Expert: Andrew Ransavage - 11/20/2008

Question
Hi.  Do you know about camcorders, specifically an Hitachi 8mm VM-E520A?  I want to know what kind of cable and software I need to transfer my old 8mm tapes to my PC’s hard drive.  I’ll provide more specifics if you think you can help.  Thank you!

Answer
You need capture hardware and software. There are plenty of consumer versions available. Basically you'll buy an expansion card or USB device that will plug into your PC. Then you'll plug your video camera into the devices inputs (probably just composite connections) and use the software to capture the video on your hard drive as you play it back on the camera. You might want to ask the desktop video section here at Allexperts. But let me know if you need anymore help/info...

Andrew