Concerned newbie

[kslaught]

I am new to digital video. I recently purchased a Sony Digital8 camcorder (TRV530). I chose Digital8 over miniDV because my Dad and I have old analog 8mm and Hi8 video tapes containing home movies that we have taken over the past 15 years. With the Digital8 camcorder I am able to put the old analog 8mm tapes into the camcorder and capture them directly using my editing software and the Firewire connection between the camcorder and my PC. Once the capture is done I then edit my movies to get the "good stuff". Finally I output my finished product back to the camcorder, but this time I record it in digital8 format on Hi8 tapes.

Now my problem is that I want to get my digital home videos onto some format that is more convenient to view. The fact that tape is a sequential access media makes it very clumsy and inflexible from a viewing standpoint. My first choice would be to have all of my digital video on DVD, but I don't have any way to get my movies recorded onto DVD. I have read about the VCD format, which sounds like it may be a possible "bridge" technology until the ability to record your own DVDs becomes an affordable reality for the typical home consumer.

I have a few questions at this point:

1. Will VCD be able to match the current video quality that my digital8 tapes provide?

2. How many VCDs would it take to store the contents of one of my digital8 tapes? The tapes are 120 minute Hi8 tapes; they hold 60 minutes of digital video.

3. Is it a "sure thing" that there will eventually be a low cost migration path to convert digital8 tapes to DVD? I don't want to get stuck on a dead-end street with no way of converting my home video library.

Thanks

[Vejita-sama]

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1. Will VCD be able to match the current video quality that my digital8 tapes provide? </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Not really, but a SVCD can. Or if you have a stand alone DVD player that will support it miniDVD.

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2. How many VCDs would it take to store the contents of one of my digital8 tapes? The tapes are 120 minute Hi8 tapes; they hold 60 minutes of digital video. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok, here's the thing about x(S)VCD you can set the bitrate to anything you want. But some stand alones have troube with more than 2500kbit/s (others can do 5000kbit/s). A 80min CDR will hold 40min of video using the standard SVCD template.

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3. Is it a "sure thing" that there will eventually be a low cost migration path to convert digital8 tapes to DVD? I don't want to get stuck on a dead-end street with no way of converting my home video library. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

There are DVD recorders on the market they just cost $700+, and not all stand alones can play them. There are 4 standards (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW). Take a look at the DVD players list to the left to see what your player supports.

The quaility of the SVCD really depends on the source. Using CCE with 3 passes, from a DVD source I can make a SVCD that looks (IMHO) as good as the original DVD. You should know that encoding MPEG files is very CPU heavy and takes a fair amount of time. I have a Tbird 1.2Ghz and it takes me ~1x the run time to encode to MPEG2/SVCD, for each pass. If I do 4 passes that's 4x the run time of the source. So for a 2hr movie that's 8hrs to encode. The time vs. quaility settings are a never ending source of debate