MR

Here's the deal:

I've got somewhere around 75-100 8mm tapes that I need to transfer to DVD which I'm planning to do via my computer and DVD burner. I've tried various applications over the years and they all seem to fall into 2 categories: Super limited/Freebie stuff and Professional Grade Software. The former, while I understand is free and you get what you pay for, always seems to produce a less-than-desirable, grainy image and the latter usually has such a steep learning curve and requires video capabilities far beyond what my computer can do.

All I'm needing to do is transfer the video and burn it. No editing is required and I don't need to do any image enhancements (at least I don't think I will....)

I have a firewire connection between the camera and my computer and unlimited space for storage of the transferred data. With that in mind, can someone recommend a program that easily take care of this task without requiring I first take a course at the local community college first. I should also note that I'm not necessarily looking for a "free" program or even the cheapest available - I'm happy to pay whatever I need to, to get this project finished. The tapes contain basically the graphical documentation of the lives of my daughters as they grew up. Unfortunately, as technology improved and subsequently so did the devices we use to capture the images, I simply changed to the new medium and picked up from there. This left years of video "abandoned" on technologically outdated media which I've learned degrades over time and if anything were to happen to this data before I'm able to get it transferred, it's a safe bet my marriage (and probably my life...) would be over.

Thanks!!

Microsoft movie maker should be adequate. If it's not on your computer already, you can get it for free from here.

There are plenty of tutorials on youtube or ehow regarding how to use the software.

Don wrote:Microsoft movie maker should be adequate. If it's not on your computer already, you can get it for free from here.

There are plenty of tutorials on youtube or ehow regarding how to use the software.

Thanks for the reply, Don. I may be wrong but for some reason I remember MMM not being capable or compatible with firewire transfers or something along those lines.....? Ringing any bells....? I'll check it out but I remember a couple of years ago when I was goong to tackle this project, MMM had an issue that took it off the table....

JRNYMAN wrote:

Don wrote:Microsoft movie maker should be adequate. If it's not on your computer already, you can get it for free from here.

There are plenty of tutorials on youtube or ehow regarding how to use the software.

Thanks for the reply, Don. I may be wrong but for some reason I remember MMM not being capable or compatible with firewire transfers or something along those lines.....? Ringing any bells....? I'll check it out but I remember a couple of years ago when I was goong to tackle this project, MMM had an issue that took it off the table....

I remember when it first came out over ten years ago that there were initial firewire issues but that was rectified years ago from everything that I've read.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6385722_burn-8mm-film-dvd.html