Costco and Walgreens offer transfer services for a number of video formats, including VHS, VHS-C, and the long-departed Betamax. Hire a service.Though film conversion services aren’t cheap, they’re a lot easier than the DIY methods described above. In addition to local film specialists, major retailers such as Costco and Walgreens have conversion services for 16 mm, 8mm, and Super 8 film formats. Like Hilton, people often “will find a stash of old home movies,” Steinberg says. “They don’t want to hang onto boxes of films or VHS, but they want to save the memories on a digital format.”
You may also want to consider the possibility of losing your stuff in transit or having it damaged in the hands of courier service providers. Other MiniDV playback devices in this category are; Sony DSR-V10 mini-DV Player Recorder, Panasonic AG-DV2000 mini-DV Player Recorder, JVC HR-DVS2U Mini-DV/S-VHS VCR Combo, etc. The average turnaround time is 2-3 weeks, but it might take longer depending on the service and the amount of media you need to convert. Check if the footage is successfully captured on the device, and then you can transfer it to other devices for editing or sharing. Press play on the camcorder, and then press record on the DVD recorder. After these first steps, you must install and open video capturing software such as VirtualDub.
This amount of storage is more than enough for most people. The average file size of one VHS-C cassette is approx 4.5GB. This will definitely vary depending on the capture card and software you use.
It can be useful to transfer video footage from your Sony Handycam to a PC for editing, storing and sharing. Connect the cables from the audio and video out on the back of the VCR to your video converter. And always test a new acquisition with a tape you don’t care about. That way, you don’t lose anything important if the VCR or camcorder destroys the first tape you insert. To convert 8mm tapes to DVD without a camcorder, the best option is to use a DVD Recorder/VHS VCR combination device. Borrowing or purchasing an inexpensive used Hi8 camcorder is another option.
Sourcing for an 8mm Tape Player
Now, all that’s needed is to just press PLAY on your camcorder, and you can watch MiniDV tapes to your heart’s content. There are two types of analog connection you can use with a USB video capture device as you can see from the image above.
You can also record video to 8mm tape from a VHS VCR or other sources through the S-Video and AV in ports. Once the video is on your computer hard disk in a digital format, you may proceed to edit it and even burn it to a DVD.
Life if You Love Memories
The USB-to-composite converter plugs into your VCR and computer to digitize those old tapes. It comes with its own video-capture software, and outputs at 640 x 480. On the low end is the ABLEWE Mini RCA to HDMI converter ($14.99), which can convert an analog stream from your VCR to 720p or 1080p digital. However, you’ll need to provide your own software to capture the video. You can import videos using Windows Live Photo Gallery. You can then edit them, save them and share them with Windows Live Movie Maker.
How to Transfer MiniDV to Computer
If you have a bunch of 8mm tapes accumulated over the years, the best way to convert them to digital is through an 8mm tape deck. The method of connecting your camcorder to the television is actually pretty simple. The first step is to obtain your camcorder’s RCA cables (these are the yellow/red/white cables you’d often find connected to other components in your home theater). Now, you need to be extra careful here and make sure you get the right type of cable. Some camcorders have odd connectors or even proprietary connections that require an RCA cable from the manufacturer. The good news is that most of the time, camcorders will supply you with the cable, so that you can easily connect to your home TV for future viewing.
So it’s better to invest in a service that will do a professional job than in old equipment, which may do more harm than good. Depending on the video converter device, you are going to need a mini/micro USB cable or Micro SD card to be able to transfer footage to a PC/Laptop. Legacy Box uses a one-size-fits-all pricing structure when it comes to digitization.
You’ll also find different types of camera lenses and videography cameras from here. Mini-DV players are no longer in production, but you can still locate one, but it is scarce and very costly. Even when the device was in production, it was very expensive. For example, the Sony MiniDV VCR Player Recorder with model number DHR-1000 was sold for $4200 when it was released. Also, the cheaper converter you get, the more problems you will have, so if you plan to buy this kind of device, invest in a good one.
Read more about minidv to digital here.