How do I get my video's from my camcorder to my computer? (more details inside)?

Question

Ok so i have an old camcorder and i have no idea if i can convert my videos to my laptop. I have a samsung camcorder. Do i need any cables or whatever so i can hook it up to my computer? (I want to edit using windows movie maker)

Here's a picture of my camcorder:

http://www.samsung.com/cl/products/camcorder/8mm/images/m_scw80.jpg

The model of my camcorder is a "SCW87 8mm CAMCORDER" and it takes Hi8 tapes.

If i do need cables or wires where can i buy them AND got any suggestion of what new camcorder to buy that is good for uploading videos to my computer?

Answer 1

Okay.. in short.. being a Hi8 camcorder... your camcorder is not digital... thus it can not be connected directly to any computer the way a MiniDV or Digi8 digital camcorder would be able to. With a MiniDV or Digi8 camcorder all you would need is a firewire cable and a computer with a firewire port to capture footage on your computer/laptop.

In your case, you would need an actual capture card or TV tuner device to capture to the video footage from your camcorder to your computer. Essentually, such a device would allow you to plug in your camcorders AV cables (the ones you use to watch the camcorder on the TV) and then it'd take the analog (non-digital/non-computer) video signals and convert them to digital.. where they then can be captured by editing software and/or made into computer video files.  I'd recommend a more sophisicated capture card over a TV tuner, because often a TV tuner will only support lower quality mpeg capture. You would want DV AVI files for use in all normal editing software packages.

These devices should be available at any major electronics store. Or you could just purchase a new digital camcorder.  Many good digital camcorder will alow for what is called analog-to-digital password. In other words not only would you be able to capture footage from your new camera directly to your computer with a firewire cable.. but you'd be able to connect the AV cables from the new camcorder to those from your old camcord or a device like a VCR.. to capture video from them.  To put it more simply... some better digital camcorders can function like one of those video capture or TV tuner device I mentioned.... sometimes even better.. since regular DV camcorders are supported by all editing software packages. In the case of certain other capture hardware... they often require their own software to work and are not directly compatible with Windows Movie Maker and the likes... although they may be indirectly compatible through file import.

Digi8 camcorder utlize the same Hi8 tapes.. they just store digital instead of analog information on them. Digi8 camcorders also play Hi8 tapes and in certain cases may allow you to capture those straight to a computer as you would a Digi8 tape using firewire. This may not always be the case though. Digi8 is an older and not very popular standard however.  MiniDV is the standard for standard definition consumer camcorders.  And now they have a whole bunch of high definition consumer camcorder options coming out. So I'm not suggesting you get an antiquated Digi8 camera... but I'm just offering it as an option.

A third option feasibly exists.. if you happen to have a standalone DVD recorder. You could hook your camcorder to one of those... record the video to DVD.. and then transfer the video off the DVD to your computer if you have a DVD-rom drive.  However, this requires alot of steps and other software to convert DVD files to universally editable AVI files. The capture card or a new digital camcorder are the options that provide the higher quality and most convenience.

Answer 2

Hey fashionfreak,

Seeing that it's a 8mm camera you got, you will definitely need to get a converter box to hook-up to your computer in order to import the video footage into your camera.

8MM camcorders are analog which has to be digitalized via the converter box. there is a little learning curve, but one you get it, you're do just fine. You can find more helpful tips on my web guide about doing this.