Legacybox

Think twice about sending precious memories to these people. I had a Beta tape of a party taken long ago and had saved it over the years because of many participants who had since passed away. I recently decided, at the request of other friends, to have copies made for their memories as well. I contacted Legacy asking if they could transfer Beta. No answer to my question. Several emails followed, each inviting me to send in my tape. I asked several times if BETA was acceptable. Never answered my question but kept saying "send your material" I applied, paid the cost up front, which was requested, and sent in my tape. I asked for three DVDs. That's all I wanted. I waited for two months during which time I got several follow up emails explaining I would have to pay extra for two discs. I paid. More waiting and finally I sent another email asking where was my stuff. They replied again that I needed to pay for a third disc. I didn't want to argue because I had waited for so long and was anxious to finally get my stuff returned and the new discs. I paid for the third disc and a short time later I got an email telling me that they couldn't make the discs because my tape was "damaged and unfixable". I was furious! HOW could this happen? That tape had been sitting in a box in my closet for years. I never took it out or played it since I don't have a beta player, who does? That was my original concern, could they play a beta and copy it? They replied that the tape had wear and tear damage and then returned it to me. SO NOT ONLY DID I NOT GET MY DISCS, BUT NOW THAT PRECIOUS TAPE IS NO LONGER PLAYABLE so I can never screen it again. If I thought I could sue them I would. BEWARE what you trust them with!

I am very happy with Legacy Box. Called and talked to a human. Sent my pictures in and they digitized them cheaply and in a timely fashion despite the pandemic!

I was a fairly serious amateur home movie maker in the late 1960s and '70s, mostly family vacation stuff. 25 years ago I decided to make video copies of a few, and used a camcorder/projector rig. Videoed while projecting on a 11x14 poster board. Results were watchable, but I wanted better. About a year ago I sent 5 films to Legacy Box. I had made scans of 35mm slides wit a Minolta 35mm scanner and got excellent results. The scanner focuses and controls exposure. I expected comparable quality with movie film. Sure, the image is much smaller, but it's the same kind of film and it's a matter of getting the image in the frame, focusing, exposing, and on to the next frame. Movie projectors have been doing this for about 100 years.
So when I got back images that were over exposed and out of focus, I was furious. If I had sent in films I had never seen, made by a grandparent for instance, I might have assumed that the old technology was pretty bad and be happy with what I got. But I had my camcorder copies to compare to (see photos). Legacy Box graciously offered to do the job again and "meet my expectations". Well, the second run improved on the focus and exposure, but the images were somewhat enlarged resulting in significant cropping. About 20% of the left side of the image was cut off. (I suspect the copier was set for 8mm instead of Super 8. But I don't know anything about the equipment.) L. B. offered to do it again. The third run was pretty good, although the focus wasn't as good as the 2nd run, and by this time several film breaks (probably at old splices) had occurred and disrupted the continuity in a few places. The pictures below show various iterations of the same movie frame from my camcorder copy through the 3 efforts by Legacy Box. L. B. Stopped responding to my emails after 3 processing runs.
Another issue I have noticed in the third run (only one I liked well enough to watch completely) is frame jumping. The image will suddenly be displaced either vertically or horizontally by 1/4 to 1/3 of the frame. It doesn't happen a lot, but it's annoying.
Legacy Box may do well with their other copying services, but my experience with 8mm movies would lead me to look elsewhere if I had more to do.

Legacybox sent me the original box after a few weeks (FedEx lost it), I then sent in 40 items from my late grandfather's personal stash. They were very intimate and wonderful family memories. I was smart to take pictures of everything before I sent it in.

It took way more time than normal because it was around Christmas, and I then received an unmarked brown box with my stuff and an arrangement of unlabeled DVD's. I took a look at them. There was no audio and everything was unorganized. I had no idea which tapes were on which DVD's. I had to reach out to customer service to understand that buried in their FAQ, it says there's likely no audio for the media I sent in. Okay, my fault.

Due to the nature of the package I felt something was amiss, and after haggling a bit with the CSR, they sent me another box to send my stuff in and give me all digital files instead.

