Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

[Railtickethome]

I have a 1990s Sony video camcorder and a number of family 8mm tapes I want to convert to digital.  I have read conflicting reports on the net including buying a convertor to buying a new inexpensive (Sony) Hi8 or digital camcorder that will play 8mm tapes. Any solid advice would be appreciated please.

Jim

Message was edited by: Railtickethome

[tiandiren]

Hi! I have a Sony CCD-TR840E video camera recorder and I would like to convert video 8 tapes to digital. The laptop I am using is an Acer AspireF 15 running Windows 10. Please advise what software program/connection cables etc that I need to complete this project.

Many thanks in advance for your assistance and guidance.

Jing

[AmyChristensen08]

I, too, have a high 8 (from the 80's) and digital 8mm tape from 1990s  and a number of family 8mm tapes I want to convert to digital.  I currently don't have a way to play them or transfer them. Can you advise on best high-quality players and converters to buy? I'm looking for top-quality transfers for both the audio and video.

Any solid advice would be appreciated please.

[ReconScout]

I have a sony handicam hi8 from years ago. It works perfectly. 
I remember years ago seeing a all in one device that let you put the tape and a DVD in it, and it automatically converted the tape, and recorded it on DVD.
I have a lot of tapes and can't afford to pay 10-20 apiece to convert them. 
Also, I don't have the HD space, and time to to them all manually with an adapter and software (even though the handicam has a firewire port and so does my computer).

I cannot find a device like this anywhere. Has anyone seen a device like this??

Thanks!
D

[AmyChristensen08]

I would also like to know the same thing!

[darkframe]

Hi @ReconScout,

---

@ReconScout  schrieb:

I remember years ago seeing a all in one device that let you put the tape and a DVD in it, and it automatically converted the tape, and recorded it on DVD.

First off, I cannot delete erroneously posted entries but move them to the trash, which I did 

And yes, years ago there was a device which did what you're looking for. Look for a Sony EV-C500E. I've only found entries in German ebay like this. Maybe you're able to find it in the UK as well. It's no longer produced so that you're pinned down to used but working equipment.

Maybe it would be more cost-effective to think about letting the conversion be done by a local dealer or to invest into additional harddisks and a capture device (maybe Firewire works on your PC?)

Cheers

darkframe

[daveclark966]

Avdshare Video Converter can Convert any Sony camcorder recorded AVCHD format ver. 2.0 compatible: MPEG4-AVC/H.264, XAVC S format: MPEG4-AVC/H264, XAVC S Proxy: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, etc to MP4, WMV, MOV, AVI, FLV, ASF, MKV, H.264, H.265 or any other video format supported by your commonly used device.

[ericgulikers]

I also have a Sony Video 8mm video cassette that I would like to convert to digital: problem being I don't have the original cam corder any longer,  so I guess I would need it to be able to go straight onto a USB stick or digital file?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Eric 

[harrypm]

The final methods to tansfer video8 and hi8 are as follows.

Overview 8mm Diagram

FM RF Archival --> Jig port from camcorder or 2.54mm headder on decks --> Single ADC --> FM RF file compressed in FLAC this preserves the orginal tapes signals in there native from in the analog domain, sampled like PCM audio but in Mhz range not Khz.

hifi-decode  for HiFi FM audio and vhs-decode which does software time base correction and conversion to YUV seprately this is the modern archive standard for 8mm/Betamax/Umatic and VHS all of the colour-under tape family are supported and formats like SMPTE-C are also supported and more.

 

Jig RF Tap

S-Video from a later Hi8 or Digital8 with analog playback support --> YUV 4:2:2 8-bit or 10-bit via Analog to SDI or GV-USB2 unit for example then simply FFV1 and FLAC compress in the MKV container. 

FireWire or DV25 using Digital8 camcorders and decks, this should only be used for Hi8 tapes with RCTC and or PCM audio this is not a fully quality of media transfer method for analog tapes very much so with NTSC 4:1:1 8-bit sampling and will have compression artifact issues when deinterlacing with QTGMC for example (which can be used in StaxRip or Hybrid with ease today) 

For proper archival capture a combination of FM RF and either DV25 and S-Video or both is recommended. 

Sony 8mm tapes if stored right will have a very good signal to noise ratio, and if you have already used a poor qulality method and there is no tape damage its worth giving them a final archival run today. 

Overview diagram for VCRs