[HM] 8mm film, to digital, to firewire

[Bob K]

Since you seem to have a digital camcorder, your best bet is to use it 
for digitizing
your 8mm video's.  Usually you can use the camcorder just to digitize, 
(connect
output from 8mm camcorder as input to digital camcorder, and output of 
it to G4).
If for some reason that won't work for you, just re-tape your videos  
from the 8mm
into in your digital camcorder through a direct old fashioned A/V (or S 
Video)
connection onto a MiniDV tape, and once that's finished, play it into 
your G4 as you
would do with any new video taken with the digital camcorder this 
second step will
absolutely not introduce any additional quality loss.

If you were to choose the projection method your videos would suffer 
significant
quality loss.  Via the Digital camcorder quality loss will be minimal, 
if any, whether
you do the recording into,  directly through or via the DV tape.  
That's because
once digitized additionalcopying is loss less.

As for lost frames I am less certain, but my limited understanding of 
the process tells
me that lost frames, if any, would occur in your G4, independent of any 
of the three
methods used.  To minimize the possibility make sure that you have the 
Internal HD
space to do the recording, as external HD MAY be too slow even with a 
firewire
connection.

Another alternative would be to buy an analog to digital converter (I 
have the Formac
Studio TVR, but there are many different ones on the market) play the 
video into
the converter from your old 8mm  camcorder (or player) via regular A/V 
connection
(preferably S Video if your old camcorder has it) and Firewire from 
your converter to the
G4.   This would be completely worry free, with the only loss to worry 
about would be the
$200 you pay for the converter.  (Formac's Studio DV - without TV 
capabilities - is
has a street price around $240, Dazzle's Hollywood DV Bridge around 
$200.  Note that
these units also work the other way round, converting digital to analog.

Bob

•••••
On Thursday, Oct 2, 2003, at 19:36 US/Eastern, Jack Honeycutt wrote:

> Hello all....
>
> This may be  a specialized question, but I am not sure where to start 
> to look for a answer.  Perhaps someone can refer me.
>
> The issue:
>
> I have some old 8mm film I want to burn to DVD (with iDVD).  I have 
> read a bit on the process.  I project my 8mm, film it with my digital 
> video camera (Canon Optura 20)  then pump the video into my Mac via 
> the firewire port.  Edit it, then burn it.
>
> I have a G4 700 Mhz Sonnet processor, 1GB of RAM, and a EIDE high 
> speed controller card connected to 160GB 7200 RPM HD.  The controller 
> card is a Sonnet Tempo Trio card which is a firewire, USB and EIDE 
> controller card that plugs into a empty PCI slot:
>
> http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_trio.html
>
> My Mac is a Power Mac 7600.  Bus speed is 50Mhz. I am running Jaguar 
> 10.2.6
>
> I know I can do the above,  but here is my question:
>
> Can I take the output from my digital video camera, and bypass the 
> tape, and go directly into the firewire port, and onto my HD?
>
> Will I drop frames?  Do I care if I drop a few frames?  Will my eye 
> see a difference between dumping digital tape into the firewire port 
> verses a direct feed from my digital video camera into the firewire 
> port (no tape)??
>
> I  am going to call Sonnet tomorrow to see what they can tell me. I 
> don't know if the firewire feed goes from the firewire port, right to 
> the ribbon cable (on the same card) the feeds my HD, or if it goes 
> into the 50Mhz bus, and then into the HD.  I think if the video has to 
> travel the old, slow, 50Mhz bus I am screwed.  But if it does not, 
> maybe I have a chance.
>
> This Sonnet Tempo Trio card is quite smart (it should be; it cost 
> about $170), so I wonder if the 50Mhz bus of my old computer even 
> comes into play....????
>
> I have done the above in Windows (converted 8mm film to DVD) but I 
> want to do this on my Mac.  I just don't know enough about how the Mac 
> works to figure out if it can take a live feed or not (with out 
> dumping a ton of frames).
>
> Will I drop a frame now and then?  Will I drop a bunch of frames?  
> Will it take all the frames?  I don't know how to tell.
>
> Any advice, web links, mailing lists, or referrals appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> jack in Portland Oregon
>
>
>
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