A lot of people of new age have family inheritances of the early 8mm and super 8 mm films and footages that take them back to the era of memories, moments, people and the times gone. How many of you remember your first birthday party or the time your grandmother knitted you a sweater or the first step in school. Do you feel nostalgic about the Christmas party where you smashed the cake on your brother or when you posed with your new bicycle or the old movies that you watched with your family and many such sweet and joyful memories? What if you get hold of such 8 mm film footage and get disappointed to see the quality of the tapes, well you need not worry as in present times you can convert your 8 mm films and movies into digital form thus maximizing its shelf life as well as quality. Converting 8mm film to digital can be done by professionals or you can do it by yourself with a little know how.
The converter accepts a roll of Super 8 film on its feed reel like a projector, where each frame is individually illuminated by a white LED and captured at high-definition 1080 dpi resolution by a linear array color CMOS sensor.
3 Ways to Convert 8mm Film To Digital There are generally 3 ways to convert the 8 mm film to digital. Videotaping. Telecine. Professional help Videotaping or Using the Old Projector Trick You can transfer the film to a video by various methods and one of the simplest ways is to project your film on the wall or projector screen and record it with your camcorder or video camera. The advantage is that it is easy to do but you might want to have the surface of screening clean, flat and without any disturbances either of textures, people or any other external factor. One of the major hindrances during projection of the film is the speed or the frame rate of the film. It is important to monitor the speed or the frame rate of 8 mm movie film as these can have film rates of 14fps to 24fps (frames per second).
If you do not focus and monitor the speed of the frames to NTSC’s 29.97fps it is bound to create flicker and sputter in the frame. You will need an electronic gadget like the reflector box to control the speed of the film. You can avoid flicker by using the projector with a speed variable of up to 20 fps. To get the best screening, project the film on a white or light gray wall as it controls the contrast differences. You can also use a piece of foamcore. Focus the video camera at the wall and steadily adjust the speed of the shutter on the projector till the monitor of the camera is free of flicker. You can also use a plug-in known as MSU Deflicker for virtual dub to reduce flicker in case of absence of speed variable projector.
It has its disadvantage that some of the material might be lost or doubled up and the length of the film may differ. Although videotaping gives good results it might result in distorted images. This results from the fact that the camera and the projector cannot align in the same line of axis resulting in trapezoid images that might require editing.
You can then transfer the recorded film or footage to your computer and use digital conversion software’s to capture the footage that also helps you to create titles to your film. The Telecine Way Using the telecine method helps you correct the off-axis problem that is created during projection of the film on the wall or TV monitor. In this method the film is projected on the mirror which then reflects the images onto a rear screen that brings the axis of the camcorder on the same alignment as that of the projector. A lot of Hollywood movies are made this way using hi-tech equipments. You can easily find telecine equipment at the yard sales or also online for a very economical price. A speed projector will also be required for better results.
There are particularly many telecine product ranges and the most notable ones are the digital Elmo and the Goko. Both the telecines products can be connected to camcorder, computer or set top box. Both have quality VHS resolution that helps to eliminate flicker. These are especially useful to transfer lot of films or for people who are considering doing it professionally. Getting Done By a Professional Getting professionals help is an easier option if you want to avoid the painstaking transfer of the film or do not have time to do it by yourself. It does fasten your process and gives a chic quality but also is heavy on your pocket especially if the films are really old and in bad condition. Depending upon the quality of the shops these professionals use high end equipments that are used for motion pictures or high quality equipments from reputed brands.
The cost is the biggest concern depending upon the quality of the film and the work needed to be done. But you will be happy with the results of the picture and sound quality that is done professionally.
Few things to know before hiring professionals –. How much will it cost?. Can they work on your format of the film. Equipments that will be used.
Can they rectify color correction. Is cleaning and lubrication of the film part of the process.
Will they give the final product on high resolution master on mini DV and HDV Conclusion Whatever methods you choose to convert your 8mm film to digital make sure that you are confident of using them appropriately. It is indeed a great boon to convert and restore the quality of the picture and sound digitally and thus help in bringing back your heritage and memories to life. If you are unsure about handling and conversion of 8 mm films, let professionals handle it. Mr Video has been operating into this space for more than one and half decades. Over the years, Mr Video has developed a penchant for 8 mm digitization services. All the work is done by professionals using state-of-the-art equipment.
If you wish to do the conversion at home, Mr Video can provide you with all the necessary equipment. The company also provides you with other AV equipment like sound systems, speakers, projectors, plasma TVs, sound mixing consoles among other. For all your AV needs, Mr Video is the right place.
We spent 44 hours on research, videography, and editing, to review the top selections for this wiki. If you have a box full of old home videos taking up space and getting dusty in your attic, you should consider bringing those memories up to date with one of these VHS to DVD converters. Most of the items on our list will not only let you burn the footage to disc, but also convert it to digital files that are ideal for uploading to Facebook or YouTube. When users buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn commissions to support our work. We spent 44 hours on research, videography, and editing, to review the top selections for this wiki. If you have a box full of old home videos taking up space and getting dusty in your attic, you should consider bringing those memories up to date with one of these VHS to DVD converters. Most of the items on our list will not only let you burn the footage to disc, but also convert it to digital files that are ideal for uploading to Facebook or YouTube.
