8mm film xfers

I have been indentured into service by family members who feel
I should be the one to collect, chronologically organize, catalog,
transfer to HD file then eventually burn to Blu-ray all of the old 8mm /
Super8 film that has been decaying in everyone's dark, cool closets.
The commercial transfer houses I work with on client jobs would
be overkill for what I need, and likely overpriced for 8mm.
Has anyone recently done bulk 8mm > HD file transfers?
Are there any good deals / reputable outfits to recommend?
I have a big file box filled with probably 200 film rolls!

I have not done any telecine in some years, so the "players" have very likely changed, and outdated. Others can recommend some sources, that are much more current.
One consideration, though you have probably already taken it into account is the source materail (4:3) Frames, that are far, far below HD quality. However, a good telecine house can probably help you overcome that Aspect Ratio (and the original quality) to some degree. Personally, I would go with pillar-boxed material, rather than Scale to fit the 16:9 and effectively cropping top/bottom/both with Motion>Position.
If the telecine house uses a liquid gate, and does Frame by Frame, the quality will likely be much better, but the process more expensive.
Good luck with your project.
Hunt

Similar Messages

I recently had some 8mm film transferred to DVD. I am trying to edit the film clips using Premier Elements 4.0. Some of the film clips copy into the project but others don't. I tried copying the VOB filed onto my hard drive and then changing the file ext

I recently had some 8mm film transferred to DVD. I am trying to edit the film clips using Premier Elements 4.0. so I can reburn the films on a single BluRay disc. Some of the film clips copy into the project but others don't. I tried copying the VOB filed onto my hard drive and then changing the file extensions on the VOB files to MPEG but this was no help. Some of the VOB files contain numerous film clips but my software does not appear to be able to recognize them as such. I need to know if replacing my old Premier Elements with the new Version 13 would solve this problem or not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Bob

Bob
What do you have now.....
What computer operating system do you have?
We can go into the finer points of source and your intentions, but for now it would appear that you are using SD 4:3 source media to get to a HD 16:9 result. Lots to discuss in this regard.
What was given to you on the DVD disc? DVD-VIDEO 4:3 or something else?
If DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, you should expect to find on the disc a folder named VIDEO_TS. That is your target for your video files.
If you were given a DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, then all you want from it are the video files, specifically
VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, and so on through that series until possibly getting to
VTS_02_1.VOB, and so on. How many files you have beyond the VTS_01_1.VOB file will depend on the size of the DVD-VIDEO.
Does the above scenario apply to you?
The alternative might be someone giving a DVD disc (data disc) which contains just the VTS files mentioned which were copied from
the VIDEO_TS Folder. So, you do not get the whole VIDEO_TS Folder, just the essential video files. Does this scenario apply to you.
I see no need to replace your Premiere Elements 4 with a later version unless you have a huge project and need a later version that will be a 64 bit application running specifically on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64 bit computer.
Consider...Premiere Elements 4 and if you have DVD-VIDEO on DVD....
1. Place the DVD disc in the burner tray
2. Open Premiere Elements 4 and set the project preset for NTSC DV Standard (assuming you are working in a NTSC setup)
3. Go to
Get Media
"DVD, Digital Camera, Mobile Phone, Hard Drive Camcorder, Card Reader"
"Adobe Premiere Elements - Media Downloader" and its Advanced dialog.
Set the Source in the latter dialog for the drive which has your DVD disc inserted in its tray
You should see your VTS_01_1.VOB thumbnail in the "Adobe Premiere Elements - Media Downloader" Advanced dialog.
With this VOB selected, click on Get Media to get the file from there into the project.
Should work fine.
Complications may be involved if the people who processed your footage gave you something other what is described above.
Please review and consider, and then we can plan our project strategy accordingly.
Thank you.
ATR

Convert old 8mm film to what 'format' to edit in iMovie?

