camcorder video to my computer help

ldyckhoffldyckhoff
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
We have an older Hi8 camcorder and would like to get the video from our trip onto my mac. The cam has an AV output and S-video.



I've searched the internet and haven't really gotten any answers. I would rather not go to some place and have them put them on dvd because I would like to edit them on my computer. I just want a clear way to get the video from the tapes to my computer.



Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    There are several media converters on the market that will take an analogue video feed and output digital video via firewire, from which you proceed as if you were transferring footage from a DV camcorder (straight import into iMovie, for instance).



    However, stand alone converters tend to be $300 and up, unless you can pick up a used one on Ebay, so you might consider borrowing a DV camcorder that can do DV AV passthrough, which more or less acts like a media converter.



    Not every DV camcorder can do this, so check around.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    ldyckhoffldyckhoff Posts: 3member
    I figured this is what we might have to do.



    I'm still confused about how exactly to do this though.



    You said that not all DV cameras can do this, so what am I looking for on a camera that would let me do this?



    And then, once I do find a camera, what steps do I need to take to get the video from the hi8 to my computer?



    Thanks.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    project2501project2501 Posts: 433member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ldyckhoff

    I figured this is what we might have to do.



    I'm still confused about how exactly to do this though.



    You said that not all DV cameras can do this, so what am I looking for on a camera that would let me do this?



    And then, once I do find a camera, what steps do I need to take to get the video from the hi8 to my computer?



    Thanks.



    In most idiotic case you just first make copy of your hi8 to dv. S-video cable from hi8 output to dv input and also audio cable from hi8 out -> dv in. Then just rip that dv casette to your computer over firewire or what ever. Some cameras might let you stream directly thru dv-camera, so it removes that extra step of converting it to dv in between. Usually only the better dv cameras allow input and output of signals, so that might not be so cheap option either, unless you can borrow good camera from somewhere. Usually those places that do dvd conversions have pretty good machines, so they could propably do the hi8 -> dv conversion for you as well, or even better give the data as dv avi or quicktime over dvd to you. You can then edit those raw videos and later burn your own masterpiece back to another dvd.
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