HOW TO CONVERT CAMCORDER TAPES

geek84

Hi Folks

I have some HI 8 camcorder tapes which I would like to put on another storage medium.

Can you kindly suggest anything?

Thanks in advance

Rosie_Scope

Hi @geek84, I was looking into this kind of thing recently as my dad has a whole load of slides from years ago that I'd like to get digitised for his birthday, so I'll be interested to see if any members have any suggestions beyond what I've found. 

From my searches, I found some companies online that you can send old media to who will put them onto different storage mediums for you. Most of them will return the old stuff to you afterwards so you won't lose them. Some seemed quite expensive and I couldn't recommend any particular company over another, but it might be something to look into.

I've also found a couple of local photo or tech shops offered a similar service, putting tapes onto CDs, USBs or just uploading them online for you to download, so that might be worth some enquiries too. Hope you can get something sorted!

geek84

Thanks @Rosie_Scope

I'm a bit reluctant to send tapes through the post in case they get lost.

onedayatatime

I'm not a technical person at all but also looked into doing something similar several years ago. I know technology has advanced a lot so many things have probably changed. However, I do remember that there was a type of adapter you could buy. I think it depends on what socket things you have on your camcorder and your computer. If I remember correctly, some devices have HDMI sockets for leads, like on your TV, that are also on laptops etc. It might be possible to do it that way, play the tape on the camcorder attached to your laptop and save it onto a disc or on your laptop/ computer.
If there isn't a HDMI connection, I recall there was some other device with a pin plug thing that you could plug in that had different coloured wired plugs, red, yellow and white, that might plug into an older device. There's something to do with audio and different types of plugs.
I'm really not explaining myself very well.
If you Google 'video capture' you might find there are more modern plugs and gadgets that might help you.
Again, I'm not an expert!!
Best of luck though.

LeeCVT

Old thread I know but you can buy video capture cards that will connect to a pc via USB. Really easy to use and install and they will come with the software to capture your old footage, all you do is use the AV cables from the camcorder, the ones you use to connect to a TV, hook them upto the USB video capture device, set the software to record and press play. Honestly its really easy and companies charge thousands for this. YouTube has some indepth guides.

Rosie_Scope

That's good to know @LeeCVT, thanks for sharing!