Do you have a suggestion where to take 8 mm home movies to have them transferred to DVD? Unless you are in the Bay area (Napa specifically) it would have to be a chain store, I guess. I certainly don't want some inexperienced clerk experimenting on film that can't be replaced. Thanks.

 

Hey Morris,

The company that I'm consulting for actually does telecine professionally. I'll ask some of the workers there to see if they know of any places that can do this in your area.

 

Telecine? Did you make that word up, Mark? Well thank you, and I await your reply.

 

Actually Morris, I was thinking about the really old 8mm movies that you needed to run on a projector. I'm assuming you are referring to the newer 8mm stuff from companies like Sony instead of the old movies.

Telecine is actually the process of transferring film (reel to reel) to tape (digital images). If you have 8mm film, then I can try to find out from my client a place you can take it to to get transferred. If you have the new 8mm stuff from companies like Sony, then you already have it in a digital format and there probably are some tools that you can use to transfer it to DVD.

Let me know which one you have so I can help you out.

 

It's the old stuff, projector needed. These are family home movies starting in the 40's. I have them on dideo tape now, but that has a finite life and thought DVD would be a better way to go. Also thought the image would be better to go from the original film to DVD instead of video tape to DVD. Do you agree? Thanks for your help.

 

OK, I thought it was the old 8mm stuff. My uncle got some of that stuff transferred recently and it was kind of blurry, but it sure brought back a lot of old memories.

I'll ask around and let you know.

 

MarkS2K:

I have exactly the same problem. I have a collection of old 8mm emulsion that I'd like to transfer to some digital format. It wouldn't have to be DVD, but some file format that I could possibly move to other formats that succeed the DVD standard... These things are already 50 or more years old, after all. The DVD standard probably won't be around more than another 10-15 years at most.

Do you know of a company in the LA area that could convert these to MPEG for me? Any ideas are welcome. Thanks!

 

CBeyond,

Yes, I am actually checking on some LA companies right now. Since they do work for the studios, I'm sure they're kind of expensive, but I'm sure they can recommend a much cheaper shop to do it also.

I'm also looking for something closer to Napa for our friend.

I'm sending off a few e-mails and have already got some responses.

 

I found a company in LA that will do it, but they're expensive. I'll keep asking around to see what else I can find.

 

Thanks Mark. Do your expert friends think the resulting DVD would be better if it came from the original 8 mm or no better than copying from the video I also have?