Memories for the future: digitising photos, music and videos

Developing photos and sticking them in an album, listening to music on a Discman and filming with a video camera: these are things of the past. Yet these analogue media are holders of your memories, which you’ll want to preserve. The solution? Digitise them.

The older your memories are, the more analogue the associated images, videos and audio recordings will be. Analogue media has its own special charm. The crackling of vinyl records, the jerking of the video cassette or the soft click of the slide projector – it all adds up to a nostalgia trip for the senses. Unfortunately, the quality of analogue recordings deteriorates over time, until they can no longer be played back at all. So it’s a good thing that you can digitise them all.

This is how it works

Digitising your memories takes a certain amount of time and energy, but is usually quite easy. But what can you digitise, and how?

• CDs: You can use a ripping program to convert songs from CDs into digital music files. You don’t necessarily have to use a special program for this. iTunes or Windows Media Player are sufficient.
• Records: With the right record player and the appropriate software, you can easily digitise your vinyls – including the crackling.
• Video cassettes: Use a video grabber to connect the video player to your computer. You will need the right software to digitise the videos.
• Slides, photos and negatives: You can use a special scanner to scan images in a wide variety of formats. If you don’t have access to a scanner, you can also photograph your analogue photos with your mobile phone.

Format, quality and storage: some things to bear in mind

Regardless of which analogue media you are digitising, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Ensure quality: Make sure your analogue media are in good condition. If CDs, photos and cassettes are clean and intact, the quality of the digital files will also be better.
2. Choose the right storage formats: Digitise to formats that will be readable in the future. You should use MP3 for music, MP4 for videos and JPEG or GIF for pictures, for example.
3. Check the cost and quality of tools: Many good digitisation programs are free of charge. However, sometimes it’s worth paying for software for better quality results.
4. Keep everything in order: Give your files descriptive names and save them in a meaningful folder.
5. Create storage space: High-quality digitised media require a lot of space. Think carefully about whether you want to store your files on an external storage disk or in a secure and trustworthy cloud. The big advantage of the cloud is that you can access your content anywhere and at any time.
6. Use your smartphone: Find out which apps might be useful for your project. PhotoScan by Google, for example, creates several images from one picture, from which you can select the best one.
7. Pay for specialist digitisation: Does all this sound like too much work? Take the pressure off and have your analogue media professionally digitised for a fee.
8. Enjoy your memories: Whether during the digitisation process or while browsing through your analogue or digital files – enjoy your trip down memory lane!