You watch as your little girl, then just six years old, twirls on the television screen, singing her best rendition of the Little Mermaid song, “Part of Your World.” Amidst the gap toothed smiles and the mismatched and multi-coloured outfits, you hear her belt out strings of lyrics, some with made up words, others just perfectly right. As she gets to the chorus of the song, she poses with a sad look on her face as if feeling the heavy emotion, looking at your camera and acting like she’s overcome with longing. The screen suddenly turns a pixel-filled grey and you can hardly make out the bedazzled tiara on her head and glittered wand in her hand. As the picture slowly fades away, so does your little girl’s voice… until all that’s left of this precious memory is a mould-ridden piece of plastic. A part of you wishes you had transferred your videos from VHS to DVD format sometime in the past.
A couple of decades ago, using a video camera which utilised analogue tapes was the most popular and most prevalent method for capturing your precious memories. Over the years, however, technology has vastly improved; first with the development of compact discs, and then further development on the video CD technology to produce digital versatile discs, or what is commonly called as DVDs these days. Of course, improvements in technology never cease to be created, and nowadays, there are Blu-ray DVDs that can house enormous amounts of information, especially when compared with their predecessors.
DVDs, of course, can keep data in perfect condition, provided that they are kept well and free from scratches, breakage or burns. Analogue tapes like the video home system (VHS) cassettes of old, however, are not nearly as resilient. The magnetic tapes within these boxes of plastic are prone to wear and tear, and each time you view your videos, the tape gets scratched and damage. What’s more, these tapes are prone to water damage, especially if they become infiltrated by mould from long-term storage. DVDs, on the other hand, can withstand these injurious conditions, and a little wipe with some soft cloth can restore it to its pristine working condition.
Since most of your memories in the past were recorded on a damage-prone VHS tape, don’t you think it would be wise to convert them from VHS to DVD now? There are technologies now that can perform this task without glitch. While transferring your videos to DVD will not necessarily give them the qualities of a DVD-recorded video, it will surely keep your memories saved for much longer.