Converting old video tapes?

wonderings

wonderings

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I have a bunch of old tapes, Mini DV as well as 8mm tapes. I was originally going to do the conversion to digital myself. I have the software, and cables, but missing power for the cameras and the price to replace is not as cheap as I would like. I was googling stores that do the conversion and while prices are a bit steep for the amount of tapes I have (around 50). Considering the time I would have to spend importing and going through the pricing is not out of line. I came across this website:
Digitize Your Home Videos, Film Reels, & Photos | iMemories that has an AI clean up feature that is intriguing. Has anyone used this company specifically and used their AI features? It always looks amazing on their website but have had some hit and miss with AI clean up of old photos in the past through work.
 
I think all the pro's use Downtown Camera for analog to digital formats, as they are the only shop which still has a photo lab, and can process 8mm tapes.

Never used any Ai stullf. But I'm sure you could sample stuff out once you have a digital file.
 
I went down this rabbit hole a few years ago, and ultimately decided to do it myself because a) wanted to make sure it was done right (there are a lot of bad reviews for iMemories and similar shops that don't use great equipment etc) and b) I was worried about shipping damage/loss. If you choose a local spot that you can hand-deliver and pick up, and that you trust to do a good job, that's a safer bet than shipping to a company in the states etc. if you ask me.

If you choose to go down the "do it yourself" route, there is a LOT of information to go through if you want to do it the best way possible. I think the general rule of thumb is still to encode to a lossless codec such as lagarith or huffyuv via VirtualDub or similar, but that takes up a LOT of space and still requires converting to mp4 afterwards in most cases.

I remember thinking MiniDV was rather futureproof when you could transfer the footage to PC via firewire digitally, but now that method is considered substandard and it's better to use the s-video cable to rip your minidv tapes.

For your 8mm stuff (and perhaps even your MiniDV) another useful piece of hardware could be the old Panasonic DVD recorders that offer a "TBC-like" passthrough that stabilizes jitter. You don't use them as a recorder or anything, purely a pass-through device for error correction. This forum/thread is very informative in that respect: Panasonic DVR Passthrough Settings You can pick them up for about $60 used, and definitely worth it if you decide to do it yourself and have a lot of tapes to convert.
 
I bought a standalone DVD recorder (one that you put in your stereo cabinet, a Philips DVDR something or other, I forget the exact model) about 15 years ago to convert Hi8 video cassettes to DVD, thinking that DVD was the be-all-end-all format and that this would solve my archival needs forever.

Not so much. Now I've got a bunch of the original Hi8 cassettes AND a bunch of old DVD's that may or may not be readable anymore.

I really need to get the cassettes converted to digital and keep them on my computer with backups in the cloud and wherever else I can find to put them.
 
Xhumeka said:
I went down this rabbit hole a few years ago, and ultimately decided to do it myself because a) wanted to make sure it was done right (there are a lot of bad reviews for iMemories and similar shops that don't use great equipment etc) and b) I was worried about shipping damage/loss. If you choose a local spot that you can hand-deliver and pick up, and that you trust to do a good job, that's a safer bet than shipping to a company in the states etc. if you ask me.

If you choose to go down the "do it yourself" route, there is a LOT of information to go through if you want to do it the best way possible. I think the general rule of thumb is still to encode to a lossless codec such as lagarith or huffyuv via VirtualDub or similar, but that takes up a LOT of space and still requires converting to mp4 afterwards in most cases.

I remember thinking MiniDV was rather futureproof when you could transfer the footage to PC via firewire digitally, but now that method is considered substandard and it's better to use the s-video cable to rip your minidv tapes.

For your 8mm stuff (and perhaps even your MiniDV) another useful piece of hardware could be the old Panasonic DVD recorders that offer a "TBC-like" passthrough that stabilizes jitter. You don't use them as a recorder or anything, purely a pass-through device for error correction. This forum/thread is very informative in that respect: Panasonic DVR Passthrough Settings You can pick them up for about $60 used, and definitely worth it if you decide to do it yourself and have a lot of tapes to convert.
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Thanks, I did not look at reviews, the AI stuff is what had me curious as I know it can do some amazing things and some things are more just fluff right now, not living up to what they say they can do. Very good point about dealing locally just to avoid the possibility of having the tapes lost or damaged during shipping, which s a very real issue as there are no backups.

I might look into doing it myself again as I have everything but the cameras.
 
I think AI will definitely help with upscaling and cleaning up footage, but having the most pristine copy to work with will be the biggest advantage going forward. A lot of complaints about iMemories have to do with using inferior capturing equipment and software, but I also think a lot of the people complaining are "videophiles" who have unrealistic expectations compared to the average person trying to preserve memories.

I have an Elgato USB capture device that I used for a lot of my rips if you want to borrow it. I didn't use the included Elgato software, but I used the device to work with Virtualdub to capture to huffyuv. I then convert my huffyuv AVI files to MP4 via handbrake or similar - this process improves deinterlacing I find, but again, might not be noticeable to most.

I suggest you capture the same tape both ways (using included elgato software that captures directly to .mp4 vs virtualdub method) and see if you're happy enough with the included software and MP4 it generates, or if you want to spend the extra effort etc.

Good luck! It's actually a fun project once you get started :)
 
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wonderings said:
Thanks, I did not look at reviews, the AI stuff is what had me curious as I know it can do some amazing things and some things are more just fluff right now, not living up to what they say they can do. Very good point about dealing locally just to avoid the possibility of having the tapes lost or damaged during shipping, which s a very real issue as there are no backups.

