Converting 8mm videos to digital

[jollyFE]

Looking for some suggestions....I have a ton of 8mm video tapes from over the years that I'd like to convert to dvd or onto my hard drive.  Does anyone know an easy way that would still look good?

[PFactorDave]

Looking for some suggestions....I have a ton of 8mm video tapes from over the years that I'd like to convert to dvd or onto my hard drive.  Does anyone know an easy way that would still look good?

There are many companies who offer the service.  It generally costs between $0.10 - $0.40 per foot, depending on the process that they use.  The more expensive services usually involve high end film scanners that will convert it to HD and will do some restoration to correct faded colors etc.

Shop around, the really cheap services will give you a pretty poor result.  

EDIT to ADD:  Here's a web site for a company that offers the service at differing levels, to give you an idea of what is posssible.

http://www.videoconversionexperts.com/converting-8mm-to-dvd.html

[helbent]

My father had this done a few years ago.  I think he had a pro handle it, but Im not sure.  I should see him in the next couple days and I will ask him.

[Shuffler]

I used to use Pinnacle Studio to do that. I now use Avid which is a lot more powerful for video editing.

Pinnacle works great for capturing the video to digital and then editing as need to burn to DVD or CD.

You can get the software at any Best Buy or Office Depot.

[jollyFE]

thanks for the replies...I had bought a diamond usb hook up but the videos turned out so tiny that it almost wasn't worth it.

[Shuffler]

thanks for the replies...I had bought a diamond usb hook up but the videos turned out so tiny that it almost wasn't worth it.

You should have settings on the capture for quality & size. You may have had it set for youtube capture.

[jollyFE]

ill look into the settings

[Rich52]

Almost any inexpensive capture software also has basic editing software with basic color correction, sharpening, brightness, blah-blah controls. The software comes with the hardware. Sending it somewhere and having "them" do it means they will basically do nothing you couldnt do and do it much cheaper. You do still have a 8mm cam, or Hi-8mm cam, left over to use as a source player right? And make sure the capture card you buy, internal or external, has the standard RCA analog inputs like your 8mm camcorder has.

Look how easy and cheap its gotten. http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/Dazzle+Video+Archiving/Dazzle+DVD+Recorder+Plus.htm

I still have my two  2 gig Seagate Cheetahs that were the cutting edge, and cost a gazzillion $$, when they first came out. My first DV card was the Pinnacle DC-10. I started off with 8mm and Hi-8mm. If you dont still have your 8mm camcorder I know you used to be able to buy certain Dig-8mm camcorders that were basically 8mm cams that could record DV onto 8mm tapes. You could also play back old 8mm tapes thru firewire right into your PC. Maybe you can buy an old one for a song, thus killing two birds with a stone. Basic Capture/Edit is probably built into windows media now or can be found in freeware.

I still have all my old equipment. Let me know in PM if I can help.

[jollyFE]

yup, got both cameras still.........just need to find some time now.

[ozrocker]

Check with Zeno (Zenoswarbirdvideos.com). Or send him a PM here.
 Not sure how his company does it. ("In-house", or contracted out).
With all of the old films his company does, I'm sure he could probably point you in a good direction



                                                                                                                                         Oz

[APDrone]

I found that USB wasn't fast enough to handle the data in a full-screen format.

Buy a VCR-DVD burner.   Then just plug your camcorder in as an input device.

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-Recorder-Combo-1080p-Up-Conversion/dp/B002TIHQLC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1337343418&sr=1-2

When I read your initial post, I thought you were referring to 8mm 'film' .. the kind that use projectors.. which I believe PFactorDave was thinking too.

Good luck!

[PFactorDave]

When I read your initial post, I thought you were referring to 8mm 'film' .. the kind that use projectors.. which I believe PFactorDave was thinking too.

Yup.  I thought he was talking actual film.

[Shuffler]

I found that USB wasn't fast enough to handle the data in a full-screen format.

Buy a VCR-DVD burner.   Then just plug your camcorder in as an input device.

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-Recorder-Combo-1080p-Up-Conversion/dp/B002TIHQLC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1337343418&sr=1-2

When I read your initial post, I thought you were referring to 8mm 'film' .. the kind that use projectors.. which I believe PFactorDave was thinking too.

Good luck!

All systems now are firewire.

Yup.  I thought he was talking actual film.

I did at first but caught it before my first post. I was already typing how to copy to digital without expensive equipment. lol

[Rich52]

If your going to do it then why not do it in a way that also allows you to do basic editing along with a little special efx. You already have a computer and no doubt firewire input, which I assumed. If not a cheap firewire card is easy to install. While USB-2 should keep up with the data transfer firewire was specifically made as a DV Bus. It uses less CPU resources and just plain transfers audio/video data better then USB-2. But if you have a relitively new computer I have a hard time believing USB couldnt keep up with 640x480 44k video/audio DV transfer. Its true you can buy a DVD recorder and go that route. But remember you cant use that same DVD recorder to copy TV shows like you could with VHS due to copy protection, "well you can but I cant go into that in a forum". So that DVD recorder is going to be a pretty one shot deal. To copy your tapes and play them back as DVDs.

Heck even buying a firewire-800 card and external 800 HD is pretty cheap along with your transfer device. But I speak as an editor. For me to just transfer my 8mm footage, 90% was just plain boring, and just leaving it at that is to hard to stomach. The route I just outlined, firewire-800 card, external, DV transfer device, can be had for $200 to $250, and not only does it allow you to edit but probably includes basic DVD creation tools. FW-800 can handle HD in real time with the right system.

Or if your computer has firewire built in, and whose doesnt, just buy a transfer device with a DV Bus instead of USB. They must make them. And an external hard drive of one terra can come in very handy when working with DV.

[APDrone]

You make some good points, Rich52...

I made my recommendation based on my situation, and it was a few years ago.. before firewire was a standard..

The OP mentioned he had a ton of tapes to convert.  That tells me it's not going to be a sit-down a edit each tape for content through the whole collection.    I would envision the approach to get it all digitized, then play with them.

One of the things that make you truly appreciate the speed of 16x write capability is when you're converting the tape at 1x speed.  A 2 hour tape needs 2 hours to convert.  

This is where having an external dvd recorder comes into play, as I sure as heck don't want to tie up my computer for hours on end just converting video from one format to another.  I would set the system up, start the copying process, then go login and pad some AH fighter jock's score with my cartoon victim.  With the CPU horsepower that video seems to devour, I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was using the computer to do the conversion.

Things may be different now with the new machines, but that's still how I'd do it with my current hardware.