I have selected a service to convert and save my families old 8mm film to a hard drive (which I will be supplying). I would like to import the movies (files) from the HD into iMovie for editing and eventual burn to DVD. What format should the service save the files in? Quicktime .mov? or something else? The service lists: Raw DV or AVI Type 1 or Type 2 or Type 2c or Matrox AVI or Avid DV OMF.
Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9) <<br>
Powerbook G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi Tyler!
Of the options you list I would choose 'Raw DV'. iMovie is designed to handle a DV stream @ 13GB per hour, for editing and transfer to iDVD.
But ask the vendor to confirm that his 'Raw DV' is designed for transfer to iMovie 6 on an Apple Mac, and before he loads up the hard drive you are supplying make sure that it has been formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

8mm film to video- what do I need to know to transfer properly?

I'm going to have my dad transfer all of the family 8mm films at a professional transfer place. (8mm, mind you, NOT Super8) to DVD. I'd like to have uncompressed (HD) files so that someday in the future I can put them into imovie. For now, my dad would like them all on DVD.
What do I have my dad tell the guy at the transfer house in terms of transferring and format? Will this take a huge, huge drive for all the files? How many Gigs per hour of 8mm film?
Thanks!
David from NYC
p.s. my dad lives near Philly, and I live in NYC....any recommendations for places that do this in one of these cities or their environs?

I did a project like that earlier this year. [Details here|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11284809&#11284809]
My recommendation is to capture in HD to a hard drive so you can edit the movies.
If all you want is unedited movies in SD, a DVD is OK.
The company I used, MyMovie Transfer.com (aka Debenham Media Group), is in Coraopolis PA, but I did everything by mail.

8mm film to IMovie

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can get from 8mm film to IMovie?
I had 400 feet of 8mm transferred to DVD But IMovie won’t accept it. Says QuickTime can’t parse it.
Called Apple and asked if QuickTimePro might do the job. The answer was yes and 100 bucks later I had Toast 8 Titanium. Rather than send it back( I thought I’d ordered QuickTime Pro) I called Roxio and asked if Toast would convert the DVD to something IMovie could use. Again, the answer was yes.
When I used Toast it gave me a message that it couldn’t do the job because the DVD “might be copy protected”. A call to the DVD provider indicated that the DVD was copy protected ... even tho’ it is my film on the DVD.
Someone said to try MacTheRipper. I did and it did rip the movie from the DVD but it was still “copy protected”. Running that through Toast didn’t help.
On online site suggests (buying) a digital movie camera and recording my movies from the projected movies, then transferring that to my MAC. I’ll probably do that if I can’t find something simpler.
I still have over 7,000 feet of 8 and super 8 film to work with so, if anyone has a suggestion I’d very much appreciate it?
For info, I’m very much an amateur.
IMAC G 5 (Intel) IMovie 6.03 QuickTime 7.0.3
and, I just downloaded all the info in IMovie comments re: help with deciding camcorder purchase .
Thanks,
JIm

A fascinating project!
My older brother had 4 hours of (silent) 8mm cine film dating back to 1958-1980 (when he finally bought a video camera!). He wanted me to convert them to carefully edited DVDs, with music, sound effects, titles and so on. Like a madman I accepted the challenge! To make life easier he lives in Belgium and uses a PC!
The process, to cut this short, was as follows:
At considerable expense he had all the film transferred to four DVDs in some PC-only friendly mpeg codec, and sent them to me.
I used Streamclip and the Apple mpeg thingy (saving time by not loking it up) to convert these to Quicktime DV files. To make life even easier, the Belgian moron who did the conversion to DVDs had not done so in chronologal order!
That made for a very large QT file, which I imported into iMovie, and set about carving it into date order, re-exporting the various years to QT as individual files, and then importing into iMovie projects to edit.
Only a couple of months later I had it organised into three projects, each of an hour or so, beautifully edited with titles, transitions, music, sound effects and other bells and whistles, and burnt them to 3 DVDs. I was generally agreed that I deserved an Oscar for technical merit!
That was just to let you know that it can be done!
Your only real hurdle is the copy protection. Can you get a fresh set that is NOT copy protected?
But before you even start I heartily recommend that you update your OS and all software to the latest versions, particularly Quicktime, and make that Pro.

