How do get the best quality DVD from an original recorded on a Sony “digital” 8mm tape camcorder?
Posted on : 24-06-2010 | By : digital_photo_frames0 | In : Sony
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I captured the file from the camcorder via the USB connection. I chose "Large File" from the drop down menu in Windows Movie Maker which created a 640 x 400 (about) frame. The resulting DVD was badly pixelated full screen on my computer and my HD TV. Is there a way to at least come close to the original quality when burning to DVD?
Thanks
The transfer rate with USB is too slow for real time video capture. To do it yourself you need a firewire cable. However you need a fast processor as well because if your CPU is at 100% while capturing the video you will drop frames.
If you want the best quality I recommend sending the tape to a professional video conversion company. StashSpace.Com does an excellent job for a great price. It costs $7 per hour tape for the transfer to digital and $15 for DVDs. They can do the transfer direct to DVD or you can use their online software to watch, share, and edit your movies.
Check them out at http://www.stashspace.com they accept all types of tapes including your 8mm. Good Luck.
Video man’s correct – but it is not a dire as he makes it seem.
If you are able to transfer those videos using USB, it sounds like you are using a Digital8 camcorder (but you are using the USB streaming feature rather than the standard definition DV import/capture fueture which will result in *MUCH* better video quality). ALL Digital8 camcorders have a DV port that you can connect to the firewire port on your computer with a firewire cable. The camcorder side of the firewire port is always 4-pin. Since we don’t know what computer you are using, we don’t know if it already has a firewire port, or if you need to add one – of if adding one is even possible… so we don’t know if the other side of the firewire cable needs to be 4-pin or 6 pin… or evn 9-pin.
If your computer does not have a firewire port, but does have available expansion slots, then a firewire port is easy to add. Desktop computers use a PCI card – they are cheap. Laptops can use a PCMCIA card – they are cheap… or an ExpressCard – they are not so cheap.
Some desktops and some laptops have no expansion capability – in which case, you either need a new computer or borrow one with a firewire port or send the video out to a service like that which was suggested by Video Man. As for a “robust CPU”, since it is only standard definition video, pretty much any CPU from the last five years or so can handle that just fine.
The other thing we don’t know is how much you need to transfer. 1 hour of standard definition DV will use about 14 gig of computer hard drive space – and you NEVER can allow your computer’s hard drive to get below about 15% available hard drive space (this has to do with operating system requirements).