so check this thing out i have been obsessed with this camera all weekend we just moved into this new place and while we were unpacking one of kerry's boxes full of sentimental stuff you know old yearbook old photographs came out this guy depending on which generation you grew up in you might be familiar with one of these and holy crap this can store up to four hours of video if you record it in that long play mode but the thing to keep in mind with these is that they do not last forever they do
degrade over time so you really want to try to digitize it soon as possible before it's too late so knowing that the first thing i did when i saw this camera was i popped in a couple tapes to see if there was any footage still remaining on these tapes it was just a fuzzy white screen i was kind of bummed and i thought those tapes are probably too old but then i remember that you're supposed to run a head cleaner through these cameras once in a while so something like this i found this on ebay r
an this tape through the camera for like 30 seconds and then suddenly camera started working fine all the tapes the footage was still there that's what i'm talking about and the other thing i ordered was this thing clear click video to digital 2.0 i picked this up for 139 bucks on amazon and i'll throw a link down there in the description and there's definitely cheaper ways to do this what i liked about this was how simple it was so check it out we got that old school analog yellow red and white
so really all you got to do is figure out how to get your analog signal into this and then you could pop in an sd card or a usb stick and then hit record but before you buy this know that there are some kinks and quirks to this that i'm still gonna test out a little bit more in this video but first you guys want to see what kind of stuff we dug out from carrie's old tapes are you excited to see what kind of stuff we managed to dig up no what do you think of the christmas lights by the way i don
't like it i'll just take it down in my head i thought those fairy lights might look kind of cool but it looks stupid oh is that you yeah that's you right there playing soccer yeah i didn't even know you played soccer do you know i used to play soccer no we're learning stuff about each other oh look at this carrie just doing some vlogging can we hear what you say i would rather listen to it first okay carrie's gonna listen to this on her own you started vlogging way before i did show it without
audio yeah i'm so curious are you gonna let me hear what you're saying you look very like serious [Laughter] oh and this was your dad motto crossing motocrossing is that a verb is that your dad right there yeah i think so oh yeah number nine that was his number his favorite number oh that's cool you should send that to your dad i think he'll like that yeah he'll get a kick out of it for sure so anyone with like a gmail or a google account has like a youtube account right it's had carrie log into
her youtube account where there's nothing there but i just dumped all these files as unlisted files so you can go ahead and share it with whoever you want it's free so might as well have it there there's a lot though i pulled four tapes and each tape had like two hours each so there's like eight hours of stuff but i'm happy we did it because now that it's been converted to a digital format it will not degrade further from here so that's good and we don't have to carry tapes around yeah can we m
ove exactly but here's the one thing that i think everyone should be doing is ask your close family relatives friends let me know if you have anything that looks like a tape at all whether it's vhs minidv anything that looks like a tape send it my way and i just kind of threw it out there not expecting anything i didn't actually expect her to have any tapes but then look at all this i'd even know that there was a high eight camcorder in our house and it's crazy because these go back before i was
born like 1985 1986. that's kind of weird to look at life before you existed i've been tripping out and look at this even some cassette tapes just for audio right i definitely want to know what audio is recorded on here though because this says randy who's my older brother at three months from 1979. what what is on here i must find out i still have lots of digitizing to do but this is christmas 1985 so this is four years before i was born and oh my god look at my mom yeah and my grandma my gran
dma passed away about five years ago or something like that but like it's crazy seeing her just walk around like that look at that my grandma hopped out of that rv like that oh my god there's my mom my sister my brother and my grandma i was negative five years old then this is 1985 and my mom was born in 1954 so she was she's 31 that's my my mom is my age right here how weird is that think about your parents you're like oh yeah they're older people they're your parents from watching video of my
mom at my age that she already had a home she's taking care of my brother and my sister and another kid on the way at my age this is randy's seventh birthday my older brother that went to thailand with us oh my god look he's tiny and who's that i don't know that was scary though let's skip through them giving us some serious side eye right there wait a second my grandma's like my mom's age here whoa whoa here's the thing like if i never made an effort to digitize these tapes my mom probably woul
d have never dug into the basement to try to dig these up and by the time we found them again next time it might have been too late so this is awesome i'm so happy that we're able to preserve these files because it's like wine you know the older they get the finer and more i don't know something like that i think i'm gonna just start filming my videos on this camera so what's the difference between your camera and my camera well my camera is mini dv which is slightly newer but this is high eight
which has been around for longer so that's why all these tapes are before so that's why you're playing everything on this camera are you glad that your boyfriend's a nerd and just digitizing all these old tapes yes i'll be the historian of the family all these batteries are so old that it literally powers the camera for like 20 seconds here let me get the plug is it working i think it is the timer's going how you doing there this is actually a really convenient vlog setup i would love for a goo
d mirrorless camera to have this form factor i mean it just feels so good and just look at that holding it out here yeah flip screen yes this is an old video now look this is from high school yeah the sound quality is probably pretty bad but if we sync this sound quality into this and look at this can i use this this is an acceptable vlogging camera should i just make a whole video on this camera there's my camera right there and there's my monitor where i'm filming myself whoa look at this i go
