HOW TO CONVERT CAMCORDER TAPES

geek84

Hi Folks

I have some HI 8 camcorder tapes which I would like to put on another storage medium.

Can you kindly suggest anything?

Thanks in advance

chrisw

It can be rather tedious transferring them in real time but there are local computer shops who will do it for you to any medium you want for around £5 to £6 per tape.

DullGreyGuy

How many tapes do you have?
Do you still have a mechanism for playback (eg a camcorder or VCR)?
How important is the content to you? 

Its worth trying to play the tapes before taking any other steps as they can degrade over time and even if they are in good condition watching SD home video on a 80" 8k TV isn't always a good experience. 

If you dont have the kit and only a few tapes it's probably best to use a third party conversion service which will put them on DVD for you. If you have a ton of tapes and at least a reliable playback device you can get a video capture device for a computer and digitise the content yourself but it'll be a case of sitting with it as each tapes runs at normal playback speed. 

bob_a_builder

Is there any point in having them put on DVD now - nearly as obsolete as video tapes ?
I would say onto USB stick then put 'em on YouTube ( either as Private or Unlisted videos) 

Veteransaver

If you have a way to play the tapes (usually through the camcorder) if they are hi8 tapes then you can get video capture cards for a pc which can take in the AV or composite input and then digitise them.
I did it years ago with some VHS camcorder tapes I had but it's quite a tedious process doing it in real time. Quality is ok though.

indierocker85

I actually do this as a side business. You can buy USB video capture devices, most of which come with free software. You need a VHS player to play them through first of all. Then the softwarer essentially records the playback as you play the VHS. It's best to put them onto USB really, as you can easily plug USB into most laptops and TVs and watch back. 

DullGreyGuy

bob_a_builder said:

Is there any point in having them put on DVD now - nearly as obsolete as video tapes ?
I would say onto USB stick then put 'em on YouTube ( either as Private or Unlisted videos) 

Depends who you talk to, if you want the highest quality video and sound for a recent movie release your options are UHD Blu-ray or the extortionately expensive system that cinemas use. Apple/Google/Disney/Amazon/Netflix streaming in UHD is heavily compressed in comparison. 

In this use case then no, DVD or Memory stick will depend on your preferred playback device and both are simple to convert to the other if you ultimately want both. 

Fingerbobs

I use a Sony Digital8 camcorder that supports analogue tape playback (most models support analogue playback, but not all - you have to choose carefully). These also have built-in TBC and DNR, and give excellent quality captures. Capture on a PC via Firewire, using the freeware WinDV. 
Don't bother with burning to DVD. Use something like DaVinci Resolve (free version available) to deinterlace and upscale to HD for playback on a modern TV. 

DullGreyGuy

Fingerbobs said:
Capture on a PC via Firewire, using the freeware WinDV. 

Don't bother with burning to DVD. Use something like DaVinci Resolve (free version available) to deinterlace and upscale to HD for playback on a modern TV. 

Surprised there are many computers left with FireWire ports!

Assuming you have a LCD or OLED screen they can only display deinterlaceds and images at their native resolution, its always questionable if the coding in software is better or worse than the deinterlacing and upscaling built into the screen itself. 

Desmond_Hume

bob_a_builder said:

Is there any point in having them put on DVD now - nearly as obsolete as video tapes ?
I would say onto USB stick then put 'em on YouTube ( either as Private or Unlisted videos) 

YouTube might be the wrong “tube” for these, ahem, old home videos. 

Rob5342

If you only have a few and no player then I'd recommend this place:

www.video99.co.uk

The website looks like someone's GCSE project from 1998 but he is actually very good and I've used him loads of times. He has a YouTube channel too which does him far more justice than the website.

As mentioned nobody uses DVDs any more, get them converted to. mp4s and keep them in your. Cloud storage