8mm conversion quality, Mac vs. Windows?
 

Hello,

I have some old 8mm tapes recorded on a Sony CCD-TRV52 camcorder that I am now trying to convert to digital. I have the below 2 choices to do this conversion:

1. Sony DCR-TRV460 i.Link -> Mac Thunderbolt2 and use iMovie to import.

2. Sony S-VIDEO -> Old Dazzle DVC100 -> old Windows 10 laptop running Pinnacle Studio 24.

I would be grateful for advice on which option will give me better video quality. IOW, does the Sony i.Link digital conversion do a great job? Also, any advice on any specific settings in the above would result in best conversion would be greatly appreciated. For example, would it make sense to output iMovie ".mov" in 1080p or would the lower 5xx resolution would be good enough for the 8mm?

Thanks in advance.

No takers?

Your listed systems do not correspond to the recommended tools for analog SD video capture.

That said a lot will depend on the condition of your tapes and the condition if your gear. I suggest trying each method to determine which gives you better results. Try with a sampling of your tapes, good and bad.

iLink/firewire is a DV signal. While it does uses lossy compression (not good for serious restoration work or noisy video) it does have adequate bandwidth for Video 8 and Hi8 even with its 4:2:0/4:1:1 color sampling. Not sure what the Pinnacle does, I've not used it. In any case for restoration work it is best to use a lossless file format. Note that there are lossless compression codecs.

It makes no sense to upscale a capture from SD to HD. All you will get is larger files with potential for scaling artifacts and slower image processing while editing/restoring it; but no information beyond the original SD recording. It generally is best to leave any upscaling to your display system.

Thanks for the advice. I tried option 2 with DVC100 and somehow the audio was coming thru broken (while the audio is fine coming from the camcorder speakers), so I had to abandon that. I have taken a peek at the Guides page below, but, from the brief description of the guides, the capturing guides seem to be geared toward making DVDs from captured video. Would the same principles otherwise apply to capturing to modern digital formats? Or did I miss a guide that specifically addresses this?

http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video.htm

Thanks in advance.

I guess we need to know more about your ultimate goal and intended end product(s). Digitizing is but one step on the way to an end goal. This includes questions such as:

What are your intended final products; e.g., distribution media, format, etc.
Do yo intend to do any editing of the video beyond simple cuts?
Do you intend to do any restoration of the video and/or, sweetening of the audio?
Are there any deadlines involved
Do you have a budget if terms of time and money?
What is your skill level as regards video, computers, and software?

Old post, but to add a few missing details...

That DVC card is not quality at all, highly variables. Some are minimally passable, some massive screw up quality like the Easycaps.

Audio sync issues here are from lack of proper frame sync TBC.

DV transfer method varies from crappy (NTSC, 4:1:1, very lossy) to passable (PAL, 4:2:0, not too different from DVD-Video).

To some degree, it's a wash. Each has good and bad. More ideal would simply be a better capture card for Windows, likely a TBC, and quality awaits! But if forced to choose, I'd rather have DV than the DVC100 card.