THAT WAS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE.

This second trip took much less time. I then received a LegacyBox labeled package with everything neatly packed inside. One problem. At least 10 of the small reels I had sent in HAD BEEN SHREDDED, and their cases DESTROYED. Like, in pieces and had been smashed by something heavy kind of destroyed.

Whoever was responsible for this managed to stick all of the shredded tapes in an old plastic bag and then they stuck a sticker on it that said "This media is in a format that cannot be processed"

I took pictures of everything that was damaged, and spent TWO weeks haggling with a new CSR over the nature of what I received.

They ended up giving me my money back. However, it will never replace these cherished memories.

It is now a year later. They are sending me review requests and newsletters despite having unsubscribed twice, and having reached out to their customer service team about unsubscribing twice.

Needless to say- STAY AWAY.

This summer, my niece got married, and as I had previously recorded the weddings of two of her siblings, I was asked if I could do so for her wedding as well. Now I no longer have state-of-the-art equipment, but I do have a digital DV camcorder, so I agreed to film her wedding. The DV recording went off without a hitch, but unfortunately the "backup" recording in HD on a new Samsung note phone had problems and was not usable.

Therefore after attempting to copy the recording to a new computer which I frequently use to edit videos, I gave up and sent two dv tapes to Legacybox to be converted to DVDs.

The results were less than satisfactory. One of the two DVDs was unplayable (naturally it was the wedding recording) and I contacted LegacyBox to (a) get the URL where I could download a digital copy of the wedding, and (b) to have a PLAYABLE version of the bad DVD sent to me. There must have been some confusion because even though I said that if the download copy was usable I would not need the replacement, the woman who took the call (and emailed me the URL for both recordings) said that LegacyBox would send the DVD anyway. That replacement copy has never arrived and I finally gave up waiting for it.

The above is the good news.

The copy that LegacyBox sent to me contains the first 6 minutes (+/-) of the tape which (a) is just over 30 mintues long, and (b) plays perfectly on two different DV camcorders.

I finally tried an inexpensive over-the-counter video capture program, Nero, and the disk copied flawlessly, so I now (FINALLY!) have the video in a playable format.

I AM THOROUGHLY DISGUSTED. I would demand a refund for the inept, shoddy, and incomplete job which LB (Legacybox) did, and I would demand my money back except that even if LB were willing to give me a refund, I doubt that they are sufficiently efficient that I would ever receive it.

I CANNOT recommend their service to anyone. I am sure that many people are satisfied with such service, but having paid a not-inconsiderable sum to have 2 DV tapes copied and never having received a playable copy of one of them, I am MOST DEFINITELY NOT HAPPY and I will be warning my friends and relatives to avoid LB.

Our historical society here in Vermont owns many priceless old reels of citizens - now long passed away, speaking about their lives in the 1800s and early 1900s when they worked on the famous Grand Trunk railroad. Those reels were precious to us but - we had never been able to hear them since we did not have a machine to play the reels! The reels had been recorded in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s. Since then, the reels had languished in a cardboard box inside our museum, unplayed, neglected, and in deteriorating condition. When I first saw the adverts popping up for Legacy box's services I thought 'No. Our reels are too delicate, too precious, and too rare to send to Legacy Box for processing.". I ummed and awwed over it for weeks, then, in the end, took a decision to 'trust' the reels to Legacy Box. Believe me, as president of the Island Pond Historical society this was not a decision I took lightly. I am so glad that I did. In no time at all the reels arrived at Legacy Box, were put onto CD's, and sent back to me, all perfect, and in perfect condition. This transaction could not have been smoother, it could not have been more professional, and the entire matter was expertly dealt with, efficiently handled, safely, and at the lowest cost imaginable. I will continue to use Legacy Box and am very happy to trust this company with even the most fragile and deteriorated of our rare reels. This is an exceptional service with first class customer care service, too, and they're fast! Please, have no hesitation in sending this company your most precious items, they really care, and they do a really wonderful job. Sharon Biron, President of the Island Pond Historical Society, Vermont.