LARGE VIDEOTAPE COLLECTIONS
Should I Sort and Organize Hundreds of Videotapes Before I Send Them for Digitization?
If you have 100, 200, or even several hundred old videotapes, the project can become intimidating before digitization even begins. You may feel like you need to identify every event, sort every year, label every cassette, group every format, and build a spreadsheet before sending anything. In most cases, you do not. A little preparation is useful. A full archival catalog is usually unnecessary.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Do Some Basic Organization—but Don't Turn It Into a Six-Weekend Project
The goal is to make the collection manageable, not perfect.
For a large collection, count the tapes approximately, group obvious formats when convenient, preserve any labels already present, identify a few especially important tapes, and let the transfer company apply its own tracking system during intake.
WHAT IS ACTUALLY WORTH DOING?
Three Things Give You Most of the Benefit
Get a Rough Count
Knowing whether you have 75, 175, or 375 tapes helps with pricing, shipping, and project planning.
Group Obvious Formats
Put VHS with VHS, MiniDV with MiniDV, and similar-sized camcorder tapes together if that is easy to do.
Flag the Important Ones
If five tapes matter far more than the other 195, make that clear before the project begins.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO WATCH EVERYTHING FIRST
That Defeats Much of the Purpose of Digitizing
Suppose you have 200 tapes averaging two hours each.
Watching them all before sending them could mean:
400 hours of viewing.
That is roughly ten full 40-hour workweeks.
You do not need to complete a documentary-archive project before you are allowed to begin a digitization project.
DON'T TEST EVERY TAPE
Old Playback Equipment Can Create Its Own Risk
If you still own an old VCR or camcorder, it may be tempting to test every tape before sending it.
There are several problems with that.
- It takes a tremendous amount of time.
- The old machine may be dirty or mechanically unreliable.
- Fragile tapes may not benefit from unnecessary playback.
- You still may not know whether another machine could play a problem tape better.
If you already intend to digitize the collection, you generally do not need to play hundreds of aging tapes first merely to prepare them.
COUNTING IS WORTH IT
At Least Know Roughly How Large the Project Is
An approximate count helps both you and the transfer company.
It affects:
- price estimates;
- shipping-box size;
- turnaround expectations;
- storage requirements;
- whether you may want to divide the project into batches.
You do not need an exact count to begin asking questions, but “about 180 tapes” is much more useful than “a whole bunch.”
GROUPING BY FORMAT
Helpful—but Keep It Simple
If you can easily see that some tapes are full-size VHS and others are tiny MiniDV cassettes, grouping them can help.
You might end up with:
92 VHS
31 VHS-C
48 Video8 / Hi8 / Digital8
24 MiniDV
7 unknown
That is plenty. You do not need to identify every 8mm-family tape down to Video8 versus Hi8 versus Digital8 unless you already know.
WHAT IF I DON'T KNOW THE FORMATS?
Let the Transfer Company Identify Them
A professional operation should be able to identify common consumer videotapes during intake.
You should not need to become an expert in obsolete camcorder formats before you can hire someone whose job is digitizing obsolete camcorder formats.
KEEP EXISTING LABELS
Do Not Remove Useful Information
A tape may already say:
- Christmas 1993;
- Disney;
- Wedding;
- Tape 8;
- Grandpa.
Leave those labels in place. Even incomplete or inaccurate handwritten information can become useful later when you review the digital files.
DO YOU NEED TO LABEL THE UNLABELED ONES?
No—Not Unless You Want To
A transfer company should have its own method for identifying tapes.
That may involve:
- numeric stickers;
- barcodes;
- job numbers;
- software-based tracking;
- physical order bins.
See My Tapes Have No Labels. How Will I Know Which Digital File Is Which? for more about how that system should work.
WHAT IF I WANT THEM IN A SPECIFIC ORDER?
Then Organization Matters More
Maybe the tapes are already arranged:
- chronologically;
- by family member;
- by vacation;
- by numbered boxes;
- by an old handwritten catalog.
If the existing sequence matters to you, tell the transfer company before sending the collection and ask how it preserves customer order during intake.
ONE EASY METHOD
Number the Boxes Instead of Every Tape
For a very large project, you might simply label:
BOX 1 OF 4
BOX 2 OF 4
BOX 3 OF 4
BOX 4 OF 4
Then note approximately what each contains.
This gives the shipment structure without forcing you to label every individual cassette yourself.
FLAG THE MOST IMPORTANT TAPES
Not Every Cassette Has the Same Emotional Value
In a collection of 250 tapes, you may already know that five are uniquely important.
Examples:
- a wedding;
- the only footage of a deceased parent;
- a child's birth;
- a major family event;
- a tape you know is damaged.
