8 mm Video Tapes

jeff_chandler

Hi all. I have been sorting out the loft and I came upon the old Sanyo camcorder. I know it doesn't function any more but there are several tapes that I would like to look through. I have tried to look but is there anything such as a viewer for these tapes or would I need to have them transferred to DVD disc individually. 

Browntoa

Most people buy an old video player to view 

Mickey666

Yes, or there are many companies out there that will convert them for you for an hourly rate.
I wouldn't recommend transfer to DVD though because it's pretty much just another obsolete media format.
When I had a bunch of old cine film converted, I opted for conversion to video files copied to a usb hard drive that I supplied.  This is far more future-proof than physical media and, without getting too technical, is a more 'edit-friendly' format.

pbartlett

If your camcorder has a yellow (video) and red/white (audio) phono-out then you could capture to your pc hard drive using something like this (£5.49). Press 'play' on the tape and wait for it to finish - there will be a resulting .mp4 file on your hard drive.

VHS to DVD Converter, USB 2.0 Audio Video Capture Card, Video VHS VCR TV | eBay

sweetgirl2015

Mickey666 said:

Yes, or there are many companies out there that will convert them for you for an hourly rate.
I wouldn't recommend transfer to DVD though because it's pretty much just another obsolete media format.
When I had a bunch of old cine film converted, I opted for conversion to video files copied to a usb hard drive that I supplied.  This is far more future-proof than physical media and, without getting too technical, is a more 'edit-friendly' format.

You would think that, but I left a usb key on a speaker once and it rendered the key as useless and I lost all my photos. Plus I had an SD card from my phone fail too. But my dvds with videos on are still fine in a folder. 

Jon_01

sweetgirl2015 said:

Mickey666 said:

Yes, or there are many companies out there that will convert them for you for an hourly rate.
I wouldn't recommend transfer to DVD though because it's pretty much just another obsolete media format.
When I had a bunch of old cine film converted, I opted for conversion to video files copied to a usb hard drive that I supplied.  This is far more future-proof than physical media and, without getting too technical, is a more 'edit-friendly' format.

You would think that, but I left a usb key on a speaker once and it rendered the key as useless and I lost all my photos. Plus I had an SD card from my phone fail too. But my dvds with videos on are still fine in a folder. 

As someone on here said a while back, if it's not backed up in at least 5 places it's not backed up at all...

Mickey666

sweetgirl2015 said:

Mickey666 said:

Yes, or there are many companies out there that will convert them for you for an hourly rate.
I wouldn't recommend transfer to DVD though because it's pretty much just another obsolete media format.
When I had a bunch of old cine film converted, I opted for conversion to video files copied to a usb hard drive that I supplied.  This is far more future-proof than physical media and, without getting too technical, is a more 'edit-friendly' format.

You would think that, but I left a usb key on a speaker once and it rendered the key as useless and I lost all my photos. Plus I had an SD card from my phone fail too. But my dvds with videos on are still fine in a folder. 

That's a completely different issue.  I was talking about FILE formats not physical MEDIA.

If you want to widen the discussion to physical MEDIA then that's fine and I would say there's only ONE thing that needs to be considered when choosing the best storage media - IT WILL FAIL. 

Different types of media may be more or less reliable and durable but the only thing you can rely on is that they will all fail eventually.  Therefore, any discussion of 'best physical media' is essentially pointless unless it is accompanied by a discussion about back-ups.  In that respect Jon_01 has basically summed it all up above - if you don't have multiple copies then it's not backed up!  And if it's not backed up then you WILL lose it . . . eventually.

Heedtheadvice

....and you did say hard drive, not a memory stick!

Mickey666

Yes, but even a hard drive WILL fail.  Eventually.  It's the one thing we can all rely on - we just don't know when.

I liked Jon_01's post - if you don't have five copies then it's not backed up.  I would just add "at least"