Converting old memories to new?

In a world of DVDs, CDs, and MP3 players, what do you do with your non-digital — but still very precious ­— VHS tapes, home movies, LPs, and cassettes? How can you enjoy that classic Janis Joplin tape if your new car lacks a cassette player? How long will it be before those family vacations and other precious moments captured on videotape decay into unwatchable static?

Many products and services are available to convert your old recordings into CDs, DVDs, and other digital formats to improve your access to them and, hopefully, extend their lifespans.

But how well do they work? Are they worth the effort? We¹re going to take a look at some of these solutions in an upcoming report. But in the meantime, you can help us by giving us your take on these digitizing products and services. Share with us your experiences, your questions, and even your horror stories on this thread in our Electronics discussion forum.

Please note: Our Electronics discussion forum is freely available to everyone — even non-subscribers. But you'll need to log in or register for an account using a valid e-mail address. We won't share that info with anyone, but will use it to contact you if we decide to use your story for our upcoming report.

Comments

[R. Deremo]

While this forum may be an audio and motion media issue, I just had my first experience turning old family photo albums into digital media - DVD-ROM's.

After carefully removing and cataloging photos from four of the oldest photo albums, totalling over 200 stills, mostly b&w, many of them smaller than today's 4 x 6 in. size, a few 5 x 7's and an 8 x 10 or two, the pictures were scanned by DigMyPix.com in Mesa, AZ.

Two weeks and $360 later we have six sets of tiff and jpeg image DVD's, as well as printed thumbnail reference albums for the whole family. $60 ea covered the bill.

All in all, a pretty easy way to get the oldest of our family photo history into digital form for archiving, re-printing, emailing, etc.

So many albums yet to go. Thanks goodness the family 8mm films and vhs tapes have already been transferred to DVDs. We're ahead of the game in this regard.

[Rich]

My wife bought me a USB turntable for Xmas, in hopes that I'll ditch most of the 300 records I have...doubtful :) But at least I won't have to buy Yellow Submarine, Aqualung, or Mars Hotel on CD (as soon as it comes in from back-order!).

Rich

[L Lantier]

I acquired a VCR from Craig's list, then used it to transfer my old Navy cruise videos (recorded on VHS-C) onto DVD's using editing software. I was able to transfer the VHS-C into digital format, edit the videos, create menus, and ultimately burn the video on DVD's to preserve those memories for the long haul. Now, I don't have to worry about the VHS-C tapes breaking or having to keep around antiquated magnetic media!

[James Schwabe]

I worry about the lifetime of DVDs and about the compression scheme (mpeg4?) used by DVD recorders.

The compression scheme is a worry because it might affect quality during later use by family members who want to use the DVD as a source to create a tape better suited to their interests...like one that leaves out embarrassing scenes of Uncle Nutty, or includes only scenes with their children, or excludes an ex-spouse.

I've had requests for old family video (even film) from family members, and found it best to just convert to AVI on an external Hard Drive and then they can edit it to suit their taste.

Jim

[Stephen Noun]

After editing my own VHS home movies with two VCR's for the last 15 years, I recently purchased an RCA combination DVD recorder/VHS recorder to transfer home movies and other important tapes to DVD myself. It is a "One Touch Record", able to transfer to either media. This works great - my finger loves it! Unfortunately, that's about all that it does. No editing of any kind is possible. Even when not using the "One Touch Record" and playing the VHS tape in the same machine, the VCR cannot be paused or stopped in any way. Pausing the DVD to edit, the VHS tape rolls happily along, never stopping for rain, sleet or snow! The VCR's pause AND stop buttons will not work until the DVD is stopped. And recording with the VCR, so that I can transfer my DVD home movies to VHS for other family members, brings worse results. Once the VCR is recording, pause will not work when playing from the machine's DVD player. Being used to VCR's with editing capabilities, like all stand alone VCR's are, I thought that a $200 machine would be able to let me edit my home movies properly. Now I have to purchase another stand alone VCR. This means that I'm back to two machines again, which was the reason for buying the dual deck machine in the first place. If a consumer wants to take the time to edit home movies properly (cut out the scenes where I look fat!), I suggest buying a stand alone DVD recorder for this purpose and using your old VCR to play from. However, the utter brainlessness of a "One Touch Record" does have it's advantages - push one button, sit back and enjoy a margurita, and when it comes to the scene where I look fat, hope for a power outage!