Old Home Videos

dhjjessel · 13 Apr 2008 at 13:01

Hye guys

found this old sony handycam from about 1985 (seriously) with lots of old hme video cassettes and i was wanting to convert them to dvd. My macbook pro has an optical input - can i get a converter to go from the red, white and yellow ended wires into an optical input feed? then somehow convert them into avi via the optical input?

JAMAL · 13 Apr 2008 at 13:03

Would it be worth picking up a cheap dvd recorder and converting them all, then flog it on the bay?

dhjjessel · 13 Apr 2008 at 13:05

yeah but i have a dvd recorder on my macbook - can i use the dvi/vga plug as an input?

Fothsn · 13 Apr 2008 at 13:06

Yea you can get a DVD VHS combo cheap now, would make copying process much easier and quicker, once done flog the unit on the bay

Would be the way I’d go about it.

DolbyDigitalTHX · 13 Apr 2008 at 13:20

dhjjessel said:
yeah but i have a dvd recorder on my macbook - can i use the dvi/vga plug as an input?

Those sockets are outputs, surely...?

If you do want to use your macbook (perhaps also to edit/title) your best bet might be to buy one of those 'breakout' boxes that were once common before DV camcorders became affordable.

They take your composite audio/video from your analog camera and stream through USB/Firewire. If you have the patience for the whole capturing first, then editing/burning to DVD process, it's worth a google I reckon...

Outcast · 13 Apr 2008 at 14:03

I think JAMAL was referring to a VHS & DVD buit into one unit video recorder

I have an early one of these..

Just stick your vhs..or plug your camera into the vcr and record onto dvd.. Then put the dvd into your mac and edit/fancy effects it.

dhjjessel · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:06

yeh this camcorder isnt vhs its hi-8 old school.

DolbyDigitalTHX · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:17

Outcast said:
...Then put the dvd into your mac and edit/fancy effects it.

You wouldn't want to do that ideally, as you'd be editing an pre-compressed source - better to stick to compressing only when ready to burn the final DVD.

dhjjessel said:
yeh this camcorder isnt vhs its hi-8 old school.

Hi-8 was a great format, better than S-VHSC and much better than VHS - it's worth preserving the quality if you can.

A breakout box is still viable, depends whether you want straight transfers or want to do editing/titling as previously mentioned...

rscosworth · 13 Apr 2008 at 16:24

Home Movies ;-)

- EH - im sooo immature!

dhjjessel · 14 Apr 2008 at 11:59

DolbyDigitalTHX said:
A breakout box is still viable, depends whether you want straight transfers or want to do editing/titling as previously mentioned...

whats a breakout box? dont really care about editing/titling etc.

DolbyDigitalTHX · 14 Apr 2008 at 16:01

A 'breakout' box is a generic term for a hardware panel or case with various inputs/outputs which connect to a PC via firewire/USB.

In your case, an example of the sort of thing you might use is here.

However, since you don't want to do editing/titling, it would be extra hassle to capture all the footage just so you can then burn to DVD. You'd be better off, as suggested earlier, using a standalone DVD recorder.

You don't need the DVD/VHS combo ones - just connect your camera to the recorder with an S-Video lead and standard RCA phono leads for the audio...

dhjjessel · 14 Apr 2008 at 21:26

thanks ** a legend

DolbyDigitalTHX said:
A 'breakout' box is a generic term for a hardware panel or case with various inputs/outputs which connect to a PC via firewire/USB.

In your case, an example of the sort of thing you might use is here.

However, since you don't want to do editing/titling, it would be extra hassle to capture all the footage just so you can then burn to DVD. You'd be better off, as suggested earlier, using a standalone DVD recorder.

You don't need the DVD/VHS combo ones - just connect your camera to the recorder with an S-Video lead and standard RCA phono leads for the audio...

dhjjessel · 14 Apr 2008 at 21:27

by the way is that a particularly good one or is it a cheap one/ top end one?

DolbyDigitalTHX · 14 Apr 2008 at 22:14

dhjjessel said:
by the way is that a particularly good one or is it a cheap one/ top end one?

....I think you're missing my point, I just googled for that link by way of example.

You'd be better off buying a DVD recorder instead - much simpler for your needs.

dhjjessel · 14 Apr 2008 at 22:49

yes but doing it via my mac might be easier since the hi8 videos will probably fit 2 or 3 on 1 disc so i can put them all together on my mac and write to disc!

DolbyDigitalTHX · 14 Apr 2008 at 23:13

dhjjessel said:
yes but doing it via my mac might be easier...

...sounds to me like you've never done any analogue video capture before.

I've got some experience of it when I used to be more into the independent film making scene (notice I avoided the words 'home' and 'amateur'

- yeah, I'm winking at you, 'rscosworth'...).

It's not a copy process like DV, you have to capture in real-time and mess around with fiddly compression capture drivers - your computer and hard drive need to be fast enough to do this. The whole process can be very time consuming - and you say you have lots of tapes to transfer....

With a DVD recorder, you can still transfer one tape at a time - each recording will show as separate scene on the final DVD. Exactly how many you can get on a disc will of course vary depending on your chosen quality settings.

dhjjessel · 15 Apr 2008 at 10:32

ok maybe the dvd recorder is a better option.
Although i thought Hi8 was digital?
anyhoo i will take heed

DolbyDigitalTHX · 15 Apr 2008 at 16:36

dhjjessel said:
...Although i thought Hi8 was digital?...

Sony made some Hi8 models that could record Digitally on Hi8 tape.

If yours is one of those, check if it has an iLink socket - you may find a DVD recorder with this kind of input which could simplify matters further and preserve your image quality.