Creating a digital legacy
— -- Graduation is right around the corner. So are Mother's Day and Father's Day. What better way to mark these occasions than with a slide show of family memories?
A video slide show can contain photos, audio and video clips. Use recent digital photos and video. Or, digitize old family memories.
Creating a video slide show is fun and easy with the right tools. You'll find links to software and sites mentioned at www.komando.com/news.
Digitize old memories
First, digitize your old photos, video and audio recordings. You can scan photos and negatives with your scanner. Or, a local photo store can do the scanning for you.
Video is trickier. You'll need a video capture card for your computer. Make sure the connections match your VCR or camcorder.
Video capture cards start around $40. Pinnacle, AVerMedia and Hauppauge make them. Recording software should be included. Or, use Windows Movie Maker. Click Start;All Programs to find Movie Maker.
Do you have 8mm, Super 8 or 16mm films? Getting them into a computer can be difficult. You could do it at home, but I don't recommend it. There's bound to be someone locally. A local camera shop should be able to help.
To digitize audio, connect your stereo to the computer. Line-out jacks give you the best sound. You won't need to worry about volume settings.
Your computer should have both line-in and microphone jacks. You can use either. With the microphone jack, you must tweak the volume settings.
Your computer probably has 3.5mm mini jacks. The stereo likely uses RCA-type connections. Bridge these connections with a y-cable. Electronics stores sell them for a few dollars.
If your tape deck doesn't have line-out jacks, use the headphone jack. Instead of a y-cable, use a mini-jack to mini-jack cable. Again, this is a few dollars at a local electronics store.
The free Audacity software will record the audio. After installing Audacity, click Edit;Preferences. Open the Audio I/O tab. Select your speakers in the Playback Device box. In the Recording Device box, select either microphone or line in.
