Community Newsletter: Q&A: Best way to convert 8mm and Super 8mm film to DVD?

Use a miniDV camcorder

I've converted several 8mm and Hi8 tapes, using a miniDV camcorder:

I connect the output of the Hi8 camcorder (either S-Video & audio, or RCA/Phono leads) to the analogue input of a miniDV camcorder; set the miniDV camcorder to convert this analogue into digital ("pass through" mode); connect the Firewire/IEEE1394 output of the miniDV camcorder to a PC and "capture" the video as normal.

Not all miniDV camcorders can do this. I use a Canon MV630i.

So far, this has produced very good results.

You do need plenty of hard disk space! A 90 minute tape will produce about 20GBytes of video.

Some people use special video converter attachments or the video inputs on their video cards, but many seem to have problems.

Once the video is in the computer, I use Serif MoviePlus software to edit it and to author DVDs.

This Carnival 97 Video was 8mm video (shot under difficult conditions).

Richard