Over at the SparkExchange, there’s also been a lot of discussion about dematerializing:
- Patrick is looking for a scanner to digitize binders full of 35mm slides and negatives
- Jennifer wants to turn her DVDs into iPod-friendly files
- Heather has some cassette tapes she wants to digitize
- And I’m looking for a scanner to turn piles of old bank statements into PDFs.
So then, for next week’s episode of Spark, I’m putting together a “dematerialization toolkit” and I need your help. Have you converted your old vinyl LPs into MP3s? Digitized an old photo album? What gadgets, software, or techniques have you used to turn your analog life into your digital life?
Handbrake is a free and cross-platform utility that can handle the conversion of a DVD to an iPod friendly format.
Last Fall I converted a substantial number of old space hogging audio books and music, all on cassettes, into MP3 for casual listening and wav files for archiving, using High Criteria’s software, “Total Recorder” [http://www.highcriteria.com/]
OK for slide conversion its the OpticFilm 7500i SE – incredible control over images – scratches, fading, colour correction through multi-scanning. http://www.plustek.com/product/7500i_se.asp You'll love the guys voice on the video – v_e_r_y precise like the product.
For the pile of paper.. the best solution I have seen is the ScanSnap from Fujitsu. Available for Mac and PC, and in 2 sizes, one portable and one meant for a desktop… all provide automated double sided colour scanning and some magic to go with it: optional OCR, automatic deskewing, and joining PDF's.
http://www.fujitsu.ca/products/scansnap/
It's on my shopping for list for when I transcend paper!
Thumbs up for the ScanSnap! There's a tonne of internet resources on "dematerializing" using this nifty device that scans multi-sheet double-sided docs into pdfs literally in 1 touch in 30s or less. I use mine with Evernote – a multipurpose note-taker that you can access pretty much everywhere – http://www.evernote.com/about/learn_more/fujitsu….
There are varies tools to import information – text/audio/video – but what about dematerializing an interface?
Usually, when our team trying to make a draft for interface of the website or to come up with general conception for the project, we using scissors-paper-pencil technology. Writing each keyword or function title or element on the paper, then slice it out and then moving it all around on the table. It works pretty well as a technology for thoughts stimulating. Probably, because of tactile nature. And… I don’t know, but it is definitely appropriate for brain, when it needs to make connections between different concepts etc. – just to put it near by.
So, eventually, we get a piles of paper slices with words on them. And U need to save it in order to continue later. And its important to preserve them in the same order – “apple” should be near “fruits” etc. So U can not just put it all to the one envelop. Or make a photo – cause each of the piece should be movable.
But we found solution. We making the picture of our table with all paper slices on it and then edit in Adobe ImageReady. We converted each paper slice into separate layer – just by copy (from initial file) and past (to the new) – and eventually all is turned to digital. And U can drag each slice around the screen just by mouse or even finger – if U have sensor screen.
I really want a way to easily scan and digitize my piles of photos without having to scan each one individually. I also want something tha will scan without the pictures looking horrible.
Consider using ScanCafe http://www.scancafe.com to scan old photos and negatives for you. I shipped them my medium format negatives from our wedding and in a few weeks had nicely scanned and retouched images. If you really don't want to work, they'll even take an entire photo album. Definitely worth the money for the effort it would have taken me.
As for day to day document handling, I scan directly into Adobe Acrobat with a older Canon MP830 scanner with duplex sheet feeder or a Canon 8800F for photos. PDF seemed like a fairly stable document format to save them in.
I always worry about what the piles of data will be readable in 10 years or longer – I'm banking on raw text files, mp3 for audio, jpg for photos, pdf for documents, and h.264 & mpeg2 for video. Data longevity should always be a consideration when you are dematerializing.
@Diane Many scanners will scan multiple photos simultaneously.
My scanner will take 3-4 photos in one scan and break each one up into its own file (as well as straighten each one out).
Good responses here — I've only done fairly standard things (ripping all the CDs to a hard drive, converting tapes via a basic audio hookup into the computer) but they've all worked wonders in terms of opening up the apartment.
It's a bit indirect (and apologies for the self-promotion in advance!) but I'm going to be talking about 'the listener as electronic librarian' at a conference next month:
http://www.empsfm.org/education/index.asp?categor…
What is on my mind is not simply the switch to digital but how carefully we do (or don't) organize and present the information we have, how we share it and, possibly, correct it when we find mistakes, among other things…
If I have something of sentimental/historic value that I like remembering but don't really want to keep around, I take a picture of it. If possible, I take a picture doing one last thing with the item – e.g. my first car, I took a picture as I went through a drive through.
