If you have some old VHS tapes (standard or 8mm) that you want to save in digital format, I have a low-cost solution. I didn’t want to pay for professional transfers at $20 each with shipping costs running around $10. You may not remember them but these smaller cameras were about half the size of the first VHS cameras. Now they look gigantic beside the digital camcorders available today. When my children were born in the early 90s, these were the cameras to get.
To convert them into a digital format I used USBVision Capture 1.3.0 software and for hardware XLR8 InterView, Griffin’s iMic, an audio cable (stereo mic plug/stereo RCA plugs) and a mono video RCA cable. The XLR8 InterView rig is a few years old but works with the recently upgraded (to OS 10) software.
Below is the hardware. I used an Apple G4 iBook, 1.4 GHz w/512 MB RAM & OS 10.4.11 and a Canon 8mm Camcorder. Notice that the XLR8 connector has an RCA/SVideo input option which allows for a higher quality signal if available.
The setup is shown below. Make sure that you launch Systems Preferences/Sound then select the Input tab and highlight iMic under Name in order to get the sound from your source tape. I set my Input volume slider at about 2/3.
Launch your software program after all connections are made otherwise it won’t identify a source. I won’t get into running the program here but setup was very easy. I had to experiment with getting the correct volume because it comes through pretty loud and is easily distorted.
Remember to have plenty of storage room on your hard drive or, better yet, connect a supplemental external hard drive (FireWire is fastest) and save to it.
Your tapes are saved as QuickTime Movies which are easily imported into iMovie
