A question we are asked on a near daily basis, is which digitization service is better, Legacybox or The Digitize Center? Both companies basically provide the same service, and that is they take your old media such as VHS tapes, Hi8 and other camcorder tapes, photographs, film reels, and more, and they digitize it so you can save the media on your computer, smartphones, and tablets. In this article, we will attempt to explain the differences between the two companies and determine which one is better for your home media digitization needs.
Legacybox can be visited at www.legacybox.com
The Digitize Center can be visited at www.thedigitizecenter.com
Price
As usual, the first thing people look at when comparing the two companies is price. Both Legacybox and The Digitize Center have similar prices, with The Digitize Center coming out slightly ahead. For instance, right now the Legacybox 2 Item box costs $35.99, whereas the same 2 Item Digitize Kit from The Digitize Center costs $24.99. We will give the edge here to The Digitize Center.
We also need to look at the shipping costs of both companies. Both companies seem to have nearly identical shipping costs for all of their products, so we can call this a tie.
Overall Price Winner: The Digitize Center
Product Offerings
Both companies offer to digitize most old media types, including VHS tapes, Camcorder tapes of various types, Film reels, and print photographs. However, The Digitize Center additionally offers to digitize CDs, DVDs, Newspaper Clippings, and Yearbooks. So in this category, we will give the edge to The Digitize Center.
To see a full list of media types The Digitize Center can digitize, visit here.
To see a full list of media types Legacybox can digitize, visit here.
Overall Product Offering Winner: The Digitize Center
Quality
To determine which company provides a better quality digitize service, we had to place orders with both companies using the same exact media types. We sent in 2 VHS tapes, 2 Camcorder Tapes, 25 Photographs, and 1 Film Reel to both Legacybox and The Digitize Center. When we received them back digitized, these were the results.
VHS Tapes
The digitized versions of the VHS tapes came back at the same exact quality. The only difference we noted was that The Digitize Center clipped the end of the video when it ended, whereas the Legacybox did not clip the end of the video, so there was an additional 38 minutes of blank video at the end. The Digitize Center also labeled the digitized VHS media to match what we had written on the actual VHS tapes, which was a nice touch. Legacybox did not do this.
Camcorder Tapes
The digitized versions of our camcorder tapes came out at the same exact quality.
25 Photographs
Here is were we noticed some significant differences between the two companies. When we received the digitized version of the photographs from Legacybox, some of them had what appeared to be roller marks on them. The same effect did not appear on The Digitize Center media. In addition, The Digitize Center offered to “restore” the photos, which was a nice touch we appreciated.
Film Reel
Both companies were similar in the quality of the digitized film reel.
Overall Quality Winner: Tie
Speed of Order Process
This was pretty straight forward. All we did here was see how long it took both companies to complete the same exact order. We used the standard free processing option of both companies. The Legacybox order took a total of 16 days from the day they received our media until the time we received it back in the mail. The Digitize Center order took a total of 13 days for the same exact scenario.
Overall Speed Winner: The Digitize Center
Customer Service and Support
This was a little harder to measure as we did not have any support issues we needed to address with any of the companies. So for this analysis, we analyzed all the verified reviews both companies have received.
Legacybox overall customer reviews: 4.84 / 5.0 Stars
The Digitize Center overall customer Reviews: 4.9 / 5.0 Stars
Scanning through the Legacybox verified reviews, the most common complaints were of failure to digitize certain items, lost packages containing media items, and hidden costs.
Scanning through The Digitize Center verified reviews, the most common complaints were of failure to digitize certain items and longer than expected time to receive items.
It’s difficult to determine from these reviews which company has better customer service, so we will call this one a tie. However, we were taken aback by the number of complaints from Legacybox customers who claimed their media items were lost by the company. Whereas, The Digitize Center claims on their website that they have never lost a single item or package.
Overall Customer Support Winner: Tie
Overall Winner: LegacyBox vs The Digitize Center
Given the information we analyzed between the two companies, we can easily declare The Digitize Center to be the better company to get your home media digitized with. They are the clear winner in terms of price, product offerings, and speed of order. We will continue to monitor both companies to see if anything changes.
Overall Winner: The Digitize Center