I have around 4 reel to reel tapes that were taken in 1955, I want to transfer to DVD. any idea who does this?

Answer 1

Play the movie with a good old film projector onto a white or silver screen.
Record the film and sound using a modern digital video recorder set up on a tripod to steady it., and you have your DVD copy at a low price.

Answer 2

I read an article a few years ago about transferring old 8mm home movie film onto vhs tapes. It advised projecting the film into a telecine box and recording the image with a video camera. This would produce a copy that would be more convenient to watch, but could not capture 100% of the picture quality of the original. At the time even professional transfers had a very noticeable loss of quality when viewed side-by-side with the originals. Given current consumer digital tech you could probably do a very acceptable job yourself, but even if you have it done professionally, never toss the original. Preserve it as well as possible because they may be able to make a better enhanced copy down the line. If these are unique items like home movies, make extra copies for relatives or a safe deposit box, that way if your house burns down at least you have something left.