A few weeks ago I was going through and listening to a few of my old cassette music tapes and looking at a few of our home videos that we took during the 1970s and 1980s.  Wow, the eighties seem just like yesterday, yet, I couldn't believe how deteriorated the music tapes had gotten and the videotapes of important family events didn't fair much better. 

This led me to think. What exactly is my plan with these magnetic tapes that are so important to me?  Am I going to just hand them down in an old cardboard box, until they became so bad that someone would eventually set them curbside to be picked up as trash?

Dust Off Those Old Videos and Get Them Digitized!  Neighborhood photo developing labs may offering a service to convert videos into a DVD at a reasonable price.   Or you can do it yourself.  Spend Small, Spend Wisely - don't spend until you need to. You can get DVD burning software, video editing software AND a great video card for about $100 that will produce high quality DVDs similar to setups costing $500 to $2000 and more. At the same time, looking for free DVD burning software that doesn't do the job will wind up costing you more.

    Someone close to me also suggested I record digitally when I conduct interviews.  He said besides the recorder, the tools that I’ll need to do this might reside right here in my computer. 

…Then comes the hard part. Believe me when I tell you that, despite being a good typist, transcribing three or four cassette tapes to the computer screen is not fun!  I can’t imagine how many times I had to hit the stop, rewind and play buttons, while trying to type each word.  But I kept at it, because I knew the memories contained on the tapes would make it worth it.   I actually burnt out two new mini cassette recorders.

The tired fingers and heavy work involved had actually kept me from wanting to do it again. I’m ashamed to admit that, but I’m sure many of you can relate to this. You’ve either experienced it, first hand, or you have a good imagination.  

Those days are over thanks to Digital Voice Recorders. (DVRs)  I am so glad to share this tip.   I just wish I had learned of DVRs sooner.

Digital voice recorders, which offer recording time of up to 22 hours and other advanced features, are fast becoming the recording tool of choice among personal journal writers and life storywriters. 

Whether you need to record lectures, interviews, meetings or simply short notes and comments, digital voice recordings last longer than tape, can be easily retrieved, downloaded to your PC - and automatically converted to text with voice recognition software.

Since a digital recording is just a sound file, if the file is recorded under a high quality mode it can be used in conjunction with speech recognition software. All you need to do is download your speech file, and then launch the voice-to-text software. The software does the rest.

Imagine the possibilities! 

- Talk into your Digital Voice Recorder instead of writing your journal by hand. Many times I’ve not felt like writing, just before I went to bed, but how are would it be to grab up a DVR and start talking. Then, the next day, convert it to print on your computer instantly!

- Interview parents, grandparents and other family members and avoid having to wear yourself out like I described above.   

Typical digital recorders hold from ninety minutes to twenty-two hours of recording time. However, the longer recording mode results in a lesser quality of recorded sound. Like a VCR, most digital recorders have SP and LP modes. When you need excellent sound quality, use SP mode, which may only offer up to 30 minutes of recording time. When you need to record for long periods, use LP mode, even though it will reduce the quality of sound.  

All digital recorders have folders to make it very easy to find recordings. Each folder can store up to 99 messages (recordings) or more. With multiple folders, you can use one to record all messages and another folder to keep important messages transferred from the first folder. Some recorders also have a "Schedule" folder, where you can store recordings by date for easy retrieval. This is very useful journal keeping.  

Digital Voice Recorders range in price from $99-$300 and I found several models in the $100 range on the market at the www.Shopping.com website.