Best way to save 8mm video tapes ?

[G COURY]

I have a lot of 8mm video tapes of my kids growing up and want to preserve them to CD. I just got the Dazzle Hollywood DV bridge, but it does not let you save in MPEG format. Is there software out there to allow me to use the bridge to save directly to MPEG 1 or 2 format or should I send it back and get the Digital Video Creator II or similar product ? I have the following setup:

Windows 2000
750 MHz P III
256M Ram
80 Gig HD
20 Gig HD
Nvidia video card
Firewire card
and an old ATI All In Wonder (Not Pro) video card which I took out of the system a few weeks ago.

Should I put the ATI back in ? I don't think it will directly save in MPEG format.

I'm looking for good quality MPEG 1 to make VCDs without having to save first in AVI format and then spend hours and hours concerting to MPEG.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[etchris]

Hi!!

I have some opinions personally if you do not mind me saying:

1. Why not try the ATI All In Wonder card again?? I believe it can do realtime MPEG 1 encoding. No harm trying.

2. Get the Pinnacle Studio VCD, which I think only the PAL version have this product. Seems not bad quality with hardware MPEG 1 capture from some users from my country here in Singapore.

cheers

[G COURY]

etchris,

Thanks for the thought. I spoke with ATI today and they confirmed that it does capture MPEG1, but it will not work in a Windows 2000 machine.

Thanks for the post anyway.

Greg

[jgl24]

Hey, the all-in-wonder card WILL capture mpeg-1 in
Windows 2000. I did it this morning beautifully with
some of my old camcorder tapes. Just make sure you
go to the ATI site and get the most recent drivers.

[G COURY]

jgl24,

Thanks for the info. Which drivers are you using? The NT drivers or some other type ?

Thanks for the help.

Also, do you still have to encode the MPEG1 captured files to make a VCD or can you just burn them to CD with NERO? I would like to avoid the encoding process if possible.

[SingSing]

If you capture with ATI AIW's VCD template, then you are going to get VCD compliant mpeg1 file. There are no need for any further conversion.

The burner still have to change it to DAT format, but all mpeg1 file need that step, bar none!