How-to: Import 8mm camcorder tapes
I have been working on a way to import ~50 8mm camcorder tapes to my computer. I want to do this so that I can archive the footage for the following reasons:
1. The color on the movies when played back are tinted due to age.
2. Get the footage out of my house just in case a natural disaster occurs so I will not loose it.
3. Organize the footage better. Right now we just have tapes with dates on the labels.
4. Finally, I want to put together versions of the movies for the kids to watch from my AppleTV.
This how-to will explain how I was able to get the high quality footage moved over to my computer. First, I use a Mac, but these instructions can be used by Windows users as well since I use Quicktime Pro to do my import and initial organization. I will do another post later to explain why I chose Quicktime Pro vs. other options.
I have discovered (2) ways to do get my 8mm content to my computer. The first process is the only way I can import my 8mm camcorder tapes because the Sharp EL760u camcorder we used recorded only in LP mode. I learned this the hard way after spending $250 on a Sony TRV460 from eBay thinking I could use it to import my 8mm tapes. The second process below applies to users who have 8mm tape recorded in SP mode, HI-8 tape, or Digital8 tapes to import.
Process 1:
1. Attach the Sony DCR-TRV38 to AC power and connect the firewire port to my iMac.
2. On the Sony DCR-TRV38 ensure that A/V -> DV OUT is enabled. FYI… The same menu also appears on the Sony TRV460.
3. Plug in the Sharp EL760u 8mm camcorder to AC power. I strongly suggest not using batteries on either camcorder for this process.
4. Connect the video out cable between the Sharp EL760u 8mm camcorder and the audio/video port on the Sony DCR-TRV38. I had to use a female to female RCA plug to connect the video cable from the 8mm camera to the Sony DCR-TRV38. The image below shows you my monstrosity of a cable used:
5. Turn on both cameras to VCR mode
6. Make sure that Quicktime is setup properly by going into Quicktime Preferences and set the Video Source option to DV-VCR and change Quality to Device Native.
7. Open Quicktime player and choose: File -> New Movie Recording. At this point a new Quicktime player window will open that should have a grey background and a red record button.
If you see yourself via the iSight then double check that the DV camera with the firewire cable attached is on and also ensure it is actually plugged into the firewire port. Repeat the file, new movie recording in Quicktime until you get the grey background screen in the Quicktime window.
8. Press play on the 8mm camcorder once you see video in the Quicktime window. My 8mm tapes were recorded in LP mode so they are 2 hours long. A 1 hour imported file is ~13GB and 2 hours is ~26GB so make sure you have plenty of hard drive space. I store the video on the iMac short term and then I move the file over to my Drobo once I have trimmed the file and named is properly.
During my process of importing I did find where Quicktime would stop recording because the 8mm tape would go to static or a break was detected by Quicktime. This proved to be a pain because I would have to spend many minutes finding where the stoppage occurred on the 8mm camcorder. To make this less of a pain I always reset the counter on my 8mm camcorder when I put in a new tape or started from a new section of a tape. Why did I reset the counter? Quicktime has a timer in the lower left hand corner as shown below:
When recording stops scroll to the end of the recorded movie and note the time. Then rewind/ff your 8mm tape to the same time. Boom, saves many minutes…
Process 2:
This process requires far less hardware but uses the same import process once the hardware is setup. The Sony TRV460 (and TRV480) can play back 8mm analog SP recorded tapes and do the analog to digital conversion so all you need to do is attach a single camcorder and then import. Below are the more detailed steps.
1. Attach the camera to AC power and attach the TRV460 or TRV480 to the computer via firewire.
2. Follow steps 1-7 from the first process above.
A quick word about import quality. I import my video in Device Native mode in Quicktime because someday those tapes may not work and I want the best import quality currently known given the hardware I have. For those ubber geeks I really chose the second best import quality method. The best way I have found to import 8mm without loosing any quality is to dup an 8mm tape to DV tape from camera to camera. I chose not to do that because all of my 8mm tapes were 120 minutes long and they only make 60 minute DV tapes.
This process has worked out really well for me and is a good way to start getting your 8mm camcorder tapes imported and organized. Currently I have around 20 tapes left to import and chewed up 1.6TB of drive space on my Drobo. My next step is to import my large number of DV tapes as well, for that process I am not sure if I will use Quicktime since Final Cut and iMovie can create many small files during import rather than 1 large file. I will write a post on what method I chose to import video from mini-dv when I get that done. My next post will be on how to get the large files divided into smaller clips using Quicktime. Here is a hint for the non-patient ones: Trim Selection is your friend ! Good luck and let me know if you have questions…