The UK's most affordable and flexible Video8, Hi8 and Digital8 to DVD transfers.
A personal service by an engineer with 20 years of video experience.
Costs just £12 for up to 2:30 hours, extra copies £3.50 or less. Discounts for quantity. Lowest prices in the UK but the highest quality.
Video 8 and the higher performance version Hi8, were much the most popular type of camcorder sold right the way through the 1990's and are still sold today. Picture and sound quality is very good, and at best can be outstanding. Since the 8mm tape is completely different to VHS, no Video8 or Hi8 to VHS adaptor could ever exist, we need to play these tapes on the appropriate equipment.
You have come to the right place for your Video8 and Hi8 to DVD transfers, video99 has simply the best 8mm video equipment. I can transfer your camcorder tapes to DVD with brilliant pictures and sound, using my semi-professional Hi8 edit equipment costing well over £1000. The signals are processed through a Digital Timebase Corrector to remove any flutter and wobble, and get the benefit of a digital dropout compensator in my player. Then the video signals are handled in S-Video form for the ultimate in colour performance, to my DVD recorder or computer system where it is recorded to DVD with outstanding picture and HiFi stereo sound. I can also deal with PCM digital audio recording tracks (most people can't do this). What all this means is that the results will be much better than you can get by just playing the tape in a camcorder. I've had cases of customers coming to me after other video transfer companies were unable to handle LP recordings and international recordings, but video99.co.uk won't let you down.
One of my Semi-professional Video 8 / Hi8 edit deck used for copying camcorder tapes to
DVD.
Basic Menu, £12: Up to 2:30 hours on one DVD, but most camcorder tapes are only 90 minutes which fits nicely. The menus are limited to just a title, but you get a chapter point every 5 minutes so it is easy to move around the DVD. Extra copies of these DVDs cost just £3.50 each and are recommended.
Deluxe Menu £18: Up to 1:30 hours on one DVD, so most camcorder tapes fit in one go. Nice menu icons showing what is on that part of the recording, and if you email me with titles I will put them on the DVD for you too. I place the chapter breaks at points of interest or new recordings. These menus look like professionally recorded DVD films. Extra copies are very cheap, just £2.50 each, and well worth taking.
|
Tape type |
Running times (maximum) |
|
Video 8 or Hi8 MP90, ME90 |
90 minutes SP or 180 minutes LP |
|
Video 8 or Hi8 MP120, ME120 |
2 hours SP or 4 hours LP |
| Digital8 on MP90 tape | 60 minutes SP or 90 minutes LP |
In the last few years a new variant of 8mm video recording has arrived, called Digital8, marketed by Sony and Hitachi. Camcorders of this type use standard Hi8 video cassettes, or Digital8 cassettes which are essentially the same, to record digital signals of the same type as other digital camcorders. The quality is excellent and with suitable equipment, it is possible to transfer these recordings to DVD in a completely digital way, retaining outstanding performance.
Hitachi Digital8 camcorder.
You can't tell by looking at an 8mm video cassette whether it has an analogue Video8 / Hi8 recording on it, or a Digital8 recording. A clue may be in the vintage, recordings prior to year 2000 will be analogue, and later than that could be either. If you have only a Video8 or Hi8 camcorder or player, and get a Digital8 tape to play, you see a grey screen full of speckles and the sound will just be a loud buzz. Since I can transfer all of Video8, Hi8 and Digital8, there will be no problems with any of them. Some transfer outfits will get caught out by Digital8 recordings as they cannot run them. Furthermore I can handle recordings made on equipment from around the world, at no extra expense.
Basic Menu, £12: Up to 2:30 hours on one DVD, but most camcorder tapes are only 60-90 minutes which fits nicely. The menus are limited to just a title, but you get a chapter point every 5 minutes so it is easy to move around the DVD. Extra copies of these DVDs cost just £3.50 each and are recommended.
Deluxe Menu £18: Up to 1:30 hours on one DVD, so camcorder tapes usually fit in one go. Nice menu icons showing what is on that part of the recording, and if you email me with titles I will put them on the DVD for you too. I place the chapter breaks at points of interest or new recordings. These menus look like professionally recorded DVD films. Extra copies are very cheap, just £2.50 each, and well worth taking.
Also available, Video8/Hi8/Digital8 to MPEG or AVI(DV) files for your own computer editing. The price is small quantities is the same as Deluxe Menu. For larger quantities of tapes there are good discounts possible. In particular, if you would like to transfer Video8, Hi8 or Digital8 to hard disk, the price can be as low as £7 per hour and then we also have the option of using the even higher quality AVI DV file format. Just email me for details.
There is a limitation of the Digital8 format: Hi8 or Video8 90 minute tapes record for 60 minutes with the Digital8 format unless LP (long play) is used to extend this to 90 minutes. If LP (long play) mode has been used using a cheaper Video8 tape, it is possible that the recordings may not play so well, occasional blocks and patterns are possible. So far I've never experienced this effect on my equipment.
| PAL | NTSC | |
| YES | YES | |
We have a new and easy order page, just select what kind of tapes you have and supply your details.
If you prefer, you can instead fill out this form (a Word document). It should answer all of your questions and provides me with all the important details I need, so complete as much of the form as you can and email it back to me. I will then confirm the price, or best guess at the price, and let you know the address to send the tapes.
If for any reason you get stuck filling out the form, just email me and I'll help you personally. It's a personal service I offer, not like some of the big video editing houses. I understand that in many cases you will not be able to tell how much material is on the original recordings. In which case, assume that the tapes are fairly full and send payment accordingly, I will refund any surplus by means of a cheque sent with your finished recordings.
If recorded on equipment from another country, see the Television systems explained.
Not everyone
needs their tapes returned once they have the DVDs, but if you do, please remember to include postage costs. For a single video tape in the UK, this is just £2. For larger quantities, and tapes from outside the UK, I will let you know.
Ideally can you ensure you send the tapes in a package which is sufficiently large and robust for me to use to send back your original tapes. Usually I will send the DVDs to you ahead of returning your tapes, then when you've confirmed you are happy with the DVDs, I will return your tapes. This way I can help you further if necessary - for example you can now see you want a different part of a tape transferred on its own or you want extra copies.
When you receive your tapes back, you may notice that the record tabs have been removed. The first thing I do with a tape is make sure that it cannot be recorded on, so protecting your important recordings.
If you have any questions, just email
me and I'll reply promptly. Also see the video99.co.uk Questions
and Answers (FAQ) All material on
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