I might look into doing it myself again as I have everything but the cameras.
Click to expand...
GTAM members probably have enough expired tech kicking around that we can probably come up with the old cameras. I think my parents have a hi8 in the basement somewhere.
 
Xhumeka said:
I think AI will definitely help with upscaling and cleaning up footage, but having the most pristine copy to work with will be the biggest advantage going forward. A lot of complaints about iMemories have to do with using inferior capturing equipment and software, but I also think a lot of the people complaining are "videophiles" who have unrealistic expectations compared to the average person trying to preserve memories.

I have an Elgato USB capture device that I used for a lot of my rips if you want to borrow it. I didn't use the included Elgato software, but I used the device to work with Virtualdub to capture to huffyuv. I then convert my huffyuv AVI files to MP4 via handbrake or similar - this process improves deinterlacing I find, but again, might not be noticeable to most.

I suggest you capture the same tape both ways (using included elgato software that captures directly to .mp4 vs virtualdub method) and see if you're happy enough with the included software and MP4 it generates, or if you want to spend the extra effort etc.

Good luck! It's actually a fun project once you get started :)
Click to expand...
GreyGhost said:
GTAM members probably have enough expired tech kicking around that we can probably come up with the old cameras. I think my parents have a hi8 in the basement somewhere.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the offers!

I bought some capture device a few years ago when I started looking into this.

I have my old Sony Digital video camera so good with the MiniDV capes. I think it was the 8mm tapes was the issue. I have the old camera but through some move and the mass of cables kicking around the power cable is gone. Have not been able to source one online. I would rather get this equipment myself as it is a slow burn process, I have a lot to go through and will be taking a long time to get this all done.I was just thinking, is there an adapter that lets you put an 8mm tape into something that will let it be read by a VCR? If so, finding an old VCR will probably be cheaper and more available.
 
wonderings said:
Appreciate the offers!

I bought some capture device a few years ago when I started looking into this.

I have my old Sony Digital video camera so good with the MiniDV capes. I think it was the 8mm tapes was the issue. I have the old camera but through some move and the mass of cables kicking around the power cable is gone. Have not been able to source one online. I would rather get this equipment myself as it is a slow burn process, I have a lot to go through and will be taking a long time to get this all done.I was just thinking, is there an adapter that lets you put an 8mm tape into something that will let it be read by a VCR? If so, finding an old VCR will probably be cheaper and more available.
Click to expand...
VHS-C could go in an adaptor to play in VCR. Afaik, there was never an an adaptor for the other mini cassettes as the recording format was different and conversion would be required in order to playback. Basically you'd need a whole 8mm player with heads and power inside of a vhs tape body. I don't know if the packaging is possible but it doesn't seem worthwhile as if you've already read and can output video, converting it twice more to allow a vcr to read it just makes things worse.
 
I had some slides digitized a week or so back by Digital Treasury in Mimico and quite happy with them. Enough so that they are now doing a VHS tape from 35 years ago. I should get it back next week.
 
Just make sure your old camera works. I hadn’t used mine in 5 years and it is 38 years old. I was given that conversion set up in the Amazon link above and the first tape I popped in the video cam almost ate it.
I gathered all the tapes and took them to have them converted. The guy laughed when I told him I wanted them converted to DVD and he said that will cost more as they use a USB stick now.
I took it to these folks. Very happy with their services
 
Sunday Rider said:
Just make sure your old camera works. I hadn’t used mine in 5 years and it is 38 years old. I was given that conversion set up in the Amazon link above and the first tape I popped in the video cam almost ate it.
I gathered all the tapes and took them to have them converted. The guy laughed when I told him I wanted them converted to DVD and he said that will cost more as they use a USB stick now.
I took it to these folks. Very happy with their services
Click to expand...
I had the same reply with DVD vs stick. The stick 62G holds the 24 slides and has room for a one hour VHS. What bothers me is that when I was touring I carried a stick that had some personal info plus a complete Goldwing parts manual and a complete service manual. I recently opened the files and they were corrupted. That bothers me even though there's nothing of historic or commercial value.

Laser engraving onto titanium plates sounds expensive.

Old black and white photos seem to last forever. Framing a USB Stick and hanging it on the wall doesn't cut it.
 
nobbie48 said:
I had the same reply with DVD vs stick. The stick 62G holds the 24 slides and has room for a one hour VHS. What bothers me is that when I was touring I carried a stick that had some personal info plus a complete Goldwing parts manual and a complete service manual. I recently opened the files and they were corrupted. That bothers me even though there's nothing of historic or commercial value.

Laser engraving onto titanium plates sounds expensive.

Old black and white photos seem to last forever. Framing a USB Stick and hanging it on the wall doesn't cut it.
Click to expand...
I wondered about that as well. So I copied it to many computers. The 8mm tapes and mini DVi comprised our kids from babies to teenagers and are priceless. I still have the tapes in case I need to do it again, but I made USB copies for the kiddos too. We spent all Christmas watching them.
I have trays of slides, and the Kodachrome ones are still perfect, the Ektachrome ones have faded even though taken later. Black and White for sure is the best. We have some old family albums with pics from the 1920 that are in mint shape.
 
nobbie48 said:
Old black and white photos seem to last forever.
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I bought some old lactates on glass. They look great. Probably late 19th century. If you keep them dry and protected, they will probably last effectively forever. The content is marginal though. For what was probably an expensive and annoying process the photographer behaved like a teenage girl with a phone camera.
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