8mm to DVD- Please help Newbee

[bxkid71]

I have done some research but I need more input. I am ready to buy new computer, (I dont think my 500mhz 10 gig is worth the upgrade) in order to transfer my 8mm to DVD. How much harddrive, speed, and RAM do I need?
Since my 8mm camcorder is broken, which way should I go?
1) Buy an 8mm camcorder and get a converter?
2) Buy a digital 8 camcorder that hooks up to firewire or USB? Would I still need a converter?
If I do go with some kind of converter/adapter, what kind should I get? Should I get one with USB1.1 hookup or one that goes to USB 2? Dazzle claims that their Video creator 150 with USB 2.0 is not only faster but the quality is better than the Video creator 80 that goes to USB 1.1. Is this true or is speed the only difference?
Or is the firewire the way to go? THANKS!

[Tommyknocker]

In my opinion, get the D8. Most D8 cameras can playback 8mm tapes, but check to be sure the one you get can. Also, forget about the converter for now. Your new computer should have a firewire port, and you will need to get a 4-pin to 6-pin fire wire cable to hook your camera to your computer.

So you will not need a converter unless your new camera does not have the pass through function. Only the low end D8 camera do not have this, so your research will come in handy here as well. If your camera does have pass through, you can also capture video from your VCR and TV/Cable/Satellite as well.

[john2028]

Make sure that if you are going to capture video that you get USB 2.0. It is much faster than 1.1 and will allow you to capture at a higher bitrate and thus higher quality. If you ended up with a motherboard that does not have USB 2.0, then you can buy a PCI adapter for about fifteen dollars or less with two ports (startech brand sells the cheapest I have found.)

[arealgijoe]

I have converted several 8mm(std format) and digital 8 to dvd. I used my Sony digital 8 camcorder and a panasonic HS-2 DVD recorder. Just connect and dub direct to DVD. Simple fast and no muss, no fuss.

=JD= KISS, Keep it Simple Stupid

[FulciLives]

In my opinion, get the D8. Most D8 cameras can playback 8mm tapes, but check to be sure the one you get can. Also, forget about the converter for now. Your new computer should have a firewire port, and you will need to get a 4-pin to 6-pin fire wire cable to hook your camera to your computer.

So you will not need a converter unless your new camera does not have the pass through function. Only the low end D8 camera do not have this, so your research will come in handy here as well. If your camera does have pass through, you can also capture video from your VCR and TV/Cable/Satellite as well.

I second this information. A good quality Digital8 camcorder will give you just as nice quality as the DV camcorders but will be able to play back your 8mm tapes and convert them to digital video so you can transfer it to your computer via the FIREWIRE port (also called IEEE 1394 or as SONY calls it i.link).

Again make sure you get a model that will play back a standard 8mm tape but output it as digital. I think mostly all the Digital8 camcorders do this. Some also have Pass-Thru which means you can input any video source (such as a VHS VCR) into the Digital8 camcorder and it will convert it to digital video and pass it along to the computer via the FIREWIRE port. This could come in handy as a why to digitalize analog video such as VHS, cable/sateilite, etc.

This method will provide you with the best quality.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[jae_d]

well for starters i think most people would agree you will need anything over 80g hard drive, 180 would be good. then the bigger processer the better say athlon 2000 or bigger then again 1g of ram but i woulg say know less than 512. as for capturing you can buy a tv card cheap that has s-video in and connect your camcorder to that and the sound card or transfer on to vhs and connect your vcr to your tv card that will transfer anologue and sound together. but there are different options depending on how much you want to spend. 8)

[Nolonemo]

If you're starting from scratch (i.e., don't have a video cam of any kind) don't even think about using a capture card. Using the cam to convert and a firewire transfer is the way to go. BTW, you can get by with an 80GB HD if you need, just remember you'll need 13GB per hour of captured video, plus another 5GB or so of "scratchpad" space for burning a disk. So if you had 30GB free you could convert one 2-hour tape at a time to disk (tho I recommend maxing out a DVD at no more than 1.5 to 1.75 hours of video - but that's a whole other topic). Having said that, when you're doing video, you can't have too much HD space. My capture drive is 160GB.

[EricS]

And if you are doing alot of tapes, you might want to invest in a stand alone DVD recorder...I am doing this exact same thing and use a sony Digital 8 camcorder, connected to a Panasonic DMR-E60 via analog imputs. For things I want to get onto the computer, I use the cameras firewire port to my computer.

However, using the panasonic for the majority of the conversion is KISS as the previous poster stated. The menus are bland, but it takes less time and effort than capturing the footage to computer, authoring the DVD, and then burning the final DVD, etc.

Load the tape, hit play on the tape, record on the panny, input the title when the tape is done playing, and finalize the disk.

[turk690]

About D8 camcorders, do review them to see if there is an analogue-to-digital pass-through feature. It used to be (at least for NTSC models) Sony made analogue 8mm playback and A-to-D pass-through standard across the range of models from basic to uppity. In the latest line (NTSC), there are just three: DCRTRV147K, DCRTRV250K, and DCRTRV350K; of these, ONLY the 350K has analogue 8mm playback and A-to-D pass-through. A store salesman WILL NOT know the difference, to my dismay, when I initially bought (and returned) the 147K (thinking that two camcorder generations ago, since the DCRTRV120K has analogue playback and A-to-D, the 147K will too). As for the PC this is one of the best times to get one for NLE: for value, an 865PE based motherboard (Intel D865PERL, etc), 3.06G P4, 2x256MB DDR400 memory (for 512MB total dual channel), any nVidia based GPU card 5200 or better (with at least 64MB DDR SDRAM video memory), a 40GB 7200rpm system HDD, a 200GB 7200rpm capture HDD, a DVD-writer (Sony DRU-510A, etc.), and a FireWire card (ADSTech Pyro Platinum with bundled Adobe Premiere Pro, Encore, & Audition to get you started right away; if you can, steer clear off motherboards with built-in FireWire support unless the chipset is TI; there is NO guarantee they will recognize your D8 camcorder readily if that).