CREATE HOW TO DO ANYTHING ON YOUR MAC, IPHONE & IPAD

WHETHER IT'S HOME movies on VHS or a library of classic vinyl, it's easy to capture audio and video, play it, and even improve it on your Mac.

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Digitize your old media

Turn old audio into shiny new digital files using free software

If you have videos on CD or DVD, a portable CD/DVD drive is all you need; connect it, open it in Finder and drag the files across. An app such as Handbrake (https://handbrake.fr) can convert outdated file formats into more modern formats.

With VHS video, vinyl LPs, or audio cassettes it's slightly trickier; you'll need an analog-to-digital interface for your VHS player or tape deck, so your Mac can capture the video and/or audio.

AMPLIFY THE SIGNAL

For capturing video, we'd suggest trying iMovie before looking into third-party apps. For audio, we'd recommend Audacity for recording. We're using that here.

If your turntable has USB, you can connect it to your Mac. For non-USB turntables, you'll get best results via a USB audio interface; connect the turntable to the interface, and the interface to your Mac.

REQUIRES Audacity (Free, www.audacityteam.org), macOS 14 or later

YOU WILL LEARN How to digitize records and other old media

IT WILL TAKE 1 hour

Turntables put out very quiet signals that need to be amplified. Some have a built-in pre-amp that makes the signal suitably loud; if not, yours is probably connected to a hi-fi amp with line outputs, so use those, and tweak the volume of the amp until your Mac's inputs are loud enough, but not distorting. No amp? Look for a USB interface that has its own pre-amp built in.

CARRIE MARSHALL