Be Excellent To Each Other

A mate of mine has about 14 video 8 tapes, that he wants converting to DVD.

Can anyone recommend anyone to do this...

Shame Chinny's not around, I'm sure he'd be able to recommend someone.

where is he?

At the Crossroads Motel.

Chinny's probably got the sort of machine that does it, although I bet he buys films on DVD and converts them into Video 8.

If you've got access to a mac and the original camera you could do this yourself quite easily.

If your friend has the original camera that recorded them, no problem: composite video/audio -> HD/DVD Recorded box (you must know someone with one of these). I also think these cameras can transfer via USB, so if you can hunt down the software/codecs you could do this on your PC.

If you don't have the camera then you're gonna struggle as this is a bitch of a video format (typical SONY propriety foot shooting scenario, yet again); it's hard to find people who do have these cameras anymore tbh, I was in the same scenario myself a few years ago and gave up in the end.

EDIT: ahhh right, "Video8" is just the analogue format - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_8 - so scrap what I said about USB, I was thinking of Hi8, nasty nasty format!

There's constant pleas from people looking for 8-video cameras on freecycle, I reckon they must be getting a bit old and rare. Just like chinny!
(he's busy atm)

(and hates us)

I am here lurking from time to time (mainly when rendering footage), I'm just very busy and also need a posting rest.

I've PM'd details of a company I've used before to Kovacs, namely:

http://www.alivestudios.co.uk/

I used them for cine and they did a good job. Digital 8 tapes were fragile at the best of times and I'm guessing the recording may well be 15 or 20 years old. So far better to put it in the hands of professionals than risk wrecking the tape yourself. In addition they'll have a time base corrector which will help give a more stable transfer which you won't get the benefit of if you do a home transfer.