Need advice regarding Hi-8 video camera

[BE]

Hello,

My brother has a Samsung SCL906 Hi-8 video camera he said he'd give me, but
he reports some problems that may or may not be fixable and a feature or two
that I might not like. I don't know much about video cameras.

First, it has no "audio playback" - whatever that is. Does that mean that it
can only record silent videos - no sound at all? Or is that just a playback
feature?

He also told me that the recording is poor/grainy. Could this be because the
recording head needs to be cleaned, or does it indicate something that
cannot be fixed by simple maintenance?

What about the connectivity issues of a Hi-8 camera in these days of digital
cameras? Assuming I can get it working properly, what steps (or extra steps)
are necessary to getting my final output fully digital?

I appreciate any comments.

Thanks,
Be

 

[Dave D]

Hello,

My brother has a Samsung SCL906 Hi-8 video camera he said he'd give me,
but
he reports some problems that may or may not be fixable and a feature or
two
that I might not like. I don't know much about video cameras.

First, it has no "audio playback" - whatever that is. Does that mean that
it
can only record silent videos - no sound at all? Or is that just a
playback
feature?

If it doesn't record/play back audio, it's pretty much useless. However,
it's a freebie, you've nothing to lose!

He also told me that the recording is poor/grainy. Could this be because
the
recording head needs to be cleaned, or does it indicate something that
cannot be fixed by simple maintenance?

Could be dirty heads. As the video is grainy, and it apparently has no sound
at all, and given that 8mm equipment records sound solely via the drum (ie
no seperate analogue sound heads) it's possible the heads are severely
contaminated. A good clean with isopropyl alcohol and *proper" chamois head
cleaners might restore operation.

Be careful though, if you haven't done it before, chances are you'll wreck
the heads! The actual heads themselves are tiny little ferrite affairs seen
in the gap between the rotating upper drum and the static lower drum and are
about as delicate as the point of a sharpened pencil. The way I do ity is
moisten the chamois with alcohol, place it flatly on the drum as if it were
a tape, and gently rotate the drum so the heads brush against it. On
removing the chamois you should see dirty black lines where the head dumped
its filth. At a pinch, and this will horrify some techs- you can use a piece
of smooth paper like a bank note used in the same way, but I wouldn't
recommend to many cleaning sessions that way.

Don't forget to clean the other parts in the tape path with alcohol as well,
ie the capstan, pinch roller and all the tape guides. You can use a cotton
bud (Q tip or whatever you call it in your country) to clean these parts but
never ever put a cotton bud near the drum- it will snag and break off the
heads!

What about the connectivity issues of a Hi-8 camera in these days of
digital
cameras? Assuming I can get it working properly, what steps (or extra
steps)
are necessary to getting my final output fully digital?

The obvious way is to buy a VIVO card, or a graphics card with VIVO
connectivity (Video In Video Out), connect it to the camera and grab the
video that way, then compress it to a mpg or divx format. However, having
done this myself I have to say the results are rather disappointing. There's
just not enough processing power with the cards I've used to real time
capture decent quality video at TV resolutions. Maybe someone else can
recommend something capable.

Dave

 

[Peter Duck]

In message <[email protected]>

I assume that it has some way of feeding a TV or VCR.

On the UK, the lead for this often ends in a pair of 'RCA' plugs, for
sound & vision, with an adaptor ('SCART') that suits European TVs, but
not North American.

With different adaptors, the RCA-plugs can also feed appropriate cards
in a PC, though the video-quality is significantly better if both camera
and card also have S-VHS sockets, linked by a separate cable (sound
still via RCA-plug)

The obvious way is to buy a VIVO card, or a graphics card with VIVO
connectivity (Video In Video Out), connect it to the camera and grab
the video that way, then compress it to a mpg or divx format. However,
having done this myself I have to say the results are rather
disappointing. There's just not enough processing power with the cards
I've used to real time capture decent quality video at TV resolutions.
Maybe someone else can recommend something capable.

I've used both an antique ATI 'All in Wonder' and a relatively new, and
absurdly cheap (<30$), 'Comprousa' TV-card: the latter is at least as
good and simpler to use, producing MPEG2 files directly.

MPEG2 isn't 'state of the art', of course, but then neither is Hi-8:
both are of roughly 'VCR-quality' rather than UK (PAL I) TV , which is
rather better than NTSC: my digitised/played-back picture isn't
noticeably worse than that when linking camera to TV direct, so there's
no point in a 'better' card.

A modern digital camera, on the other hand ...

 

[Dave D]

Assuming I can get it working properly, what steps (or extra steps)
are necessary to getting my final output fully digital?

