capturing from hi8
 

Hi,
I have a hi8 tape that I want to capture from, I have hi8, Digital 8 and MiniDv cameras, I tried using my mini dv camera as a digital analog converter while playing it on the hi8, no timecode was recognized even though in the l+c window I saw the video, so i tried using just the digital 8 camera which did the same thing. How can I get this hi8 tape onto my hard drive, I supose that I could breakdown and dub it onto minidv but I would ratehr not waste a tape. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Drew

Why don't you capture directly from the D8 to your PC? I have lots of Hi8 like you and use my Sony D8 to capture via iLink to the PC. I am assuming that the D8 you have will play Hi8 tapes as the lower end models will not do this conversion. The original timecode of the Hi8 will not be used though, just capture the whole tape. I have a Sony TRV740 which does an excellent job of converting my Hi8's . I then edit and output back to D8 or DVD.

I use my D8 camcorder to transfer my Video8 tapes to my computer (ULead VideoStudio). Because the recording is not digital, the timecode cannot be read and transfered with the signal. That also implies that the clip is not broken down by scenes. So I transfer 4 to 5 minutes at a time to get shorter clips on the hard drive. If I transfer more than 10 minutes in one shot, I get a .avi clip too big for easy processing.

Then, I must manually cut each clip into separate scenes for proper editing. It's more work than importing digital footage, but the final result is worth it.

While doing that this past week-end, I noticed how sharp my latest Digital8 footage is compared to Video8. The sharpening plug-in function does wonders with my usual D8 picture, but can't do much with analog low-res footage from my old 8mm. It only brings out noise in the dark areas.
Hi8 footage must be a little better.
On that point, the D8 can play old Video8 and Hi8 tapes through a Time Base Corrector and a Noise Reduction filter, which are 2 very useful features to improve the original footage. Be sure to turn them ON in the D8 cam menu.

Also, to get a watchable movie from Video8 tapes, I have to turn contrast down very severely and color saturation up in VideoStudio. Working with digital footage for over 4 years now, I hadn't realised I got used to a lot more half-tones in my picture than my old Video8 could give.