@arisamp Can you post or message the specifics of what you used to transfer? Special cables? Specific programs? What did you use to connect camera to PC, and how does it read &translate an analog tape? TIA!
@kjofkw - it was quite a while ago, so I don’t remember all the details. I did buy two camcorders on ebay that could play my 8mm tapes. Connected the camcorder to the laptop (at that time, this was a windows laptop) using the usb port I believe. And used the default windows movie software on the laptop to read that in and save. Files were saved in the avi format. A 2 hour 8mm tape transferred to disk was about 25GB - had to have lots of external storage.
I just started doing this yesterday - I bought a device from elgato called Video Capture. You need to have a working VCR player. The device I purchased comes with a USB connection for your computer, and video/audio cables to connect to your VCR player… I downloaded the software from their site.
You play the tape and hit record and the software saves it as an mp4 file to your computer. I spent yesterday reliving my children’s youth. Forgot that period when my younger child insisted on taking the video and couldn’t hold the camera still!
Just about to post this. I used this also. It’s very good and very easy to do.
@college_query , I also used the Elgato video capture, and it worked well for me. I even spend time afterwards using Microsoft movie maker (I think) to chop the 2 hr videos into segments, deleting the snow between segments, etc.
If you have 8 mm, mini-DV, or other formats, the capture device works well with those formats as well. Trick is having an old camcorder that can at least play the tapes. I bought a used 8 mm camcorder on amazon for that purpose. Our old mini-DV camcorder still did playback, luckily.
Yes, it was quite emotional to see our adult kids as small children again!
I have a VCR to DVD recorder that still works, and I want to use that so that I can edit as it copies. But now I just have to find the instructions!
I’m glad to hear about Elgato - I’d been looking at buying that to try.
It works great…and it’s pretty simple to do.
I bought the Elgato Video Capture device you all recommended and it’s great! I transferred two small tapes tonight and am excited to finally get this project underway.
@psychmomma , glad to hear you like Elgato’s product. After your tapes are digitized, there is editing software (part of Windows, I believe) that you can use to chop up the 2 hr videos into smaller segments, eliminating the stretches of static in the process.
I am still in the long 6 to 8 week waiting period for my Southtree order. I got an email when they received my shipment but nothing further. Late Sunday night, I checked my order code just out of curiosity; nothing happening. But first thing Monday, I had a email from them reassuring me that my shipment was safe and politely reminding me of the timeframe. That was a first for me from any company on just checking the status of an order.
Just placed an order with Legacy Box and it turns out that they’re the same company as SouthTree.
I didn’t realize I needed to wait for Legacy Box to send me boxes. Seems a little odd as the sizes of one’s media can differ so much (ie, vhs vs dvd). Also seems to add time that isn’t necessary. I assumed I’d be sent a label and use my own box.
We have 61 items…was hard to decide what to include and what to pass on.
I thought Southtree’s customer service was great until they screwed up my order. I sent five videotapes and they completely missed copying one of them. They said I could send it back at no shipping cost to get done. I was considering that when I realized that they missed one-third of another tape. Each videotape was divided into three digital files, which were all fine (other than the one they didn’t do at all). And each tape was also divided into three DVD’s - except for the one where they gave me two copies of part 2 and none of part 3. So I had the 12 online digital copies but only 11 distinct physical DVD’s.
The rep had a lot of trouble understanding the problem, since she didn’t think the videotapes were divided into three parts. In the end, she offered to redo all of that tape from the digital files onto DVD. Those DVD’s arrived today. I now have a full set, plus an extra copy of part 1 and two extra copies of part 2 of the one tape.
I will be now be getting a refund for the tape that was not done at all.
Overall the quality wasn’t all that great but the tapes were about 30 years old, so I feel lucky it wasn’t worse. Also our videotapes had been copied from video camera mini tapes and I filled up each tape with six hours of our own copies. So that didn’t help either! I was very happy to be able to see them at all, starting with the day our son was born. It was wonderful to see our parents, long gone.
It was also a bit depressing to see how much younger I was 32 years ago! Ah well…
I forgot to update. I spent parts of four days transferring my vhs-c tapes to my computer, and then backup drive and flash drives.
I finished 96 tape transfers, mostly 30 minutes long, some I hadn’t seen for 30 years. The mini tape quality was much better than the vhs tapes I’d transferred some small tapes to years ago. Glad I saved both.
We haven’t started watching them yet, but will over Christmas break. I’m a huge fan of the Elgato device.
@psychomomma, I am very pleased with the Elgato device as well. Yes, it took time, but I’m retired, so I have lots of time.
After I was finished I made a flash drive for each of my kids with the video clips that applied to them (recitals, scout ceremonies, school stuff, etc) along with clips from our Yellowstone trip we took in 2003. Chopping up the two hour tapes into smaller clips made it all manageable. I did that with the included Windows video editor.
I am definitely looking into the Elgato device as a winter hobby.
It works extremely well. Just follow the instructions. It’s very easy.
I tried finding one of those Elgato devices online, but they seem to be out of stock everywhere! I would really like to get one.
The biggest problem I had was finding devices to play back the old tapes. We had an old VCR that stopped recording but still played back OK; same with our mini-DV camcorder. Problem was our 8 mm video. Ended up buying a used 8 mm camcorder on amazon from a third party vendor. Now that I’m done with it, my sister is borrowing it to do the same with her old 8 mm videotapes.
Given that Elgato devices are so hard to find, has anyone else tried a different company? I know you often get what you pay for. However, when doing an Amazon search, I noted there are several competitive transfer cables/program that look exactly like Elgato that are much cheaper. Some have decent reviews. Of course it is not worth a lot of extra time or frustration if they are simply cheap knock-offs.