How To Transfer 8mm film to DVD

HI,
My Mom just gave me a bag of 8mm and super 8mm film reels. I want desperately to figure out how to get them into my mac for editing.
She does not have the projector any more.
Can anyone advice me on a course of action. I know I can go have them done some where but I would rather figure it out and do it myself.
Do I need to go buy a projector? If so, is there a specific projector I should be looking for?
Once I have the projector, how do you get it into your mac? adapter, go between?
I so appreciate your help. My Parent's wedding is on there and I have never seen it. I would be a dream to get to edit that for them.
Thanks in advance,
Susan

Start looking at links from this site:
http://www.moviestuff.tv/
As people are alluding to above, you'll have to decide how pristine of a transfer you want. I would advise looking into local companies if you're in a decent sized town/city. Then you don't have to worry about where your film will be or go to. Discuss the techniques used with the proprietor. I was able to find a company in Maryland that did a terrific job with stuff going back to the 30s using equipment from Moviestuff. The main thing to keep in mind is that you should NOT attempt to run the films through a normal projector that has a full-brightness bulb, which can result in your film getting cooked instantly due to their age. Also, a quote from one transfer site regarding home projection:
"The films are subjected to the harsh pull-down claw mechanism of a projector that may or may not be in good working order. The films of the participants may leave dirt and debris in the projector that will scratch the subsequently projected films." (see http://www.bonofilm.com/super8reality.asp)
--JV
Message was edited by: jvolino

Transfer 8mm film to DVD

My father has rolls and rolls of old 8mm film from the 1950s and 60s. Any one have any ideas on what is the best way to get that film onto DVD? I figure at the very least I can project the film onto the movie screen with a digital video camera pointed at it, and record them. Any other ideas?
Thanks

Use of a digital camera and projector, as you've suggested, is probably the simplest way. I would only suggest that, instead of a projecting onto a screen or wall, you use a video transfer device such as those designed originally for transferring movies-to-tape.
These devices have two openings and an internal mirror at a 45 degree angle. The projector plays into one opening, and your video camera records at the other opening.
The resulting quality will be much better than if projected/recorded off a wall or screen.
They should be cheap, and even be available on ebay .

Old 8MM film conversion

This year I would like to convert all my old 8MM film to DVD format for importing to iMovie for editing.
Question: Can the Intel iMacs import from DVDs?
Can anyone provide me with instructions to import from DVDs?
I've tried importing a movie burned in iDVD back into iMovie, but it's just not obvious to me as to how to do it.
Thanks

Hi rjr535
You will have to convert the DVD's image and audio to MPEG-4 (mp4) befor you can import it to iMovie!
I use a DVD recorder to burn my old camcorder tapes to DVD's, then pop the DVD's in the iMac and use HandBrake to convert them to MPEG-4 befor importing to iMovie!
Here is the link for [HandBrake|http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21117]
Dennis

I have 8mm films transferred to .avi files at 18fps. Can I use Final Cut Express to convert to standard DVDs to play on a US TV?

I have 8mm films transferred to .avi files at 18fps. Can I use Final Cut Express to convert to standard DVDs to play on a US TV?

Hi
I was hoping that FCE would be able to handle the coversion from 18 to 30fps but that appears not to be the case.
It does - If I'm not totally wrong. Can be to much using FinalCut Pro (6)
Start FCE
Select type of project You want to do
I guess - NTSC 29.97fps - Select that from FCE menu / Easy Set-up
Start a new Sequence
DROP A PHOTO in TimeLine - at beginning.
Now project is locked to 29.97 fps
Now import and drop the 18fps clip in TimeLine.
Select to convert it to match the setting of TimeLine.
IF THIS IS A GOOD WAY - I hesitate to say - It works - but if quality is OK or not - I don't know
I DO : use JES_Deinterlacer (free from Internet) to convert the frame rate in my clips (usually 25fps) to 29.97 fps - Then and first then I import the converted clip into FinalCut to be used in my NTSC projects.
The quality done in this way - is very good and the program is free - so I can not want any better.
Yours Bengt W

