Long before digital cameras, iPods and PCs, analogue was king. For decades we all used analogue equipment and media to capture and store all of our music, video and photographs on tape, vinyl, film and even paper. But for all their nostalgic qualities, these formats degrade over time and we risk losing precious memories forever. Fortunately the digital revolution has brought along affordable and easy to use technologies that enable you to digitise your old mix tapes, VHS cassettes, 35mm slides and photographs, to rescue and restore your fading memories.

With the advent of DVD, VHS was consigned to the history books and VHS players worldwide consigned to lofts or even landfills. But what about all those old VHS tapes with years of home movies and other treasured moments? Now you can transfer them to your computer in digital format with any number of VHS transfer devices! These devices typically consist of a phono to USB adapter, a video capture card or even a modified VHS player with a USB output. With the aid of a PC these gadgets allow you to “record” your old VHS videos to a digital format that can be restored, edited, shared and even burned to DVD to watch over and over again.

Before CDs or MP3s were even dreamed of we were all listening to recorded music from vinyl records and cassette tapes on our turntables and cassette decks. Although purists might still prefer vinyl today, for most of us, having our favourite music and precious home recordings locked away on media we are no longer able to play is frustrating and inconvenient, not to mention the risk of those recordings becoming lost or damaged as they sit around unused. Luckily there are also gadgets that digitise vinyl and cassette tape. By combining a turntable or tape player with USB technology these devices allow you to transfer your analogue recordings to digital WAV or MP3 format, which means you can listen again to age old recordings on your PC, CD player or MP3 player.

For anyone with boxes and boxes of fading photographs and 35mm slides and negatives, now is the time to consider digitising your collection with a photo scanner or slide digitiser. These clever gadgets connect to your PC and simplify the process of digitising, restoring and archiving all of your old photos, slides and films before time takes its toll.

Converting your old analogue formats to digital can be a time consuming process but the results can be nothing short of miraculous when you restore, rediscover and share long lost memories.