I received this email can anyone help? post away!


I am looking for information about video transfer. I have many 8mm movies of family events that I would like to
transfer to DVD. What I can glean so far is that I can send them away for ( ?)cents a foot or project them on the wall and use the current camcorder to record them again. Ebay has some strange black box thingies for the $150-180
range but I can find NOTHING about them anywhere except ebay. Have you any
experience or knowledge in this area??

I have used, with really great success, Volk Video Transfers in Birmingham. Steven Volk, a Mac user, converted hours of video from the 50 & 60s for me. All cool-scanned in as to not damage the reels.

He didn't put them into DVD format but on a hard drive I supplied, so that I could edit the movies myself.

Can't say enough nice things about him. I have sent many customers to him and have never received a single neg feedback.

I found other video transfer companies out there but most do straight to DVD. I wanted the digital file so I could edit the footage. The only other company I found was in Nevada.

Let me know if you need any contact info.

Linda

Was this converted from VHS or film? 8mm, super8? How big are the digital files for a reel? What is "cold transfer"?

Thanks ladies, I will ask what she means by cold transfer and let you know! Can't thank you enough.

This is quite a complex question, Michelle, so I hope my answer doesn't immediately turn you off. If you don't ask technical questions, you're likely to get cheated.

Here's a couple websites for your consideration:

• eBay Guides
  
• Photo.net

You may want to research things more by Googling "telecine."

Just to make you aware of a couple issues.
1. Most people get taken on this film-video transfer operation. Be discriminating.

2. You'll need to specify how you intend to view the final material. HDTV's have a wide variety of display formats (resolution and aspect ratios. Digital projectors might not have quite the display flexibility of HDTV's, but they're great for big audiences.

3. Home made films are often shot at 24 frames per second, or less, in "progressive" frames. Video today is displayed at 29.97 frames per second - usually "interlaced." You'll need to synchronize or "pull down" those differences and specify how you want to display video frames - progressive or interlaced.

4. Other transfer treatments are available in professional telecines. Film grain reduction, color adjustments, interpolation, color spaces, compression, audio filtering, etc. It might be preferrable to perform these operations in Final Cut Pro, but maybe not.

From what I understand, they were scanned on a cool bed then converted to video footage. I was worried the old Bell and Howell projector would melt the brittle super 8 film. Plus, I would have to have done it "the old fashioned" way and projected it on a wall and recorded with a camera. This is how they were put on VHS eons ago.

He could have taken the old VHS tapes that had been converted 25 years ago but they were already degrading. The original super 8 footage was in better shape for the conversion.

Although I did the editing on iMovie 06, I kept the "original" dv footage and plan on someday doing another edit in FCP.

Linda

It sounds like Linda's service bureau is equipped (mentally and physically) to do a better job than most of the mom & pop shops out there.

R+W Productions in Dearborn told me horror stories of FoMoCo asking to recover old video tapes, and in that process, the magnetic coating turned left as the mylar tape turned right as it went around the first capstan. Ooopps!

Analog video tape has about a 10 year archival life - after that, a noticeable degradation occurs in some fashion. VHS color won't be a good as S-VHS color or other video formats. But, you'll probably want to convert the movies to some digital disk format or digital file format. Then make multiple copies and store them in different benevolent environments (cool, dry, dark places). Most businesses will not know how to correctly save the movies to DVD-R format. You'll get the "flavor of the day."

You also might want to contact R+W Productions. While I've never used them, they've been in business many years. You could call a couple of the telecine equipment companies to learn more. Or, maybe you have some contacts in Hollywood, New York, or Toronto that do that as a business? Maybe Roscor, Grace & Wild, Ken Bean, Chuck Reti, or others can refer you to possible conversion houses?

Thanks she was wanting to do this at home herself I will forward the info. and thanks so much for all of the replies!!!

Unless you're willing to spend a lot of money, I don't believe film transfer can be done at home.

Translation: the quality of homemade images isn't worth the trouble and expense. Considering that the expense is a few watts of electricity, perhaps you can guess at the quality she'll get? Figuring in her time, and the potential damage to the film, it's worth less than nothing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chuck M,