Importing from Hi8

OK, this is going to sound ridiculous considering the state of technology in today's age but I'm going to ask for some help anyways.
Back in 2015 I got married and I had used my Sony camcorder to video the occasion. The recorder is so old, it uses Hi8 tape.
I have a couple of questions: 1)What program is recommended to capture the video/audio from the Hi8 tape, and 2) What format should I put the capture into (.mp4, .mov, etc)?
I'm a newbie to video editing, so I'm learning.
Thanks for any assistance!
Jim

I'd get me a second-hand D8 camcorder which is capable of digitizing Hi8 internally. I think a few models did this, if my memory serves me right. Maybe someone can chime in with the right model(s).

Then you could read the DV signal with any computer that still connects to FireWire with the help of some freeware. It'll be standard DV, which Resolve can read (at least on my Mac). You might want to do a bit of sweeting (contrast and color) and your final delivery could be H.264 or any format to your liking.

I can connect a firewire cable to the camcorder to capture the video off of the tape, if that's what you mean. I was just wondering what format would be the best for resolve as well as for quality video.

.. I was just wondering what format would be the best for resolve as well as for quality video.

ProRes if you're on Mac or DNxHD if you're on PC - they are both high quality, low compression codecs which support timecode and individual frames for clean, precise editing.

If it comes in by FireWire, it's already digital. No need to recompress before giving it some sweetening treatment. While DV is not an efficient codec for space, the load is negligible on modern machines.

Thanks for the guidance! Any suggestions on decent free programs to capture the video? I'm on a Windows 10 Home machine, 16G memory, 4G on the GPU.
Thanks again guys!
Jim

Sorry, I'm on the Mac and use QT Player ins such cases.
I'm sure someone can chime in regarding freeware for the PC. Actually, older versions of Resolve used to be able to pull something from DV (if I remember correctly), but maybe not the recent ones.

I've been working on some captured VHS footage lately, and I found that the free Handbrake does as significantly better job of deinterlacing than Resolve does even on high quality settings. Resolve leaves some flickering artifacts on horizontal lines and lettering. I'm running the digitized files thru Handbrake, then into Resolve for cleanup.

Erich

Thanks for the guidance! Any suggestions on decent free programs to capture the video? I'm on a Windows 10 Home machine, 16G memory, 4G on the GPU.
Thanks again guys!
Jim

Yiou should be able to capture with resolve providing that you have a input/ output decklink card.

It's FireWire, Walter.

It's FireWire, Walter.

Edit: read it again.

I will leave at what format you can capture and then see if you cab read it with resolve.

Of course one can read analog with one of the devices supporting it.
But I found that you'd normally need a TBC to get a reliable signal, while D8 machines converting internally and sending a DV signal via FireWire seem to run quite stable.

Google WinDV.

AtlJim965,

Another option is ScenalyzerLIVE. Version 4 was the last one released.
I used this for years on Windows XP and occasionally still do on Windows 7.
It's a great DV capture program that the author now makes available for free download.
Search for: scenalyzer

Edit: This captures in various forms of .avi. You would want to re-wrap the files as .mov in order to import them into Resolve.

Regards,
Albert Shroyer
studio23.net

Hey all,

What would you recommend to use for converting the .avi files after they were transferred from a Hi8/Digital8 tape to a computer?

I have seen Handbrake, Brorsoft Video Converter, and Pavtubestudio mentioned. Is one better than the other? Convert to MP4 or DNxHD codec? I am guessing converting DNxHD to DaVinci and then exporting to MP4 after editing? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Krzysztof

What would you recommend to use for converting the .avi files after they were transferred from a Hi8/Digital8 tape to a computer?
Convert to MP4 or DNxHD codec?

Neither. It's a Standard Definition DV file (either DV-AVI or Quicktime-DV, depending on what you captured it with). DV about the best available for working with Standard Definition interlaced footage. DNxHD is for HD footage (hence the name) and while there are hacks and settings that can make older SD footage work with modern codecs, there is no advantage, and only potential downsides. Stick to the native format.

If you have a firewire port, capture to DV. If you don't, google for local video transfer places. Most cities are going to have somewhere that will capture off the tape. Cost you $25-50 depending on the place. Bring a flash drive. Budget 13GB for every hour of tape.

Once you are done editing you probably want to export to a square pixel de-interlaced mp4, but whatever editing program you use should handle that.

Thanks Ryan. I have a Sony Digital 8 camcorder and I transferred the footage via firewire to my laptop. The files are .avi at this point. DaVinci cant use my .avi files in the current state. So I was wondering what format I should convert the .avi files to use DaVinci for editing.

Download mpeg streamclip and see if re-wrapping the file as a mov lets you import.

VirtualDub2 will do what you want and its open source.
It can capture from firewire or convert your existing DVI files to ProRes and many other formats using ffmpeg.
You can download it from here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vdfiltermod/