How to get old Hi8 footage onto my PC

apreading · 10-01-2007, 1:41 PM

I have a stack of about a 15 old hi8 tapes recorded in the nineties, but a couple of years ago I found out my old hi8 camcorder wouldnt work anymore. I immediately got the three tapes which had my sons birth on them sent off to evermedia who did a brilliant job of transferring them onto DVD for me - however this was expensive and I dont know if I can justify it for this many tapes.

I would also ideally like to get the stuff in AVI format so that I can chop the stuff up and rearrange it (or drop rubbish bits) into correct time sequence with minimal hassle. This is even more expensive.

I am wondering if it would be cheaper and less hassle to buy a machine to play the hi8 stuff in order to do the conversion myself. What would be the cheapest/best way to do this?

Also, do I need anything specific on the PC to do it? if so then I might be better off connecting up my digital camcorded and recording it onto miniDV and using this as both archive and a means to capture onto PC.

Any thoughts or advice welcome.

Thanks

Rob

redsox_mark · 10-01-2007, 2:44 PM

I've used this guy
http://www.avsvideo.co.uk/

£8 per hour (of content) to convert to DV (.avi) I think is very reasonable. The price includes the DV tapes, and posting them back to you.

If you want to do it yourself, and want to convert to DV (.avi) - you need to be able to play the High 8 tapes, and you need something to do the conversion. Some digital 8 camcorders will play High 8 tapes and convert them (output DV), so if you can get your hands on one of those that's an option.

Otherwise, assuming you get a High 8 Camcorder - if your DV camcorder has AV-input and AV/DV pass-through, you can use it to do the digital conversion. Do you know if your DV camcorder does this? What model do you have?

apreading · 10-01-2007, 2:57 PM

Thanks for the quick response.

That seems quite reasonable, and get them back on miniDV too is perfect.

My camcorder (Canon MV4iMC) does have AV input and will record onto miniDV for me, if I can play the stuff. So I could buy a cheap or second hand hi8 camcorder or other player and use this to do the job. I could also then resell any equipment I buy once I am done with it.

At £8 per hour this is seriously tempting though. Would still be more expensive for sure, but would same me some hassle. Would the quality also be better if I get them to do the job? If so then that seals the deal for me I think.

redsox_mark · 10-01-2007, 3:57 PM

It's a while ago I used them... but I was happy with the quality. You could email them at sales@avsvideo.co.uk and ask them what equipment they use to do the job and decide from that. Otherwise, yes get a cheap/used Hi 8 camcorder.

apreading · 10-01-2007, 4:07 PM

Thanks - will do that, but obviously they will be biased and say that their pro-equipment is better. That is not to say they arent right in making those claims, I just wondered if anyone could corroborate that...

I am definately leaning towards getting them to do it. One problem I have though is that I dont know how much footage is on each tape. Could be anywhere between 1 and 2 hours - so I will contact them and see how they want to handle that as I cant say in advance how much to pay them for sure...

Cheers

Rob

redsox_mark · 10-01-2007, 5:13 PM

That's a normal situation... they will be able to sort that out. I can't remember exactly how it worked, but I think after the material was captured they told me how many hours it was in total and I then paid them.

apreading · 11-01-2007, 10:57 AM

Thanks for that - just spoke to Charles and seems like a good guy. I can tell he is a real enthusiast so I am sure he takes pride in doing a good job.

Will post a writeup after it is all done for the benefit of any others looking for similar services.