Converting 8mm video to DVD

What is the easiest way to convert 8mm video to DVD format? I have a friend who has asked me if I could do this for him.
I told him I have no experience at all with video. He told me he would loan me his video camera to connect to the computer.

I am on a Windows 10 64bit computer.

Is there any built in software to do the job?

Thank you

I assume your talking about Hi8?

The easiest option is to find a professional and pay them to do it. If the content of the tapes is important then there are lots of things to know to get the best quality footage and audio, and it starts with high quality player and digital capture devices.

If you really want to do it yourself then you need to find out what connections are on the camera and then find away to get those out puts into your computer.
Most Hi8 cameras have a firewire port, but it is a dead standard and hasn't been included on computers for nearly 10 years. You can get PCI cards, or Firewire to USB adapters, but reliability can be an issue.
The other common connection is a composite video/audio over RCA. But then you do need a proper capture card in the computer with RCA inputs.
Once you have the camera connected to the computer you then need some kind of video capture software. I've used Premier Pro in the past, but all the big mainstream NLE's have some kind of capture ability.

You can also get digital capture devices with composite inputs that will record a video signal to the an SD card. But the quality of the recorded footage is generally poor, heavily compressed and with low quality audio.

Moppie wrote in post #19130043
I assume your talking about Hi8?

The easiest option is to find a professional and pay them to do it. If the content of the tapes is important then there are lots of things to know to get the best quality footage and audio, and it starts with high quality player and digital capture devices.

If you really want to do it yourself then you need to find out what connections are on the camera and then find away to get those out puts into your computer.
Most Hi8 cameras have a firewire port, but it is a dead standard and hasn't been included on computers for nearly 10 years. You can get PCI cards, or Firewire to USB adapters, but reliability can be an issue.
The other common connection is a composite video/audio over RCA. But then you do need a proper capture card in the computer with RCA inputs.
Once you have the camera connected to the computer you then need some kind of video capture software. I've used Premier Pro in the past, but all the big mainstream NLE's have some kind of capture ability.

You can also get digital capture devices with composite inputs that will record a video signal to the an SD card. But the quality of the recorded footage is generally poor, heavily compressed and with low quality audio.

Hi8??? I never heard of that before. I doubt my friend knows either. It is actually a camera his wife owns... they have been married less than a year now.

From what you are telling me I do not think I want to do this job!
I will talk to him and tell him everything you told me so he knows where I am coming from.

Thank you very much Moppie!

Inspeqtor wrote in post #19130074
Hi8??? I never heard of that before. I doubt my friend knows either. It is actually a camera his wife owns... they have been married less than a year now.

From what you are telling me I do not think I want to do this job!
I will talk to him and tell him everything you told me so he knows where I am coming from.

Thank you very much Moppie!

Here's some suggestions out that way (Elkhart).

https://www.google.com …LXdpesABAQ&scli​ent=psy-ab

Hi Charles,

I converted a bunch of Hi8s (which are the 8mm vhs tapes used by many camcorders) to DVD.

You did mention that you can get hold of the camcorder for playing those tapes, so see if you can get hold of a DVD recorder. You should be able to connect the camcorder to the DVD recorder using RCA cables. Or if it it a digital camcorder you could use the firewire port.

I used a sony vrd-mc3 for recording. It was super easy. Those aren’t made anymore but you might be able to find an upgraded model.

When I hear 8mm, I always think regular 8mm or Super-8 film reels. The issue with transferring those is that you should use a device that projects the image evenly (and then a video camera records the projected image). I see Amazon has devices for doing this that start at $300. If you’re not comfortable, and they don’t have that many movies to buy a device with, then finding a service makes sense.

I would check with the service to see how they do the transfer. Years ago, my family paid to transfer 16mm to VHS. The store didn’t do a good job of it: they directly projected the film camera on the video camera (so the center of the frame was much brighter and image reversed).

John from PA wrote in post #19130566
Here's some suggestions out that way (Elkhart).

https://www.google.com …LXdpesABAQ&scli​ent=psy-ab

RhodyPhotos wrote in post #19130582
Hi Charles,

I converted a bunch of Hi8s (which are the 8mm vhs tapes used by many camcorders) to DVD.

You did mention that you can get hold of the camcorder for playing those tapes, so see if you can get hold of a DVD recorder. You should be able to connect the camcorder to the DVD recorder using RCA cables. Or if it it a digital camcorder you could use the firewire port.

I used a sony vrd-mc3 for recording. It was super easy. Those aren’t made anymore but you might be able to find an upgraded model.

davesrose wrote in post #19130591
When I hear 8mm, I always think regular 8mm or Super-8 film reels. The issue with transferring those is that you should use a device that projects the image evenly (and then a video camera records the projected image). I see Amazon has devices for doing this that start at $300. If you’re not comfortable, and they don’t have that many movies to buy a device with, then finding a service makes sense.

I would check with the service to see how they do the transfer. Years ago, my family paid to transfer 16mm to VHS. The store didn’t do a good job of it: they directly projected the film camera on the video camera (so the center of the frame was much brighter and image reversed).

I thank you all for your advice. I will pass this information on to my friend.

If you have a Costco around, take it to their photo desk. They have a service that will convert just about and video format to archival DVDs. From time to time they have 2 for 1 special deals. I have converted my entire video library as some of the really old beta tapes were fading rather quickly. Their conversion cost is about $20 for a 2 hour video and you get either 2 archival dvds or a thumb drive. I opted for the DVDs.

I had LegacyBox convert VHS tapes to digital. They did a quality job. Many of the tapes were over 10 years old, yet the digital image was excellent.
With a discount it cost about $10 per tape. Repeat customers get deeply discounted offers. Might be worth considering.

gjl711 wrote in post #19130726
If you have a Costco around, take it to their photo desk. They have a service that will convert just about and video format to archival DVDs. From time to time they have 2 for 1 special deals. I have converted my entire video library as some of the really old beta tapes were fading rather quickly. Their conversion cost is about $20 for a 2 hour video and you get either 2 archival dvds or a thumb drive. I opted for the DVDs.

Perfectly Frank wrote in post #19130822
I had LegacyBox convert VHS tapes to digital. They did a quality job. Many of the tapes were over 10 years old, yet the digital image was excellent.
With a discount it cost about $10 per tape. Repeat customers get deeply discounted offers. Might be worth considering.

JJ & Frank,

I thank you also for your help. I will pass this information on to my friend as well!