I've driven past this shop for years, and as someone with experience in video conversion, I've always been curious about what sort of systems were set up inside. Their website looks straight out of the 90s. There's a lot of information, but I was floored by the fact that I could only order a conversion by **printing out and mailing in an order form** until I saw the fine print that said "walk-ins welcome". I had an old Betamax tape that I didn't have the equipment to convert, so I finally had a reason to stop by! I expected to find a 40-something in a clean, technologically up-to-date shop who could look at a piece of media and digitize it to a file type of your choosing. But stepping into Video Lab is like stepping back in time - decked out like a library with stacks and stacks of VCRs and cables, it looks like it could be a vintage bootleg server room. There's a life-size cutout of John Wayne and a variety of stickers that make the proprietor's politics apparent. The customer area is just a tiny sliver next to the front door blocked off by a counter, which gives the place the air of a museum exhibit to be observed from afar. I stood at the counter for maybe 20 seconds with no sign of life until a man shuffled out from around a corner. He didn't acknowledge me so I started the conversation. If I remember correctly, Steve's been running this shop since around 1982, and I get the sense that he stopped updating his processes once DVDs became the dominant media format. He plays a tape in real time while it burns to a DVD and watches TV in the background to fill the time. I was disappointed that he only offered to convert to DVD. My tape conversion was ready within 24 hours. Since DVDs have not been the dominant media format for close to a decade, my plan was just to rip the video to my hard drive and toss the disc. However, the disc wouldn't play in my Samsung DVD player, so I brought it back along with some of my equipment with the hope that I could just connect my computer to his Betamax player to import the tape directly. He seemed baffled by the request but invited me to step back into the stacks of players and helped me hook up my computer. Sitting there waiting for my tape to import, I marveled at the setup and thought about how much fun it'd be to help him streamline the operation. As we were chatting, I asked him why he was only offering DVDs instead of more versatile solutions like thumb drives, and he suggested that there wasn't demand for it. This surprised me, but he did have piles of finished orders on the counter so I suppose he's doing fine. read more

Video Lab - A delightful operation - Videos & Video Game Rental Near Me - Tacoma, Washington

Truly happy with this experience and the product! I did some research on the places where you send your VHS tapes to be dubbed. They were more money than I expected to or wanted to pay and there was up to a 6-week turnaround! So I remembered this tiny little place right around 56th and South Tacoma Way. I called and spoke with Steve. My first concern was with the copyright on an obscure exercise video from 1994 that was never made into a DVD. He immediately said copyrights expire after 25 years. I live about 3 or 4 miles away from there, so I popped into my car and drove right over. He quoted $24.95 plus tax, cash. ($27.49) He told me it would be ready the next day! So after phone call from him the following day, I popped back into my car and went back. I am deliriously happy that I will be able to use an exercise format that helped me lose over 50 lb back in the day. (I'm a little creakier and only need to lose about 15, but I know this video works for me.) the only place I have for a VCR has about three square feet of area in which to move. Now I can use my living room! I am viewing it as I write this, and I find it to be of perfect quality. In less than 24 hours! Steve was a pleasure to deal with and I can't find any reason why I would not go back once I find more things to convert! Definite 10 / 10 ! read more