Railfan Technology > Audio/Video to USB cable???

I have an older 8MM video camera that only has audio/video output jacks on it. I want to transfer my old tapes to my computer but of course I don't have audio/video inputs on my computer. Does anyone manufacture an Audio/Video to USB cable? If so, someone point me in the right direction please. I really don't want to have to pay someone lots of money to transfer all of my old 8MM tapes. Thanks.

There are plenty of component video to USB devices out there. I think it is also important that it has software bundled with it to do the importing and saving to a video file.

An example of one, I'm pretty sure pinnacle products come with software.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4088245&CatId=1428

There is a ton of ways to do that on the cheep. Do you have a DVD recorder? What make is the cam?

Recording your tapes to a DVD mpeg2 stream is not a solution to digitize footage for editing. I would suggest you purchase an analog firewire bridge. I have three AVDC55's that I use for our remote cameras and they work great and never given me hassle. They run about $200 and can be bought from BH Photo or many other online retailers.

http://desktop.grassvalley.com/products/ADVC55/index.php

I have never been able to get reliable capturing from a usb video device and I don't recommend them.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

It is a Sony Hi8 DCR-TRV280. All I want to do is transfer all my old 8mm and Hi8mm tapes to my computer so that I can save them. Maybe later I will burn them over to DVD.

nick_gully Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are plenty of component video to USB devices
> out there. I think it is also important that it
> has software bundled with it to do the importing
> and saving to a video file.
>
> An example of one, I'm pretty sure pinnacle
> products come with software.
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool
> s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4088245&CatId=1428

Do you intend to edit at some point in the future or do you wish to archive the footage? If you don't need to edit I would suggest that you skip the computer completely and go directly from your camcorder to DVD. Sony makes a nice little all in one DVD recorder VDR-MC5 that fits the bill perfectly.
If you intend to edit, then I agree with Todd - stay away from USB, You'll need to go firewire/IEEE 1394 in which case the Grass Valley converter is a good choice - that is if your computer is firewire equipped. If it isn't that's another card you'll have to buy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/09 07:19 by kato.

There is a ton of options... most depending on what you want to do with the videos. If you want to edit or save the videos on a computer you need to convert it into a digital format. If you just want to make a DVD then it's a straight forward process. I would stay away from a USB as it does not have the speed to keep up with video. A fire wire connection is the best bet for getting video into a PC or MAC... Just so you know the AVD55 is a analog to digital converter. It will take standard video or s video signal and turn it into a fire wire connection. The AVDC55 is $185 and is not going to do much other then take a analog signal and make it digital. If you have a fire wire input on your computer you will be able to get the video in to the computer given you have the right software. If you use a AVDC55 you can use a program called MPEG Stream Clip to put it into just about any kind of video file you want. Its about the best file converter around and its free. I do video for a living and MPEG Stream Clip is one of the best tools I have. It will also allow you copy a DVD into any format you like and it does not see copyright protection. Its great for putting videos and movies into a format for my I Phone. Then you will have to use a program to encode and burn the DVD.. Given you have a DVD burner in your computer. Just rember that the video files can get large quick. The best bet is to save them on a external drive. I know.. it sounds like a lot of stuff.. It is.. But there is an easy and affordable way to do this. What I would do is get DVD recorder or use a friends... They are under $180 and you can use it to watch the videos you made. It's as simple as plug in the video input from the camera and press play and record. Then when the video is done playing you will have a DVD copy of the tape!!! That wont take up any space on your hard drive and you can put it into a safe place that wont crash when Vista get mad.. Then if you do want to edit or digitize the videos put the DVD into the CD/DVD drive in your computer and use MPEG Stream Clip to convert the DVD you made into a file like a AVI or MPEG2.. Then you will be able to use just about any media player or video editing software to make or view your masterpiece. I am a MAC person so I use Final Cut Pro... But there is some great easy PC based programs like Sony's Vegas or Adobe's Primer Elements for under $99. But you will still need a DVD burner/software for your computer to take the edited or digtal video and burn it on to a DVD. When you are done you could have some great videos.. I say post them on here so we can all see them!!!