I threw this video together pretty quickly in an attempt to explain the workflow for at home tape converting. A lot of us have old 8mm home movie tapes. This video shows how you can use a capture card device to convert those tapes to a digital format to forever preserve them.

I was inspired to start doing this kind of stuff myself because it SAVES A TON OF MONEY. Service prices vary, but I have seen $15-$20 per tape when I looked at a few options. If you have more than 6 home movie tapes, this process pays for itself and once you're done, you can sell everything you bought effectively making this "free". Yes, it costs money upfront to buy some materials. But generally speaking, the market/cost of these materials is stagnant (camera and capture devices) so you can just flip these items once your use for them is up.

MATERIALS:

(1) Hi-8 camera that has an AV out port. (I used the Sharp VL Series Hi-8 Camera)

- I advise you NOT to rely on a battery. Instead, try and find a camera that has a wall-powered battery.

(1) PCIE capture device.

-I used the Black Magic Intensity Pro4k but any device will work so long as the device accepts AV cables or has an analogue breakout plug in as shown in the video.

(1) Decent computer. As long as it can run OBS and record to an SSD or Hard drive with fast write speeds you are fine.

DRIVERS:

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/supp...

EBAY SEARCH FOR HI-8 CAMERA:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...