Looking for advice from anyone that has experience with this. I have a handful of Hi8 tapes I need to get converted of my daughters birth/first few years.

The camera was a Sony Hi8 (non digital). I still have it, but doesnt seem like its a camera that can be used to transfer to computer from what ive read?

Im not opposed to a service either, so if you have recommendations on a good trusted service that isnt terribly expensive that would be great as well.

Kind of lost with all of this and want to save these while I can.

Thanks!

If a “handful” I would take it to a service; I think Costco does it. I digitized about 50 8mm tapes but it didn’t go well, the camcorder gave out after a while. I’m going to take the remainder to a service to have it done.

I would add that it was quite a bit of trouble to set it up for digitizing, although if you have a Sony Digital8 camcorder or player it will digitize a Hi8 tape by playing it and getting direct digital output.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
If a “handful” I would take it to a service; I think Costco does it. I digitized about 50 8mm tapes but it didn’t go well, the camcorder gave out after a while. I’m going to take the remainder to a service to have it done.

I would add that it was quite a bit of trouble to set it up for digitizing, although if you have a Sony Digital8 camcorder or player it will digitize a Hi8 tape by playing it and getting direct digital output.

I had no clue Costco did something like this. Thats great to know. Yeah its under 10 tapes for sure.

Thanks! I will get some info on them.

A neighbor took hers to a local Walmart. They send them off to a service. You then pick them and the resultant DVDs up when they get back.

PC

Another option, if you have an iMac available, use a "FireWire" connection from camera to iMac and import using iMovie. I'm currently in #6 of 20 doing this. The tapes are one hour long and, for best transfer, remove the "screensaver" initialization.

How long are your Hi8 recordings? When I wanted to archive our 90 and 120 minute Hi8 recordings, I used Sony PHDV-124DM Digital Master tapes as an intermediary. This required a pro deck which works with DV, HDV, and DVCAM tapes.

In my case, I was concerned with separation of the magnetic particles from the original tapes. The intermediate copy gave me a copy I felt confident to use while limiting wear and tear on the original.

The pro deck can then be connected via Firewire to iMovie or other programs.

Which model Hi8 camera did you use?

I had about 10 tapes that I wanted to preserve. I bought a camcorder off fleabay to play them back to a dvd recorder. I then resold the camcorder on fleabay.

It cost me less than $100 total and I didn't risk losing my original videos.

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It cost me less than $100 total and I didn't risk losing my original videos

Actually you probably did. I’ve had a cheap used camcorder shred a videotape.

If I were going to send out a tape which was important to me, I would use a company which specializes in conversions. The company in the link below (and there are certainly others) does a lot more than simple transfers. They do color corrections, repair tapes, and convert 8mm and 16 film.

In the grand scheme of things, it might be more expensive to go this way, but I think you are more likely to end up with what you want. You may also find options you had not thought about.

https://shop.cintrexav.com/vid...e-transfers-c18.aspx