I began a project last week to clean up the collected assortment of video tapes that have accumulated over a couple decades. :) This seemed a "natural" after completing archival backups of all the still digital images on our computers. Those got copied to gold based CR-R's and DVD-R's.
It will be nice to condense the multiple drawers full of 8mm and VHS tapes into a few binders that hold the DVD-R's. It just takes a long time to run the tape to DVD copy process on each tape. I'm actually making two copies of each disc; one for here and the backups to be stored at our son's place in his gun safe.
LOL Don, I know that feeling. I have two CD towers full of cassette tapes because when CD players first came out I thought they'd be just a passing fad! I refused to buy any music on CD because I didn't have a player for a lonnnnnggg time. Now all my best music is on tape, and I'm out of ways to play it unless I drive DH's car. (Had a cassette player that DH left in the garage in WI when he was working on the car, but then when we moved, the garage had flooded and then froze, so the cord was frozen to the ground, and DH couldn't get it loose, so he ended up cutting the cord and promising to splice it once we moved... which hasn't happened >:(... so, now I can play one of my 6 CDs, or hum.)
I ripped a bunch of my cassette tapes to my computer turning them into mp3 files a number of years ago. Then made CD's as I wanted. (I've got about 5000 titles for about 25 GB of old music on my computer drives :o ) That's something you could look into. I used some software called Cool Edit Pro, now owned by Adobe and called something else. The output lines from the cassette player connect through the computer audio card; needed some adapters to get it hooked up. The software had a tape hiss removal as well. Not as good as having a CD but a lot less money.
I'm watching a broadcast tape recording I made over the air some 25+ years ago as it burns to DVD-R. Dr. Strangelove. It's a favorite older movie, but not really an "oldie" yet.
We still have a bunch of betamax video tapes and a player that works great...
Quote from: Ernest T. Bass on February 05, 2009, 10:44:16 PM
We still have a bunch of betamax video tapes and a player that works great...
I used to have a betamax too. Plus a camera.
We've had electro-mechanical devices that worked great right up to the moment they died. Nothing lasts forever, though some of the old Sony stuff was superbly designed and manufactured.
backup your stuff on a Hard drive, Fire wire drive, memory card, and/or the internet. Use high quality disks too, as the low quality ones degrade. DVD's, and CD's are nicer than tapes for several reasons, but tapes sure did last longer (as long as they didn't get melted, or pulled out). The reason I say to back up is so you can burn new copies if the grandkids get a hold of these, fire, theft, etc