12 year old Sony Camcorder to DVD???

[comet]

I have an old sony camcorder with many 8 mm tapes. I would like to convert these tapes to DVD. I have a new Dell laptop with a DVD burner. I there a special cable or software that I need? Thanks for you help.

 

[tonyccw]

You will also need a media converter to get the video into a file format the PC can process. There are a lot of ways to do this. Once that's done, your DVD burner software can burn the file to DVD.

 

[comet]

You will also need a media converter to get the video into a file format the PC can process. There are a lot of ways to do this. Once that's done, your DVD burner software can burn the file to DVD.

Sorry I am new to this. Could you suggest a way yo get the video to a file that the PC can process?

 

[tonyccw]

Could you suggest a way yo get the video to a file that the PC can process?

One way would be to see if your video card has RCA inputs. Then you'll need software to execute a video capture. Most video cards that have RCA inputs will have a basic video capture program.

The other way is to buy an external box that will process the signals in all in one box. I have the Sony DVMC-DA1 that I purchased years ago. The one from Plextor has gotten decent reviews and isn't very expensive: http://www.plextor.com/english/products/ConvertX-AV100U.htm

 

[mitchshrader]

problem with doing this is it's not (much) supported by manufacturers.

they really don't Want you to change formats.

doing it 'properly' basically splits the video & audio, converts em separately, and then re-synch's em. It matters a lot what you want for a end result. I suggest going to highest quality two-pass SVCD as an end result.

This will play in standard DVD players and computer cd players as well. You will lose a tiny bit of quality, (perhaps) but likely your original isn't perfect DVD quality, and you'll not notice any degradation.

www.afterdawn.com and www.doom9.org both go into more detail about every aspect of format conversion than you want to know, and very carefully point at possible ways to back up media without suggesting you violate any underage copyrights..