SONY VIDEO 8 - Restoration Project - SUPER THREAD

[bobbysox]

On the day of my daughters birth in 1991, I bought a Sony Handycam Video8, PAL version.

About 4 years ago the cam died and all the baby movies of our kids was just left. I know I should have put them onto VHS years ago but never got around to it.

Some weeks ago I put out an ad on a local web site and got to borrow a Handycam from a really kind guy.

Playing back the films showed that much of the color info was gone, leaving only black and white and in many places the the picture was fuzzy and made a horrible noise and lines across the tele. In other places the picture was just gone, leaving a sad grey screen.

My project:
To digitalise all the footage I can. To restore as much as possible and finally burn onto DVD disks as much as possible. Within reason I’m prepared to absorb the costs involved as I’m going to need a new video card of some sort anyway.

I read a good article on this site suggesting to go from the analogue old cam through a modern digital cam and then onto my PC. Seems like sound advice as I don’t have unlimited drive space.
https://www.videohelp.com/dvanalog

The path up to the PC seems reasonably straight forward. The challenge is to polish up the damaged footage.
What is achievable? What tools do I need? What is the best kind of video card to buy?

All help is greatly appreciated.

[luvvbuzz]

personally i would get myself a standalone dvd recorder, they are alot cheaper now than they were before. then you could plug the camcorder straight into the dvd recorder record straight to dvd with menu and full chapter selection. and you get to own a dvd recorder in the process. some shops here in the uk sell on a 14 day trial basis which is the reason i got a dvd recorder, i was gonna record some important video footage i owned then take the recorder back, but i liked it so much i kept it. worth considering.

[mazinz]

have you tried a head cleaning tape in the handycam you are borrowing now? their is a slight (very slight) chance the heads are dirty, or it is also very possible the guys cam could be wrecked. Before you go too crazy, i would do my best to try and find another one (this way if it does do it in 2 of them, you will then know it definitely is the tape). Can you not just go to a store and try out the handycams there?

[EricS]

I am doing this same thing, with NTSC. However I am using a stand alone as suggested. My tapes are also from around 93-94, but I have not experienced this massive loss. The picture does look crappy compared with current cameras, but I would be more inclined to try a different camcorder. The current high end Sony Digital-8 cameras can lpay back standard 8 (this is what I am using).

[bobbysox]

Firstly, I’m not interested in buying a new camcorder. After the way sony treated me they can kiss my ass for more of my money.

Secondly, the machine is fine and I did take the step to clean the head. It's fine, the kindly gent that lent me the machine told me he'd hardly used it, so I know the machine is as it's ever gonna be.

I’ll probably need to borrow a DV cam from a friend.

I was at the shops this afternoon and checked out some capture cards. I reckon I need to do a little research on this subject.

What seems to be more important is to find tools to clean up the degraded footage and I suspect this is where the real know-how comes into it's own.

Anyone out here know anything about this side to video editing?????


cheers

[bobbysox]

Just be sure and not to give myself xtra work I'm going to take a couple of the old tapes with me to the shops and try them out there on a new hi-end machine, one never know maybe this loner machine is naff. I don't know the machine or it's owner.
We'll see.