topic Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital in Camcorders

Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Railtickethome — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:14:02 GMT

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

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Blencogo — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:26:40 GMT

Hi Jim and welcome.

Which model camcorder do you have and what outputs are available?

What Operating System is your PC running and does it have a firewire input?

There are several ways of doing this but the best way will depend on the above information.

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Railtickethome — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:40:10 GMT

Many thanks very much for prompt response and will provide technical info from home later.

Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Railtickethome — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:36:37 GMT

To answer the questions. I have a working Sony Video Camera Recorder CCD-FX500E PAL 8 Machine purchased 1992\93\94. It still plays the Video 8 PAL 8 tapes through the television (from and to yellow,white and red connectors on both) although all the tapes come through as black and white and some are 'crackly' - this may be due to tape deterioration which is why I want to move them over to digital. My home PC is fairly new with an AMD Athlon II x4 640 Q processor running Windows 7 - 4 USB ports and a Fast Wireless LAN2 IEEE 802.11 and multi format DVD\CD burner.

Thanks in anticipation and for your help Jim

Message was edited by: Railtickethome

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Blencogo — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:20:35 GMT

Hi Jim.

Your camcorder is pre-digital and your PC only appears to have USB ports. Best to try the simplest methods until you find if the tapes are still usable.

Suggestion 1.

Most Hard Disc/DVD video recorders will accept the analogue inputs from your camcorder and convert these to a digital signal which then gets recorded to the hard disc or a DVD. Almost all TV Hard Disc (and/or DVD) Recorders will have your analogue inputs (Yellow/White/Red) on the back or inside the front flap. You need to select the analogue input, start the camera and press record on the recorder. This is the simplest method of transferring the contents of the Video 8 Tapes to a digital format and then to DVD. However, if you wish to edit the video, you may need to look at Suggestion 2 although some simple editing features are usually incorporated in the TV Recorder.

Suggestion 2.

Invest in a USB Video Capture Device and editing software. You can buy these for as little as £5 and as much as £150. Go to Amazon and search for "USB Video Capture Device" and you will find plenty. Choose one with editing software that is Windows 7 compatible. Something like this one should suit your purposes : -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Camcorders-Recorder-Satellite-playstation3-software/dp/B003D8VQIG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1357333786&sr=8-3

You will see that the device connects to the same Y/R/W cable you use to connect to a TV and to your PC using a USB port.

Good Luck - come back if you have any questions.

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Railtickethome — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:51:08 GMT

Many thanks have gone for option 2 plus a Sony cleanup tape for my old VR which is worth the £30 quid total either way. That then gives me Option 1 as a contingency. Will let you know how it goes.

Appreciate the advice and help so quickly. Thank you.

Jim

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

elfabulosoyo — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:26:37 GMT

Hi There!

Just like Jim I have questions about converting my old 8mm tapes to digital. I used to work with a DCRTRV361 on my laptop back in 2004. Recently I changed my Laptop for a new one that doesn't have a CD unit to reinstall the Picture Package software. I had read that Picture Packages is no more and been replaced by Play Memories. I want to know if I can still use PMH to convert the tapes.

The new Laptop runs over Windows 7 and I had read that it may or may not work with my old cam firmware is there any options for me?

Thanks

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Flutterfly — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 13:50:16 GMT

Are you selling ur cam recorder. I have some tapes 8 MM. video cassette high grade HG 90 but not able to play them as my recorder broke and I threw it away many moons ago. Would love to transform them to digital or just to see the tapes again. The tapes of my children growing up 20 yrs ago. Thanks Claude

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

elfabulosoyo — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 01:45:00 GMT

Hi,

sorry, it's not mine but my father in law's. He also is trying to convert his old tapes to digital video but he is not willing to sell the cam yet

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

nadiaswan — Tue, 03 May 2016 10:30:53 GMT

hello, apologies in advance I know little about technology. I too would like to convert my Sony 8mm tapes to dvd and be able to edit them. I have tried to find out how for weeks. I have a Sony 48x digital zoom Steady Shot Handy Cam video 8. ( I'm assuming that is the entire model description.)

I have an LG pc which I think runs Windows 7 and seems to have windows movie maker and windows dvd maker.

I also have a laptop Mac book Air but it does n't play dvds.

Can anyone please help me in very simple terms? <Content removed by moderator due to personal details>.

Many thanks. Nadia.

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

tiandiren — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 22:50:47 GMT

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

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

AmyChristensen08 — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 21:14:07 GMT

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.

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

ReconScout — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 13:24:30 GMT

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

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

AmyChristensen08 — Thu, 12 Jul 2018 16:52:41 GMT

I would also like to know the same thing!

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

darkframe — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 23:36:33 GMT

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

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

daveclark966 — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 13:19:48 GMT

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.

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

ericgulikers — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 18:57:41 GMT

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

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

harrypm — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 20:48:44 GMT

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

Re: Converting old Sony 8mm cassettes to digital

Waiting4theSunnyDays247 — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:49:41 GMT

To input Firewire you can install Linux on suitable desktops and get a PCI Firewire card

many old PC's and Macs had front or rear Firewire Ports, any Windows OS after Windows 8

will not see Firewire I can't say about Macs you would have to look that one up

but Firewire gear works on Linux (Debian based Distros maybe others)

Try MX-Linux, Mint, Ubuntu etc.

Apparently an old capture-only app called "Win-DV" (The last version was 1.2.3.0 is dated May 29, 2003.)

its said to install and work on Windows 10 maybe it will also work for Windows 11.

Convert a Firewire video stream input on a modern operating system in VLC

to display it in OBS Studio.

VLC and OBS Studio have Linux and Windows versions.

Some of the Old VCR type DVD Recorders had a Firewire input port (Normally on the front)

and you could burn the footage to DVD-Ram discs or DVD-R,DVD-WR, DVD+R,DVD+WR

and I think 1 model I used to own had a 160GB HDD onboard and you could copy the Camcorder

to HDD then back it up on DVD's I think opening DVD-RAM disks and editing them on PC

took a bit of effort but that was a long time ago and I can't remember much about it.

I still have the ADS PYRO external capture box, it cost a fortune when new but somebody let me

have one cheap for a charity project and it was a nightmare with the PC's I tried it on

lots of crashes but fascinating when it did work, it had a front Firewire in, Front Svideo and RCA,

Rear Component in and a Rear Firewire out to connect to PC.

My one was curved on the top in all black not the same as the grey and black one,

my one has all the inputs seen on this other all black model in the photos.