Anyone with Mac experience digitizing LPs and cassettes and (hold your breath) reel-to-reel tapes?
Ed Barna
Middlebury, VT
gotobarn@comcast.net
Thank you CBC for teaching me how to speak English. I grew up in Vermont, listening to CBM-AM Montreal. In comparison, the sloppy speech in school around me seemed appalling. Speaking the Queen's English apparently worked: I was the state's top policy debater in high school, went to Harvard, and am now a poet.
The legality question is a good one. Most of what I have are old vinyl, with some CDs, none of which I can play because both machines croaked. All I have access to is the cassette tapes I made because, invariably, I hated some of what was on a given album, and wanted to be able to play what I liked and leave out the other without having to lift the needle over or advance the tape. I think I stopped buying tapes when they brought in the fee because the money would just go to some company and not the artist of my choice. So all the selection lists I have on cassette are really old.
I didn't consider that "condensing and rearranging" to be a violation of copyright because, having bought those songs, I had the right to play them for private enjoyment. This is a factor that is assumed to exist already in the new world of downloadable single tunes and mp3 players. I've never done that; I get stalled at the point of having to figure out how to do it. Not technically adept. And as hearing declines, I'll have to rely on what I remember and can replay just in my head (for as long as memory serves).
Dematerializing your documents/pictures can be a bear to sort through. I've been using the free account of Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/) on my Android based phone, Windows desktop or via my web browser anywhere else. It allows tags and notebooks for sorting.
I used "Polderbits" software to digitize my audio, such as favorite LP's and cassettes. Free trial of an un-crippled version for 2 weeks….29 Euros to buy….well worth the investment. I also digitized over 3000 slides using and old Agfa scanner. Another very worth while project as now all my photos are available and running in my screen saver…..now I see them all the time instead of looking at storage boxes in the closet! Also gives a chance to make new photos out of old ones by cropping and playing with light and color levels. Key thing is to develop a good indexing system in order to access them easily. When ever friends come over, I search out whatever would interest the visitors…and put it on the screen saver…..it grabs them every time ! Got everthing all backed up in 2 different places….lots of work…but all worth it.
The best way to do scanning,or conversions….is the basic way .It is harder to start but gets much faster when you have practise.For instance,autocroppers remove the edges of those old Photos but these are actually a charming feature of old photo's -sometimes stuff is written on them-and once cropped off,you may not replace.Check the backs of your photos for extra information someone may have left there.Scan it too.
Scan with a good scanner.Not the cheap one on sale.and Not the easy way.Avoid proprietary software "helpers" as much as possibleUse irfanview or Fastone freeware…Scan at the highest practical practical resolution 300 dpi and Save these in the uncompressed Native format of your operating system…ie:"bmp" or Tiff in windows.Work hard to learn a process with a few before hurrying through Grandmothers photo album.Back up these originals to dvds or a spare hardrive.Organise as you go into folders.
Crop and improve Copies(not the original) with Irfanview,or Faststone freewares and save these as No compression jpegs.These can live on your hardrive as your favourites gleaned from the Masters and can be further reduced as Copies to email.
Make sure you give everything good names as you scan them(not a useless number).
This applys to cameras too.An aquaintance of mine travelled with his digital camera and came back with tons of 800×600 30%jpegs….ok in 1999 but on todays big screens,not so good.Likewise with old pictures ,negatives.(and cassettes!)They are degrading as we speak so do it now with an eye to the future.
This pretty much exactly applies to archiving audio.It's tediousbut it's better if you learn than to let somebody else do it wrong.Save as 196kbs stereo (native)".wav" in windows and then degrade ,edit,crop,and save Copies as mp3s.128kbs…I like Goldwave more than Audacity but there are other good (simple!) free ones too-try "Wavosaur".Finding an interface you like is half the battle but your taste will be educated as you go so don't archive Everything on a binge….
old home Video too….the same….Use Virtual Dub(Tip:look for and disable "Full Processing Mode to Direct stream copy"in the menu until you DO get to Post processing)and save as ".avi"…later,you can crop and convert to mpgs or other compressed formats.You can save the audio separately as a "wav" if you like.