I figure out how to digitize my Hi8 tapes so you don't have to 📼

It took over 15 years to digitize my old home movies, but I finally did it. I’ll show you how.

[kristin]

This was my "quarantine" project. I got the elgato video capture and bought a hi8 camcorder off eBay and used a vcr for the OLD VHS tapes. I came across stuff I totally forgot about 😊 definitely worth the time and money spent. Buying the camcorder was cheaper than sending them to a digitizing service. In total I spent about $200 for about 20 tapes.

[MrIDGAF]

I connected my old camera to a DVD recorder, so I recorded all my Hi8 tapes to DVD. Then I connected the DVD to my laptop and transferred it to digital. It takes a lot longer, but it’s cheap compared to these other options in the video

[CJ-cxth]

Same camera, same amount of years. Thank you!

[kikome]

I appreciate you so much!!! Easily explained and answered all my questions. I’ve been pondering this for years !! Thanks for being real and making it fun!! Bravo!

[WISDOMCROW]

I give you a hi5 for helping me out with my hi8's

[decentdiversions]

Great simple walk through. In a similar position as you are at the moment. Bonus points to your old friend for AFI and Agnostic Front t-shirts! AFI footage is actually one of the things I want to digitize.

[dorotheasjes]

Came here for the transfer video but.. hello handsome! You distracted me. Wait let me watch again 😂

[ninjanerdstudent]

Legend has it that all those videos are stored in Google Photos forever.

[Awang]

Wow your piano skills were incredible!

[MarcyPaintsDolls]

I'm in the same boat you were in..just need to do it! Thanks for inspiring

[traveldirt]

Thanks for the video. I have the extra problem of not even having the camcorder, and they are so expensive online as they are vintage tech now. Would be great if there was a product out there that could play and convert these tapes straight to your PC/Mac.

[adriantxu]

I thought I was watching this older dude's tutorial until an AFI shirt popped up in one of the tapes.

[ghettomist]

The tapes are probably more permanent than the digital versions, but I want to digitize them because waiting for hours worth of tape to rewind is a hastle.

[doa]

Very helpful and informative. Thank you. The presentation style and content was enjoyable. 😀

[ninjanerdstudent]

I have an old Hi8 Sony Handycam and a Pinnacle Video Transfer. I have done this, but I have not ever finished all the tapes. I hit play on the tapes, and hit record on the PVT device, and it puts it on a flash drive as mp4 format. I copy it to the computer, Google Photos, and YouTube as my backups. Yea, Facebook too, why not? It will reside there forever.

[potatopotatopotatopotatopo]

It's easy if you are fine with just video but the moment you actually start caring about quality you fall into this giant rabbithole of vhs and all the technical details that devour your time.

I'm glad I got into it because the quality can be a million times better than from something like the Elgato capture device and people do not realize that vhs actually looks good

[DA-qepy]

Great motivation for me to also digitize my old Hi8 tapes. Geek alert... if my memory serves me correct RCA wires have a bandwidth of 250 lines of resolution in the y-axis and Hi8 often recorded with 450 lines of resolution in the y-axis. So I'm thinking we should use an S-Video cable or better to transfer our old Hi8 videos, if we want the transfer to be at it's max resolution. Thoughts?

[PennsylvaniaDualSport]

I wish there was a way to do this with an iPad. My father passed recently and he has a ton of hi8 tapes. I purchased a converter on eBay but my iPad doesn’t respond to it.

[cgonneville]

What are the odds you’re using the same sharp! Thanks man

[grahamf]

Great introductory video, thanks. With a Hi8 or S-VHS-C camcorder, you should use the S-video, rather than the yellow, connector. It gives better picture quality. I also noticed some interlacing artificers on the digitised videos. There is software that can fix this - either during transfer afterwards. There are a number of videos about this on tube.