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I have some old 8mm tapes from the 1960's I want to get put on DVD. I see Costco does this, anyone use them? I also see there are local mom and pop companies in my city that do it. Local will probably me more expensive but faster. Local mom and pop is a little dodgy about giving me an upfront cost estimate, that worries me. Any reason why I wouldn't want to use Costco for this? I don't know anything about this sort of thing.
Problem with Costco is they transfer to DVD, which is very lossy. So, it looks ok but is by no means an archival format. I called them today to see if they offer the uncompressed files and they said they only offer DVD. Deal breaker for me.
Problem with Costco is they transfer to DVD, which is very lossy. So, it looks ok but is by no means an archival format. I called them today to see if they offer the uncompressed files and they said they only offer DVD. Deal breaker for me.
I’ve seen 2 methods of archive - first is to scan each frame and then combine into a video. Second is to project the film and then video it with a high def CCD camera. Would imagine the first method is far more expensive.
I just sent 15 50' super 8mm films in for scan to file service. It only cost about $160, which I find very reasonable. I supplied a 32 GB flash drive and I will get the uncompressed MOV files back. I wouldn't consider the "filming the projection screen" option at all. I don't want flicker. Also, the service I am using cleans the film and fixes, splices and repairs them for $15 extra.
I wouldn't consider the "filming the projection screen" option at all.
You need camcorder that uses 24P and a projector with adjustable speed that can run at 24FPS -or- camcorder with normal framerate of 30 and the projector running at 15FPS so you are capturing one frame of film to two frames of video. As long as you can get the framesrates synced you'll get rid of most if not all of the flicker. Virtual dub has a decimate option you can use to remove the duplicate frames in the second scenario.
Once you have it captured correctly you can adjust the frame rate correctly for playback on a computer, getting it to work correctly for playback over DVD/Blu ray etc is whole other issue.
I've looked into these services before and if it were me I'd be looking for a service that uses backlit scanners w/digital ice and can provide the captures either as uncompressed video or sequential image files in .tif or .png format at higher resolution. I don;t know what the equivalent resolution of a 8mm film is but it has to be in the 1 to 2 MP range whereas DVD is .35
As far as the direct conversions to DVD I would avoid them. The compression issue is only one problem here and that can be mitigated to some degree if they using a high enough bitrate. It only become major issue if you intend on doing any processing after getting them back. I'd be more concerned with the lower resolution because 8MM has got to be higher thtn 720*480.
Videotaping a projected image, where distortion is already introduced due to the blowing up of the film, is not ideal. Scanning each frame will always yield greater results. It's the same as taking a photo of a projected photo on a screen ovs simply scanning the negative into a computer.
I'm not disagreeing with. A service using backlit scanner (preferably utilizing Digital Ice or similar tech) is best way to go but those services are typically pretty expensive. You can do this at home but it's going to require some setup and will be a huge time consuming process.
There is cheaper services where the telecine machine utilizes a camcorder. The difference between those services and the home brew method of recording it off the wall is the that it's projected right into the camcorder. If you want to research and you are the tinkerer type you can also replicate this to some degree.
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