SAN ANTONIO – A lot of us chronicle our lives and our children's lives in pictures and videos.
But changing times mean changing formats.
Family memories are priceless until you convert them to digital, which can be pricey.
"The technology keeps evolving, and it's left a lot of people with home videos they can't even watch," said Elias Arias of Consumer Reports.
So if you want to dig your old media out of the attic and get it onto the computer, Consumer Reports has the following tips.
If you've got VHS tapes, you'll need a VCR, which you can find on eBay, Craigslist and thrift shops.
You will also need to buy an analog video capture device that comes with software.
The device has audio and video inputs on one end that connect to the VCR and a USB connection on the other end, which plugs into your computer and allows you to capture what's on the old tapes and digitally transfer it to your computer.
"The biggest investment is probably time," Arias said. "It's an analog process, and an hour of video is going to take an hour to transfer."
If you don't want to do it yourself, there are companies, including Costco, Walgreens and Walmart Photo that can do the transferring for you. You can also find companies online.
Besides the cost, the other potential downside is you'll be sending irreplaceable memories through a shipping service, so make sure your package is trackable.