Adding pulldown to 8mm film from 18fps - 24fps

This is probably an obscure question, but I've basically built a simple telecine and taken still frames of an old 8mm film that runs at 18fps. I'm importing it into FCP at 1 frame per still and putting them into a 23.98 sequence, then slowing it down by 2/3s to get it at the right speed. This solution works but it blends frames, etc. FCP doesn't let you use a custom editing timebase for a sequence, so I'm wondering if Cinema Tools will let me add a pulldown to convert the 18fps stills to 24fps video clip or if there is a way to set the 24p sequence speed to 66.67% without it frame blending and instead just duplicate frames in a cadence, essentially adding pulldown. I'm hoping that with an easy method I can digitize many more 8mm films. Thanks for any advice.

Thanks, I completely forgot about that. If I'm missing something here, let me know: The only thing is that for some reason FCP won't duplicate frames if the sequence is made of still clips, the screen just goes black. But if you export the sequence as a reference quicktime and import that, slowing it down without frame blending, it works perfect.

Input and Publish settings for 8mm film using PreRes422.mov

I'm using Premiere 12 on Windows 8. I just got a sample from the company that converted 8mm film to 720HD ProRes422.mov onto a DVD.
I loaded into Premiere 12 without problem and can see, edit and publish.
However, what would be the best Input settings?
Also, I plan to burn to play on a BluRay player for my HDTV. What would be the best Publish settings?
Any other settings or adjustment I should use to improve the image?

AlanKL
Good news. That footage is not AVCHD.avi. What you have is MotionJPEG.avi which is usually not good news for Premiere Elements. But, if you can import it in the first place, let us give it a go.
The video is 1920 x 1080 @ 29.97 frames per second. The GSpot codec program does not tell us if interlaced or progressive. The way to determine that for sure is with the MediaInfo readout. But, let us try to avoid that with a "try and see" approach.
1. Open Premiere Elements 12 to its Expert workspace, and import your video into the project with Premiere Elements' Add Media/Files and Folders/Project Assets. From Project
Assets, drag the video to the Timeline. Does it have an orange line over its content? If no, then our project preset stays at
NTSC
AVCHD
Full HD 1080i30
And, we have the correct project preset. What does the playback in the Edit area monitor look like?
If there is an orange line over the Timeline content, we don't have the right project preset. So, close that project, and open a new one.
2. In the new Premiere Elements 12 project to its Expert workspace, with the File Menu/New/Project route, manually set the project preset for
NTSC
DSLR
1080p
DSLR 1080p30@ 29.97
Then import the video into the project with Premiere Elements' Add Media/Files and Folders/Project Assets. From Project Assets, drag the video to the Timeline. Does it
have an orange line over its content? If no, then our project preset stays at
NTSC
DSLR
1080p
DSLR 1080p30@ 29.97
There will be no colored line over the Timeline content if we have the right project preset. What does the playback in the Edit area monitor look like?
At this point, please let us know the results, and we will decide what next.
Thanks.
ATR

Re: Final Cut Express. I have an old 8mm film converted to avi. Some is good, some is too dark. Can I apply brightness to only parts of the clip? David

I have an old 8mm film converted to avi. Some of it is good, some is dark. Can I brighten parts of this clip or must I split it into multiple clips first?

forgot to mention MPEGStreamclip:
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