Forgot to mention in my last post- the cleanest and most cost effective way
to get an almost exact digital copy of a camcorder tape is probably to use a
cheap standalone DVD recorder via its phono input or, if the camera has one
(unlikely) the s-video which is better. The results should be virtually
indistinguishable from the original.

Dave

 

[Dave D]

In message <[email protected]>


I assume that it has some way of feeding a TV or VCR.

On the UK, the lead for this often ends in a pair of 'RCA' plugs, for
sound & vision, with an adaptor ('SCART') that suits European TVs, but
not North American.

With different adaptors, the RCA-plugs can also feed appropriate cards
in a PC, though the video-quality is significantly better if both camera
and card also have S-VHS sockets, linked by a separate cable (sound
still via RCA-plug)


I've used both an antique ATI 'All in Wonder' and a relatively new, and
absurdly cheap (<30$), 'Comprousa' TV-card: the latter is at least as
good and simpler to use, producing MPEG2 files directly.

MPEG2 isn't 'state of the art', of course, but then neither is Hi-8:
both are of roughly 'VCR-quality' rather than UK (PAL I) TV , which is
rather better than NTSC: my digitised/played-back picture isn't
noticeably worse than that when linking camera to TV direct, so there's
no point in a 'better' card.

A modern digital camera, on the other hand ...

Hi Peter,

I started out with a seperate Creative capture card, which was dire. It
required the graphics card to be set to 256 colour mode for one thing, which
was unacceptable to me. Next I moved onto a WinTV card, which was reasonably
good. Then I bought a secondhand All In Wonder (not Pro) which I was quite
happy with, though it had some annoying bugs.

Now I have a Nvidia Ti4200. It was, I feel, a backwards step from the AIW in
some ways, and the buggy drivers are very sensitive to glitches when
capturing from a VCR, which causes the Macrovision protection to kick in.
However, it does the job, and I find the bundled Intervideo editor easy to
use, though it annoyingly forgets one's preferences every time it closes.

The drawback I have with the Nvidia is that although it allows capture in
resolutions up to and above TV quality, when I do so it gives very poor
results including dropped frames and a 'banding' effect, especially
noticeable on fast action scenes. It looks like the interlaced lines are out
of sync, giving and almost zig zag effect.

My PC is no slouch, a P4 3GHz with 1GB ram and fast hard drives, so I'm at a
loss as to why this happens. I planned on archiving all my camcorder stuff
on DVD, but as I can only capture at lower resolutions, it's a non starter.
I guess I'll wait until I get a DVD recorder!

As for digital camcorders, they are definitely the way to go IMO. The idea
of dumping the data onto the hard drive, editing it then transferring to DVD
with little or no loss in quality definitely appeals to me!

Dave

 

[Peter Duck]

In message <[email protected]>

Oops: I should have said 'MPEG1' in both places.

... Then I bought a secondhand All In Wonder (not Pro) which I was quite
happy with, though it had some annoying bugs.

My AIW, also second-hand, was/is probably similar, if not identical:
16MB, not the 32MB version.

Now I have a Nvidia Ti4200. ...
The drawback I have with [it] is that although it allows capture in
resolutions up to and above TV quality, when I do so it gives very poor
results including dropped frames and a 'banding' effect, especially
noticeable on fast action scenes. It looks like the interlaced lines
are out of sync, giving and almost zig zag effect.

- My Compro TV-card should also capture in better-than-TV MPEG2, but not
in a PC powered by an 800MHz Duron: anyway, it would be 'overkill' for
the output from a Hi-8 camcorder, with near-pointless increase in the
resulting file-sizes.

- The 'interlace out of sync' effect should, IIRC, be avoidable.
It arises, at some point, 'cos a fast-moving scene has changed by the
time the second 'half-frame' is interlaced with the first.
I've forgotten, and can't readily find, details of the Hi-8 format, even
whether it basically *is* interlaced, but software to convert between
formats with different numbers of lines usually gives options
concerning interlacing/'progressive scan', 'which field first', etc.

Having chickened-out by letting the cheapo card 'do its own thing' in
MPEG1/VCD, I'm now rather vague about all this ...

... I planned on archiving all my camcorder stuff on DVD, but as I can
only capture at lower resolutions, it's a non starter.
I guess I'll wait until I get a DVD recorder!

I hope you're not eventually disappointed, either by non-improvement in
basic output quality (the source is still distinctly 'old hat') or,
specifically, a recorder tailored to TV-transmissions not coping well
with the different(?) input from a Hi-8 camera.