Thank you! There is indeed a strong emotional component... lots of wonderful connections with clients including tears, long conversations, connections arcing between the archives of intertwined families, and so much more. I often forget that it is "business."

There are services that will do this, but I would imagine that many of them only handle formats where there's enough demand to justify the necessary gear and setup. It's definitely the sort of work where someone really into that specific thing can devote more resources than your average video/film/etc production and distribution house.

I've done a bit of this with personal material (friends, family, my own stuff). Even then it's just when I have the necessary equipment already. Currently it's just a flatbed scanner, VCR, cassette deck, and capture card.

They don't get a ton of use, but when someone mentions having old tapes they can't watch anymore, I usually try to give it a go.