I don't think sharpening analog video is going to do much good for analog video. For analog video, I use external filters to improve the video. Here's a post describing the technique:

Vegas Video Denoise for VHS

Prior to switching to AVISynth, I used VirtualDub. Here is a similar noise reduction chain using that program:

VirtualDub Filter Chain for VHS

You can also use a simple dynamic noise reduction plug-in directly in Vegas using the technique described here:

How to reduce digital video noise

Most Hi8 I've seen is pretty noise free unless it was shot under low light.
Biggest issue might be how are you getting your Hi8 into Vegas?
Ideally you need something with a TBC however that's likely to cost you a bit. If you can find a second hand D8 camera with dead glass/CCDs you can use that as a poor mans VCR to play your tapes out over 1394 into Vegas.
In the process you pickup Dynamic Noise Reduction and Time Base Correction. Also you avoid having the signal go through a composite video connection (which will soften the image a little).
Once you've got the best possible conversion into Vegas then decide if you need to sharpen the image.
Bob.

Fantastic information and work, johnmeyer.

If you can find a second hand D8 camera with dead glass/CCDs you can use that as a poor mans VCR to play your tapes out over 1394 into Vegas.

farss,

I think I remember hearing this before, but just so I am certain: Do the Sony Digital8 cameras include a TBC of some sort, whereas the Sony DV cameras do not? In a previous post, there was some debate on this, and the claim was made that the TBC only works on playback, not passthrough.

D8 TBC

This would of course be fine for the purposes of playing back the tapes in the camera itself, but you implied that you could get a semi-busted camera (that can no longer play tapes) and therefore made it sound like it could be used to get better pass-through captures.

Yes it has both TBC and DNR. The Sony D8s with pass-through.

I'll see if I can find something on eBay.

I am a little confused. Why did you spend the money on Vegas if you don't have a DV camera? The money would have been better spent on one of these:

Proc Amp

I have one and it works very well at color correcting video from my Hi8 to VHS.

John

They look good except the hue control probably doesn't work on PAL (assuming they make a PAL model) and although it does regen sync that's not the same as time base correction, probably the main purpose of the sync regen is to defeat Macrovision.
Bob.

John

> I am a little confused. Why did you spend the money on Vegas if you don't have a DV
> camera?

If you're replying to my original posting, I must confess that I'm an accidental interloper on the Vegas group. I'm actually using Vegas *Studio*, and have moved over there since.

Perhaps I could ask one or two questions anyhow? The default caoture size for Hi8 analogue seems to be 320 x 240. I tried to increase this to 640 x 480, but unfortunately - after rendering - I'm getting a lot of combing in the image whenever there's movement. I haven't been able to assess the difference between the two resolutions fully, as I have other issues currently about burning DVDs.

Might any of you be able to reccomended capture setttings for Hi8?

grovesey.

What capture hardware are you using for this? You should be able to capture at 720x576 PAL (or 720 x480 NTSC) quite happily - I've got an old Hi8 camcorder and I get very good results with this using a Canopus ADVC50