Where to start? Capturing old Hi8 Tapes for parents

So i have a project i'm working on now, capturing my fathers old family videos to put onto DVD for him. I have the tapes, a lot of them, and the camera he used to record them. Although the camera doesn't work half the time. So i have a second camera that i bought new online. works for the most part, every once in a while it tells me to eject the tape, and then i put it back in and rewind a second or two and it works fine.

but the capturing software/hardware i got, Ion Video 2 Pc ( www.ionaudio.com/products/details/video-2-pc-mkii ) is OK, but half the time when there is a video signal, it shows up green on the capturing software. It seems like the videos don't show up on the capturing software unless the quality is pretty good with no snow or fuzz. So that's kinda frustrating.

Is there a better way of doing this? Is there better hardware to be able to capture the Hi8 tapes from? Is there a way to capture it right into FCPX without using 3rd party software? Is there better 3rd party software?

Just wanted to get some ideas from people who have done this before. I'm having so many issues with dropped audio from tapes and the cameras stopping playback, it's just driving me nuts!

Some of these Hi8 cameras could be connected directly to a Mac ( USB rarely Firewire ) did you check this possibility?
You could import directly in FCPX with better quality.

If the usb/firewire doesn't work...

I've done it with a AJA Kona 3G, and an analogue to digital converter from AJA...
the software used was from AJA. I think it was Control Room.

Admittedly that is pricy, and probably overkill. But on the plus side, there is almost nothing you can't ingest with that setup, so long as you have the required deck/camera...

I'm sure there is a better option...

good luck.

For importing older analog footage to FCPX I have just used an old Panasonic PV-GS200 DV camcorder with analog to digital pass-through and plug the older camera into the Panasonic and then Plug the Panasonic into the mac with it's firewire cable.

If the Ion uses standard video protocols you should be able to import directly into it from FCPX and just ignore the software that came with it.

The best way to do it would be to find a Sony Digital-8 camera with a firewire port that can read hi8 tapes directly.
If your computer doesn't have a firewire port you can get a thunderbolt to firewire adapter or try to find someone who does.

Hope this helps,
-Mark

bradywurtz wrote: So i have a project i'm working on now, capturing my fathers old family videos to put onto DVD for him. I have the tapes, a lot of them, and the camera he used to record them. Although the camera doesn't work half the time. So i have a second camera that i bought new online. works for the most part, every once in a while it tells me to eject the tape, and then i put it back in and rewind a second or two and it works fine.

but the capturing software/hardware i got, Ion Video 2 Pc ( www.ionaudio.com/products/details/video-2-pc-mkii ) is OK, but half the time when there is a video signal, it shows up green on the capturing software. It seems like the videos don't show up on the capturing software unless the quality is pretty good with no snow or fuzz. So that's kinda frustrating.

Is there a better way of doing this? Is there better hardware to be able to capture the Hi8 tapes from? Is there a way to capture it right into FCPX without using 3rd party software? Is there better 3rd party software?

Just wanted to get some ideas from people who have done this before. I'm having so many issues with dropped audio from tapes and the cameras stopping playback, it's just driving me nuts!

Hi Brady!

This is a subject I've been absorbed with recently, with digitizing my own old Hi8 tapes.

First off, I'd recommend that you go the extra mile to get the best possible digital copies, because they can really surprise you with their image quality if they are processed and later filtered well. A poor digitization is a shame if the recordings are of any value, which I suppose your father's are.

I used old borrowed cameras (my own being damaged), but in hindsight it would have been better if I'd sent the tapes to a good professional firm - their fees for copying/digitizing per hour of tape are very reasonable. So if that is viable for you then do that to get the most from the tapes.

A good digitizing firm will be able to make adjustments so nothing is lost unnecessarily. In my case (where I'd recorded on a Sony) I found I got better playbacks from 90's Sony cameras than from other makes. But I had to try several cameras on account of difference in playback quality. I used an old Canopus AVDC 100 to digitize between camera and computer.

I spooled all the tapes all the way back and forth a couple of times before playing them, but some tapes still had crinkles in them or other imperfections which led to lost frames and breaks in the playback.

But here's the interesting part: Once I had digital copies and learned how to make lighting/color corrections in FCPX then I was pleased to see the images were good. Then I learned to process them to remove the video noise with NEAT, and much of the material went from being merely 'good', to looking really beautiful.

I've done plenty of video since the Hi8 days, but I would say that the good Hi 8 recordings, filtered as described above, look at least as good as anything I've shot since - not on a big screen, mind you, but on your 13/15 inch laptop screen.

Even very noisy/grainy low light Hi8 clips can become stunningly beautiful, if you have a good digital playback, and take the time to get the most from them.

where did you get your tapes transferred if you don't mind me asking?

^^^

Hi Brady, If you read my post again, I said "it would have been better IF..."



I did the Hi8 digitization myself, and it took lots of trial and error, and testing several different cameras before I had useful copies with the entire soundtrack digitized. Because of differences between how cameras are tuned, some of the digitized tapes have afterwards also required a lot of color correction - some of these problems and the time spent on them are avoided if you get the job done by professionals with better equipment and experience, was my point.

After I'd done this work, one of the members here, Dan Wierling (alias dgwvideo) posted an excellent reply in the thread "How best to color balance?" where he wrote about his company's experience with conversions:

www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/...-color-balance#69410


From the good impression his post made, I'd certainly consider his firm to be of interest, if it is an option for you. There are many others.

...

I had the same issue, even more so, when I digitized my father-in-law's home movies from the 60's and 70's, which were on 8mm film. There again it was much of a compromise to do the job myself, by projecting the film on a good surface and recording it with my Sony HDR PJ780.

Professionals with the right equipment would instead scan that film, after having cleaned away the dust etc., and I'm certain that the result would be superior to what I did myself. When I later looked into what that would have cost, I was a little flabbergasted at how reasonable the price would have been.

The consolation was that I'd been able to do the work in time to make a Xmas gift of the conversions to my father-in law... My Sony camera used to record is much more light sensitive than my earlier video cameras so I didn't lose too much detail. It is remarkable how much detail and color nuance there is, even in 8mm film.

All 20 of his carefully made films look pretty good, on my father-in-law's new iPad. It was a great pleasure to have done it for him, and my wife.


... And another thing! Dan Wierling mentioned that they apply noise reduction to their conversions, and that is a big deal! I'm still, several months later, gradually applying noise reduction (via the NEAT software) to bits of my Hi8 conversions; unless you have a new state-of-the-art computer it takes forever to do do that part of the job. So actually I'm delaying most of the noise reduction work on my Hi8 digitizations until I buy a new computer later this year.