8mm film to DVD

DavidI · 10-11-2009, 02:13 PM

I was given several old 8mm reel to reels that I would like to transfer to DVD. Any suggestions?

stomachmonkey · 10-11-2009, 02:50 PM

Send them out. Seriously, DYI on that is not fun. You need to project the image to a CCD to be captured. Not a device that you can just run down to Best Buy and pick up.

You could try to project onto a wall and film with a current generation camcorder but the result will not be as good as the original. In order for the picture to not be distorted the projector and camcorder need to be in the same dead center location, but that defies certain laws of physics. If the camcorder is off center in any direction you get distortion. You either need a Telecine? (forget how it's spelled) or one of these,

from ebay

Then you need to also deal with the variable frame rate of the 8 mm source compared to what a TV expects. If frame rate does not match the result will have flicker. The 8 mm projector needs to be able to vary the film speed to get the frame rates to sync up.

That's the 101, a bit more to it than that.

Do a google search for a service or if you have good high end camera shop around they may be able to suggest a local service.

Good luck.

slodave · slodave's Garage

I agree with Scott.

billybek · billybek's Garage

Our family has a bunch of old 8mm (I think) that has become increasingly fragile with age. I would like to change them over to disk as well.
Let me know what was involved and the results of the transfer.
Thanks!

DavidI · 10-13-2009, 06:17 PM

Thanks gents. I spoke to a friend in the movie industry and he told me the same thing...take it to a professional for better results.

Much appreciated, David

89911 · 10-14-2009, 06:26 AM

True, but every time I consider taking them to a professional, the price makes me reconsider. Costco offers this service at there photo center if anyones a member.

edgemar · 10-14-2009, 07:36 AM

The best thing you could do is to put the film up on a telecine and xfer it. There are some places in the valley that aren't to expensive

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

sub'ing to post.

I tried the "project on a screen and film with Mini-DV camcorder and the frame rates caused nasty flicker, even on different settings such as beach mode or sports mode with faster capture rates on the camcorder.

The pro's fees are bloody expensive though, something like 10 cents a foot. Keep your films stored horizontally in a cool dry place and they'll last for decades.

And 20 years from now you really think we'll have machines that still play todays CD-roms or DVDs?

Anyone pulled out a 5 1/4 floppy , 3 1/2" floppy, or played a VHS tape lately?

Noney · 10-14-2009, 01:57 PM

Just went through this.

As stated above, this is an ENORMOUS PITA to do yourself. Leave it to the pros. Most places want to charge by the foot, but after much research I decided on this place: Home Movie Depot offers 8mm to DVD, slides to DVD and VHS to DVD.

You simply fill a box with your stuff, ship it off to them and they take care of it. Price was $250 per 50 rolls of film, no matter what size rolls. I just sent my film, so I can't comment yet on the quality of the transfer, but suffice it to say it will be much better than my other option, which was to project it on a wall and shoot it with a camera.

Good luck.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

After it is transferred to DVD, go buy some archive quality gold DVDs and duplicate the DVD to that, then back up the files to your computer, and back that up to the internet. Pretty soon you have a dozen copies.

We have found a lot of the data DVDs we burned just 5 years ago are un-readable. Long term storage of digital data is a pain. The national archives is transferring a lot of digital information to FILM for long term storage. Fortunately hard drives are cheap. Just store a copy on the computer. Copy everything to a new system every few years.