quick newbie question...

Rasmus wrote on 10/21/2003, 7:03 PM
Hello -
i'm about to dive into DV editing game, and am wondering what my plan of attack should be. i have an unused sony 8mm analog camera with composite output. since i'm new to this, would it be wise to just pick up an ADS instant DVD 2.0 unit to convert the 8mm to digital and then dump it into vegas, or should i just go ahead and buy a dv camera? i have no idea what the difference in quality will be like between the converted 8mm versus DV camera footage. i realize the 8mm footage is 200 or so lines as opposed to 500 with DV. will this be drastic once converted? is the ADS unit decent?

thanks in advance for any opinions.

Rasmus

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/21/2003, 10:11 PM
If the camera ia brand new (as in the box), sell it and buy a digital one. You will get better quality, no questions asked. If you converted 8mm to DV, it wouldn't look any better.

I don't know about some places, but sometimes Shop at home (www.shopathome.com) sometimes has a sale on DV cameras. Other people here would know more about that though: I use VHS and Hi8 tapes. :)
Sol M. wrote on 10/21/2003, 10:47 PM
I'm not sure if you were asking this, but simply converting a lower rez format (such as Hi8) to DV does NOT make the video look better.

That said, you have a few options at this point.
The ADS instant DVD 2.0 retails for about $200. For a little more, you could get yourself a Digital8 camera. While digital8 doesn't capture video as high as most miniDV cams (except the ones in the same price range as the digital8), it was created specifically for those wanting to migrate from Hi8 to a digital format. With a Digital8 cam, you can capture all of your previously recorded 8mm footage digitally to the computer. Then, you can go out and shoot new stuff with the digital8 cam using your standard Hi8 tapes, but with much higher quality.

You also have the option of buying a cheap miniDV cam, but as you said, you're just starting out. So if you want to get the most uses out of what you buy, without abandoning your old stuff and adopting a new format (such as miniDV) or limiting yourself to continue shooting on Hi8, I would highly recommend a Digital8 camera (FYI: to help your seaching, only Sony makes Digital8 cameras).
riredale wrote on 10/21/2003, 10:49 PM
I have had great luck in finding excellent deals at www.techbargains.com. I don't know if the guy who runs the site has a real job or what. He certainly has great connections and invests a lot of time in the pages. It might actually be a big organization, but then how do they make a living? Off the ads?

I've seen camcorders on there from time to time.
TorS wrote on 10/22/2003, 7:23 AM
Rasmus, if you do get a Digital8 camera, make sure it has DV in and out. I think some of the cheapest ones only has DV out, and then you can't render to tape.
Tor
Sid_Phillips wrote on 10/22/2003, 8:10 AM
Rasmus:

Least expensive option would be to buy the Canopus ADVC100 (which connects to your computer via a FireWire port), gives you both analog in and analog out, so you can capture from the 8mm and record back to it once you've finished editing.

That said, I would personally budget about $1,000 for a brand-new miniDV camcorder and either sell the 8mm or give it to somebody. You will get a LOT better video both in acquisition and in final rendering. But that isn't an absolute necessity, especially if you have no problems with the quality of the 8mm footage for what you're doing.

If you don't have a FireWire port on your computer I would recommend buying a card from SIIG, ADS, Unibrain or Canopus. According to SPOT these have the highest compliacne with the OHCI spec.

Good luck!
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/22/2003, 8:18 AM
If you want to get into DV editing you do not want the ADS Instant DVD 2.0. This product is meant for people who don’t want to edit and just want to capture their analog tapes to DVD or VCD to preserve them. It captures in MPEG format, which is correct for DVD rendering but terrible for editing. What you want for editing is a device like the ADS Pyro A/V Link. This will capture your analog footage and convert it to DV. That is the format you want to edit in.

Since you don’t have a DV camera yet, others have made what I feel is even a better suggestion. Spend a little more money and get a DV camcorder that has analog inputs and capture your old footage through that. It will do the same job as the ADS Pyro A/V Link and convert your footage to DV plus you’ll have a new DV camera to shoot all your new footage with.

The next questions will be, “Is your PC up to the task?”. Unless you have a relatively new PC you may need to upgrade a few things like buying an extra hard drive to capture your video since DV video uses 200MB per minute (so to capture a one hour tape will take 12GB of disk space). The best thing is to just dedicate a second hard drive to video capture.

~jr