Video8 camcorder or other playback options?

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rhy7s

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#293263 10-Jan-2022 10:51

An elderly friend of mine has had his camcorder stolen and he would like to get a new one to play his tapes and output video to a DVD recorder or other capture device (he only wants to grab highlights rather than dumping all the video footage but I'm not sure if that would be easier for him to do before or after capturing). I'm not sure if his camcorder was analogue or digital, his tapes seem to be from 2000 onwards which would be around the boundary of the changeover to the DV codec being used.

I don't have any familiarity with this field, are there models I should be looking out for or avoiding? Price range I should be looking at for decent examples? Thanks for any assistance.

nedkelly

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#2846044 10-Jan-2022 12:14

You would need to see the exact tapes he has, Video 8, Hi 8, or Digital 8 to make sure you get the right camcorder for him, Mini-DV were a bit nicer as they were all the same format.

The most popular full sized 8mm tape cameras you will find are Sony ones on Trademe, models starting CCD-TRV are mainly hi8/Video8 only cameras, its the DCR-TRV cameras that are Digital 8.

(Source of knowledge is converting a massive amount of different tapes into digital with my PowerMac G5 for backup)

rhy7s

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#2846127 10-Jan-2022 14:29

He seems to have a mix of brands labeled as either Video8 or Digital8.

This list seems like it could be a good starting point, from here:

This is a list of all Sony Digital 8 PAL (UK system) models.
Models marked * will also play old 8mm analogue PAL recordings made in Standard 8, HI8, in both (SP) and (LP) modes. They all have Firewire output & Time Base Correction.

Peter

DCR-TR7000E *
DCR-TR7100E *
DCR-TR8000E *
DCR-TR8100E *
DCR-TRV110E *
DCR-TRV120E *
DCR-TRV125E *
DCR-TRV130E
DCR-TRV140E
DCR-TRV145E
DCR-TRV147E
DCR-TRV210E *
DCR-TRV230E *
DCR-TRV235E *
DCR-TRV238E *
DCR-TRV239E *
DCR-TRV240E *
DCR-TRV241E *
DCR-TRV245E
DCR-TRV250E
DCR-TRV255E
DCR-TRV265E
DCR-TRV270E
DCR-TRV285E
DCR-TRV310E *
DCR-TRV320E *
DCR-TRV325E *
DCR-TRV330E *
DCR-TRV340E *
DCR-TRV341E *
DCR-TRV345E *
DCR-TRV355E *
DCR-TRV356E *
DCR-TRV410E *
DCR-TRV420E *
DCR-TRV430E *
DCR-TRV460E *
DCR-TRV461E *
DCR-TRV480E *
DCR-TRV510E *
DCR-TRV520E *
DCR-TRV525E *
DCR-TRV530E *
DCR-TRV620E *
DCR-TRV720E *
DCR-TRV725E *
DCR-TRV730E *
DCR-TRV738E *
DCR-TRV740E *
DCR-TRV820E *
DCR-TRV828E *
DCR-TRV830E *

Deck only ( No camera )
GV-D200E *
GV-D800E *

wellygary

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#2846130 10-Jan-2022 14:38

rhy7s:

He seems to have a mix of brands labeled as either Video8 or Digital8.

This list seems like it could be a good starting point, from here:

This is a list of all Sony Digital 8 PAL (UK system) models.
Models marked * will also play old 8mm analogue PAL recordings made in Standard 8, HI8, in both (SP) and (LP) modes. They all have Firewire output & Time Base Correction.

Things like this will be a problem, Much of the equipment capable of playing these tapes will likely have vintage ( no longer supported) connectors,

You best bet is either RCA output and using some form of Video stick to import the footage to a modern PC, or an antique machine with the appropriate ports, which can then dump the resulting files to a USB or network device...