Does anyone know an inexpensive way to transfer 8mm audio/video to DVD?

Question

I have a bunch of 8mm tapes I'd like to transfer to DVD but have no camera or player. VHS-C has a cartridge for playing in a regular-sized VHS video deck. Is there a similar solution for transferring 8mm? I have a VHS to DVD dubbing deck.

Answer 1

Well, the other guy is answering different question, right? He is telling you about videocapture, but you do have that in VHS - DVD deck. But you do not know how to play the tape.

Well, you are out of luck. There is NO WAY how you could play 8mm tape on regular VHS. 8mm tapes and VHS tapes are technically totally different, same like you cannot play CDs on Vinyl record player.

for reference see:

http://hometheater.about.com/cs/vcrs/a/a...

8mm players seem to be hard to get. I've seen a few on eBay,. the cheapest deal was $46 but usually around +- 100$ - now that is very individual, if you still would call it inexpensive way.

My suggestion would be to ask among friends, borrow 8mm camera from somebody and plug it as an input into your VHS-DVD deck, record all of your tapes during a weekend and return the camera:-).

have fun.. johnny

Answer 2

You might consider taking the plunge and buying a capture card.  A Matrox RT2500 could cost about $250.00 and comes with Adobe Premiere 6.0 (see http://123dv.com/catalog/matrox_rt2500_w...  

If you're going to go through the trouble of transferring to DVD, you might as well learn to edit and make it more enjoyable.  You can check out my YouTube account to get an idea of what's possible with a moderate investment of effort.

Johnny is right about borrowing a 8mm camcorder from a buddy or maybe renting one.  You'd use the cable from the camcorder to the connector going into the capture card.

If this sounds like too much trouble, you could simply take your tapes to a professional company.  Here are a couple of links:  http://www.customvideo.tv/  http://www.videoconversionexperts.com/Fi...

Good luck!!!

Answer 3

there are items called video capture cards that you can purchase and install in your computer for about 15-150 US dollars that will take the signal and allow you using their software to create DVDs

Answer 4

Buy a Sony Digital 8 camcorder off of eBay!! It has backwards compatibility & you can link it with a firewire cable to your PC, so your analog will be recognized as digital by the computer. Or you can connect with analog cables (camera>>VHS>>DVD). You need a 8mm camera, There aren't any 8mm / VHS adapters!! Good luck!!