If these home movies are important to you then I strongly urge you to have this professionally done. Someone recently emailed me and asked about transferring Hi-8 movies. Here is the response I sent. ---------------------- I have never played around with any Hi-8. What kind of outputs does the player for it have. If you have a 1394 firewire connection then it is easy. Otherwise it is the RCA cables and video capturing. The big problem with video capturing is dropped frames and out of sync audio. This is typically caused by a slow or overworked computer. So you need a fast computer. 2 Ghz+. And it needs to have absolutely no un-needed processes running. No network, no firewall, no antivirus, no popup blockers, no nothing extra. And the hard drive must be defragged before starting. Then there is the problem with the tapes themselves. The video and audio are on different tracks on the tape. Then there is a seperate track (track 21) for keeping everything timed together. Over time the signal on the tapes degrade and so does the timing signal. With a less than perfect timing signal you get dropped frames and out of sync audio. Professionals use a machine called a Time Base Corrector (very expensive machine). A TBC regenerates track 21 and allows better video capture. You can get into the hobby fairly cheap. See how it goes for you and if you like doing it. Most of the video I do is just short videos. Mostly under 5 minutes. Rarely over 15 minutes. Even then I have to be carefull or I get dropped frames and out of sync audio. For long videos I have gotten to where I just record from my DVR to my standalone DVD recorder, then rip the video to my hard drive. No dropped frames or out of sync audio this way. Pooh Bear

I know everybody is advocating transferring your tapes to DVD, BUT... As a computer geek/guru, I must tell you that the lifespan of "recorded" DVDs is unknown, but probably much shorter than everyone assumes. One highly regarded computer security specialist recently stated that they may be good for 2-3 years, possibly 5 years, but should never be used for "critical" data beyond that. Yes, I realize your tapes are probably not "critical data", but bear with me. I think someone would consider their wedding video to be critical data. Commercial movie DVDs are stamped out. It's a physical process, like embossing. "Recordable" DVDs use a dye, which changes its reflectivity when "burnt" by a laser. The longevity of this dye is questionable. The lifespan of a VHS tape is another story. If kept in a temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled environemnt (not a garage!), maybe 10-20 years before deterioration. The answer? There is no good answer. The original Declaration of Independence is fully legible after 230 years. A copy of it on a DVD or VHS tape 230 years from now: probably unviewable. Another question: will anyone have a VHS tape deck or a DVD player 10 or 20 years from now? Will analog TV signals be playable, since switching to digital TV is mandatory in just a few years? How many of you have a 5 1/4 floppy disk drive? See the problem? This is an enormous problem which librarians are facing now. Microfilm machines? Microfiche? How about a disk from a WANG word processor from 20 years ago? An 8" floppy disk? I know I've gotten a little carried away, but all electronic media need to be copied to a new format every 5-10 years, because the formats fall out of usage. Got any out-of-print 8-track tapes? If it hasn't been reissued, then once that tape dies, IT'S GONE...FOREVER. I'm sure glad that the Declaration of Independence wasn't written on a word processor!

If you have the original 8mm, it is worth getting it converted to a digital format so that it can be put on a DVD or SD card. The quality is a lot better and you cna then edit it pretty easily on a computer. Where in Texas are you? I know places in San Antonio that do good work.

Not yet, but I have quite a few 16mm home movies, including some of my in-laws' from the 1930's or 40's. I know Sam's Club has this service. Even with Sam's, it's not cheap. I'm reluctant to send the movies out to an unfamiliar company. I hope you'll get recommendations here.