However, as time flowed on, their charm waned, fading from the limelight. Yet, remnants remain—stacks of these antiquated cartridges occupy valuable space, competing with modern necessities. I’ve created a full list of all Sony camcorders that can play video tapes originally recorded in 8mm and Hi8 format, as well as the camcorders that cannot. 8mm camcorders are no longer manufactured, nor are 8mm tape deck VCRs so you need to look for used marketplaces like eBay for used equipment that is at least a decade old. With an internal video capture card, you would have to open up your computer casing and install the card. Usually this software comes with your video capture device as explained below.
How To Convert Hi8 Tapes To Digital
Unless you have the equipment just sitting in your basement, it makes better sense to let the Hi8 to digital service professionals handle the job. The best way to convert 8mm tapes to DVD is to use an online service like ours.
Read more about video 8 to digital here.
While you can try to store these tapes as carefully as possible to make them last longer, the 8mm magnetic tape will eventually degrade so much that your videos will become unwatchable. Legacybox has perfected the art of digitizing aging, old analog media to digital. Every item you send is barcoded and tracked throughout the entire digitizing process. Log in to track your order at any time, plus receive up to 12 emailed updates. We send you a box to fill with your home movies, photos, and film. Send your Legacybox, filled with old home movies and pictures.
Connect the audio/video cables from your Camcorder and plug into AV inputs on either the front or back of a DVD recorder. Your media is cared for, handled, and converted by professionals. You don’t need to waste time solving unknown problems with old equipment. It can be more expensive than other methods, particularly if you need to purchase a DVD recorder. With the completion of footage, stop the camcorder and the DVD recorder. Press play on the camcorder, and then press record on the DVD recorder.
Click here for a full list of Digital8 camcorders with Hi8 playback capability. Begin importing the video with the video capture software. The computer must have compatible video capture software installed, such as iMovie®.
They deteriorate over time and fall victim to fungus attack. So, the only way to save them is to transfer the content of these tapes to a digital format as soon as possible. Most smart TVs have a USB input so you can simply plug the flash drive into your TV to watch your digitized home movies. MP4 files are compact, universal to both PCs and Macs, easy to upload, share, and edit. Upon request, we can output your files to AVI, MOV, MPEG-2 or any other file format you prefer. However, an external hard drive would be the best choice if you have a large amount of media.
The only downside to capturing digital video is that it uses more space as there’s more information to get captured. Each 1 hour tape can use about 11 GB of storage on your hard drive. But you can use editing or conversion software to reduce this storage space used after the video has capture. There are two types of analog video capture devices – internal and external.
What to Do If You No Longer Have an 8mm or Hi8 Camcorder
As perfect as 8mm tapes were for the portability of smaller camcorders and more accessible home video-making in the 1980s, these old video tapes were not designed to last forever. If your 8mm or Hi8 camcorder has the standard audio/video input jacks, you can use standard A/V cables for the connection. If not, you may need a mini A/V output jack or S-Video output connector depending on your camcorder make. You can easily get them to work with your computer with the supplied driver.
Hi-8 Camcorder/Tape Player
Also, Mini DV is among the last released videotapes before the start of digital video recordings stored on the external and internal memory. So if you were thinking of converting tapes to digital, don’t worry because there are plenty of solutions available. Searching for the best video transfer service near you can be difficult.