How to copy Sony 8mm tape to DVD and later reedit

[Computernerd]

I am a newbie, What is the best way to copy all my old Sony 8mm tapes to DVD and then edit them later to make a final dvd version using VideoStudio 10?

[Ron P.]

Hi,

The best format to capture to, for editing is DV-AVI, however it produces a 13 gig per hour file size. Which is going to take alot of DVDs to store very many 8mm tapes. What method do you have to get the video to your computer? While you could capture to a compressed format, like MPEG, or use another program like Super, or VideoRedo to convert the files, when you are ready to edit, I think you may experience problems with quality.

You might review the Recommended Procedures

Regards..

Ron P.

[Ken Berry]

Ron -- I think we have to take this guy at his word. When you ask him: "What method do you have to get the video to your computer?", that is precisely what he is asking us. I don't think he knows.

Computernerd: this has been covered so many times in this forum that it makes my mind ache to have to repeat it again. As my signature says, use the Search function first.

But basically, you have to have some sort of device between whatever is playing your 8mm tapes and your computer. I am assuming that you are in fact going to be playing the tapes on your old Sony analogue camera. That means normally that you would have to have an analogue capture card on your computer to which you can attach your analogue camera (either via S-video or the RCA composite cables); or an external capture device, of which there is an almost infinite variety. The best would be one which can convert your analogue camera signal to DV/AVI format digital signal on the fly, but these are few and far between, and more to the point, expensive. There are also some which will convert the analogue signal direct to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 format on the fly, using a hardware encoder built into the device. These also produce good results, though again are expensive. Their main claim to fame is the fact that they don't put any stress on the computer, particularly less well resourced computers that would otherwise find it difficult to encode directly to mpeg-2 on the fly.

There is also a third option, which I use (quite apart from an analogue capture card in my computer). I bought not quite a year ago a new Sony DCR-TRV480E camera, only recently released on the market, which is in fact one that will actually play 8mm and Hi-8 analogue tapes, but which can be connected to your computer via Firewire cable, and which convert the analogue tape to a digital signal, which, over Firewire, is captured at very high quality (though no better than the original) and, because it is DV, places absolutely no stress on less powerful computers. And I have to say, the results are fantastic!!

So the choice is yours, but you have to do the research yourself, I am afraid...

[Ron P.]

Ken,

Yes I was reading into the post, "archiving". I just had an idea

Ulead's next version needs to be 1-click DVD. Click 1 button and all the cutting, filters, transistions, are applied, then burns to a DVD, which then is spat out of the tray (oh complete with labeling)....


Ron P.

[Computernerd]

Thanks for the information. I have a Sony DCR-TRV103 camcorder and using Firewire 1394 to upload the video. My computer is an ASUS AMD 3700 Althon processor and I did burn it to AVI at first and it takes about 5 dvd per 1 tape and I have a total of 78 8mm tapes which can be a total of 390 DVD's (1,755 Terabytes) which can take 2-4 years to do. YIKES. I have to get the 8mm to DVD soon because some of my 8mm tapes are 10-17 years old and there is a life span of 10 years on the 8mm tapes. I did some playback on the 17 years tape and the noise is increasing more and more which got me worried and started on the moving to DVD quickly which is why I wanted to find the best way to get it done fast. If I decided to use MPG2 format should I be using MF5 or UVS 10 or some other form of video uploader so that I can edit it later if needed? I know I might not get the best quality but I would like to saved the 8mm from getting worse than it already is.

"Ulead's next version needs to be 1-click DVD. Click 1 button and all the cutting, filters, transistions, are applied, then burns to a DVD, which then is spat out of the tray (oh complete with labeling).... "

I do agree with Ron P. comment which we all could just relax while UVS does all the work.

[Ron P.]

The problem then is with the editing at a later date. You can use an MPEG or highly compressed format. However later on, when you edit, they will have to be re-encoded, thus resulting in loss of quality and other problems like OOS.

I don't know why there is any advertisement, that implies editing MPEG or DivX or Xvid, or WMV for that matter. Those formats were developed for distribution, and watching, not editing. Yes they can be edited, however when problems start happening the software is always to blame (not).

Ok done with my little rant...sorry

I guess you have to decide if you just want to archive the 8mm videos and be happy with the current video as it was shot or you want to edit out parts, put transitions in, titles, maybe throw in a pic or two. I would say if it is the latter then start editing now and create the DVD of the finished masterpiece. If you just want to get them archived, off of the 8mm tape, then capture to DVD-compliant MPEG2 format. Just capture and burn. VS10 + or MF5 are both capable of this. Which one???? If you like playing around, editing video, then I would choose VS10+, but that's me, and not you....

Good Luck...

Ron P.

[Ken Berry]

I assume you are talking about simply downloading (capturing) the video and then storing it on DVDs, rather than converting it to DVD video format? What you should be doing is cpaturing it (using the DV/AVI format which I think you are doing -- make sure it is not full, uncompressed AVI, which takes 65 GB per hour, but the DV variant, which takes 13 GB). You should use this DV format since, as I said earlier, your camera should allow you to transfer it via Firewire in that format and it is the best quality possible, and is easily edited. You edit in VS, of course, and can cut out quite a bit of the originals which you don't want, have errors, are shots of your foot since you forgot to turn off the camera etc. This will of course reduce the overall space you eventually have to burn to DVD.

Then, instead of just archiving it on DVD, you first convert the edited DV/AVI into DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which, as you realise, is far less space hungry and is what is required in any case for a video DVD as opposed to a storage/archive one. Depending on the quality, you can normally fit around 2 hours of originally analogue video onto 1 DVD at pretty good quality. For that you use a bit rate of around 4000 kbps. You might even squeeze a bit more on if you use Dolby audio. I tend to burn my Sony-captured analogue tapes at 6000 kbps because the capture quality is so good. This gives me around 90 minutes per DVD. For highest quality DVDs from originally digital video, you can set the bitrate at 8000 kbps for one hour per DVD, but this rate is too high for analogue source material: 6000 kbps is about as good as it is ever going to get

Anyway, to produce this DVD-compatible mpeg, you select Share > Create Video File > PAL or NTSC DVD. (Don't select mpeg-2 since that has different settings which may mess up your DVD). Alter the mpeg properties to reflect your chosen bitrate as described above. After you produce this DVD-compatible mpeg, you then go to Share > Create Disc > DVD. Insert your mpeg (NOT your project file .VSP) in the burning module, build your menus etc and then burn. Make sure you click 'do not convert compliant mpeg files' in the cogwheel icon to the bottom left of the burning screen.

You are, of course, free to follow any work flow you want, and for some, the truncated method of burning direct from a project works. But the broad experience on this Board supports the work flow I have described above.