The longer you live and the more you experience, one thing becomes clear: Things always evolve.

I still remember the excitement of Saturday matinees, lining up at the neighborhood theater to see the latest movie starring our favorite actors. Then as televisions were introduced into more households, so much of our entertainment life was spent at home in front of them, waiting for 8:00 to come for the newest must-see-TV prime time line up. Then of course, came the regular trip to the local Blockbuster store to walk the aisles of the new releases, first filled with VHS tapes with their “Please be kind, rewind” labels and then later with DVDs and Blu-Ray disks as we sought to select our viewing choice for the evening or weekend.

Now, we never have to leave the comfort of our living room couch. Neither are we restricted to stay there. Our entertainment can be as mobile as we are, streaming into the device of our choice no matter where we happen to be.

It is only normal for our home movies to evolve along the same course as the mainstream media and entertainment outlets.  Watching our home movies used to entail the setting up of a cumbersome projector and screen as the family gathered together to reminisce. Those reels of 8mm, Super 8, or 16mm film then made the transition to videotape for easier playback options. Betamax, VHS, VHS-C, hi-8, digital 8, and mini-dv were the most popular consumer formats and were widely used by all… until digital technology reset the playing field once more and our home movies again made a transition, this time to be stored onto DVD disks or computer files.

The newest entry to the home movie world is the DVA – Digital Video Archive. This revolutionary service combines the best elements of the DVD with the ease and convenience that comes from today’s streaming technology. And, with families becoming more and more fragmented and geographically dispersed, the ability to instantly share our recorded memories to anyone on the planet with the simple click of a button is an idea whose time has most certainly come. 

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio (www.homevideostudio.com/mtd) specializes in the preservation of family memories and is proud to include Digital Video Archive as one of their many services.