8 mm camcorders were a very popular video format in the ’80s and ’90s after VHS camcorders and before that Super 8mm film.
Hi8 and Digital8 were the 8 mm tape formats of the digital future. For people who have 8 mm tapes with footage they want to keep, transferring the tapes to DVD or digital files is the best option.
Mailing your 8 mm tapes out to be converted to DVD can be very expensive. We offer the service at Blue Cloud Video for as little as $10/tape. You can eliminate the time and hassle by sending it to us or you can do it yourself.
Follow these steps to convert 8 mm tapes to DVD on your own.
Video8 and Hi8 are analog video formats, so transferring either to a computer requires converting it from analog to digital. YOu can do this with an analog to digital video converter.
One that is easy to use and very high quality is the Canopus 77010138100 ADVC-55 A/d Converter External
You will need a firewire port in your computer to use this device.
Another option involves the use of a pass-through adapter to USB that sometimes comes with software packages. This option outputs a digitized video signal in the industry-standard MPEG format.
Ion Video 2 PC Digital Video Converter
Be careful – this option will NOT give you the highest quality, but it is affordable.
Many consumer-level MiniDV and Digital8 camcorders have a firewire input/output built right into the camcorder – allowing you to record your video without the use of a digital converter.
The DV signal can be fed into a computer equipped with a firewire port.
Another method is to use a Digital8 camcorder (with Video8/Hi8 playback) to transfer to a computer equipped with a firewire port. This is probably a better method due to the advantage of the computer having full control over the camcorder, which is impossible with analogue models.
Once on a computer, footage can be edited, processed, and transferred to DVD, uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo, or sent back back to tape (it can be ’sent back’ if you have the canopus unit or have a firewire cable connected directly to your camera).
This tutorial will show you detailed steps on how to convert 8mm to DVD all by yourself!
Part 1 Transfer 8mm tapes to computer by using one of the methods above
Step 1. Connect your 8 mm tape player, which can be your 8 mm tape camcorder, to your TV tuner card. The tuner card will work as a video-capturing device when connected to certain devices, such as the 8 mm tape player. Use standard A/V cables or an S-Video cable, whichever your tape player supports, to connect the player to the card. The S-Video cable will provide you with a higher resolution.
Step 2. Run the video-capturing software that came with your TV tuner card. This software will save footage from your 8 mm tapes onto your hard drive. You can also use editing software, such as Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9,
or Adobe Premiere, to capture the footage. Windows has windows movie maker that will capture your footage as well.
Step 3. Insert the 8 mm tape into the 8 mm tape player, and find the spot in the tape where you want to begin the capturing process.
Step 4. Select either “Options” or “Settings” in the video-capturing software and make sure that the output format, which could also be labeled “capture format,” is AVI. This will be the uncompressed version of your footage. You will then use a DVD burning program to convert those files to DVD’s.
Step 5. Select “Capture” on the video-capturing software and push “Play” on the 8 mm camcorder. When it is finished, the footage from the 8 mm tapes will be on the computer’s hard drive.
Part 2 Transfer 8mm tapes to DVD
Step 1. Install and Launch your DVD software
Step 2. Add 8mm video files
Click on Insert Media or select “Load Video” option under the”File” drop-down menu to add 8mm videos. Drag and drop your videos to the menu to organize the DVD.
Step 3. Edit videos
You can set in and out points to get rid of the blue screens at the beginning and end.
Step 4. Burn 8mm video files to DVD
Click on Make DVD button to burn 8mm video files to DVD.
That is it! Good Luck!
If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call and we can try to help. 734-462-3592 BlueCloudVideo.com
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