When customers hand over a box full of tapes, they often ask: „Will my old 8 GB flash drive do, or should I buy a new one?“ It is a fair question. With tapes we counted in minutes (E-180, E-240); in the digital world we count in gigabytes.

At Záloha vzpomínek we believe in being straightforward, so here is a simple guide to working out how much space your digital memories need and how to keep them safe.

The maths: 1 hour = 1.5 GB

For the transfer we use the modern H.264codec, which strikes the right balance between excellent picture quality and a sensible file size. At the standard resolution matching VHS quality (720×576) there is a simple rule: one hour of footage takes roughly 1 to 1.5 GB.

A worked example – you have 10 tapes at home, each with about 2 hours of family footage:

  • That is about 20 hours of video.
  • You will need roughly 25–30 GB.
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Mind the stated capacity: the capacity printed on a USB drive (32 GB, say) is never fully available for data – the file system takes a share. Always allow a margin.

Why we recommend our own USB drives

Customers often bring us old promotional flash drives that are slow and unreliable, and the video then stutters on the television. To make sure playback is smooth we offer proven Kingston drives:

  • Speed: USB 3.2 makes reading and writing fast – the video does not buffer, it simply plays.
  • Warranty: these drives come with a 3-year warranty.
  • A fair price: we sell them for 250 CZK. Current prices are in the price list and calculator.

So there is nothing for you to buy or arrange in advance – you get the whole thing ready-made.

12 months of free archiving

This is a real advantage. Accidents happen – a USB flash drive can be lost, dropped in water or formatted by mistake. What happens if you lose the data? Nothing. Just give us a call.

  • Every order is kept in a secure digital archive for 12 months from handover.
  • During that time we will put the data back on free of charge.
  • After a year the data is permanently deleted for privacy reasons.

A USB drive is not a safe

A USB flash drive is excellent for moving data around and playing on a television, but it is not suitable for long-term archiving. Flash memory can lose data after years without power. What we recommend to keep your memories safe:

  1. Cloud: upload the videos to Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud as soon as you get them – there they are safe from fire, water and loss.
  2. Hard drive: keep a copy on your computer or an external hard drive as well.
  3. USB: use it mainly for plugging into the television and sharing with family.

Why the USB drive will not play on a Mac

Sometimes a digitised recording (a long four-hour tape, for instance) produces a file larger than 4 GB. Older formatting (FAT32) cannot store a file that size, so we format drives with the newer NTFS file system, or exFAT.

  • The advantage of NTFS: it handles files of any size and every television and Windows PC can read it.
  • The drawback: Apple devices (MacBook, iPad) can struggle to read NTFS.

If you use Apple devices exclusively, tell us in advance through the contact form and we will prepare the drive as exFAT, which works with everything. Further questions are answered in our frequently asked questions. Záloha vzpomínek will gladly advise on the best way to store your memories.