When users buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn commissions to support our work. The VHS cassette tape was first developed by JVC, a Japanese technology and electronics company, in the 1970s. VHS is an acronym for the Video Home System, and indeed that descriptive name is an apt one for these units. Understanding why merits a look slightly farther back into history.
Magnetic tape was first used for audio recording, with viable application seen in the late 1920s. Was first developed some two and a half decades later. In the 1950s, magnetic video tape was commonly used in the professional television industry, recording shows for later rebroadcast. The complexity and expense both of early video magnetic tape and the machinery that processed it limited the use of the medium to professional media production and broadcast companies and to certain medical and scientific applications, such as with fluoroscopy imaging. Flash forward another two decades to the 1970s, and we see the beginnings of what would be the first commercially viable home video platform. And indeed beginnings is the right word, as two competing formats of magnetic video tape came to the fore during that decade.
One, produced by the Sony Corporation, would come to be known as Betamax, a video tape format that actually went on to see extreme success in various professional fields, and limited success as a format for home movie watching. It was the Video Home System - the iconic VHS video cassette - that would soon be lining the shelves at video rental stores and tucked into cabinets and drawers in homes all around the world. The first functional VHS tape prototype was produced in the year 1973, after several years of development. The first VHS players and tapes readily available to the consumer marketplace came out in Japan in 1976, and in the United States in 1977. Despite entering the market more than two years after the release of the comparable (and arguably superior) Betamax format, VHS tapes soon became the ascendant platform thanks to a furious marketing effort and thanks to agreements between JVC and various other companies that saw the format used by multiple multinational companies. VHS recorders/players, also known as VCRs, were a mainstay of living rooms, classrooms, offices, and beyond for more than twenty years, but the latter half of the 1990s saw DVDs begin to chip away at the platform's marketshare (in a way that laser discs and other video options certainly never had). Improved digital technology would sound the death knell of this fine analog format, though in fact VCRs were still being made right up, a testament to the lasting quality of the format and hardware, as well as to the power of nostalgia (and/or inertia) among many media consumers.
Why Converting Tape To Digital Is Essential Venerable and celebrated though the VHS format may be, it is also vulnerable, too. Time is the greatest enemy of the Video Home System video cassette tape, with quality degradation slowly but steadily reducing the functionality of the tape, and with repeated viewings only speeding up the process. Video cassette tapes often deteriorate past the point of viable playability due to demagnetization, a process which can happen over time or that can occur rapidly in the event that a powerful magnet or a potent heat source comes into close proximity with the tape. A demagnetized tape has lost the ability to transfer the images and audio it once held to a video tape player. A demagnetized tape has lost the ability to transfer the images and audio it once held to a video tape player. Other factors that can speed the tape are humidity and/or direct contact with moisture or liquid.
When a VHS tape is stored in humid conditions, or else when a fluid is spilled or splashed onto the cassette, it can cause the tape to become distorted, sticky, or otherwise compromised, leaving the very real potential that the stresses put on the tape by its next viewing will cause it to break completely or become distorted beyond viable use. According to a survey of research conducted by various groups, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the Sony and Fuji corporations of Japan, even video cassette tapes stored under ideal conditions will deteriorate by an average of 15% of quality every 15 years, so eventually all tapes will be broken down beyond use or repair. And then there is another factor to consider: the VHS cassette tape format, using its thinnest (and weakest) tape could allow for, at the very longest, less than five hours of playing time. A modern Blu-ray disc (and even many DVDs) can hold significantly more material, with a of storing nine hours of high definition content, and as many as 23 hours of standard definition media. The VHS format was all but doomed in the era of binge watching television and marathon viewing of movie series, its inherent degradation notwithstanding. Choosing The Right VHS To DVD Converter There are two basic approaches to converting VHS content to DVD content.
The first, and the easiest, involves using a deck that has both a VHS slot and a DVD drive with burner capabilities. The use of these machines is plug-and-play simple, and perfect for those who want to preserve their media before it but lack much technological prowess. Second, there is the option to use a device that features older RCA inputs paired with an advanced USB or HDMI output. You will need to own a VCR to play your old tapes to make use of this approach, and you will need a bit of software and hardware knowhow to select the right program to record the media you are playing via that charming but outdated VHS tape. The benefit with the latter approach is their potential for use with other mediums, such as for recording gameplay you wish to upload to social media or share with friends later.
Last updated on October 17, 2018 by Sheila is a writer and editor living in sunny Southern California. She studied writing and film at State University of New York at Purchase, where she earned her bachelor of arts degree. After graduating, she worked as an assistant video editor at a small film company, then spent a few years doing freelance work, both as a writer and a video editor.
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During that time, she wrote screenplays and articles, and edited everything from short films to infomercials. An ardent lover of the English language, she can often be found listening to podcasts about etymology and correcting her friends’ grammar. Thanks for reading the fine print. About the Wiki: We don't accept sponsorships, free goods, samples, promotional products, or other benefits from any of the product brands featured on this page, except in cases where those brands are manufactured by the retailer to which we are linking. For our full ranking methodology, please read about us, linked below. The Wiki is a participant in associate programs from Amazon, Walmart, Ebay, Target, and others, and may earn advertising fees when you use our links to these websites.
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