8mm and Canopus or Digital 8 for capturing 8mm tapes?

Probably better.

I've had a lot of success using a Sony Digital8 camcorder to capture video from analog 8mm tapes. I use the Easy Setup "DV-NTSC DV Converter" when capturing from analog tapes, rather than the regular "DV-NTSC" when capturing from Digital8 tapes. It has worked well for me in capturing footage from old 8mm tapes. The image quality from those tapes doesn't compare to tapes that were originally recorded as DV or Digital8, but it's not really the fault of the conversion process, it's the quality of the analog tapes to begin with.

When doing this, there is no device control and there is no timecode. You have to manually start and stop the tape and manually start and stop the captures. When you stop a capture by hitting the escape key, the camera continues playing the tape, it doesn't automatically stop the tape like it does when you are capturing from a DV tape.

Digital8 is a discontinued standard and you can't buy new Digital8 camcorders any more. You can only buy used ones on eBay, etc. Then you have to go through the annoying process of bidding on eBay. Many people buy these cameras on eBay just for the purpose using them as A/D converters for analog 8mm and Hi-8 tapes.

Sony does make a deck (GV-D200 Digital8® Video Walkman) which will play 8mm, Hi8 and Digital8 tapes, and connects to the Mac via FireWire. This is still in production, but is currently out of stock until April 24. I think it sells for $500 new so it's only worth it if you have a lot of tapes to capture.

I have never used the Canopus so I can't say what the quality difference would be in using it to do the conversion vs. using a Digital8 camera. I believe that the Digital8 camera does accurately capture everything that is on the analog tape and converts it to DV.

Message was edited by: Bob Weaver

Bob,

The Canopus 300 should do a fine job of converting 8mm. 8mm is more or less the same video quality as VHS. Hi-8 and S-VHS being similar as well, just different tapes and machines.
If I recall correctly the 300 has a line base TBC that will help clean up analogue footage.

There is no device control using digital 8 or converters, it's manual stop and start and no timecode.
You could, if you requred timecode, dub the 8mm stuff to DV, then capture the DV tape to FCE. This would allow the Capture Project feature of FCE to be used if you needed it later on.

Al

OK thanks. To clarify, device control and Capture Project do work when a Digital8 tape is in the camcorder, but do not work when an analog 8mm or Hi-8 tape is in the same camcorder. (Digital8 camcorders. I don't know if the same is true for that Sony deck).

If device control and Capture Project are necessary to the original poster of this thread, they would be better off converting the tape to DV first, then capturing, as you noted. For me, the lack of device control when capturing from analog tapes is no big deal. I don't mind starting and stopping the tape over and over. I use the camcorder's remote control, even though it's only 3 inches from the camera, it's easier than pushing the camcorder's buttons, and it probably saves on wear and tear on the camera's buttons too.

Message was edited by: Bob Weaver

To clarify, device control and Capture Project do work when a Digital8 tape is >in the camcorder

Thanks for that info Bob. 🙂

Al

Actually, Hi8 was significantly better than 8mm. 400+ lines of resolution (vs 240) + digital PCM audio. If shot with a good camera, you can cleverly mix Hi8 footage as B-roll in a DV project.

x

Hi-8 and S-VHS being similar as well.

Sorry, my post was a bit vague.

The above comparison was meant to be similar, not 8mm or VHS.

Al

No problem.

I might add, the Canopus ADVC-300's line TBC will help with timing errors but will not totally eliminate them. If you are working with critical material and you need as pristine an image as possible, you'll want a full-frame TBC, which means taking your material to a post house for most people.

Cheerios,

x

Assuming all your devices have clean heads, clean connectors, good cables & properly working electronics and transports, it's a toss up. It would be best if you could try both methods and see for yourself which gives better results, if there is any difference at all.

Your Hi8 camera probably only has a Composite video out, which is not the best quality signal, but using the ADVC300 may correct for that and more because it has TBC correction and some other video cleaning & enhancement capabilities that a deck or camcorder alone won't have.

Using a deck that can play the 8mm analog tape and convert directly to DV over Firewire avoids the degradation from a composite analog signal, but you won't have the TBC and cleaning capabilities that the Canopus would give you.

Probably only a side-by-side comparison using the same test footage would provide a definitive answer as to which path produced the better result.

The data stream on a Digital8 tape is the same DV stream that is on a miniDV tape. The data is identical, it's just the physical tape that is different. You can only get 1 hour of DV onto a 2-hour Hi-8 tape, because the Digital8 camcorder runs the tape at approximately twice the speed.

My Sony DCR-TRV460 is smart enough to recognize the signal and switch between modes. I even have a few tapes which have regular analog 8mm video on part of the tape and Digital8 on a later part of the same tape. When it reaches one of these changes, the camera automatically stops and switches mode, then starts rolling again.

Not all DV is exactly identical, I have found out. There is a small discrepancy between the way Panasonic cameras record DV and the way Sony cameras record DV. I found this out when a colleague sent me a miniDV tape recorded on a Panasonic camera. I took it to a video shop to have it copied over to a Digital8 tape, which should have been a direct digital copy. But at the shop they told me Panasonic records DV in a slightly different way. The result is that there were some glitches and artifacts on the copy, and some audio problems as well. If you stick with all one manufacturer you should probably not run into that problem.

The downside is that I have found Sony camcorders to suddenly fail to operate at the worst possible moments, and for no apparent reason. This has happened to me several times, in fact my TRV460 died a couple of weeks ago. It is always wise to have an expert repairman who is knowlegeable about Sony available at all times.

I think that the Sony deck (GV-D200) might be exactly what you need for your project, but at $500 for a new one (or maybe $250-$300 for a used one on eBay) that would be a significant cost.

Message was edited by: Bob Weaver