8mm and S-8mm ??

[Michael Coates]

hi guys, been reading up on 8mm tapes cos my mates wants me to be able to stick them onto dvd for him - but since i haven't done this before i thought i'd check a few thigns out. i'm getting some good info fram searching but not really what i need specifically so figured i'd ask - any help would be greatly appreciated of course.

first of all formats - i have a cam with minidv andi love it, it does everything i need it to but on a regular basis my mate asks about different formats and i figured since i love video conversion that i should get with the times - apparently he has S-8mm - (perhaps super-8mm?), regular 8mm, Hi8 and DV - i've come across these using search a lot but i don't know the difference - is there a machine that will play all of these formats?

i was thinking of getting a camera that does 8mm recently but purely to play the video and record using my dvd-recorder - this is possible right? my mate seems to think they can only be played using an old projector system he has!

so far i can convert mini dv, betamax and vhs but i would love to expand my knowledge - what would people recommend to a novice like myself?

thanks for reading guys and all the best
mik x

[Richard_G]

The only thing described as S-8mm is Super 8 cine. Not video tapes but cine film (ie. little tiny 8mm square transpancies). The only way you can play these back is with a Super 8 cine projector.

Consumer cacorder video tape formats are 8mm (known as Video8, basic quality analogue), Hi-8 (high band analogue), Digital 8 (DV format video streams but recorded onto a tape physically identical to Video8 and Hi-8) and MiniDV (digital video stream recorded on a tiny little tape cassette).

[thecoalman]

Super 8 is film, it has nothing to do with a camcorder. You can film it as it's playing on the screen but this has issues such as flickering that the camcorder will pick up due to different framerates. I'm no expert but I've seen it suggested to either rent or purchase a telecine which is made for the purpose of converting film to digital or just have the film professionally converted which apparentlly is the best alternative to doing it yourself if there's not a lot of footage.

Hi-8 is analog footage on on 8mm tape, similar to VHS. It has to be converted to digital using a capture card, a digital cam with pass-thru capabilities or somethin similar. The same for VHS, VHS-C or sony BETA.

DV or Digital 8 is just like mini dv except on the same tapes a hi-8 cam uses, plug the firewire cable into your computer and let her rip......

[Michael Coates]

so is there a machine that will play 8mm (video8), Hi-8 and Digital 8? or am i looking at a seperate player for all?

thanks so much for the reply, very informative

[solarfox]

Virtually all Digital8 camcorders (that I know of, anyway) will play 8mm and Hi-8 tapes as well as Digital8, and most will even do an analog-to-DV conversion during playback so you can import the footage to your PC via the Firewire link.

[Michael Coates]

thanks for the next reply too, just so i know - i can plug in all these formats into my dvd-recorder somehow - i don't use my pc to capture as it's generally crap.

i will look into purchasing a telecine though i clearly need to do some research - when i search for it i get far too much stuff to sift through. i could be here for a long time!

[thecoalman]

Providing the DVD recorder has the correct inputs yes you can plug them in..... The best way to transfer is to use a Digital 8 cam using the firewire for both D8 and hi-8 . You can also use analog but firewire is the better choice.

[Michael Coates]

is there a digital 8 player you would recommend to play those three formats? how much can i be expecting to pay - i think i'll check out ebay!

i am looking into the word telecine but can't find anything that relates directly to a machine specifically for converting s8 to dv - however i have found out if i am to record the film playing i need a projector with a variable frame rate to combat flickering - could you be more specific to what you meant by telecine?

by the way, you've all already given me some great information and sent me off in the right direction - many thanks for taking oyur time to help me out - i really do appreciate it.

mik x

[thecoalman]

is there a digital 8 player you would recommend to play those three formats? how much can i be expecting to pay - i think i'll check out ebay!

Two formats.......Hi-8 and Digital8 are the only two that are somewhat compatible because they use the same tape (they are recorded differently, one is analog the other is digital). Players are expensive, your better off just buying a cam. If you don't already have one, as mentioned above most D8 cams will paly both.

Edit: apparently 8mm tape is also another name for hi-8.... Anyhow they are all the same size and are interchangeable except for the format difference between hi-8 and digital8. Note:that a hi-8 cam cannot play digital 8.

Telecine is not something I'm familiar with but I have read many posts on here and I've seen it mentioned many times as the way to properly convert film. Pehaps someone else with a little more knowledge can help you. Try "telecine machine" for your searches......

[Captain315]

Telecine is a type of projector that will allow the transfer of 8mm film to a computer or a video camera. The problem lies in the frame rates when doing this. For many answers to your questions, you might want to go to: http://www.movies-2-dvd.com/8mm_film_dvd_conversion.html. There is a lot of information there. Nice people to chat with also.

[Michael Coates]

will do thanks again mate - very very helpful

one final question: what's video8 then? and are there cam's widely available to play this format?

cheers mate, you made mylife a hell of a lot easier - i'm off to search!

[thecoalman]

[quote="Michael Coates"]will do thanks again mate - very very helpful
quote]

I'm pretty sure video 8 and hi-8 are the same, hi-8 might just be a better quality possibly the same.

They should all play in most Digital 8 cams, just check the specs to make sure if your going to purchase one for this purpose.

[Captain315]

I'm not an expert at this but I believe you'll find that the old version of the small video format was called 8mm (because of its width naturally). Then they came out with Hi-8 which gave better quality than the 8mm. Both of these formats were analog in nature. By that I mean that they actually recorded a frame of image like film does. The Digital 8mm records the scene using binary code in the form of 1s and 0s and does a better job at reproducing the image and doesn't suffer from degradation of color and picture quality like the earlier formats.

I don't know exactly what you're trying to do but if you will bare with me, I will rattle on a little more. In my opinion, the easiest way to transfer video tapes to the computer for editing and placing on a dvd is to use a camera that has a "pass through". I personally use the Sony DCR-TRV240 camera and it will play any 8mm sized video tape. Most of my old tapes are VHS naturally so all I have to do is connect the output of my VHS player to the camera and the camera to a firewire port on my computer. I just start up the capture program of choice, turn on the camera and punch play on the VCR. This camera also has a frame rate adjustment (although I've never used it) and a 25X optical zoom. Both of these are necessary if you want to record old 8mm FILM to the computer.

Hope this helps and I didn't ramble on too much.

Regards,
Tom

[Dasun]

8mm video formats come in 3 flavours :

Analogue:

Video 8 - The original 8mm video tape released around 1985 with VHS resolution (~270 lines) but much better colour

Hi-8 - The hi-band version of Video 8, the rough equivalent of S-VHS (~400 lines), released around 1989

Digital

Digital 8 - Released in 1999 and basically the DV format recored on 8mm video cassetes with a resolution of around 500 lines.

Digital 8 Things to note:
----------------------------
-Not all Digital 8 models, can playback all other 8mm formats.
-Not all Digital 8 models work in passthrough mode and are thus useless for acting as a DV bridge to bring formats like VHS to the computer


Video 8 Things to note:
--------------------------
-8mm Video is not film, these are vastly different media. In general, if what you have is a cassette that looks like a tiny VHS cassette and not a single small spool then you are talking 8mm video.
-8mm Video does not archive well and droupout is a major problem. I have some cassettes where the tape seems to be falling apart despite good storage, good brand and little use. In fact I do not use my Digital 8 camcorder for 8mm capture because ot the amount of oxide shedding I am experiencing, it can not be good for the Digital 8 unit.