Topic: Need Help With Hi-8 Tapes

[Charlie Miller]

I have about 50 Hi-8 masters that need to be transferred. What is the best way for me to do this? Rob Eaton offered to transfer the tapes but his deck's firewire output crapped out. I need to get these transferred and also capture the audio in the highest quality possible. I figured I could take an analog audio out and go from there.

Any input is appreciated

[beatkilla]

Do you have the Hi 8 deck?

I have the rest of the chain but no Hi 8 deck.

PM me with details .

[beatkilla]

You don't want to go analog out you need to digitize these thru something like a Canopus standalone or a Sony mini dv deck or cam that has ADC pass thru.All of these methods need FireWire and you'll need WinDv or similar capture program on your computer....look out for dropped frames .

[Charlie Miller]

Do you have the Hi 8 deck?

I have the rest of the chain but no Hi 8 deck.

PM me with details .

I have nothing but the tapes. The analog out part was just about the audio. If the audio can be captured digitally, that would be great. But yeah, the video part is important too.

[beatkilla]

http://videotransferboston.com/8mm-hi8-and-digital8/



Information about the three 8mm formats....it's possible these may be digital 8

[Charlie Miller]

http://videotransferboston.com/8mm-hi8-and-digital8/



Information about the three 8mm formats....it's possible these may be digital 8

Thanks but that would cost over $1,000, unless I misread it.

[ilduclo]

Bunch of decent camcorders on eBay for around 50$ 

[Charlie Miller]

Bunch of decent camcorders on eBay for around 50$ 

Yeah I saw that. Thing is I know nothing about video and don't know what I need.

[bombdiggity]

Video 8/Hi-8/Digital 8 are very sensitive on playback, especially as they age.  The sound quality and picture quality can vary dramatically depending on the player used to play them back.  The tracking is also very delicate so some tapes don't play well in some (or even most) machines. 

To do it right is time consuming and often trial and error even with good machines.  The stand alone Sony players are the best but there's a lot of variation among them.  The more expensive ones definitely give better results but due to the iterations in development of the original technology not all tapes play best on any one generation of machine IME. 

I'm not sure camcorder playback is too good an idea unless its the same one they were recorded on. 

Good luck.  If they're really of value and worth doing right it's a big project. 

[rigpimp]

Charlie, give me a call.  I have a buddy that that has a Canopus and a Sony HI8

Keith

[Charlie Miller]

Video 8/Hi-8/Digital 8 are very sensitive on playback, especially as they age.  The sound quality and picture quality can vary dramatically depending on the player used to play them back.  The tracking is also very delicate so some tapes don't play well in some (or even most) machines. 

To do it right is time consuming and often trial and error even with good machines.  The stand alone Sony players are the best but there's a lot of variation among them.  The more expensive ones definitely give better results but due to the iterations in development of the original technology not all tapes play best on any one generation of machine IME. 

I'm not sure camcorder playback is too good an idea unless its the same one they were recorded on. 

Good luck.  If they're really of value and worth doing right it's a big project. 

Good to know. Thanks

[guitard]

Video 8/Hi-8/Digital 8 are very sensitive on playback, especially as they age.  The sound quality and picture quality can vary dramatically depending on the player used to play them back.  The tracking is also very delicate so some tapes don't play well in some (or even most) machines. 

To do it right is time consuming and often trial and error even with good machines.  The stand alone Sony players are the best but there's a lot of variation among them.  The more expensive ones definitely give better results but due to the iterations in development of the original technology not all tapes play best on any one generation of machine IME. 

I'm not sure camcorder playback is too good an idea unless its the same one they were recorded on. 

Good luck.  If they're really of value and worth doing right it's a big project.

I am in the process of transferring and authoring to DVD thousands of tapes for a guy who started filming shows back in the 1980s (and is still regularly filming shows now but switched away from 8mm when mini-DV became available and shoots in HD now).  I have captured around 500 shows from 8mm tapes (all three varieties) so far using two cameras (Sony DCR-TRV350 Digital8 & Sony DCR-TRV730 Digital8).  I go straight from the camera via firewire to a firewire card in my work station capturing with Sony Vegas Video Pro 13.  I can't remember the last time I had a dropped frame - it's extremely rare.  The three videocams he shot with on 8mm were Ricoh R-600 (same specs as Sony CCD-V5), Sony TR-101 Hi8, and Sony TR-5.

One thing I always do is rewind/fast forward the tapes from end to end before I capture them since 99% of the time they have sat untouched since the time they were recorded.  I do that with a Kinyo 2-Way 8mm Tape Rewinder to save wear and tear on my video cams.

[yug du nord]

^holy nuts.  nice effort man!   

[Charlie Miller]

Video 8/Hi-8/Digital 8 are very sensitive on playback, especially as they age.  The sound quality and picture quality can vary dramatically depending on the player used to play them back.  The tracking is also very delicate so some tapes don't play well in some (or even most) machines. 

To do it right is time consuming and often trial and error even with good machines.  The stand alone Sony players are the best but there's a lot of variation among them.  The more expensive ones definitely give better results but due to the iterations in development of the original technology not all tapes play best on any one generation of machine IME. 

I'm not sure camcorder playback is too good an idea unless its the same one they were recorded on. 

Good luck.  If they're really of value and worth doing right it's a big project.

I am in the process of transferring and authoring to DVD thousands of tapes for a guy who started filming shows back in the 1980s (and is still regularly filming shows now but switched away from 8mm when mini-DV became available and shoots in HD now).  I have captured around 500 shows from 8mm tapes (all three varieties) so far using two cameras (Sony DCR-TRV350 Digital8 & Sony DCR-TRV730 Digital8).  I go straight from the camera via firewire to a firewire card in my work station capturing with Sony Vegas Video Pro 13.  I can't remember the last time I had a dropped frame - it's extremely rare.  The three videocams he shot with on 8mm were Ricoh R-600 (same specs as Sony CCD-V5), Sony TR-101 Hi8, and Sony TR-5.

One thing I always do is rewind/fast forward the tapes from end to end before I capture them since 99% of the time they have sat untouched since the time they were recorded.  I do that with a Kinyo 2-Way 8mm Tape Rewinder to save wear and tear on my video cams.

right on!!

[bombdiggity]

I am in the process of transferring and authoring to DVD thousands of tapes for a guy who started filming shows back in the 1980s (and is still regularly filming shows now but switched away from 8mm when mini-DV became available and shoots in HD now).  I have captured around 500 shows from 8mm tapes (all three varieties) so far using two cameras (Sony DCR-TRV350 Digital8 & Sony DCR-TRV730 Digital8).  I go straight from the camera via firewire to a firewire card in my work station capturing with Sony Vegas Video Pro 13.  I can't remember the last time I had a dropped frame - it's extremely rare.  The three videocams he shot with on 8mm were Ricoh R-600 (same specs as Sony CCD-V5), Sony TR-101 Hi8, and Sony TR-5.

One thing I always do is rewind/fast forward the tapes from end to end before I capture them since 99% of the time they have sat untouched since the time they were recorded.  I do that with a Kinyo 2-Way 8mm Tape Rewinder to save wear and tear on my video cams.

Cool.  That's nice it's working well. 

I've got thousands more and not really the patience/time/discipline if you're game after those are done.