Anybody have a good software experience for downloading video from a Sony Hi8 camcorder on a Windows98 computer??

I've got some great in car AX footage.

Thanks..

You need somebody with a Sony laptop.. they come with the software.

I also know that you can do a trial download off of Adobes website for the same software that Sony uses (they licesnse it from Adobe and slap their logo's and name on it).

B

you said HI8, not digital 8 correct?

If so, you'll need a capture card of some sort. The cheapest way to do it is with a "Dazzle." I used to use mine for a webcam using my camcorder. I never used the editing software.

They have a $69 version HERE.


If you have a digital 8 camera and your computer has 1394 and you are on a pc I can hook you up (PM me).

I use the software that came with the ATI video card to do the captures. I use software from Ulead to make the VCDs and DVDs which also lets you make slide shows with music etc. A great place to start looking is at: http://www.vcdhelp.com/ or they might be called http://www.dvdhelp.com/ now I forget. If I capture in MPEG2 format a 20 minute race session end up being about 300MB or so. I finally had to get a new PC with a 2.4GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a couple of hispeed drives so I could capture without dropping frames which would cause the captures to be jerky. Good luck

Rob,
Go get a mini-DV camera, you'll want it for the baby anyway. They're much cheaper than they were and you can do digital editing. You can copy your 8mm tapes to the mini-DV, edit them on your pc and put them back on 8mm, VHS or CD - either video or DVD.

There are good software packages out there. I've used Pinnacle Studio V.7, I think they're up to V.8 now. It's quite good and stable and not as expensive as Adobe Premiere.

Let me know if you have questions or, if you want, drop the tapes off at my place and I can put them into a digital form for you.

Carl

I like how Carl sold that to Rob: "You'll want it for the baby anyway"..LOL


B

Get a mac it comes with iMovie! Really the only way to go in my opinion . But if you have an analog camera and firewire ports an analog to DV convertor would work well. Another option is to buy a video card with analog video inputs. These work pretty well. But DV is the easiest to manage on your computer. It works well with most computers. You don't have nearly as many frame dropping isues, but your gona need a large hard drive. It's 25mb/min I do believe. My advice would be to go to a mini DV Camera. Direct into your computer. Makes it really easy. The Quality is amazing also compared to standard analog video.
Eric

mini dv is the way to go and is fairly cheap these days. firewire from the camera to the computer and using something basic like windows XP movie maker is even fine. you can easily convert to mpg/avi/mov and also direcly edit the actual "tape" seemlessly.

I like mini DV but if you currently have Hi8 then digital8 makes more sense. It's the same codec, but uses the cheaper Hi8 tapes. It will play your analog Hi8 tapes as well.

I movie is a toy. If you are gonna go mac then Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express or AVID DV express is the only way to fly.

PC- AVID DV Express then Adobe Premiere, but there is a big gap between the 2. AVID is much, much better.




ask me what I do for a living if'n you like.

Seanery - Are you a video editor also? That's my job as well. I work on a dual GHZ G4 with Final Cut Pro. I'm still amazed at what you can do with it.
Eric

yeah, me, too.

I used to edit on Media Composer and Symphony systems in Hollywood. Did a number of shows for animal planet, mtv, history channel, etc... I also cut a short film that went to Cannes in '99. I moved back to Indy last year and brought 2 media composers with me, but now I prefer DV Express for anything but broadcast or film work.

FCP is pretty nice, but it doesn't have a good work flow for me. I work much, much faster on AVID products.

You can buy a Canon digital camcorder for about $410 at Amazon . You Americans are pretty lucky because most everything is considerably cheaper there than in Canada (including Porsche parts). I would have to pay about $507 USD for the same digital camcorder.

Alfred

Seanery- All of the avid stuff is nice, if you have the dough. I'm on a fairly low budget and FCP works well for me. But then again I'm doing thing's like wedding videos, dance shows, whatever pay's . Cool to know there is someone out there with similar intrest's though.
Eric

Thanks for all the good info folks.

I actually have a Digital 8 with an i.link DV interphase. I think it is digital then. What do I need to buy? I guess I need the firewire, but the camera didn't come with any software to run on my PC. Is Pinnacle a good way to go? Would it work OK on my Win 98 platform?

Thanks again,
R