A/V Question: VHS & 8MM to Hard Drive

I have a box of 50 or so old home videos. Half VHS, half 8MM.

I want them saved in my computer in a format that allows me to load them into my iPhone/iPad, and upload them into my Picasa Web Albums.

I got a quote from a local shop and they wanted $30 per tape to put on a hard drive or $20 per tape to put on a DVD (which I don't need). With as many tapes as I have, I'll just do it myself.

What equipment/software would be best for this? I would be loading into my iMac, btw.

 

I'm glad that you asked as I need an answer too

I've got several tapes of when I went to the IMSA races back in the 90's (333SP), plus my first Ferrari from that era as well.

 

Hey,

There's quite a few options. You've gotta get some kind of converter box (~$50-$100) that will output the video to either USB or (preferably IMO) Firewire.

Here's an Apple application note: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26606

Search around on that site and all kinds of possibilities will appear.

Good luck - Let us know what works!

Cheers,
Ian

 

The 8mm will probably need to be sent out. Try a local camera store, they can probably do it.
The g/f has done that and it comes back on DVD. I don't think there is a way around that.
Ken Rockwell's site had this place listed to do video transfers.

http://www.scancafe.com/?utm_source=Rockwell&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=Rockwell

 

Not wishing to argue, but why? Assuming he has the ability to play it, and said player can output A/V in some form, he should be good, no?

Cheers,
Ian

 

I think he assumed you might have meant 8mm film or Super 8.

Hi-8 video cassettes would work just fine with any capture card you would use with your computer

 

I was at Sam's Club yesterday and they had the Roxio line of A/V products. After some additional research I may end up with this:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/easy-vhs-to-dvd/standard/overview.html
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/software_and_services/roxio/easy_vhs_to_dvd/297318

Update: After reading numerous reviews I am sold on this product. This was the clincher:

 

Hey,

FWIW, this just showed up in my mailbox and I thought of this thread:

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/easy-vhs-to-dvd/mac/overview.html

Cheers,
Ian
EDIT; Oops - Same as the above - Sorry....

 

I have used other Roxio products, like a DVD burning program, and they work well.

Can you report back?

Most of the tapes I have are from camcorders that at least had firewire ports, so it is pretty easy to capture video from them using my Mac. But it would be good to know how this works with older camcorders.

 

I believe all you need is a capture device; play the video while connected to PC & "capture" then you can do what you want since it is now digital.
Those tapes will probably outlast the hard drive & DVD's but who knows if you will be able to play it back in 10+ years
it's a slow process but you just click & walk away.

I'm sure a nice google query will answer this question. It's pretty common