Tools

8mm Video Format (official name: Video8) is an analog video recording format for the consumer televisions (NTSC and PAL.) In 1983, Sony of Japan introduced the Handycam, one of the first Video8 cameras. Much smaller than the competition's VHS and Betamax video cameras, Video8 became very popular in the consumer camcorder market.

Hi8 (high-band 8mm): A higher quality version of the 8mm videotape format. Uses a higher luminance resolution to produce a sharper picture than regular 8mm videotape.

There are a few methods to convert 8mm to DVD, Hi8 movies to DVD, 16mm to DVD:

1) Capture the 8mm (Hi8) video to a computer video editing program using an analog-to-DV converter (which includes many DV/Digital8 camcorders as well as standalone analog-to-DV converters), encode it to MPEG-2 and author a DVD using DVDSanta.

2) Capture the video to the computer as MPEG-2 using hardware capture devices that convert the 8mm Hi8 to MPEG-2 as they capture and then author and burn a DVD using DVDSanta. A one-hour video is captured and compressed to MPEG-2 in one hour, but you are generally limited to doing "cuts-only" editing of the MPEG-2 files. However, if your original tape doesn't need editing this is a fast way to convert Hi8 8mm to DVD, but still have the flexibility to create custom DVD menus. Many of the inexpensive hardware analog-to-MPEG boxes can deliver very good quality, in part because the analog source video does not have to be converted to DV before being encoded to MPEG. Converting 8mm to DV can add artifacts that make it harder to get good MPEG compression.

3) Connect your 8mm Hi8 VCR or camcorder to a standalone DVD recorder that works much like a VCR. This 8mm to DVD, Hi8 to DVD recorder basically gives you a DVD copy of your tape in real time. You don't have a lot of flexibility as far as menus, buttons and chapter settings, but it's the fastest and easiest way to transfer 8mm to DVD, Hi8 to DVD. If you get a "DVD VCR" with Firewire connections you can plug a DV/Digital8/DVCAM camcorder or VCR into it and transfer the tapes to DVD at even higher quality than by using the analog connections.

No matter which method you use, you need to ensure that the analog video has the highest quality possible: flaws in the original video may be greatly magnified when you encode it to MPEG-2 and convert it to DVD.

If the analog-to-DV option sounds likes the best one for getting your video into the computer when you start to transfer VHS to dvd and you don't already own a DV camcorder or one of the analog-to-DV converter, I recommend getting a DV camcorder with analog inputs instead of simple converter box. The DV camcorder will allow you to save your edited projects back to tape as a high quallity DV master and, you will have something to shoot new video in the DV format. Some DV camcorders cost only slightly more than a converter. If you have a lot of old Hi8 or 8mm tapes, then consider purchasing a Digital8 camcorder with analog inputs and the ability to playback those older analog 8 tapes. In addition to "analog inputs," some camcorders also advertise "analog pass through." This means that the analog signal does not have to first be recorded to DV tape before being sent down the Firewire cable as DV. This can save plenty of time and tape if you plan to do a lot of VHS to DVD conversion.