Those few tapes are worth identifying separately even if the remaining 245 go into the project with minimal organization.
DO NOT OVERWRITE OLD LABELS
Add Your Own Identification Instead
If you decide to number tapes yourself, do not cover important old handwriting.
Add a small new number somewhere else.
“Tape 027” can coexist with “Lake George 1988.” You do not need to choose between systematic tracking and preserving the family's original notes.
SHOULD YOU BUILD A SPREADSHEET?
Only If You Actually Want One
A spreadsheet can be useful for a serious archival project.
You might track:
- tape number;
- format;
- existing label;
- approximate year;
- importance;
- notes after reviewing the digital file.
But do not let spreadsheet perfection become the reason the tapes sit in the closet for another three years.
THE BEST TIME TO ORGANIZE MAY BE AFTER DIGITIZATION
Digital Files Are Much Easier to Review
Once the tapes become files, you can:
- jump through the timeline;
- rename files;
- create folders;
- add dates;
- identify people;
- share clips with relatives who may know what they are.
For many families, digitize first and organize second is far more efficient than trying to decode hundreds of mystery tapes beforehand.
LARGE PROJECTS NEED A GOOD PROVIDER WORKFLOW
Your Organization Should Not Be the Company's Only Safety System
Once the tapes arrive, the company should have a controlled process for:
- counting them;
- identifying them;
- sorting formats;
- tracking them through production;
- matching digital files to physical tapes;
- reconciling the originals before return.
If the company needs you to build its entire tracking system for it before shipping, that is not especially reassuring.
SHOULD YOU SEND ALL 200 AT ONCE?
That Is a Separate Decision
Organization and shipment size are related, but they are not the same question.
Some customers are comfortable sending the whole collection.
Others prefer:
50 tapes → review the process → send the next 50.
Our guide I Have 100+ Videotapes to Digitize—Should I Send Them All at Once? looks at that tradeoff.
WHAT NOT TO SPEND HOURS DOING
Most of This Can Wait
- Watching every tape.
- Rewinding every tape.
- Identifying every event.
- Researching every camcorder format.
- Creating beautiful custom labels.
- Putting every tape into exact chronological order.
Do those things only if you enjoy the archival project—not because you think digitization requires them.
WHAT IS WORTH FIVE MINUTES?
A Quick Pre-Shipping Checklist
- Estimate the total tape count.
- Separate obvious tape formats if easy.
- Preserve existing labels.
- Flag especially important or damaged tapes.
- Photograph the collection.
- Number shipping boxes if using more than one.
- Tell the company if the existing sequence matters.
RELATED QUESTION
How Much Organization Is Really Necessary?
Our guide Do I Need to Organize and Label Every Tape Before Sending It for Transfer? covers the same issue for projects of all sizes.
The guiding principle is simple: preserve useful information and important order, but do not manufacture work that does not actually improve the transfer.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Hundreds of Tapes Do Not Need Hundreds of Individual Preparatory Decisions
Count them.
preserve the labels.
group obvious formats if convenient.
identify the handful that matter most.
and preserve any ordering that already has meaning.
Then stop. A competent transfer company should handle technical format identification, individual tracking, file naming, and production organization. For a large family collection, digitizing first and doing the detailed historical organization afterward is often faster, easier, and far more practical.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Large Videotape Organization FAQs
Do I need to label hundreds of tapes before transfer?
No. A transfer company should have its own identification and tracking system. Preserve useful existing labels and add your own only if you want to.
Should I watch every tape before sending it?
Usually not. That can take hundreds of hours and may require running irreplaceable tapes through old playback equipment unnecessarily.
Should I sort VHS, Hi8, and MiniDV separately?
It can be helpful for estimating and packing, but it is not essential if the transfer company accepts mixed-format collections.
Should I number every tape myself?
Only if you want your own pre-existing numbering system. Otherwise, the provider can assign identifiers during intake.
What if the chronological order matters?
Tell the transfer company before shipping and ask how it preserves customer sequence during intake and processing.
Is it easier to organize videos after digitization?
Usually yes. Digital files can be skimmed quickly, renamed, moved into folders, and shared with relatives who may help identify people and dates.
What should I definitely do before sending a large collection?
Get a rough count, preserve existing labels, flag especially important or damaged tapes, photograph the collection, and number multiple shipping boxes.
STARING AT HUNDREDS OF OLD TAPES?
You Do Not Have to Organize Your Entire Family History Before Starting
Do the few preparation steps that actually matter, then let the transfer workflow turn the collection into files that are much easier to identify, organize, and preserve. Memory Fortress specializes in larger collections and handles nationwide projects through its video transfer service, with all work performed in-house at its Atlanta facility.