Best capture card to transfer Digital 8, Hi-8 & VHS videos

[jcikal]

What is the best capture card out there for transferring D8, Hi-8 & VHS Videos? If you can also recommend a great Video editing program ($ is no problem) I'd greatly appreciate it. I've decided to finally transfer my old videos to Blu-Ray before they become dinosaurs.

[smrpix]

For D8 you need a firewire card, Hi8 can usually be played back and captured via firewire with most D8 cameras (though some will argue that's not the "best" way.) Hauppage capture cards are well regarded around here for analogue capture, many will recommend you use a TBC as well. Blackmagic Design makes excellent capture cards if money is really no object.

Great video editing programs: Avid, Premiere, Vegas.

I would reconsider your ultimate target, Blu Ray is a pretty good candidate for extinction itself in the not-too-distant future.

[jcikal]

I would reconsider your ultimate target, Blu Ray is a pretty good candidate for extinction itself in the not-too-distant future.

You're right. I guess once I have the Video on my HD, I'll just use an external HD (or two) to keep the videos 'til a more "stable" system comes along.

I've heard good things with the Canopus ADVC 110 card as well, but that was back in 2007! Is the Hauppage card better?

[Brad]

Do you have a Digital8 camera already?

If not, buy one that can playback Hi8 to DV and convert analog S-Video input to DV.
If so, check whether yours is a model that converts.

Then from there you can decide whether the results are good enough or if you want to add a TBC, capture card, and so on for the analog sources.

[sanlyn]

I would reconsider your ultimate target, Blu Ray is a pretty good candidate for extinction itself in the not-too-distant future.

Right. DVD, movies, TV, computers, projectors, telephones, and BluRay have completely disappeared from the marketplace. Just look around smrpix's house, and you'll see none of that ancient stuff over there. He doesn't even use a PC any more.

If you're intent on upsampling analog "8" to HD, be prepared for the following: it will look like crap, unless you become a tireless and highly skilled video craftsmen to make it look better than it looks now. That precludes the use of editing in lossy formats the way most users follow the easy-destruction methods used by most untrained newbies with NLE's (including Avid, Adobe, and Vegas). I'll leave it at that, because most people who are new to video seldom take the steps that pros and advanced hobbyists would take to archive their favorite vids. Casual users can take it from here.

[smrpix]

Blu Ray doesn't look very future-proof to me. Others disagree. Time will tell.

[lordsmurf]

Blu Ray doesn't look very future-proof to me. Others disagree. Time will tell.

The only thing good about the BD-R specs is that you can have 720x480 video @ 15MB/s, which is sub/low-end broadcast specs, and much better than the ~9Mb max of DVD.

I've redone our family videos to this spec. I was never 100% satisfied with the DVD spec, because of low bitrates. I'd almost capture or encoded many to this spec, so all I had to do was author.

[sanlyn]

I think so. I'd go with standard-def BD or AVCHD to get the better bitrate. If you simply have to have HD, I'd say 1280x720 at most but do it very carefully. I did 720 and 480 BD-R with a relative's SD bar mitzvah video (and what a piece of so-called "pro" crap that was!), mainly just to get the hang of working with those formats. I also made a DVD version for relatives who don't have (and never will have, AFAIK) BD players. Owners liked the high-bitrate Standard Def BD-R best (I used 12 MB/s). I guess it depends on what you'll be playing them with.