Transfering old videos (VHS/8mm/Hi8) to digital

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Yes, what everyone posted here are valid points.. I’d suggest you take a look at an eGPU, you seem to have enough RAM on board to get you by… Sonnet Puck might do the job for you, and you’d need a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 1/2 adapter cable as well… on board your 2014 iMac is either 2 or 4 Gigs of VRAM(maybe 1.5 Gigs VRAM) depending on when it was made( early/mid/late 2014) what model+ how you configured it when you bought it… here’s some more info for you and what Apple recommends:Use an external graphics processor with your Mac - Apple Support (CA)

John B

Johnb-one wrote:

Yes, what everyone posted here are valid points.. I’d suggest you take a look at an eGPU, you seem to have enough RAM on board to get you by… Sonnet Puck might do the job for you, and you’d need a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 1/2 adapter cable as well… on board your 2014 iMac is either 2 or 4 Gigs of VRAM(maybe 1.5 Gigs VRAM) depending on when it was made( early/mid/late 2014) what model+ how you configured it when you bought it… here’s some more info for you and what Apple recommends:Use an external graphics processor with your Mac - Apple Support (CA)

I wouldn't think that an eGPU would help with encoding times unless the application doing the encoding leaned on the GPU, rather than on the CPU.

I would want to be VERY certain that the encoding application that I had in mind was leaning on the GPU before even thinking about spending a dime on an eGPU just to do encoding.

How are you getting the video onto your iMac? I used an analog to digital converter similar to this

and connected my VHS recorder/player to it. After the transfer there was no encoding required. It was already encoded. I did this about 15 years ago so the equipment has probably changed considerably.

Assuming you are using firewire, you might not want a newer mac. Support for DV cameras is evaporating fast. I suggest the most recent Mac with a TB1 port, Apple makes a Firewire to TB1 adapter.

On my new iMac, I have to go from FW400-800, FW-TB1, TB1-TB2, and even then there are few programs to download from the camera, iMovie might be the only one.

I would first start with looking at the system requirements for the software you are currently using. Are you using an external video converter like the elgato? Do you have enough free space on your hard drive? You need to know what your requirements are first. From the tape to the hard drive, what are all the devices and software you are using for that process right now?

If his camcorders are VHS, 8mm, and Hi8 ones, they won't have FireWire ports.

Digital8 camcorders had FireWire ports, and some Digital8 camcorders could play back 8mm or Hi8 tapes and convert the analog video (on the tapes) to DV video (on the Firewire port) in real time.

(Digital8 was a hybrid format that stored MiniDV-type digital video on high-quality Hi8-style tapes.)

Yes, I know. I use my Sony to play back Hi-8 and stream via FireWire.

The OP never did tell us how he was transcoding.