposite: quality first, convenience built in.

Rent our gear: We’ll set you up with a pro-grade S-VHS deck with built-in TBC, S-Video cables, and a proper capture card. You can digitize at home, at your own pace.
We do it for you: If you’d rather skip the technical details, drop off your collection (or let us pick it up) and we’ll return fully digitized, corrected, and backed-up files—done right the first time.
No more waiting: You don’t have to fight over time slots or worry about leaving half your project unfinished.

The takeaway

Family History Centers are great for a first try at digitization, but they simply don’t have the equipment to do justice to your memories. What you gain in free access, you lose in quality, time, and convenience.

At the photo scanners, we bridge that gap:

Better gear
Faster results
Higher quality files you’ll be proud to keep and share
And most importantly—a comprehensive legacy solution that ensures your memories live on, accessible to your entire family

Whether you rent equipment or let us handle everything, you’ll never have to settle for fuzzy video, audio out of sync, or the frustration of unfinished projects again.

STEVEN MACKEY