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Capturing 8mm to PC to DVD
A friend has some old 8mm video from a Sony camcorder with RCA jacks. He wants to capture to PC, and then burn to DVD. He is asking me which video capture card and software he should buy for the job. I believe he is probably looking at a budget project.
Does anyone know what video capture card and software he should look for? Or would it be cheaper just to have it done? And are there good resources for this?
Thank you.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org -
11 Replies
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What are the memories on the 8mm movies worth? If he is not willing to invest in descent equipment to capture them then perhaps having them done for him is the best way.
The cheapest way would be to find an old Digital-8 camera on eBay. These can play back 8mm tapes and capture them via firewire.
I use a Canopus ADVC-300 to capture analog tapes but the ADVC-110 does a nice job as well. These are both firewire devices that capture as DV AVI files. Cheaper solution do a cheaper job which might not be acceptable (or worth the trouble when they don’t work).
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
I use a Canopus ADVC-300 to capture analog tapes but the ADVC-110 does a nice job as well.
These are both firewire devices that capture as DV AVI files. Cheaper solution do a cheaper job
which might not be acceptable (or worth the trouble when they don’t work).John if I use the ADVC-300 or the ADVC-110. When I capture analog with these devices, will it detect scenes as I capture or will I have to break the tape up into scenes by hand?
Thanks
Don -
Thanks. I recommended the Digital-8 thing to him. We’ll see how it goes.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org -
John if I use the ADVC-300 or the ADVC-110. When I capture analog with these devices, will it detect scenes as I capture or will I have to break the tape up into scenes by hand?
Great question! Scene detection is a function of the capture software and not the device.
One thing to understand though, is that your analog footage doesn’t have DV timecode so these devices generate their own continuous timecode. The operative word in that sentence is “continuous“. So if you use Sony Vegas so capture and it’s looking for timecode breaks, it won’t find any and you will have one long scene.
If you other capture software which looks for changes in the scenes to determine breaks, then you will get breaks. It all depends on your capture software but the important thing to know is that the timecode will be generated continuously by these devices.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
John,Norman thanks appreciate the quick response. Correct me if I am wrong, but I need to get a program that will detect senses rather than time code as Vegas does.
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Scenalyzer will do optical detection (what you need), is only $34 U.S. and comes highly recommended by lots of Vega users.
The only drawback is that it’s standard definition only. -
Mike I will sure look into this, thank you very much.
Don
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Just to add to this – I use an old Hi-8 Sony camera that I’ve put into service for filming underwater at the moment. I’ve got a low-cost BlackMagic Intensity Pro capture card that has the RCA audio and composite connectors on as well as an S-Video input that I use.
Vegas doesn’t (I believe) supporting capturing directly using this so I use a free application called Virtual Dub just to grab either uncompressed or Lagarith encoded AVIs which I then import into Vegas and edit as required.
I haven’t compared this method with the Canopus options, but the quality is fine for my purposes!
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I have experience of analogue capture using budget equipment.
Whilst it was fairly straightforward as far as the software is concerned, there was a huge snyc problem with the audio either racing ahead or lagging behind (can’t recall which) to the tune of about 5s per minute. After some research the problem was down to the differing clock rates that the PCI capture card and the onboard audio in socket on the mobo operated at. Apparently this is less of an issue if all your capture devices run from the same timer controller.
I now own a Canopus ADVC110 which is perfect for the job you need doing.
My suggestion is to get someone with the kit to do it for him or he may find its £ or $ wasted in useless PCI cards & software, not to mention the frustration and time.
Mike.
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Thanks, all.
He said he decided on the Canopus ADVC110. Canopus is good stuff, so let’s hope that works for him.
Norman Willis
http://www.nazareneisrael.org
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