I have some old (about 5 years) 8mm tapes that I used to record on my old minolta 8mm camcorder. I have upgraded to mini dv as my Minolta stopped working. I am now faced with How do I transfer my 8mm tapes onto dvd. So I bought an 8mm Samsung camcorder for this purpose. However, this does not play my old tapes - no picture, no sound, nothing.

Can anyone explain how to rectify my dilemma PLEASE!!!!!

Hi,

I sympathise with you, I've been looking for a Video 8/Hi 8 taperewinder for the past two months as I have a collection of old video 8 and Hi 8 tapes from the mid 1990's and needed to get them transferred onto either DVD or computer. I had to give up looking as no one has one. I just used the camera (strange how your Samsung won't play them back - is it a new camera? If it is, I would take it back to the shop and tell them about it). Are your tapes Hi 8 or Video 8, if they are Hi 8 and the camera is Video 8 then maybe it won't play them back. I remember there was some kind of playback problem with either Hi 8/Video 8 or maybe it was between VHS and SVHS, maybe someone can set us straight on it. Anyway, I advertised my Canon V75Hi in a second hand magazine and a guy wants to buy it from me, he just now has to turn up with the moola.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...

Hello,

I've been doing this a bit lately too!

As there is no VHS/8MM adaptor in existance (beccause the tapes record and play back at different speeds etc) your best option is to purchase a second-hand 8mm camera and transfer them onto your pc from that (you'll need a capture card somewhere along the line to transfer analogue signals that your 8MM camera uses to digital ones your computer understands.

Going one better, your best bet is to find a Digital8 camera and transfer them onto your pc using it's firewire port - that's what I did. It works a treat.

I bought my second-hand digital8 camera from ebay for about £90, and even though I'll only use it for transfering my old footage to DVD's, when you think about the memories etc you'll be keeping - it's money well spent!

Good luck

eBay is your friend.

I wish I could agree, ebay got a bit of a bashing recently from a programme broadcast in the UK and Ireland called 'Watchdog'. I won't repeat what was said but it wasn't positive, especially regarding paypal.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...