How to Transfer Digital & Analog 8mm Video Tapes to DVD
Analog 8mm tapes were a popular tape format in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their compact form made them more lightweight and less bulky than their VHS counterparts. If you have a stack of old analog or digital 8mm tapes around and want to convert them to DVD, one of the easiest ways of doing this is by using a Digital 8mm camera. These cameras read both digital and analog 8mm tapes. In addition, they can be hooked up to computers via FireWire or USB cable for easy editing.
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Things You'll Need
- Digital 8mm camera
- FireWire or USB cable
- Computer with free hard drive space
- Editing software
- DVD burner
- Blank DVD
Instructions
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Plug your Digital 8 camcorder into your computer, either through the FireWire or USB cable.
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Insert the tape that you want to transfer into the camera. Rewind the tape to where you want to start the capture.
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Start up your video editing program on your computer. Both Macs and PCs come with video editing software on new operating systems (iMovie and Windows Live Movie maker, respectively). There are also other open source and free video editing solutions available (see Resources, below).
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Ensure that the Digital 8mm camera is visible to the editing software. It should be listed in the "Recording Devices" or "Cameras" readout. You may need to turn the camera off and on again if it doesn't show up the first time.
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Press "Play" on the camera to start the tape playing. Press "Capture" or "Record" on your video editing software.
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Press "Stop" or "End Capture" when you have captured the footage you want.
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Edit the video if needed. You can add titles, transitions and other effects.
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Export your edited video to DVD. Open the DVD drive and insert a blank DVD. In the menu on your editing program, select "Export to DVD" or "Send to DVD." Your edited movie will be transcoded and burned to DVD.
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Tips & Warnings
If you want to create more elaborate DVDs with menu and other features, you can use a special DVD authoring program, such as those given in Resources.
If capturing a lot of footage, ensure that you have enough hard drive space to hold everything. Each minute of footage takes up roughly 100MB of disc space.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit 8mm image by Randy McKown from Fotolia.com
