What Do I Have?
Someone handed you a box — or you found it yourself, in a closet or a basement, after a move or a loss. Now there's a pile of tapes and discs in front of you and no obvious way to know what any of it is.
Start here. Find the picture that looks most like the thing in your hand, and we'll tell you what it is, whether it still plays, and how to save what's on it.
📏 Start With Size
Most people can narrow it down in ten seconds just by holding the thing next to something familiar.
| If it's about the size of… | You probably have… |
|---|---|
| A paperback book | VHS (or Betamax, which is slightly smaller with one big reel window) |
| A deck of cards | VHS-C — a compact camcorder tape, often found with a full-size adapter shell |
| The palm of your hand | Video8, Hi8 or Digital8 — all three share one shell; read the printed logo |
| A matchbox | MiniDV — the smallest video tape ever sold |
| A credit card, or smaller | Microcassette — from answering machines and dictation recorders |
| A cassette from a car stereo | Compact Cassette — mixtapes, demos and home recordings |
| A dinner plate, shiny both sides | LaserDisc — record-sized but silver, not black |
| A dinner plate, black with grooves | Vinyl Record |
| A bare wheel of film, no shell | 8mm or Super 8 film — hold it to the light and you'll see tiny pictures |
📼 Video Tapes
Plastic cassettes with reels of tape inside. Home movies usually live here.
📼 VHS
About the size of a paperback book. The tape that lived next to the TV — weddings, holidays, and movies taped off the air.
Identify & digitize →
📼 VHS-C
A mini VHS, often found with a full-size adapter shell. This is the camcorder tape: birthday parties, school plays, somebody's dad filming sideways.
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📼 Betamax
Slightly smaller than VHS, with one big reel window. Sony lost the format war — which means whatever's on these was kept by someone who really meant to keep it.
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📹 Video8 / Hi8 / Digital8
Palm-sized 8mm camcorder tapes — check the printed logo for “Video8,” “Hi8,” or “Digital8/D8.” The vacation-and-Christmas-morning format of the late '80s and '90s.
💡 Holding a bare reel of film with no plastic shell? That's 8mm film — see Movie Film below.
Identify & digitize →
📼 MiniDV
About the size of a matchbox — the smallest video tape ever sold. If a child in your family was born between 1998 and 2008, their first steps are probably on one of these.
Identify & digitize →🎞 Movie Film
Open reels of film with tiny sprocket holes — no plastic cassette shell.
🎙 Audio
Music, voice memos, interviews, and answering-machine tapes.
🎵 Compact Cassette
The classic tape, the size of the ones from a car stereo. Mixtapes somebody made on purpose, band demos, and ordinary afternoons nobody thought to label.
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🎙 Microcassette
Smaller than a credit card, from answering machines and dictation recorders. Of everything in that box, this is the one most likely to still have somebody's voice on it.
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🎼 Vinyl Record
Flat black discs, usually 7 or 12 inches across. Most are music you could replace — but home-cut discs from recording booths and radio stations are one of a kind.
Identify & digitize →💿 Discs
Shiny discs — some bare, some inside a protective cartridge.
💿 DVD
A shiny disc, often with a title written on it by hand. If a transfer service burned these for your family years ago, this disc may now be the only copy that exists.
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📀 LaserDisc
Record-sized, but silver and shiny on both sides. Mostly commercial movies — a collector's format, and the players get harder to find every year.
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💽 MiniDisc
Digital audio in a small square cartridge, about 2.8 inches wide. A '90s favorite for concerts, radio recordings and personal mixes.
Identify & digitize →❓ Common Questions
The things people ask us most when they open that box in the attic.
How do I know what kind of video tape I have?
Start with size, then read the shell. A tape the size of a paperback book is VHS; palm-sized is the 8mm family (Video8, Hi8 or Digital8); matchbox-sized is MiniDV. Nearly every tape has its format printed somewhere on the plastic or the label — look along the spine and the front face.
What's the difference between 8mm film and an 8mm video tape?
They share a name but are completely different things. 8mm film is a bare reel of actual film — hold it up to a light and you can see tiny pictures. 8mm video (Video8, Hi8, Digital8) is a sealed plastic cassette with magnetic tape inside; you can't see anything without a player. Film is scanned frame by frame; video tape is played back and captured.
My camcorder is long gone. Can I still play these tapes?
Usually yes. VHS-C plays in a normal VCR using an adapter, and 8mm-family tapes play in any compatible camcorder or deck — you don't need the exact camera that recorded them. Each format guide on this site explains which players to look for and what to avoid.
Are my old tapes too far gone to save?
Usually not, but time is genuinely working against you. Magnetic tape loses signal over the decades, and warning signs like squealing, a sticky feel, mold spots or a warped shell mean that tape should be handled sooner rather than later. If it still plays at all, it can almost always still be captured.
Do I have to mail my tapes somewhere to digitize them?
No. Every format on this page can be digitized at home, and we publish the full step-by-step guides for free. Your originals are irreplaceable — there's no good reason to put them in a shipping box.
Still not sure? Send Kadie a photo.
If what you're holding doesn't match anything on this page, take a picture of it and text or email it over. Kadie will tell you what it is, whether it's likely to still play, and what it would take to save it. No purchase, no pressure, no sales pitch — we'd just rather you know.
And if these belonged to someone you've lost: there's no rush. They've waited this long. They can wait until you're ready.
See how the RVT Digitizer works →