ASK
Could you refurbish your tape deck or VHS player, or pass it on to someone who’s holding on to their old tapes? If it’s beyond use, go to B.
Photo, video and audio backup
Backing up and storing your VHS videos, DVDs, audio cassettes and CDs is easier than you might think.
Backup and storage – your options
You can either pay a company to digitise and transfer your content, or take the DIY approach – leaving you free to recycle that old VHS recorder, cassette deck or CD/DVD player.
Pay to ditigise your video, photos and music
For photos and videos check out familiar brands such as Snappy Snaps or Jessops or online services such as EachMoment. Alternatively, visit your local independent photographic shop.
For audio, there are some specialists such as Tape-to-Digital.
And companies like Digital Converters will transfer most types of content to almost any format you can think of.
DIY backup and storage options
Backing up VHS tapes
What you need: A video capture card and cables to connect your PC or Mac to a VHS player – you can buy the capture card and cables as a kit. You’ll also need storage space on your computer and/or an external hard drive. Plus a bit of time and patience.
What you do: In a nutshell, you play the video in real time while it’s connected to your computer. Check out this guide.
Backing up cassettes
What you need: Either a USB cassette converter (about £20 when we checked); or a tape deck that will connect to a hard drive, and a USB audio capture device (allows you to transfer the audio to the hard drive).
What you do: In a nutshell, you run audio tape in real time while it’s connected to your digital storage device. Watch this to digitise your cassettes on a Windows PC or this for a Mac.
You can also improve the sound of your recordings by, for example, removing hiss.
Backing up DVDs and CDs
DVDs and CDs can degrade (something known as bit rot). So you may want to back up films, music, photos and other data that you currently have on disks.
You can save them to
– your computer
– an external hard drive
– the cloud (online storage)
– new DVDs or CDs.
Whichever you choose, you’ll need a disk player and some software (free online or pre-installed on your computer). Watch this video guide.
Ready to recycle your VHS recorder, cassette deck or CD/DVD player?
It’s as easy as ABC
BAG IT
Find a spare bag or box to store your old electricals – and pop them in. This is a great habit that will make your trips to your local recycling point that much easier.
CHECK
Find your nearest recycling point by entering your postcode into our recycling locator.
HypnoCat says
Press paws
Humans! Is your head spinning from worrying about where to recycle your old cassette player or VHS recorder?
Just drop your postcode into the recycling locator. Then relax and rewind.
