Playing Hi-8 Video Tapes -- What options are available without a camera?

[jazcar]

I have about 12 years worth of 8mm video tapes recorded using two generations of Sony Handycams.

A few years ago there were 8mm tape decks available to play tapes without having to use the camera. Lately, I searched for a deck, and found that none are available. Before my second camera crashes, I want to transfer video to another media.

I'd like to store video on DVD's (I think). Given the age of my current Sony, (at least 5 yrs old), I risk burning it out before the transfers are completed. I'd hate to have to buy another dinosaur 8mm camera just to play back the rest of the tapes as I move on to all digital video for camera #3.

I have around 20 tapes to go through. Given the low percentage of good, quality moments captured on the tapes, I need to do a lot of editing to reduce the content to a reasonable amount.

What are my options at this point?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[jay]

No Hi-8 here, but I'm in the same kayak with some regular 8 tape.

I transferred 4 hours of 8mm projector film a while back to DV stream, and back out to mini-DV tape. In the process, a small wire that kept the film racheting through the 40+ year old projector broke. I jumped on eBay and bought the same model, but a couple of years newer, for $78 shipped. I finally had that several thousand feet of film transferred three weeks after I started.

[FASTER345]

Yeah I used to have a Sony 8mm player/recorder, it was our home VCR for many years. It was great! It had a 2x feature so you could watch a show in half the time. Pretty good for late 80's technology. It stopped working long ago, but I recently bought a Digital8 video cam, as DVD cams were still too expensive. So I decided to transfer the old 8mm to DVD-Rs. I bought a cheapo DVD burner from Walmart and got about halfway done, then the burner started acting up and I returned it. Project is as yet unfinished. You could look into getting an old 8mm camera or player on ebay...or maybe renting one? Good luck.

[pjb3]

Any of the new Sony Digital 8 camcorders should still play the older HI-8 tapes and these sell for $250 to $350 depending on model and sales. These camcorders are a little larger than most of the current mini DV camcorders but probably smaller than your current HI-8 camcorder. The advantage is it will play your older tapes and will capture them for transfer to a PC for editing and burning to DVD and any new recordings are digital. The disadvantage is slightly larger size and a format that is only supported by Sony. Another option is to buy a mini DV camcorder that supports pass through. What this means is that you can connect it to your old HI-8 or VHS and either record to DV tapes or pass through to your computer and save the digital file there. If you store the video on your hard drive it takes 13 GB of space for each hour of video but you can trim and edit the files as you like. As far as editing, you have to have a computer with enough power, disk space, and a DVD burner. Another option is buy a DVD recorder that is similar to a DVD player but also allows recording, similar to a VCR. Most of these have a firewire input that will allow it to record directly from a camcorder but with limited editing.
The newest camcorders record directly on DVD. The disadvantage with these are they save files as MPEG2 which is harder to edit and contains less data and is therefor of lower quality than a mini DV, but can be viewed instantly.
I'm in the same position as you, a lot of HI-8 tapes I would like to convert to DVD and I'm not sure which approach to take. I know I have to edit the tapes because the general rule is you get 1 minute of useable footage for every 10 to 20 minutes of video. You really do need to be able to edit or you will end up with something nobody will want ot watch.
I also have a lot of 35mm photos that I would like to include as a slide show and this may be something you would want to do as well.
I am no expert and expect this to be more difficult than it sounds. There are plenty of web site devoted to video where you can get much better answers.

[mgorbsk]

I'd get a cheap used one (camcorder.) I bet there are tons of them as people are still looking into getting into Mini DV. I just looked on ebay and their are many. One had 50 min left and was at $92, another had a couple hours left and was at $15.50.

Next, get an Analog capture card. Depending on the camera, might be able use the S-Video. Get some software like Pinnacle Studio, a cheap DVD Burner, and all you have to do in plug the camera in to the capture card, open up the software, pull the video off the camera, Edit if you want, render it to compress it to digital format, then burn it to a DVD. It's actually very simple.

