My mom stood patiently in the back of the auditorium during many a high school play, a gigantic VHS-based camcorder mounted before her, capturing me cavorting on stage. And there the memories have remained, on brittle aging tape. Luckily there are many methods to move tape to your PC (and burn it to DVD), usually using a converter between your old VHS video recorder and the PC.

If you want to spend real money to convert tapes, buy the Ion VCR 2 PC. It is what it sounds like: a VHS-based VCR you plug into a USB port on a Windows PC. It comes with converter software to capture your tape playback to MPEG4 video for use on DVDs, iPods, over your home network, or upload to YouTube.

This is especially nice if, like me, you got rid of your last, broken VCR a couple years ago. The Ion is a pricy solution, however. I've found the VCR 2 PC as low as $199.95 (at Amazon), but a standalone VCR at Walmart is only $60. But a true geek -- with a starring role in Dracula: The Musical on crumbling 20-year-old VHS tape -- won't let price stand in their way. (Ion also sells cassette decks and turntables with USB ports, for converting your other aging memories.)