Is your wedding day gathering dust?

So, how many digital memories have you sitting in a drawer somewhere that you can't view? writes Brian Byrne.

Probably a lot. Consumer and digital recording formats have gone through many different technologies since the 1980s, and it is most likely that those old VHS tapes of your wedding or 21st birthday or the kids growing up can't be watched any more.

Colm Lambe of Ballymore, originally from Kilcullen, has the answer in the form of a service to transfer those old and not so old formats to the common ones of today — DVD and USB.

For the last year, since the lockdowns began, he has turned his activities as a wedding videographer into one recovering old video memories. "The wedding business disappeared overnight with the Covid restrictions," he says. "We had always done these kind of conversions, but when I put it up as a service on my own Facebook page I got a great reaction locally."

That's probably in part due to how the pandemic encouraged people back at the good times in their lives. And partly because they have the time to do so, for the same reason. Whichever, Colm has been kept very busy.

"I bet that any house I might knock on the door of would have an old VHS tape somewhere. But players are very hard to get now. A few years ago I bought the last four which I found in Power City. When I saw one, I asked the salesperson were there any more. He checked, found there were four, and was very surprised when I took them all." Manufacture of VHS equipment ceased in 2016.

Colm can transfer the content of any old digital media — VHS, VHS-C, 8mm Tape, Hi-8 tapes, and Mini DV tapes and discs. Onto DVD is very popular, but Colm also recommends USB sticks, because they don't need specialist playing machines. "You can plug them into your computer, or into the back of your smart TV, and away you go."

His service provides a DVD in a case, labelled Family Memories. Tape to DVD is €10 per tape, and to USB €20. Call 087 2877970.

Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy