I have a bunch of family movies from the late 1990s and early 2000s on Hi-8 tape.

Years ago before hard drive space was so cheap I digitized parts of some of the tapes. At this point I'd like to digitize all of the tapes and get them on DVD or other media--several hard drives, possibly.

Is there a better system than using my circa 1999 Sony DCR TRV510 and an old FW cable? I guess I'd need a new FW cable to connect to my newish iMac 27?

Any suggestions on this appreciated.

I was actually thinking about this recently as well when I found our old Sony TRV520 in the basement. You probably just need a FW 400 (4-pin) to 800 converter, like this.

My prior response, copied here:
[forums.macresource.com]

May I suggest an alternative approach that may be quicker and lead to less frustration?

IF, and only if, you don't plan to edit these files, then I would recommend avoiding iMovie altogether, and buying the following - El Gato Video Capture: [www.amazon.com]

Connect this between your camcorder and iMac. Pop in a 120 min tape, hit record on the iMac software, and 2 hours later you've got a ~ 1 GB H.264, MP4 file perfect for iTunes, Apple TV, Roku, etc playback.

Less muss, less fuss. Edit the file's name & metadata to describe the contents.

After you're done with the project, sell it back on Amazon or eBay.

I imported all of my Digital 8 video tapes with iMovie, then exported them as DV. I saved the DV files for later editing. I also batch converted all them to MP4 so I can watch them on my TV using WDTV live.

You will need a large hard drive. Expect about 13gb per hour of DV and aproximately 1GB for each converted MP4. Of course, you will need a backup of that drive as well. I use the Seagate 3TB external drives from Costco.

I have about 115 tapes. This project took me over a year to complete.

-

I have a Hauppauge HD-PVR which I used recently on the last few 8mm tapes I had. I didn't and don't plan on editing the files, so I just hit record in the software program (HD-PVR Capture) and play on the camcorder, and let it run.

I think easiest way is to get a DVD burner (set-top/stand-alone) and record 'live'.
I've done probably 100 of the iMovie import --> iDVD --> Burn, and they suck time out of your life.
Or, pay someone.

I have a Sony DCR TRV730 and have been thinking of transferring some Digital 8 tapes but I want to
retain the original quality of recordings which is quite good.

---

Grateful11