Taking home videos was a staple for families throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. We cherish these videos as they captured everything from birthday parties, to camping trips, to family events. However, over time, these tapes can deteriorate. Not only that, but they can get lost or damaged as well.
As a result, it is a good idea to consider digitizing your old home movies and tapes. But just how do you do that? Well if that’s a question you have, you’ve come to the right place. Read on and learn about just how to prolong the life of your memories by converting your tapes into digital files.
How to Convert Your Tapes Into Digital Files
If you want to convert your tapes into digital files as quickly and effectively as possible, it is a good idea to leave it to the professionals. Whether you want the digital format on DVD or simply store your videos on a USB drive, they can help you out.
However, in some cases, you can also do it yourself. The first step in doing it yourself is to organize all of your old tapes and make sure they are still functional. If you can’t find the tapes, or they don’t play anymore, digitizing them won’t be possible.
Next, you will need to ensure you have the right equipment. This includes a computer, a VCR and a USB-to-composite video recorder and it will need to be able to be connected between the VCR and your computer. You may also need a piece of software to capture the video, if the converter doesn’t come with one.
Then the process can start. Your first need to put the tape in the VCR and rewind or fast forward to the preferred starting point. Then, start the movie. At the same time, hit record on the software or converter. Once that is done and everything is recorded, your videos will be ready and saved in the mp4 format, ready to share, send or save.
The Benefits of this Conversion
But just why would someone go through the trouble of making the conversion? Well, there are a couple reasons for it. First of all, as briefly mentioned earlier, this conversion will ensure you don’t lose the tapes or damage them.
It is easy for a couple of tapes to get lost or damaged in a move, or simply get stuck at the bottom of a box for years and get forgotten about. While you could technically still delete the mp4, that should be easy enough to avoid if you are careful.
Another benefit is that digitizing these tapes makes them infinitely easier to watch and share. In the past, you could only watch these tapes on a VCR, and only one person or household could have them at a time.
With a majority of the population of the planet having access to the internet, it will be very easy to send the videos without having to ship the only copy. This can allow your entire family to enjoy the memories whenever they want, without having to all get together at the one place that has a VCR.
Also, digitizing these movies can also allow for you to declutter. In some cases, you may have dozens of home movies taking up space that could be used for something much more important.
In conclusion, we hope that this blog post has been able to help you learn not only how to convert your video tapes to digital files, but also learn the benefits of this conversion.
