How do You Transfer Hi8 Cassettes into Digital Format?

I have an old Sony camcorder that's been sitting on the top shelf of my closet for who knows how long. I have several Hi8 cassettes containing home videos which I would love to be able to reproduce into a digital format. I don't like the idea that all the videos from my son's baby years are stored on these old tapes. It'd also be nice to be able to edit them on my computer and make copies to DVD. What would be the easiest and most affordable way to transfer these old home videos to my computer?

Thanks! 

Hi Rhonda! Thanks for the note. The easy answer to your question is to use one of the many services that can do the transfers for you.

The harder answer depends on what kind of equipment you have available. It may be as easy as transferring the contents onto VHS and then transferring that to DVD. What model Sony camcorder do you have, and do you have any other hardware available such as a VCR to play the tapes on? I'll have to think on it some more. Maybe I'll steal the question and write an article about it!

Todd

Hi Todd,

What sort of services do you mean? As in, somebody will do all the work for me? Oh, I like the sounds of that!

I was afraid you might ask the model of camcorder. So, after climbing to the top of my closet - not an easy task when it's in the back and on the very top shelf when I'm a very tall 5'3.75" -  I've discovered it's an old (probably about 10 years) Sony Handycam.

I don't have a VCR anymore. I do have a DVD player that is capable of recording. I posted this question to see what options were available to me, and was thinking along the same lines as you - that it'd make an excellent article topic.

Thanks again, Todd!

Sure, there are services that will do all the work for you. You mail them the tape(s) and they return them with the contents copied to DVD. They also do the same thing for photographic negatives and slides. You remember those, don't you?

As long as your camcorder has some kind of video out, you should be able to get it to DVD. The only problem is that over time, even DVDs and CDs will start to degrade. Which means you would have to copy it over again. So it's just a temporary fix. Until they come out with those 3D crystal cubes.

Rumor has it that you exaggerate about that extra 3/4".

;-)

Thanks for the info!

Do I remember photographic negatives and slides? Erm...yeah, I think I'm old enough to remember those!

That is a problem with DVDs and CDs, but at least if I can create a digital copy of my videos, I can then store 'em on the computer as well (and play around and edit them).

Those rumours are false, I'm a hair (or two...okay...three MAX!) under 5'4"...I swear I used to be taller, but I'm too young to be shrinking!

The 0.75" isn't an exaggeration, Todd; it's a plain old dirtly lie!

Hi Rhonda,

With my old Hi8 camcorder... and VCR... I plug them into my mini-DV camcorder and either

• dub them to digital mini-DV tapes to preserve whatever quality there is on the analog tapes and keep the mini-DV tapes in my digital video library... or
• use the mini-DV camcorder to do a 'pass-thru'... with no tape in the camcorder the analog signal gets converted to digital and, when connected to the computer by firewire/iLink, goes into the computer as DV-AVI files for editing with most any video editing software.