Hi8 conversion with Digital8 or MiniDV Pass through

[Philippe]

I can convert Hi8 tapes using a Sony Digital8 videocam or using a Sony Mini DV pass through. Will the conversion from the Digital8 videocam provide a better quality or will it be the same?

thanks

[Tommyknocker]

You can rarely increase the quality of video once it is on tape. You can however, minimize the loss in quality due to capturing to your computer. You are on the right track using pass through.

[kazzer]

Try both!.....then decide yourself. Everyones taste is different, but I doubt there would be a difference.

[EricB]

I use the "on the fly conversion" playing the Hi8 tape in the D8 camcorder and the conversions look great. You can compare them to the original (played with the Hi8 camcorder) and to me they look as good if not better.

[solarfox]

Since the camcorder is going to use the same analog-to-DV codec hardware regardless of whether the analog video is coming from a Hi8 tape loaded in the transport mechanism or from the input jacks on the side, the only thing affecting this equation is how well your D8 camcorder plays back 8mm/Hi8 tapes. Unless your dedicated Hi8 camcorder has a vastly better picture quality than the Digital8 unit, I wouldn't bother with passthrough; I'd just play the tape directly in the Digital8 unit.

[sellpipe]

Here is a funny one for you: I didnt have all the cables needed for my hi-8 cam that wanted to convert to digital so here is what I did...

Connected Hi-8 cam to stand-alone VCR (pass-thru)
connected VCR to digital camcorder (pass-thru)
and connected digital camcorder to computer via firewire

Now my computer desk was a mess for sometime but the quality on the DVD's I made was just as good as the original hi-8 tapes I had and now I got DVD's that will last forever (I hope)

strange, but it worked!!!

[darkelf]

I'm with solarfox on this one. New Dig8 cameras utilize new hardware and head correction circuits that work better than all but the highest end Hi8 cams. What this means is there is a very good possibility that the transfer from the tape using the Dig8 heads will produce a better (ie closer to original) picture than a regular Hi8.

So it is possible that a new Dig8 camera can improve the analog output from the tape. All things being equal (as I'm grouping MiniDV and Dig8 DV codecs the same) if you have a slightly better original analogue source, the digital converision will be that much cleaner.

But as an earlier poster mentioned, try all ways that you can, see what looks best for yourself.

[ktnwin]

Hi sellpipe,
by connecting your Hi8cam to VCR then to DigCam, you must be using composite video. This is not as good as connecting Hi8Cam to DigCam directly using S-video (more horizontal lines).
I have both Hi8Cam and Dig8Cam, have tried both pass-thru using S-video cable, and play Hi8 tapes with Dig8Cam, the results are the same.
I do not bother with the pass thru method for my Hi8 tapes.