Pinnacle makes nice bundles. A while ago I bought Pinnacle Studio 8 w/ FireWire capture card for $99 and I love it. I have made several DVDs using this set-up with my Mini DV camcorder. The finished product is very impressive and the Family loves them.

If you take it somewhere that does this for you, you will pay a fortune.

There are even maybe some other options, but this should be the cheapest. I think some of the DVD recorders have analog in.

[jazcar]

Thanks for all of your replies.

Looks like the cheap camcorder route is the best option for the player.
Last weekend I was in a Circuit City that was selling a Sony Digital 8mm camcorder that also played Hi8. Maybe the salesperson didn't know his stuff, but contrary to pjb3, he explained that the later versions of Digital 8 camecorders will record Digital 8, but will not necessarily play Hi8 ("that's why they came out with this model"). If the salesperson is correct, now looks like the time to invest. I didn't take down the model number since I was in a hurry, but this camera was under $300 out-of-box special. Not sure what the in-box price would be.

Thanks also for the rough estimates of GB/hr. That will help on the computer/DVD end of the project.

Again, thanks for the guidance.

[mgorbsk]

Originally posted by jazcar
Thanks for all of your replies.

Looks like the cheap camcorder route is the best option for the player.
Last weekend I was in a Circuit City that was selling a Sony Digital 8mm camcorder that also played Hi8. Maybe the salesperson didn't know his stuff, but contrary to pjb3, he explained that the later versions of Digital 8 camecorders will record Digital 8, but will not necessarily play Hi8 ("that's why they came out with this model"). If the salesperson is correct, now looks like the time to invest. I didn't take down the model number since I was in a hurry, but this camera was under $300 out-of-box special. Not sure what the in-box price would be.

Thanks also for the rough estimates of GB/hr. That will help on the computer/DVD end of the project.

Again, thanks for the guidance.

If you're looking at spending like $300, don't get that camera man. Get a set-top DVD recorder, some under $200 now, and get a cheap used camcorder for $100 if you're concerned about burnin yours up and just use it for the playback. I checked, and most of these recorder will have all the inputs you need to hook any camcorder up to it.

[jazcar]

Good option mgorbsk

1. Buy set-top DVD (assume good editing features on set-tops)
2. Transfer tapes with current handycam (hope it lasts)
3. Buy a better digital camera in future (when Hi8 dies)
4. If not done transfering, buy the cheap handycams that still play Hi8 (hope they are still available if needed)

Thanks

[pjb3]

Originally posted by jazcar
. Maybe the salesperson didn't know his stuff, but contrary to pjb3, he explained that the later versions of Digital 8 camecorders will record Digital 8, but will not necessarily play Hi8 ("that's why they came out with this model").

Sony just released their new models the DCR-TRV280 ($299) and the DCR-TRV480 ($349). According to Sony's web site they list the DCR-TRV480 camcorders as backward compatible with 8mm and HI8. You might also find some of last years TRV260 or TRV460 models at a discount and if I remember correctly both of those models would play 8mm and HI8. Also, if I remember, the discontinued TRV460 had features such as Time Based Correction which would actually improve the playback of existing tapes.
I'm not really pushing this solution but I put it out there because I have seen TRV460 Digital 8 camcorders for $250 but these were probably model year close-out prices.

I should also mention that HP (HP DVD Movie Writer dc5000), Sony and others also make external DVD writers that include analog to digital conversion and capture and sell for around $200.

If you look at set-top DVD recorders make sure they have an analog (S-video) input, most do. If they just have a FireWire input then you would still need some way to convert analog to digital.

I think one of the questions you have to ask yourself is if you still use your camcorder very often. If the kids are grown and you don't really use it anymore, look at conversion and capture cards for a PC (around $150 to $250). If you are still taking video look at camcorders. A miniDV with pass through will convert your old videos and you will have a new camcorder that will take better video for future use. Any digital format will have time codes embedded in the video which will make editing easier.