Capture 8mm/VHS > DV, recommendations for hardware

[nutshellml]

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered, but I couldn't find anything specific to what I'm looking for that is current. Here I go:

I am planning on converting old 8mm to DV using camcorder and projector, then further transferring the video onto my pc for editing and ultimately burning to DVDs. I also have many VHS tapes that I plan on converting into digital format. My CPU is up to the task (specification wise), but there are many choices and I'm looking for something under $300. I software I already have is Adobe Premeire, I believe that is more than sufficient for what I'm looking to do.

Can anyone point me in the direction of recommendations/reviews. Thank you in advance for any help....

[zoobie]

click 'capture cards' link on the left menu...then click 'rating'

[edDV]

I'm sure this question has been asked and answered, but I couldn't find anything specific to what I'm looking for that is current. Here I go:

I am planning on converting old 8mm to DV using camcorder and projector, then further transferring the video onto my pc for editing and ultimately burning to DVDs. I also have many VHS tapes that I plan on converting into digital format. My CPU is up to the task (specification wise), but there are many choices and I'm looking for something under $300. I software I already have is Adobe Premeire, I believe that is more than sufficient for what I'm looking to do.

Can anyone point me in the direction of recommendations/reviews. Thank you in advance for any help....

Some Digital8 camcorders play Video8/Hi8 tapes direct to DV format over IEEE-1394. You need to research model specs. for that feature. All early models did this but only upper range models had it in recent years.

Some Digital8 and many medium to upper range MiniDV camcorders have the "analog pass through" feature that captures analog S-Video and audio to DV format passing it on over IEEE-1394.

There are also self contained hardware analog to DV format transcoders (e.g. Canopus ADVC series, ADS Pyro, etc.). Some of these have color bar calibration, level setting switches or proc amp controls to assist analog capture. As worse these are equal to using a camcorder. At best they have additional features.

The above use Sony/Canon/Panasonic etc. hardware analog to DV format codecs. That gets excellent results.

The other alternative is input analog video direct to the computer through a capture card to a high bitrate format or uncompressed.

[nutshellml]

so basically i can just use the camcorder directly to the computer firewire input??? w/o the canopus advc110, that' sthe one I was looking at. If the camcorder has the firewire output then i can do it direct. As for the VHS tapes i'll need the canopus advc110 or similar unless i got through a camcorder with passthrought... i'm i following or totally off??

[edDV]

so basically i can just use the camcorder directly to the computer firewire input??? w/o the canopus advc110, that' sthe one I was looking at. If the camcorder has the firewire output then i can do it direct. As for the VHS tapes i'll need the canopus advc110 or similar unless i got through a camcorder with passthrought... i'm i following or totally off??

What camcorder? There are Digital8 camcorders with analog (Video8/Hi8) playback to IEEE-1394 and those with analog pass through to IEEE-1394. In the NTSC world you need to deal with the black level shift issue with analog pass through and the need for software black level correction or a proc amp in the path. This has been discussed in past threads. Understand this tutorial if you want to use analog pass through.
http://pro.jvc.com/pro/attributes/prodv/clips/blacksetup/JVC_DEMO.swf

The ADVC 100/110 has the 7.5IRE/zeroIRE switch discussed in the tutorial. It will cap S-Video or composite NTSC to 16 black and 235 white with the switch in the 7.5 IRE position.