Analog Conversion

[2nd Shepherd]

I hate to look REALLY stupid, but all of this is new to me and I have a question. I have an 8mm analog camcorder. Is it possible to change this analog format to digital? If so, what is needed? Thanks.

[Soulhunter]

Ehm, you really mean 8mm film...

Or have you mixed it up with Hi8 tapes ???


Bye

[setarip]

To Soulhunter

"Ehm, you really mean 8mm film...
Or have you mixed it up with Hi8 tapes ???"


Analog camcorder = TAPE (8MM or Hi-8)

Movie camera = FILM (8MM, 16MM, etc.)

[Soulhunter]

Whats a analog 8mm tape...


Bye

[rsquirell]

an analog camcorder captures on a mini 8mm VHS cassette tape. when you capture the tape on your pc u r converting it to "digital"....but at the same resolution of the original analog VHS tape. You cannot improve your source...but you can get an identical copy.

[Soulhunter]

Only know Hi-8 and VHS-C...

No matter, if its @ tape, you can capture it !!!


- Plug the camcorder to the video-in of ya GC

- Plug the camcorder to the audio-in of ya SC

- Use VDub to capture it lossless -> Huffyuv or VBLE

- Deinterlace, crop, denoise and resize the files

- Normalize and filter the audio...

- Encode this files to any format you want


Read this capture guide and this FAQ !!!


Bye

[2nd Shepherd]

So rsquirell -- With the passing of time and a little more research, I have discovered that it is, indeed, an 8mm analog camcorder. Stupid questions #2 &3 : Which gives the better picture: analog or digital since digital must be converted to analog to be seen anyway? If the answer is digital, why? Thanks.

[rsquirell]

Your camcorder is analog....the tape is made by an analog machine at analog clarity...what you see when you hook your camcorder up to a TV and view the tape is as good as it gets. When you capture on the PC, the capture is digital...but since the source is analog the clarity, although identical to the original tape, won't improve the video.

[2nd Shepherd]

Yeah, but I guess what I meant is if I could record in either analog or digital, which would give the better quality picture in the end? And why?

[rsquirell]

Good DV and DVD cameras capture the video with more pixcels per inch (or something like that) which means better clarity and larger files. But I've seen posters complaining that their DV results aren't any better than their old analog vidcam. I guess there's a range of quality (and price).

[2nd Shepherd]

I'm getting married at Xmas-time and want to videotape it. My analog takes good videos but I'm willing to put out a grand or so on a new DV camera if it is worth the change. I'm thinking about the Panasonic PV-GS400. If it were you, what would you do?

[rsquirell]

Without looking up the nomenclature of every digital camera in the universe I wouldn't know. Here's some general rules I would follow...(1) Buy from a local store with a good returns policy (ie. CircuitCity) so I could take it back if I was dissappointed, (2) look for utility and multiuse (ie. make sure it has analog input ports so I could convert my old VHS tapes), (3) check what kind and availability of media it uses and make sure it suitable for my intended purpose (mini DVD Discs and tapes usually store only 20 minutes of video) and (4) price. If I had a grand to burn, I'd check it out.