Getting DVDs made of Super 8 Film (sound).?

Question

I have reals of old family super 8 film (most of it sound). Is there a recommended place that I can send this to that can convert it to DVD for me? I've found a few that can go to VHS, but then I'd have to get those transferred to DVD. I was hoping there might be a firm out there that can go straight to DVD for me. I have the film projector and a digitial cam corder, so I COULD do this myself, but I'd really rather outsource it for convenience.

Answer 1

years ago my family did it- but to VHS- at that time we took it to wolf camera- but other companies will do it to

http://www.ritzdvd.com/film_to_dvd.html


( I guess they merged)

Answer 2

I was going to look it up, but found this instead --> http://www.film-to-video.com/

The old Chinese proverb, "Be careful of what you ask for" is profoundly prudent advice when making the statement: "I want my movie film on DVDs".

ALL film transfer studios -- not just the "transfer mills" -- use DVD-R or DVD+R technology. We use DVD-R, which is most compatible with most DVD players.

Most transfer mills DO NOT want you to know that DVDs have an unexpectedly short shelf life of 2 to 5 years. Their whole production process focuses on the use of silver & dye based DVD-R technology -- and nothing else -- to archive your films. When I say "archive" I mean, "To store ALL of the original image, of each and every original image -- for a long, long, time."

Dirty Little Secret #2:

"Digital Copies" are not the "Digital Equivalent" to Your Original Film

Transfer Mills sell you a "digital copy" of your film on DVD. They do NOT sell you the "digital equivalent" of your film on DVD. Technically, that is impossible.

Transfer Mills do NOT want you to know, you need a "digital master tape" -- made directly from your original film. They want to sell you a DVD "copy" of your film. After having read Dirty Little Secret #1, you now know why your film should NOT be "archived" to a DVD only - because a DVD is not an archive.

Dirty Little Secret #3:

DVDs are not "high resolution".

If I told you I was "throwing away half of your movie film to transfer to DVD", would you do it?

Well, that is exactly what "transfer mills" are doing. Each one of the "little pictures" in your film is made up of hundreds of "little lines". If I throw out every other "little line" to fit your film to a DVD, I have thrown away half of your film, haven't I?

That's what MPEG2 compression does.

Dirty Little Secret #4:

DVDs are NOT made up of "full frame pictures" -- like your film.

In a nut shell, DVDs are made up of thousands of JPEG pictures, aren't they? "Well, not exactly". The Dirty Little Secret is that MPEG2, the video format for video DVDs, only "starts out" with one JPEG picture (of your grandmother). That's where all similarity ends.

MPEG2 compression is aggressive. To keep the video stream small, it starts throwing away parts of the image it thinks it can "rebuild" from preceding frames. MPEG2 was made to fit tremendous amounts of data into a small space, knowing it would be "played back" on older, fairly low quality televisions which would hide a "multitude of evils" by being too low resolution to really spot the artifacts of the compression.

Much has changed since.

Dirty Little Secret #5:

DVDs can NOT be copied to other "digital formats' without "digital artifacts".

Transfer mills let you think that because DVD is "digital" it can be transferred to other digital formats without loss. BIG WHOPPING WHOPPER LIE.

MPEG2 compression means you've already lost much of your original film - making the transition to another media can make that loss worse!

Dirty Little Secret #6:

"You can edit MPEG2" (DVDs) - but, "not exactly".

There are many software packages out there that let you edit MPEG2 compressed video. Each will warn you about the consequences of "cutting" the video stream anywhere but on a key frame. When it comes to getting the highest possible quality out of your editing efforts, you can edit MPEG... but why would you want to?

Dirty Little Secret #7:

You need a "full frame", "high resolution" digital master -- and a backup.

Let me say it another way: You need a "full frame", "high resolution" digital master that:

Rivals your Original Film (of Grandmother) with "near equivalent" Digital Images (of Grandmother); and,
Allows you to migrate Original Film Images (of Grandmother) to 'high resolution" video formats now and in the future; and,
Allows you to edit and narrate your original film images (of Grandmother) - to preserve her memory and yours.

Dirty Little Secret #8:

Most Telecine Methods are VHS quality; NOT High Resolution

The telecine transfer method used to perform your small gage - 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm - film transfer may sound great at first blush.

However, beware of yet another "dirty little secret". Most telecine methods were developed before the digital age and target problems inherent to older "analogue (composite) video". Much advertising today promotes technology of the past. The dirty little secret is, if you use old technology for a film to video transfer, you will in fact get "the same old quality" of old technology.

If you use their older technology, then you get inferior quality for the same price you might otherwise pay for a superior quality. I know, I am in the business. I have literally put very expensive, old equipment in the dumpster - knowing it had great "sales hype" but no "high resolution merit".

Dirty Little Secret #9:

Telecine Projector - VS - Telecine Transfer

The term "telecine transfer" (not to be confused with "telecine projector") is a good, legitimate film to video transfer term, which simply means, the frame rate of your 8mm film, super 8 film, or 16mm film is synchronized with NTSC video frame rates of your TV set -- without a flicker.

In summary:

The concept of transferring "film to DVD" should include a fundamental step of creating a "virgin", high resolution digital master first.

Then - and only then - should "copies" be made onto lower resolution media like DVD-R or VHS or S-VHS or HI8, etc. - for viewing purposes.

Writable DVDs -- DVD-R/+R -- which all of us use -- do not last more that 2 to 5 years before they start to deteriorate.

Please note the idea of creating a "virgin digital master" does NOT hold true of other websites which in talk about MiniDV tapes. The true dirty little secret is that most transfer mills

Eliminate the virgin digital master altogether or
Offer a MiniDV tape as an "Option or Add-on" which is actually a pseudo-master.

Copying an inferior format, like MPG2 or VHS, onto a MiniDV or
Made by synchronously producing "a MiniDV master" as a by-product of a DVD-R in MPEG2.