Transfering Hi8 to DVD

[KoKelly]

Hi All,
I'm just looking for some advice please. I have a Hi8 Camcorder and a number of VHS ( of family taken years ago ) tapes that I want to transfer to DVD. I purchased an external dazzle box for my computer with the intention of importing onto my computer and then editing with Pinnacle and adding titles, menu's e.t.c. but the quality for whatever reason was not near as good as the original. I was wondering what would you suggest would work and at least keep the same quality? I could look at a vcr/dvd combi or buy a DVD recorder and transfer via scart or else get a better external box for my computer but I don't really want to spend out money again and find its not up to standard. If I buy a DVD recorder and transfer via scart can I still import onto my computer for editing or would I be better off editing on the DVD recorder. I'm sure their are various ways of doing it but any ideas or suggestion would be very welcome! At the moment I am thinking of buying a Sony HX710!

Thanks a million!

Paul

 

[dvdnoddy]

While a HDD/DVD Recorder will be easier and quicker it will never give as good edits or menus as you will get using a PC.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=646876

While I'm very pleased with my Sony DVD Recorder RDR-GX500 I would point out that Sony's have fixed recording times. If you edited on one you would have to use the 1hr, 1.5hr or 2hr settings.

If you really want a HDD/DVD Recorder

Toshiba's seem to offer the best editing and menu's (but are very fussy with Disc's and won't play or record +R/RW) and they don't do a freeview model.

Panasonic's are almost as good as Toshiba for editing and aren't as fussy with Disc's will play all formats and also do a Freview model. They will also fit the recording exactly to 100% of the disc and will record to either +R or -R.

Pioneers are also good for editing with fixed recording at 5 minutes intervals. However they only record to -R and don't have freeview model.

 

[musukebba]

Why not get the best of both worlds: record direct to a DVD recorder via S-Video then rip the MPEG2 file off the disc in your PC DVD-ROM drive and edit on your computer.

Since you're transferring analogue, then for Hi8 you could use the highest quality setting (1 hour) and the VHS anything from the 2 hour setting downwards.

If you haven't bought editing software yet then I can recommend Womble MPEG Video Wizard. It won't always re-encode the whole file (usually just the transitions) when ever you make edits. Atthough Womble have a new version of MPEG-VW that will author straight to DVD, Ulead DVD Movie Factory 4 is much better on the menu generation, and pretty easy to use for the authoring to DVD.