Digitizing VHS-C and Video8/Hi8 as found footage?
 

Hi, new here I was directed here from the DataHoarding subreddit.

I'm basically trying to transfer footage into the digital domain for NLE.

Source capture devices are as follows...

PV-A207 for VHS-C
CCD-TR6 for Video8
CCD-TRV67 for Hi8

These were used for an intentionally lo-fi aesthetic. So I'd like the transfer to be as transparent as possible without much "correction"

I don't have a capture device and not sure if my PC is up to spec. I'm willing to upgrade my gear as long as I don't have to take out a second mortgage to do so....

I have an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U and 32GB RAM and over 30 TB of storage.

What is your project? If you are currently recording you can go tapeless.

Hi Gary,

Not sure I understand your question. My project is creating content for music production tutorials. And also, just random inspirational stuff. Trying for different flavors of "found footage". "faking it, if you will"

I want to hit the tape though for the analog artifacts.

An analog-capable Digital8 camcorder from 2000 or newer can do all three: play your Video8 and Hi8 tapes, and digitize the output of your VHS-C camcorder (or any other analog video source, via passthrough), and output it to a computer via FireWire.

Wikipedia has a list of which models have analog playback and passthrough modes:
Digital8 - Wikipedia

Well, that's definitely a low-end method -- though arguably lower than Lo-Fi.

Welcome. :)

Most transfers are not "correcting" anything, but rather "not making it worse". Tapes are not as awful as low-quality transfer methods would show.

Any tape conversion requires 3 basic ingredients:
- quality camera/VCR
- some form of TBC -- be it low-end passthrough DVD recorders (certain models only), or actual TBCs
- quality capture card

I've started to make some budget workflows, I'll PM you.

Few simple rules:
- Avoid anything "new" seen on eBay/Amazon, it's all junk.
- Don't try to use a VHS-C camera, but instead a quality JVC/Panasonic type motorized VHS-C adapter, into a quality VCR

CPU/RAM doesn't matter (almost anything from '10s-20s works fine), but space is important