t a mirror effect a mirror effect since they do like music videos like this i need to do a camera comparison which camera is the camera from 15 years ago a or b also even if you don't have a high a camcorder if you have these tapes lying around it might even be worth buying the old used one on ebay i was looking around for them i saw some for like 50 60 bucks and usually on there it says the description if it works well enough to at least digitize tapes but if you do have one definitely try the
head cleaner first because i think a majority of the time they'll fix your problem but anyways i got a lot of tapes to digitize and i also want to figure out the quirks on this thing before i officially give my thumbs up or down on this so let's get to business [Music] hey steve these tapes were your time give us a little history lesson about your time and your tapes my time and my tapes yeah i mean you were probably using these kinds of tapes right yeah but we had tapes before this too beta x t
apes and yeah i don't even know super vhs betamax i just want a history lesson i'm not talking about trying to figure out how the neanderthals dinosaurs came and they got talking what'd you do with all your tapes somewhere i still have a bunch of mini dv and beta tapes you should digitize them just for like archival purposes it was something i would have to probably do on my own privately because there's some silly stuff sam and i will totally keep it safe we won't put any blackmail material on
youtube i totally believe all right finally i have finished digitizing around 30 to 40 hours worth of old archived footage it was honestly really nice having this display so that when you plug something in it's just all built in it was really a big part of the reason why i went for this unit over some of the others because you don't require a computer to be hooked up to it or anything it's a very simple all-in-one solution it is not the cheapest solution what is it like 139 bucks some of the oth
er solutions i was looking at are some usb ports so instead you would actually plug it into a computer and capture the video using software i haven't tried it myself so can't speak too much on it but definitely read the reviews make sure it's compatible with your system now some of the specific issues i had with this thing my biggest biggest issue was the files getting corrupted after i captured so i'm going to go ahead and start capturing this tape right here and notice that if the signal gets
interrupted like i pull out this cable or sometimes if it's the end of the tape or whatever it can actually corrupt it if i go back to check on the file see there's a little sad face on there you see that means that file is corrupt so let's say you were capturing a clip for an hour and then something goes wrong with the connection or whatever then you end up with a corrupt file and that was the most frustrating part of all of it because the signal can get lost whether it's a slight disconnection
or sometimes when the tapes reach the end and sometimes the tapes would just do something weird because they're so old that they'll skip a point or something like that that was super frustrating so one of the first things you definitely want to go do is go into the menu and see this signal loss detection make sure you have a check mark next to that but even after you turn that on the files still do corrupt so best way to do it is to stop the recording before the tape ends it's an extra step it'
s kind of a hassle but as long as you're the one that stops the recording the files have been good another issue i did see a few times was that the audio sync would be completely off at the end of the tape so the video would start off perfectly in sync with the video and audio and by the end of it it would just be off so at some point in the video there would be a big gap of either no audio or the audio would skip ahead another thing i did notice with the finalized files was that premiere did no
t seem to love these files now i don't want to get too much into it because i don't know if it's an issue with adobe premiere or if it's an issue with the files that this thing generates but what would happen is i would load up a file and let's say it's an hour long clip when i load it into premiere it might see it as a 30 minute clip or 45 minute clip it just wouldn't see that last chunk of the video but the videos play in full if you open it up in you know quicktime player or even if you uploa
d it straight to youtube it would see the whole clip so a few times i did just have to run the clips through a random conversion so that premiere would just see the whole video clip but again not 100 sure if that was an issue with adobe premiere my editing software or this but aside from those speed bumps i'm really glad i have this thing and i actually want to hand this off to one of you guys so let me know in the comments if you guys have some tapes you want to digitize i'll send it out to one
of you and it'd be cool if whoever i send it out to you sent it out to another person then you sent it out to another person it just kept going and a bunch of people had digitized tapes that'd be cool but i don't know that sounds like an operation that seems cool but in in practice it's a little complicated i don't know what do you think i think it's a good idea yeah let's do it let's see how far we can make this choo choo train go so yeah let me know in the comments if you want this and if you
're willing to pass it on afterwards and we'll send this around town a little bit but otherwise i'll go ahead and throw a link to this in the description and yeah if you guys have any suggestions on simple ways to convert analog tapes to digital let me know in the comments or some of your favorite bands from the 80s 70s 60s what direction are you taking this video i just want to learn more about history gene yeah it's definitely been a trip watching some of these old videos i even sent some of t
hese clips to my dad and you want to know what he said this is very valuable you did a good job i got a pat in the head from my pops when was the last time your dad said good job to you huh i'll talk about that right now should i read some comments no just end it right here just send it okay [Music]
Comments
UPDATE!! The converter I used has a new Firmware update and it fixes the corruption issues I had so It's Awesome! I did also try two other models from Digitnow and they both gave me tons of reliability and Audio Sync issues so I would say this is the one to get. - https://geni.us/Qgv4U
The cheaper software-based converters that plug into your PC are so much better and you wont experience the corruption problems, you can also pick what format you want to record it in!
