So you have tons of old movies and pictures, and it’s time to bring them into the digital age. The good news is that we have the technology. The bad news is that there are different places to go, and deciding which is best can be time consuming, confusing, and annoying.
Don’t worry, we’re here to the rescue. We’ll walk you through the differences between Legacybox and FotoBridge and let you know what you get from each. That way, you can make an informed decision about which digitizing company you should trust with your precious memories.
First, the Basics
Legacybox is headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It’s the national leader in converting analog formats to digital, trusted by over 350,000 families. Legacybox controls the entire digitizing process from order to final delivery. They’ll send you a box that you pack your home movies, photos and film in, and they take care of the rest. Once the digitizing process is complete, they’ll load it all onto DVDs, and send everything back to you with an optional thumb drive. It’s that easy.
FotoBridge is based out of West Berlin, NJ. They specialize in large orders of one particular type of format. For example, if you have a mountain of VHS tapes sitting in your garage, they make it easy to convert them. Their pricing is also based off of that fact, so if you have a mix of photos, tapes, and slides, it gets less convenient. FotoBridge does not include packing materials or return shipping, all of that is on you.
Diving a Little Deeper
Let’s take a look at some of the more detailed stuff that each one can do. We’ll put it into a nice table so that you can easily compare the services.
|
|
Legacybox |
FotoBridge |
|
Only 1 company handles your film, cassettes, and photos? |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Anyone can use it? |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Packaging materials included? |
Yes |
No |
|
Return shipping included? |
Yes |
No |
|
Film Formats Accepted |
Regular 8, Super 8, 16mm |
Regular 8, Super 8, 16mm |
|
Tape Formats Accepted |
VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Video 8, Digital 8, Mini DV, Betamax, Micro MV, PAL |
VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, BetaMax, Video8, Digital8, Hi8, MiniDV |
|
Convenient Packages to Choose? |
Yes |
Kind of--pricing is for large quantities of 1 format--i.e. photos, VHS, slides, etc. |
|
Step-by-Step Tracking? |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Package Starting Price |
$59.99 (Videos + Photos) |
$54.95 (Photos Only) |
|
Turn-around Time |
6-8 Weeks |
??? |
|
Optional Thumb Drive of videos/photos included? |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Customer Service Availability |
Through Legacybox. All questions answered by the Legacybox team. |
Through FotoBridge. All questions answered by the FotoTree team. |
|
USA Today Recommended? |
Yes |
No |
So Which Do I Choose?
All in all, both companies will get your old fashioned tapes, photos, films, and slides in a shiny new digital format. Legacybox makes it much simpler if you have a variety of itmes you’re wanting to digitize. You can send them a single box full of all sorts of different formats, and they’ll digitize all of them. FotoBridge’s specialty lies in large scale projects of a single type. One big difference is that Legacybox sends you a nifty, crush free box with all of the postage paid already for you to place your memories in. For Fotobridge, the packaging and first-time shipping is up to you.
All things considered, I’d give the edge to Legacybox. They make the digitizing process super simple from start to finish, and you don’t have to worry about packing up your precious memories incorrectly. The ability to combine media types is also a big plus.
