Bob Drake asks:
I have an older Sony Digital Video 8 camera. This camera records onto tape. Is it possible to do a YouTube video using this camera?
13 Answers - Write an Answer
Imesh Chandrasiri
February 22, 2013you can record the necessary video with the video camera. Since it’s recorded onto a tape you should use a technique to transfer the video to a digital format. You might need a capture card and a video tape player and stuff for this or look for a local store which offers this conversion service.
Note : The quality of the video will be lot less than most of the videos that are available today!
Junil Maharjan
February 22, 2013you will have to convert the tape video into a digital format to use on your computer.
William Lewis
February 22, 2013Yes, but why would you want to? You would have to buy a capture card to record a video, and it wouldn’t be as good of quality as the original. There are plenty of free alternatives, such as downloadhelper (firefox add on), Freemake Video Converter (free software), keepvid (website), ect, that can retrieve youtube videos with 0 to almost no loss of quality.
PS: If you end up using one of the alternatives I listed, CDBurnerXP is a great free disc burner. Don’t let the name fool you though, it actually works from Windows 98 to Windows 8 and it has portable versions.
Williiam, I think you misunderstood. He wants to POST videos on Youtube!
February 22, 2013Alan Wade
February 22, 2013Here’s a YouTube vid showing you just how to transfer your video’s on to computer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANWVLMBY0nk
Macwitty
February 22, 2013I don’t know if you ask if the camera is good enough or how to get the video from the camera to YouTube. First, your camera is okay. Use it as long as it lives. Then if you have transfered videos from the camera to your computer before then you know how to do it and have the cable. If not, take a look in the manual or check out the video Alan Wade posted. Then, from the file to YouTube, read what YouTube saus is the best settings and use it.
ha14
February 22, 2013How to Record off a TV Using a Camcorder
http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/camcorder-operation/how-to-record-off-a-tv-using-a-camcorder.html
Sebastian Short
February 22, 2013Without means of converting the tape to digital format (you may have this or have a camera shop near you that does this) you won’t be able to upload the file to youtube. In my opinion, you’d be better of investing in a cheap digital camera, small simple ones aren’t too expensive these days!
william armstrong
February 22, 2013it is possible to do it with a vcr that has line out/line in inputs what is all it needs a capture card
Oron Joffe
February 22, 2013Bob, you certainly can, but as others have already pointed out, you will need a capture card (or an external USB-based one), and the quality will not be great. Depending on the type of videos you are planning to make, could you get a web cam instead? This would be a simpler solution and may give you a better end result at a lower cost!
David
February 22, 2013The other day i found a VCR to PC converter..That works but the file is huge!
Achraf Almouloudi
February 22, 2013Yes and no, let me explain it :
Yes if you currently have some tapes you can use a capture card to convert to to a digital format and you’ll be able to upload your content to Youtube or anywhere else.
No, if you plan to start using your Sony Digital Video 8 to record new videos and convert them so they’ll work on a computer because the generated video quality isn’t really appreciated, the conversion process takes time, and because you can get a good digital 720p video camera for around $100 so why not get one.
The video quality is so terrible that most Youtube users won’t even bother to watch it.
Regards.
Anish Parameshwaran
February 22, 2013I used something like this – http://www.amazon.com/EASYCAP-Audio-Video-Capture-Adapter/dp/B0019SSSMY (only problem is that you can’t use it on Vista 64-bit). From here, you’ll be able to get an AVI or MOV format (or any other format you want) and then you can simply upload the file to YouTube. I would recommend using this only to preserve old tapes that are getting worn out. I would advise against using this method to record new video as the camera most likely has poor video quality – your smartphone or even non-smartphone camera can most likely record better quality videos.
alton pettigrew
February 23, 2013If your camcorder is truly a Sony Digital8 camcorder, you are halfway there. The Digital8 format records and outputs the same format as DV tape, so it’s already digital. All you will need then to transfer it is a Firewire connection to your computer and a program to do the capture. Just about any commercial video editor will have the ability to capture video from a Firewire connection. The good news is that an analog 8mm tape played in the Digital8 camcorder will be digitized in the camcorder and output in DV format as well. If you don’t have a Firewire connection on your computer, internal Firewire cards are usually pretty cheap…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital8