Hi! I ended up talking to Gemini about digitizing my old SD videos from a Sony TVR 120e and 8mm and Hi8 tapes. He advised me to digitize them in S-Video with a Blackmagic-type device (not those old PCI cards or €20 USB sticks). He explained the principle of getting better quality when digitizing tapes in 10-bit FFv1 compared to FireWire. It makes sense, since 8mm and Hi8 are analog, the electrical signal travels through the S-Video cable, and the device digitizes it in a specific codec. He explained that the colors are therefore better, halos less pronounced, and noise more uniform in 10-bit S-Video because there’s no compression like in the 25 Mbps DV codec.
I was skeptical, on the forums everyone recommends DV for the best quality. I think that was true before when there weren’t many high-performance capture cards. But then I asked chatgpt for his opinion, and he said the same thing. So I think I’ll try digitizing to S-Video soon. I can’t wait to see the result, and I’d especially like to know how those of you who have digitized your old family videos did it?
