The Lab
VHS. Hi8. 8mm. Small shop. Real equipment. Your memories handled with care.
VHS Now started as a community service project out of NEONpulseTechshop — a small repair and electronics shop in Shorewood, IL. We kept running into the same story: people had boxes of old VHS tapes, Hi8 cassettes, and 8mm camcorder tapes sitting in closets, garages, and basements. Wedding videos, birthday parties, family vacations — memories slowly degrading on magnetic tape.
So we built a dedicated archiving setup. Not a factory line. Not a bulk processing center. Just a small, careful operation where every tape gets individual attention. We inspect each one before it goes in the deck, monitor the capture in real time, and verify the output before it leaves.
Yeah, it's a side hustle — but that doesn't mean we cut corners. Your tapes are irreplaceable, and we treat them that way.
We don't use consumer-grade VCRs from Goodwill. Our playback chain is built around professional and broadcast-grade hardware — the same kind of equipment that TV stations and production houses used.
We're always adding to the setup. If we don't have the right deck for your format, we'll find one.
Every tape goes through the same careful process. No shortcuts.
We visually inspect the tape and cassette shell for damage, mold, or mechanical issues. If a tape needs repair before playback, we'll let you know.
The tape is loaded into the appropriate professional deck. We monitor the signal on our waveform scope and vectorscope while capturing to ensure clean, accurate digitization. Tracking is adjusted manually for each tape.
The raw capture is encoded to a standard digital format — typically MP4 (H.264) for broad compatibility. If you've requested lossless output, we'll encode to AVI or MOV with no compression.
We watch the output. Not a spot check — the whole thing. If something looks off, we run it again with adjusted settings.
Your digital files are transferred to the storage media you provide — USB drive, SD card, or burned to DVD. You bring the media, we fill it up.
This is a by-appointment operation. You call, we set a time, and your tapes get our full attention. We also have a drop box available if you can't make it during appointment hours — just call first so we know to expect your tapes.
Available daily, 4pm – 9pm
Turnaround depends on tape condition, how many are in the queue, and whether you've requested extras like color or audio correction. We'll give you an honest estimate when you drop off.
If you're disabled, elderly, or simply unable to get to us — we offer local pickup and delivery for a small fee. Just ask when you call. We'll work something out.