While many of us have our family's special moments on video cassettes, we always expect them to look as good now as they did in the viewfinder when we shot them. Tech industry insider Marty Winston tells us to be prepared for a big-size surprise.

When you try watching your old videotapes on your new big-screen TV, well, they may look less than wonderful. The new tech magnifies the shortcomings of the old tech to a dramatic extent. Also, transfer those old tapes to a DVD as soon as you can; old tapes become unreliable.

Today's digital camcorders record a higher-quality picture and today's tapes have a longer shelf life, but it's still a good idea to copy them to optical discs.