I am looking to transfer my old 8mm , hi8 , and vhs c size tapes to dvd. I want to know the best way to do it . I am not bothered about the cost but the quality is a must. I have all the tapes listed above and a newish dv camcorder. As I say cost is not the problem so if i need a new pc, camcorder, etc then so be it. I dont have the old 8mm camcorder or the hi8 camcorder or my old vhs camcorder so what player would i need to solve this problem.
lets hope we have an expert in the house ps I have a large family and between us we must have over 200 tapes.
Sorry Mickey but the only way you could view or transfer your movies is with a same type of Camcorder..I have three types of 8mm Camcorders so I am able to play and upload every type of cassette film to my PC and from there on use my Nero9 Program to Edit ,transcode the format and burn to dvd . I transferred many videos for People and never had a complaint jet. If you like to test the quality of my conversions first ,send a cassette in a stuffed Envelope and I will convert it to a DVD free of charge, return postage included ernstrudy@gmail.com
I was possibly looking at a top of the range 8mm camcorder and new 8mm camcorder and a new vhs video recorder. I could buy used camcorders from ebay but how good would they be.
I am also looking at a new top of the range pc and video editing suite 7 from apple? thanks for the tips
Am I going over the top but I do want the best quality
As you've got so many tapes I can see why you are considering buying new equipment. Cost per tape probably makes this a good choice.
For the VHS-C tapes you are going to need either a VHS-C camcorder OR a VHS-C to VHS tape converter and a VHS player. The converter is the same size as a normal VHS tape and the VHS-C tape slots inside. The tape from the VHS-C is then mechanically pulld out. You can then pop this into your VHS player. Probably cheaper to buy the VHS player and the converter new rather than a second hand VHS-C camcorder.
For the 8mm tapes get a new Hi8 camcorder. This will read both Video8 and Hi8 tapes.
If any of your 8mm are recorded in Digital8 (possibly onto normal Hi8 tapes) you will need a Digital8 camcorder. I believe some Digital8 camcorders can also playback analogue 8mm and Hi8 tapes. Check the specs but it might be better getting one of these as at least you will end up with a Digital camcorder rather than an analogue 8mm device. This will be easier to sell if you don't want it after you've done all your tapes.
Digital8 is easy. Its digital so any PC can pull the data over Firewire and give you DV files at the other end. These are going to be 13GB per hour!
The analogue tapes will need to be digitized so will need something that accepts analogue inputs and pumps the data into your PC. This can either be a TV card in the PC or an external USB device. Not sure about Macs as I'm a PC person :-)
Given you might as well work at DVD resolution you don't really need a super hi-spec PC. You will need lots of hard drive space. You've got a potential 200 hours of footage @ 13GB per hour ... 2.6TB ... plus a few GB per hour for DVD encodes. Life will be easier if you are simply capturing a tape and converting straight to DVD with no editing or fancy titles.
i have a SONY HANDYCAM DCR-DVD201E.With IMAGEMIXER 1.5 (from PIXELA )was it untill now possible to tranfer my video sequenses to my PC.Untill now i was working with Windows XP.Now i have a new PC working with Windows7 and it is no more possible to transfer my images to my PC because it is not possible to install IMAGEMIXER under Windows 7 Is there a solution??? }