8mm Film Transfer

My family has several projectors and many, many reels of 8mm film, dating back to 1937. Any tips on how to transfer to a medium that can than be imported into a computer. I have Final Cut Studio so I would like to edit these myself rather than take them somewhere else. Thought you experts might have some suggestions. Thanks for any help you can provide.
G5 Power Mac Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Really depends on the end-quality that you want (and how careful you want your films to be handled.)
The simplest, crudest method is indeed simply filming the projection. This has a couple of problems, and de-generates the image quality much more than necessary.
The best & most expensive way of transferring S8 to video is with a machine that uses a wet gate technology. This is very gentle on the film, gets rid of dirt and scratches, and gives amazing results. But your wallet won´t like it.
The middle way is using a specialized projector, which makes it possible to scan each and every frame of your film. These are made by a small family run business, Movie Stuff in Texas (i believe) http://moviestuff.tv/transfers.html
I´ve got one of their machines and think they are marvellous.
(And yes, they work on Macs; doing the finishing in FCP gives that extra edge.) Always good idea to add projector sound on a low level.
Yet another option is of course paying someone to do it for you; that way you get an experienced operator to do the transfer for you. Do a Google on 8mm tranfer, and you´d be amazed at the amout of results. Don´t go for the cheapest option...
Quad G5, iMac G5 20, G4 QS 867mhz, iBook G4, Mac mini, PB 190 Mac OS X (10.4.6) DSR-570, DSR-11, 2x24" and some more toys.

8mm film

I want to convert old 8mm film to digital, but not sure about converting to a high definition (HD) format or just standard digital format (SD). My goal is to end have the best quality, but also to be able to play back on my computer, HDTV and use the entire wide screen(s) without compromising picture quality. In addition, I want the file in a format that I can edit such as using Windows Movie Maker and/or share with others, i.e., burn to a DVD.
I have researched some, but get into technical issues such as the aspect ratio and the fact that in HD, I would still not have use of the entire screen. For example, the picture would have better picture quality, but with the black bars either on the top and bottom or sides.
Also, I noticed some of the companies performing these services can get very expensive. The SD conversions appear to be more reasonably priced, but I prefer to have the best quality.
Does anyone have any recommendations on how best to proceed? Thanks for your help.

Really depends on the end-quality that you want (and how careful you want your films to be handled.)
The simplest, crudest method is indeed simply filming the projection. This has a couple of problems, and de-generates the image quality much more than necessary.
The best & most expensive way of transferring S8 to video is with a machine that uses a wet gate technology. This is very gentle on the film, gets rid of dirt and scratches, and gives amazing results. But your wallet won´t like it.
The middle way is using a specialized projector, which makes it possible to scan each and every frame of your film. These are made by a small family run business, Movie Stuff in Texas (i believe) http://moviestuff.tv/transfers.html
I´ve got one of their machines and think they are marvellous.
(And yes, they work on Macs; doing the finishing in FCP gives that extra edge.) Always good idea to add projector sound on a low level.
Yet another option is of course paying someone to do it for you; that way you get an experienced operator to do the transfer for you. Do a Google on 8mm tranfer, and you´d be amazed at the amout of results. Don´t go for the cheapest option...
Quad G5, iMac G5 20, G4 QS 867mhz, iBook G4, Mac mini, PB 190 Mac OS X (10.4.6) DSR-570, DSR-11, 2x24" and some more toys.

8mm film from 1950s conversion

I am preparing to have 2000 feet of 8mm film converted to digital, which I then plan to edit in FCE HD (3.5.1). I am looking at a service that will do a frame-by-frame scan in HD, through an enlarged gate, and captured via a Blackmagic card. The resulting files will be in an .avi wrapper with each 50 ft reel (about 4 minutes) resulting in a file about 1.5Gb in size. Since .avi files do not import directly into FCE... what is the best way to convert them so that they will? ... and will I lose a great deal of quality in the conversion?
Since I've not yet committed to a service... is there a "better" option for a format into which the film should be converted? Almost every place I've seen uses either .avi or .mov for the final result. While films of our family Christmases, etc. may not be great art... these films from the 1950s are important to us and I want to do this right the first time (definitely not a DIY project). Any recommendations about specific codecs (or other technical details I don't really understand) that should be used so that I can get a high-quality input into FCE 3.5?

Thanks, Keith - I appreciate the contact, and may need to use another service, depending... What I am really looking for is information about the technical jargon I need to use wrt the format in which the files must be saved so that I can successfully import them into FCE, without losing quality. I am a total newbie with this... I think I understand that .avi is a wrapper, but there are supposedly various codecs, etc. that can be contained within that wrapper? I do not even know what to ask about such matters and am hoping someone out there can tell me specifically what to ask for from a provider (or to avoid).

8mm film xfers

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