petersb Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 There are a bunch of folks here with other interests, besides woodworking, so I thought why not throw this question out there and see who knows what. I have a bunch of Hi8 and vhs home movies that I want to convert to DVDs. What is the best way for me to convert these tapes to DVDs myself? I really only have about half of a clue. Somebody PLEEEEEEZE point me in a direction. Thanx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 Do you have a digital camcorder? You can get video capture cards to capture the video played back by your Hi8 camcorder and VHS player then use the usually bad software that comes with the card to burn a DVD. If you have a Mac or have a friend who will do it, you can capture on the Mac using the Firewire/400 port. My friend has a Hi8 camcorder and his had a mini Firewire/400 port on it so you could directly capture on the Mac. Mac has a lot of good software for mastering the DVD or even just dumping it on a DVD. If you have a digital camcorder, some have video-in connections. You could playback from Hi8/VHS and record to your digital camcorder then get the video burned to DVD at nearly any photo store. If you don't have a digital camcorder, find a friend who recently had a baby... they always have one. If the kid is now 8 months old, the camera is gathering dust. Offer a nice dinner out if they let you borrow it and give them the blank digital card (likely SDHC or SDXC) you buy to do the capture and get them burned. So that's 3 of the 1,000 ways... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChetlovesMer Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 It's pretty easy to do if you buy Pinnacle Movie software for your Computer. Get the version that comes with the connection box. I have it and I convert VHS to digital all the time. Hook your VCR output to the Pinnacle box. Play the VHS tape, record it in Pinnacle. Then you can either burn as many copies of DVD's as you like, or you can edit the program and burn those to DVD. Or just keep the best parts digitally on your computer, or post them to Youtube, facebook, etc... You can pick up older versions of Pinnacle pretty cheap on ebay and other places. Similarly you can buy a Pinnacle box used for cheap as well. The software is pretty intuitive and works great. Goog luck. Chet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersb Posted March 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 Do you have a digital camcorder? You can get video capture cards to capture the video played back by your Hi8 camcorder and VHS player then use the usually bad software that comes with the card to burn a DVD. If you have a Mac or have a friend who will do it, you can capture on the Mac using the Firewire/400 port. My friend has a Hi8 camcorder and his had a mini Firewire/400 port on it so you could directly capture on the Mac. Mac has a lot of good software for mastering the DVD or even just dumping it on a DVD. If you have a digital camcorder, some have video-in connections. You could playback from Hi8/VHS and record to your digital camcorder then get the video burned to DVD at nearly any photo store. If you don't have a digital camcorder, find a friend who recently had a baby... they always have one. If the kid is now 8 months old, the camera is gathering dust. Offer a nice dinner out if they let you borrow it and give them the blank digital card (likely SDHC or SDXC) you buy to do the capture and get them burned. So that's 3 of the 1,000 ways... Thanks Paul-Marcel! I do have a digital camcorder. I just got it about a week ago. It has a flash drive and also takes the SDHC memory. When you say "video capture card", are you meaning the memory card??? I am thinking that it is something else. The only possible input into the camera, that I see, is a mini USB. Maybe it only goes out? Here is the output on the Hi8. Here is the new camera ports. Hey man, thanks for helping me on this. Sorry that I don't really know what is going on. Electronic technology never really sparked much interest in me. It's cool stuff, just to complicated to hold my attention for more than a second. I am really doing good when I can "cut and paste"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersb Posted March 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 It's pretty easy to do if you buy Pinnacle Movie software for your Computer. Get the version that comes with the connection box. I have it and I convert VHS to digital all the time. Hook your VCR output to the Pinnacle box. Play the VHS tape, record it in Pinnacle. Then you can either burn as many copies of DVD's as you like, or you can edit the program and burn those to DVD. Or just keep the best parts digitally on your computer, or post them to Youtube, facebook, etc... You can pick up older versions of Pinnacle pretty cheap on ebay and other places. Similarly you can buy a Pinnacle box used for cheap as well. The software is pretty intuitive and works great. Goog luck. Chet Pinnacle Dazzle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted March 30, 2011 Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 If the Hi8 camcorder a Sony? Should be. Maybe that one predates i-Link. Look for a small 4-wire port (looks like smaller mini-USB port) labeled i-Link. That's a Firewire/400 compatible port. My Toshiba laptop had an IEEE 1394 port; when I used that laptop (and Windows) to capture video, I'd connect an i-Link cable from the camera to that port then run a small capture program before burning a DVD. The Firewire ports on the back of the Mac are also used for video capture in the same way so you can pick the platform you have (or have access to). Which make/model Hi8 camera do you have? Might be easier to answer after finding the manual online. My friend's Hi8 camera (and my Sony HandyCam) both had a pass-thru mode, which was perfect for VHS. Using pass-thru, I'd connect the camera to the computer the usual way but instead of playing the tape, it would pass-thru the video from the input ports effectively digitizing them. That's also why neither of us has gotten rid of those old cameras Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersb Posted March 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 If the Hi8 camcorder a Sony? Should be. Maybe that one predates i-Link. Look for a small 4-wire port (looks like smaller mini-USB port) labeled i-Link. That's a Firewire/400 compatible port. My Toshiba laptop had an IEEE 1394 port; when I used that laptop (and Windows) to capture video, I'd connect an i-Link cable from the camera to that port then run a small capture program before burning a DVD. The Firewire ports on the back of the Mac are also used for video capture in the same way so you can pick the platform you have (or have access to). Which make/model Hi8 camera do you have? Might be easier to answer after finding the manual online. My friend's Hi8 camera (and my Sony HandyCam) both had a pass-thru mode, which was perfect for VHS. Using pass-thru, I'd connect the camera to the computer the usual way but instead of playing the tape, it would pass-thru the video from the input ports effectively digitizing them. That's also why neither of us has gotten rid of those old cameras I ended up buying this http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Systems-82303000101-Dazzle-Recorder/dp/B0039Y2YDK I am transferring to DVD as I type this. On another computer of course. There is no i-link with this camcorder. I have the manual still. It has s-video and so does the dazzle but it isn't transferring through it. I am using the mini-plug with RCA on one end. I am not sure why the s-video isn't working. I just bought the cable today with the dazzle and I don't have anything else with s-video to check if the cable is bad or the signal isn't coming out of the camera s-video port. Thanks again for helping on this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petersb Posted March 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2011 It's pretty easy to do if you buy Pinnacle Movie software for your Computer. Get the version that comes with the connection box. I have it and I convert VHS to digital all the time. Hook your VCR output to the Pinnacle box. Play the VHS tape, record it in Pinnacle. Then you can either burn as many copies of DVD's as you like, or you can edit the program and burn those to DVD. Or just keep the best parts digitally on your computer, or post them to Youtube, facebook, etc... You can pick up older versions of Pinnacle pretty cheap on ebay and other places. Similarly you can buy a Pinnacle box used for cheap as well. The software is pretty intuitive and works great. Goog luck. Chet Thanks Chet for some direction. I bought this today and it is working, so far so good. I'm not sure if this is what you were mentioning but I have it now. Thanks again buddy! http://www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Systems-82303000101-Dazzle-Recorder/dp/B0039Y2YDK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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