Question : Problem: Importing video from 8mm video cassette's to my macbook

I'd like to import my old home movies from the 8mm video cassettes to my macbook and then clean them up using Imovie, before burning them to dvd. I do see a lot of posts with similar questions, actually too many I guess, so I decided to ask my question directly instead.

I took a trip to the Apple store and the coverter they pointed me to was expensive and it appeared to be intended for appletv...  I am leaning toward the converter because I have about 30 tapes to convert and I think I could leverage it later for pulling data from other sources. Perhaps it's possible to leverage my DVR for some of this, but I haven't seen any postings to that affect, so I doubt it..

I'd like to get an experts opinion on how to approach this.

Thx!

Answer : Problem: Importing video from 8mm video cassette's to my macbook

Hey BillTr,

What you are looking for is simply an analog video to digital video converter. The most important question is do you still have the 8mm camera? And the appropriate output cables (RCA Yellow, White, Red)? If so, then connect the camera to converter unit that outputs Firewire. Here's an example:

http://www.firewire-1394.com/pyro-av-link-basic.htm

Otherwise, you will need a tape deck, then connect to a converter like the one above, or perhaps an all-in-one unit that tend to be expensive.

Out of curiosity, what type of unit were you being shown at the Apple Store? It may have just been an 8mm to Firewire unit, which is what you are looking for.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance,

TG