How to convert camcorder video8 tapes to mp4
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10-08-2006, 8:40 PM
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What you are proposing to do is in effect digtising all your video and audio media No mean task.....  While Im sure software like Roxio 8 could help to automate some of these steps ( esp audio) a few basics are required  You will need to get your video footage from camcorder or VHS to the PC with something like this There is a Pinnacle product Studio 10 with hardware this which is similar but more featured then the first one. These will allow you get the video to the HDD and convert them to mpeg4. Studio will probably get you to buy an add on pack : If you have the divx. xvid codecs on your PC you may not need to buy these. There are freeware, shareware , paid for ( and P2P : Im not endorsing that  ) utilities which can help convert your captured video to mp4Some TV cards can do the same job but will require you to open the PC up as they mainly tend to be PCI cards With video 8 in particular, there may be some Sony Digital8™ camcorders with DV output ( digital to PC) which can play video 8 and convert them in-camera to digital for transfer to the PC. Some of these camcorders have a feature called pass thru which can also enable you connect a VCR to it on one end and out to PC on the other. I must say they are getting scarce but just worth mentioning. If your video8 tapes are really valuable you could record them to DV tape with a miniDV camcorder with analogue in then later transfer them to PC as you would a "normal" digital tape There is a small freeware program called Audacity : with it and the appopriate cable connected to your PCs sound cards (line in) from the audio cassete players output , you can get the music from your audio cassetes to the PC as wave file or even mp3 I would recommend doing that with Roxio 7.5 or 8s' built-in dedicated music program : "Audio Central" I think its called There are probably others but over the years Ive converted cassette tapes to audio cd with relative ease with earlier versions ( It was called "Easy cd creator" then) What you propose, though possible has a more than a few learning steps, needs learning a few programs and knowing something about audio and video file formats and how to convert them I would suggest bite sized projects till you get the hang of things I suspect it will take a good few posts to cover the whole thing properly  Phew.....  Good luck  Last edited by senu; 11-08-2006 at 6:17 AM. |
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13-08-2006, 4:00 PM
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| Moderator | Quote:
The above posters linked device certainly looks interesting. For video there is perhaps a much easier way Record your Analogue camcorder and video tapes to DVD via a settop DVD recorder: That digitises them  Then copy the video files off the DVD disc to your PCs HDD and convert them to mp4 Better still :get hold of software that can convert DVD to Divx and let it take care of the conversion for you  : Such software abound . I bought one for £19 a few years ago and never used it more than once!  The audio equivalent: For audio the equivalent quick fix is to record the audio cassette to audio cd using a standalone cd recorder. the resulting audio CD can then be turned to mp3s by one of a large no of software which also abound The only problem I envisage is the fact that while it may be relatively easy to get hold of a friend with a DVD recorder , Audio CD recorders seem to be less common ( I only know of 1 friend who has one ,) Thankfully, of the 2 formats you want to convert ,the learning curve for the audio conversion is much gentler! | |
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23-08-2006, 11:53 PM
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Senu 's right again ! ( hi Senu. - more good advice! ) - and a set-top DVD recorder can be used to record TheAvengers from BBC4 (fri 11pm) as well !!! Goldwave ( www.goldwave.com ) has a fully functional FREEtrial version , and is GREAT for ALL audio editing needs ( use LAME in Goldwave to encode to MP3 ) Last edited by 807; 23-08-2006 at 11:56 PM. |
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24-08-2006, 11:11 AM
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Firstly I have tried using a STB to record analogue video onto XP DVD and then capturing this for editing using ULead VS9 but the end result was a DVD with a disappointing PQ (Ihave experimented with different codecs with burning outside ULVS9 and got a minor improvement). Subsequently I have captured later DV footage as .avi and edited this and got far more pleasing results on the DVD. I think it was you who on another thread advised using the Dazzle90 to capture analogue footage as .avi and I am bidding on e-bay for one at the moment. However you are now quoting capturing from DVD and conversion from mpeg 2 to mpeg 4 or DivX? Also as far as I can see the Plextor codes to mpeg2 for transfer to PC before software conversion to DivX. Does the Dazzle do the same before s/w conversion to .avi? If so what is the point in using either of these devices as the general advice given is to avoid coding to mpeg2 before editing if at all possible? Thanks in anticipation of your reply. Last edited by Analogue; 24-08-2006 at 11:16 AM. | |
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24-08-2006, 2:52 PM
| #8 | |
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Dont be Your feeling that it is better to avoid going via mpeg2 b4 editing is spot on. Like you ,I would avoid capturing as mpeg2 video footage meant to be edited if it is at all possible to get it as AVI first. It is certainly better quality-wise to capture as AVI and stop at mpeg2 even for archiving where HDD space is not an issue For your needs you are better off capturing and remaining in ( DV) AVI until it's time for archiving or DVD creation. In fact one of the advantages of MiniDV is that even edited material can be wriiten back to tape for best quality archived material and tape is ( arguably) more robust than DVD or HDD for durability and long life . However for the OP in this thread (he ? she ) has said they are new at all this and simply want a digitised archive of the VHS / Hi 8 tapes on a HDD without editing and MP4 was mentioned in the title of the first post If little or no editing is anticipated and the learning curve for getting an external analogue to digital device, capture as AVI then later convert to mpeg is steep and longwinded, then using the STB to create a DVD is a simpler alternative . It should give similar quality to capturing to PC as mpeg "on the fly" but removing the need for knowhow, capturing hardware and a PC . AFAIK Dazzle does not do mpeg4 and only does mpeg2 encoding with the software: The costlier "Dazzles" ( and similar devices) however have hardware mpeg encoding chips of varying quality with increasing cost likely to mean better quality results and more control over encoding parameters. Ending up as Mpeg4 is about space saving , especiallly if footage is unlikely to be viewed away from the PC and seems to be what the OP hinted at in his title ??  The Future now seems to be the HDD ,Solid state media , DVD camcorder ( etc )way ( even for HD) so it seems that either less editing is anticipated or the mpeg editing software are getting better. Until last year I had given mpeg editing a miss but the advent of HDV ( as well as The JVC Everio, Sony and Panasonic HDD and DVD camcorders which record the original video as mpeg ) has meant that getting some know-how is useful One problem seems to be that is that mpeg editing with starting material of less than DV quality ( ie analogue) is probably going to result in ( as you say ) underwhelming results I fully agree with you that the Ulead software ( BTW I didnt really like 9 ) may not give you fantastic PQ with mpeg editing and some adjustment in settings seem needed in ver 10 . See this post Vegas 7 is anticipated shortly maybe it will be a decent mpeg editor HTH Last edited by senu; 24-08-2006 at 5:46 PM. | |
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25-08-2006, 10:58 AM
| #10 | |
| Moderator | Re: How to convert camcorder video8 tapes to mp4 Quote:
 ) Divx, xvid, mp4 are all mpeg 4 (AVI) files which are excellent for viewing on the PC but have a very small filesize compared to Mpeg2 or DV AVI. PQ can easily rival mpeg1 ( video CD quality). It is possible to watch them on your TV display by one of 3 ways 1) By outputting them from a PCs Video card direct ( HTPC) 2)Burning them to a DVD rom and playing on a Divx-capable DVD player ( most modern DVD player are but check the label )3) Or running them off a usb storage device or flash memory card if your TV allows this ( my Phillips Cineos Lcd does) There is also a variant of Divx : Divx-HD . Whilst not as popular as WMV-HD or Quicktime-HD , like them it derives from HD material and as such looks far better than the plain variant. All the mpeg4 file formats ( Divx, xvid mp4) popularity is due to a small file size / good PQ ratio and ease of uploading/ downloading on the internet. They are not really meant to be a high quality archive/ edit format and are primarily meant to be watched on the PC. You can however convert them to DVD video standard files but PQ will reflect on the original file. Im not very sure of what you mean by the Dazzle question but my understaning is that Does it only output to mpeg2? If this is what you mean then the answer is no :it outputs to AVI as well and usually so by default. As stated in the last post mpeg2 encoding by the more "affordable" external boxes ( and TV cards) will often combine hardware and software on the PC utilising the PCs processor too. The costlier ones have own dedicated hardware encoder chipsets and some can be used without going via a PC. Dazzle is "cheap" enough to try out but if you are keen on that little extra in control and PQ I would advice looking at the ADVC devices. The extra cash outlay might be worth it in the long run. The other niggle ( with Dazzle) is that Pinnacle software which it runs off does not agree with everybody HTH | |
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