Protect and preserve your family memories

No doubt if you are in your 40s or older you most likely have many family memories stored on camcorder tapes. You may already have converted these to a DVD some years back, however, even if you have, technology is quickly evolving and these old media types are becoming obsolete. It is important to take steps to protect and preserve your family memories and keep them accessible in the most recent video formats and saved on current media storage devices.

Not only does the technology to read and access old video tapes such as VHS, Hi8, DV tapes and DVDs, we are seeing recently that the tape film is degrading quite a lot – this is accelerated due to Singapore’s humidity. So how to preserve these memories, PLUS make them more accessible for you to enjoy and share.

Converting DVDs

If you have videos on DVDs, they most likely are already converted files from camcorder tapes. Since DVD players are becoming obsolete, use a portable DVD player to copy the files to your computer. If they are in a format that cannot be read by your computer, a software called “Handbrake” can help convert the files to MP4.

Converting DV, VHS and Hi8 tapes

Converting cassette tapes at home are a little trickier. If you want to give it a go, you need the working camera to play the tapes and then connect the camera to your computer so you can capture the footage.

If you don’t have the camera, this is something we can do for you. In fact, Tekkie Help is one of the very few companies in Singapore which has the technology to convert the older style tapes, especially Hi8 tapes.

Enjoy and share your memories

When was the last time you actually watched your teenage children take their first steps, you on Christmas day in the 80s or your parents who have long passed away? It is so wonderful to take steps to bring these memories into the present moment – so much joy can had! Some ideas are to have a home movie night or to create a movie in iMovie of all your favourite clips.

Remember this…

If you store your videos on an external disk, remember that hard drives also fail. The average lifespan of external hard drives is 3-5 years and so it can fail sitting in a drawer!

Don’t waste time – protect, preserve and enjoy your home family movies.