Digitizing Videotape

By Scott Wilkinson • Posted: Apr 29, 2011

I want to digitize my old 8mm videotapes. My computer is a new HP 6610 (AMD Athelon II 635 CPU, Windows 7, 64-bit). I have an old Sony 8mm camcorder connected to an ADVC-55 video-capture box via S-video and red/white audio cables. The AVDC-55 connects to the computer via FireWire.
I used Ulead Video Studio 5 DV to capture the first tape, then I tried the HP program that came with the computer. The HP program captured directly to MPG and seemed brighter (I think), but I think I want AVI files so I can edit them. During the transfer, the picture is brighter in the camera eyepiece screen, but the playback of the digital file on my computer is darker.
Could the problem be the capture program, or is it just the hardware? Most of the reviews I've read say that cheap USB video-capture devices don't perform well, so I bought the AVDC-55. However, a friend at work said he had good results with a cheap USB unit. Are the new ones any good?
Can you recommend a free or low-cost capture program that makes brighter AVI files? Making them brighter in the editing program sounds like even more work. Also, what free or low-cost video-editing program do you like? Is the Windows downloadable one any good?

John P.

This is outside my area of expertise, so I tried to find someone who knows more about it than I do. TWiT's resident video expert Alex Lindsay of Pixelcorps said the darkness issue might be due to the various devices and programs handling gamma differently, which makes sense, so you might want to play with the gamma settings at the various stages of the signal path. But he hasn't had much experience transferring videotape to a PC, at least not in the last 10 years, so he didn't have much else to say about it.

I have no experience at all with this process, so I'm throwing it open to our readers. Anyone out there have any suggestions for John?

If you have an A/V question, please send it to askscottwilkinson@gmail.com.

Comments

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on May 3, 2011 - 8:32pm.

Thanks, kelsci! I'm so glad you offered some suggestions, which obviously derive from experience that I don't have.

Submitted by uavkelsci on April 30, 2011 - 7:35am.

If your machine is digitizing with the avdc 55, you should be able to try and find a free program that converts mpeg to avi files.

I do not deal with firewire but I do use the following:

http://www.meritline.com/mygica-ezgrabber-2-usb-2-0-video-capture---p-41...

What is important is to download the windows 7 drivers and open up the zip file for this device.

http://www.mygica.com/download/d_capture.asp

You might try to download the application and see if it responds to the device you are currently using; it might. If you can use the easygrabber program, it has adjustments for briteness,color,etc.

I have transferred vhs to dvd with the device and it seems to work well overall.

I am not sure why you see a briter image on your video screen on your camcorder and a darker image on your monitor of your computer. It is possible that the camera is outputing a darker picture thru its video output and a correct briteness output on the camcorders monitor screen.