I have 2 different kinds of Video tapes about 50 Hi8 and 75 HGX-Gold30.?

Question

Help. these R family Videos, and Im looking to put them on a DVD. But Im going crazy trying to figure out what would be the best way. I dont have the cameras anymore. and when I do figure out the best way to do this. Do I put it first on the computer. I hope this aint going to cost alot. well thanks for your help. Bill

Answer 1

You're not going to get everything on A DVD - that amount of raw video would need about 250 DVDs!!!  Even compressed in MPEG-2 format you're looking at about 85.  

The HGX-Gold 30s are VHS-C tapes, so you can get an adapter and play them in a VCR.  I expect there are specialised decks that will play Hi8 tapes, but the cost will be prohibitive - you'd be better off getting an old camcorder that can play them.  Specifically, I'd look at the Sony TRV-350.  It's a Digital8 camcorder, which means you can connect it to your PC via firewire and get a good, reliable video capture.  But here's the good bit, it can read Hi8 tapes and also act as an analog to digital converter so that you can connect your VCR to it and transfer your VHS-C tapes as well.  

To get all that video on to your PC at the same time you'll need a little over a Terrabyte of disk space  - not outrageous by today's standards, but still quite a lot.  You won't need it all on HD if you're just going to take an hour* at a time and put it on a DVD, but if you're going to edit it down you'll need to think about it.

* You can probably get more than an hour on a DVD - I'm just being pessimistic.