You're talking about "digitizing" those tapes, but miniDV format is actually already digital. Yeah, it's stored on a tape, but not in the same way, like VHS for example (which is analogue format indeed). To transfer your video from miniDV to hard drive your should connect your camera through FireWire (IEEE 1394) interface and use any video editing software to capture video. In this way transfer will be going through byte by byte data copy and it's produce video the same quality as source. An you used analogue to digital conversion which is lossy.
Would love to use this. My dad dies when I was 2 years old, I'm 35 now and recently found a bag of tapes that belonged to him. Would be amazing to see what he was like besides just the stories. I will pass along when I am done as well! Thank you!
“High 8 cameras Vs Ari Alexa” Yes please
My mom has been begging me to digitize our family movies for years...this would be dope.
It’s so special to find footage like this, especially since it’s often long forgotten. I recently digitised my parents’ home video tapes, from 1990 all the way up until 2009. So roughly 15 hours or so of VHS-C tapes. It was so interesting to see my parents’ life before I was born, their excitement of purchasing our home, then seeing how happy my grandparents were when I came along in 2001. It’s a special feeling seeing history like that. So many things have changed, but often, a lot has stayed the same.
He looks like the grown up version of Russell in UP movie.
Gene... I am literally in the process of converting over 100 tapes right now from my family. Your timeline is so so good on this. I was sticking one of these in my cart to do more homework on and then maybe buy. I have an old pinnacle transfer unit but it is showing its age. The process is so time-consuming but is complicated for me because there is no monitor on what i am using so i have had to build out a transfer station with a monitor, etc... to do what i'm doing. To have a second unit without needing a monitor?! yes please. I am transferring VHS, Hi-8, and mini-DV tapes. As well as some audio but I am doing that through an interface into ableton. Regardless, enjoy the process and the memories, we are walking a similar path in that regard right now.
I used to have a sony camcorder. It stored data into a CD and I shot my first short film in that camera. Didn't know how to edit, so we shot it by pausing the footage and shooting the next scene. So NO RETAKES. Good times lol.
I simply must throw a comment into the ocean of other comments, since this is a topic near and dear to me over the past few years. Some notes on convenience and quality... This doohickey looks amazing for CONVENIENCE. It's definitely better to get an archiving project done and have fun with it rather than never do it. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good, right? BUT... along with the audio sync and corruption issues Gene mentions, there are a few other things to note if you also want to maximize quality. And I don't just mean tweak the last .01% of the picture, I mean dramatically improve things. Old analog tapes are all NTSC 480i (480 scan lines that contain picture information, although technically it's 486 but really only for pro stuff, but nevermind that nonsense, LOL!). Interlaced video has one FIELD every 60th of a second, but note that each field is a separate image taken at a separate moment in time! So, if a device or a process converts it to 30fps, you are either smushing two images together and creating blurry motion, or you're throwing away every other field and getting a chunky image with have the resolution. Analog NTSC video should, whenever possible, be captured as interlaced, and each field converted to a frame for a 60fps video. It looks WAY better. I get convenience, and the simpler devices don't do this, but I mention it because it's worth doing. This video is 24fps, so I don't know if Gene captured at 60i, 60p, or 30p. Blackmagic Design makes a good doohickey I know can do interlaced, and my old Matrox MXO2 mini can as well. Dropping a NTSC 480i video into a 60fps timeline in Premiere works well. Premiere doubles each line in each field and you get the proper look. Since YouTube doesn't do 60fps at 480p, I do everything at 1080p60 and leave black bars on the side (unless I have a letterboxed image or anamorphic). Also, s-video is worth using if available. The detail, and especially color, are noticeably better. Hi8 and Super-VHS will obviously benefit the most, but standard VHS and 8mm can look a bit better via s-video as well. Playing back on the very camcorder that recorded something is generally a safe bet, but a working S-VHS VCR or Hi8 camcorder is a step up. DV is digital and you get what you get via the Firewire cable, where you're actually copying digital data instead of sampling an analog picture. Don't use a capture doohickey like this with DV. Get a Firewire card or find an old PC with a Firewire connection. Ideally you'd capture to an avi file with 4:2:2 color subsampling, but now we're getting closer to that .01% stuff. :-) There, I threw some ideas into the ether. I'd share a link or two to some home videos I'm proud of, but the algorithm might do weird things.
