All of this can be done. Very, very time consuming. So if you decide to do
it, do it right the first time so you have a high quality product.
The first thing you need is a DVD burner, ~$300.00. You can check for a good
one from LaCie (external, Firewire DVD burning drive). It will come with the
software you need to edit slides as well as video and the software is very
good.
Many other manufacturers, just use google to check them. But what you want
is a good quality DVD burner as well as good software with it.
Second thing you need is a scanner for the 35 mm slides so you can scan them
to produce digital images. Difficult to recommend one, check Epson , Minolta
or Canon. Don't buy a cheap one, you will spend all your time scanning and
be disappointed by the quality. All will come with good software needed to
scan and edit.
For VHS-C tapes, you can convert these analog tapes to digital files, but
you will need to install a card in your computer (to convert these analog
tapes to digital files)and play the tapes to this card and save the digital
files.
Another way around it is to purchase a new Videocamcorder, a MiniDV type, if
you are in the market to upgrade what you have. You just play the old tapes
you have to your new digital camcorder and then you play the tape from the
digital camcorder to your computer via the Firewire port. Your DVD software
will capture the files and store them and you can then edit them.
The last one, 8 mm film is more difficult. Find a commercial outfit to
transfer the film directly to DVD. Costly but the quality will be there. Not
something you want to do yourself.
You can check here for commercial products available for what you want to do
as well as some technical manuals.
http://www.videoguys.com/
The bottom line is you will spend a lot of time doing all this, so you want
a good quality product. The final product must be on a DVD (not CD or VCD
etc.) so you can play the DVD you make (still photos or videos) to your TV
via a DVD player.
To do all this you also need a good computer. Minimum speed of 1.8GHz, the
faster the better and a minimum of 512MB of RAM, preferably 1GB. Anything
below this is pure frustration with video.
Also, you need a fairly large drive. One hour of video needs about 13GB of
storage space.
