07-10-2010, 06:51 AM
This topic comes up pretty often. I'd suggest going back and reading some of the threads. It is important to run the numbers and understand how big a job it is before launching into it. The number of hours that it will take to digitize just your photos alone will likely astound you. I thought I was going to buy a scanner and do this but then I realized that I didn't want to spend the next few years of all my free time slaving over a scanner. Here's my solution:
Albums: Used my Luxman turntable through a Griffin iMic to record out of print albums. All other stuff it is much easier and not too costly to download. The time involved in setting up, recording, then (the big time sink) editing and dividing up the songs is way too involved to make it worth doing for albums you can buy already digitized. I'm not above procuring free downloads of music I already own, bearing in mind that the record companies claim that this is illegal.
Cassettes: Ditto, though cassettes are already pretty low quality items so generally not worth trying to record.
Analog video: I bought off ebay a Sony Digital 8 camcorder that will play analog 8 mm tapes or take analog video input and convert it on the fly to digital firewire output to iMovie. I then sold the camcorder for what I bought it for after I digitized my analog movies. This is a good do it yourself thing to do. Make sure to buy a camcorder or other device that allows analog --> digital passthrough. Many of the cheaper ones don't do that.
Photos: The time involved in scanning and then straightening/color correcting photos is absolutely insane. Unless you only have a hundred or less, don't even think about it except for a few of your faves that you want to lavish extra time on. Send them out either to Costco or Digmypics.com. You will get a far better result for not too much money.
Albums: Used my Luxman turntable through a Griffin iMic to record out of print albums. All other stuff it is much easier and not too costly to download. The time involved in setting up, recording, then (the big time sink) editing and dividing up the songs is way too involved to make it worth doing for albums you can buy already digitized. I'm not above procuring free downloads of music I already own, bearing in mind that the record companies claim that this is illegal.
Cassettes: Ditto, though cassettes are already pretty low quality items so generally not worth trying to record.
Analog video: I bought off ebay a Sony Digital 8 camcorder that will play analog 8 mm tapes or take analog video input and convert it on the fly to digital firewire output to iMovie. I then sold the camcorder for what I bought it for after I digitized my analog movies. This is a good do it yourself thing to do. Make sure to buy a camcorder or other device that allows analog --> digital passthrough. Many of the cheaper ones don't do that.
Photos: The time involved in scanning and then straightening/color correcting photos is absolutely insane. Unless you only have a hundred or less, don't even think about it except for a few of your faves that you want to lavish extra time on. Send them out either to Costco or Digmypics.com. You will get a far better result for not too much money.