I've been hiding from a huge box with literally hundreds of hours of skateboarding footage from 1992 through to 2000, a mix of 4 hour VHS tapes, dozens of VHS-C tapes and Mini DV tapes. My old Sony video camera I bought in 2001 used to be able to do 'pass-through' capture, so you could run the signal in from a VCR and it would come out of the camera in to editing software without having to record it to DV tape which was amazing but sadly it has stopped working. Plus...it isn't so easy to connect up via FireWire these days. I need some motivation and a way to capture that means I don't need to double record in real time possibly weeks of footage, so if you want to send the capture box to the UK it would be much appreciated! Funny thing with skate footage is that now it isn't so much about the tricks we landed but the things in-between. As you talked about, it is the people no longer around, the interactions, the places and people captured at that moment in time. Despite these tapes intimidating me with the amount of time I'll need to spend on capturing them and editing them...they are a treasure and a blessing. - Paul
I did this same exact thing during the quarantine for my old mini DV tapes. My panasonic camcorder actually came with a firewire out, so it connected into my mac with a dongle. The best part of doing it that way is the import directly into Final Cut, the software would automatically control the camera and the tape playback so you don't have to sit by it and hit the stop record button.
Kari and Gene, stuff like this reminds me why I feel like I love you guys as much as possible for not actually knowing you, if that makes sense. I'm glad you guys are in the world. I'm actually surprised this is on the main channel. Best regards to you and your families. Please stay healthy so you can keep making videos that one day will be as heartwarming as the ones you dug up.
I recently found a box load of old camcorder tapes. In defence of old technology, it’s great how long the analogue tapes last for. They don’t seem to deteriorate as much as you think. It’s important to digitise but that doesn’t guarantee it’s longevity if you don’t back up your files periodically. So always keep the tapes! I’ve also noticed how much I filmed and how many videos I made back in the day compared to nowadays even tho it’s so easy to make video these days.
You've brought a lot of memories back to me. I have a few suggestions : 1st I've noticed bad sound , use a better quality cable, cheap cable may give a lot of artifacts (weird colors on video and sound clicks and glitches). I had this experience with VHS VCR and camcorder. 2nd I'll try to connect the camcorder to my TV via scart adapter or RCA inputs and try to record to an USB hard-drive connected to TV, and hit record from TV's remote. This should give the best quality of recording, of course using quality cables. You can use any analog around $30, like the ones used in Hi-Fi to connect CD player to amp. In this scenario I'll check if the recorded files can be played on PC, other TV sets or they work only with TV that was used for recording, it different for each brand. Back in the day, I've always copied my 8mm ( Hi8) tapes to VHS, because there was no way to share my recorded video to others, there were few camcorders on our market and different standards, so that your friend may not had an 8mm camera. VHS on the other hand was very common. Also this was a kind of back-up, if you had accidentally erased the 8mm tape, which usually was recorded many times because these were harder to find in the stores and more expensive. Around 2002, I digitized many tapes using my desktop computer and a PCI internal tuner (which actually was pretty bad), DivX encoding was top back then. My dream camera in the 90's, was a VHS Panasonic, pretty massive, huge lens compared to Hi8, a lot of buttons, a real microphone, a larger monitor ( which was actually a small CRT inside the viewfinder), no flip screen, shooting from the shoulder like a real reporter :) . That was great, better image quality and you didn't have to copy anything, just put the cassette in the player and watch. It looked like this https://br.pinterest.com/pin/821766263232967179/ Great videos, your passion for everything that you do, in front of the camera, when editing and commenting is inspiring, a strong positive energy.
Absolutely no one: Potato Jet: Old school camcorders vs Red
I'm just going to be honest, I am so glad you've opted for an "off center" shooting style in the new place. Validates my own choices and also feels less "YOUTUBER" and more "PRO FILMMAKER", not that I need to ever explain that stuff to you, you've been a cinematographer for like 5 years longer than I have.
This is so special! My great grandmother passed away 10 years ago today so I'm particularly reflective today! I'm now going to do the same, get all the old family tapes and photos and digitise the lot! I know theres my christening video somewhere with the family rockinging the 80s hair and fashion! Thanks for sharing this Gene!
Weirdly enough I'm visiting my grandparents and happened to find what is essentially the entire history of my family on tape. I've been looking at this on Amazon for a few days and it's just a little expensive at the moment, but I know I need to do something with all these tapes. I never knew some of these moments existed like this. I watched my dad's first birthday party last night and I can't say how badly I needed to see some of these memories. I'd love to get myself into the chain of digital conversion with you guys, whoever you choose. I want to make something special for my family while they're still here because filmmaking has been the only way I've ever been able to express myself to them. I feel like it would really bring my journey into this career, with all its ups and downs, full circle back to where it all began. Perfect timing to see a video like this, so thank you for that at the very least.