how do i transfer from my old sony 8mm handycam to my pc?

Question

the camera has red and yellow output which i usually conect to my t.v. but i wish now to transfer some of my 'films' to my p.c.'s harddrive. please note i live in the u.k. so there is no point people saying get this from this shop etc if in the u.s.a etc. thanks.

Answer 1

You can get a special conversion kit - from places like pc world - the red, white and yellow leads plug into a usb lead. However, you ideally need to have a firewire port on your pc (its a sort of ultra-fast usb) to get the best quality - firewire leads are usually used to download digital camera film to your pc. I have a kit and have tried this with my old 8mm films - with mixed results. You need a high spec computer with lots of memory - and the software (which you can buy with the leads) converts the analogue pictures to digital. However, you do get a slight lag between the picture and the words, which I found frustrating. That said, I haven't tried any upgraded software for a couple of years now, so things may well have moved on. PC world or similar is your best bet - expect to pay anything between £24 to £40. Good luck!

Answer 2

Hi,

The easiest thing to do is borrow a digital camcorder from someone as most of them have an anologue (8mm) 'pass through' option.

You simply plug your 8mm camcorder into the digital camcorder, which is plugged into your PC and capture the footage as usual. You can use Movie Maker for this which is free with Windows XP.

You can then edit it if you wish and burn to a DVD to watch on the TV.

Hope that helps,

Pete
www.thedvdworkshopsite.com

Answer 3

Try buying or borrowing a DVD burner for your TV. There should be audio and video ports to import to the burner. Burn directly to the DVD burner and watch the video on the TV. Then finalize the DVD in the burner and try it the computer. Now you can download and save it in a video file to be used in a editing program if you wish to. Pinnacle and Nero has editing programs.
Good luck!