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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Spokane Public Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In
computer news this week
03/07/2012 Converting magnetic tape memories into computer format.
How many precious
old family videos do you have on old magnetic tape media like VHS or cassette
tapes- of your family at holidays and special moments in your life ? I had
dozens and was looking for an economical way to convert them. I was concerned
about the shelf life
of those old video tapes. which I heard was only
good for about 10 to 20 years. A problem most of
us will face is that the video on these tapes is unedited, so I was actually
looking to get the video into my computer and then edit it. The solution I
found was Roxio
Creator 2012 coupled with their Roxio
Easy VHS to DVD hardware device. Roxio Creator 2012 is a software suite that lets you
do just about anything in terms of working with and converting music photo
and video files.
Their new hardware
product - Roxio
Easy VHS to DVD – is a
hardware device in the form of a USB port that plugs into your computer, and
it’s attached to its own adapter which has both video and audio
connectors on it.. All you have to do
is connect your VHS player or Hi8 camera or tape cassette deck to your
computer using their USB device, run their software, and you’ll be
converting all your precious audio-video memories into your computer ! I converted about
30 VHS tapes and about 25 hi8 tapes. Hard disk storage
is a concern in all these video conversions, so be sure you have a lot of
disk space. I found that a 2 hour vhs tape might
convert over to up to 5 gigabytes of disk space, and Hi8 tapes might use up
to 20 gigs. After you edit the movies and burn them to dvd they’re smaller,
but still we’re talking gigabyte file sizes here. Once I converted
all my old video tapes into my computer using Roxio, I then edited them using
Windows Movie Maker and then burnt them to dvds,
using Roxio. I then attacked my next project, which was
converting an entire box of Cassette tapes I have a variety of music on.
About 50 of these were from the Backwater Blues show I produced here on KPBX
back in the 80’s. I just hooked my
tape deck to my computer – set to auto-reverse at the end of a side
– and started the tapes playing and started Roxio recording them all. I
found each hour
show converted over to about 80 Megabytes, which means I was
then able to burn about 8 shows to a cd. The next thing I
plan on converting is some old 45 and LP records albums of mine, and
I’ll let you know how that goes. Roxio has a simple
solution for everyone looking to convert their old magnetic and vinyl media.
They also have a youtube
video showing you how to use it, in addition to excellent online and
phone tech support. So don’t let your audio-video memories crumble into dust – you can now convert them to digital easily. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2012 MTA Micro Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbxmenu.html (509)624-7230 |
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