Old 8mm Reel conversion

[Nelson37]

Just had 8 reels from 1945 to 1950 professionally converted, compared to a couple I did myself - little if any difference! I must add that these are very low-quality tapes.

Method - Projector on low table, 2' high, Screen 6 to 8 feet away. Image focused to approx. 50% of screen for best sharpness. VHS camera on tripod above and in front of projector, camera low as possible with tripod legs clearing the projector beam. Slight up angle on projector, slight down angle on camera, carefully adjusted for flat capture. Camera set to low light mode, lock in focus and turn autofocus off. Connected camera direct to VCR.

I know there is a horrendous frame-rate conversion problem in doing this, but both my home made and pro vhs tapes play fairly smoothly. I did try the above method briefly with my computer and it was very jerky, but I had limited time to adjust everything.

Projector and screen rental is about half the $100 conversion cost, depending on quantity (1 hour total).

[Riccardom]

Very interesting!
I think i'll give it a try, with my DV camera, sending it directly to computer.
The key for the different frame rate is probably the long exposure time that come with the low light mode.

Thank for the info
Riccardo

[holistic]

Intresting

How did you get around the wierd frame rates?

i tried doing some old super 8 (18 FPS) but was unable to remove the 'flicker'

That was a while ago maybe i wil try again with a modified telecine approach perhaps.

[jbarr]

Great to hear you got good results!

I did a "proof-of-concept" by just holding the camcorder (new Canon ZR45MC) and aiming it at the screen. No adjustments, just everything set to default, auto modes. Aside from the obvious movement due to not having a tripod, the results were actually quite favorable. My wife commented that the quality was much better than she expected. For example, some of the shots were the typical "sight-seeing" shots, you know, the "pull over to the side of the road and film the mountain or valley and then film the sign that tells about it" kind of shot. Anyway, the signs were VERY readable.

I transferred the recording to my PC and created a VCD, and th results were quite encouraging.

Since then, I have boned up on capturing methods and conversion methods to try to get the best quality I can to produce a VCD or XVCD. (SVCD doesn't play in my DVD player, and I don't have the cash to invest in a DVD-burner ). I also purchased a tripod, and very soon, I am about to begin transferring over 120 8mm reels of various sizes (I approximate the total to be between 8000 and 9000 feet.) I did a bit of poking around on the 'net, and found that the costs to be prohibitive to have it done professionally ($2000 or more.)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...My projector has a variable-speed adjustment on it. Fiddling with this almost ELIMINATED the flicker! If you have access to a variable-speed projector, by all means, use it.

Good luck!

-Jim

[piper180]

The best way I have found to convert film to video is to set up your projecter (with variable speed) to the speed that eliminates flutter when you shoot it with a camera. This should be 30 frames per second. I think you have a better picture if you use a pure white box to project onto instead of a screen, but I am sure that could be debated. I shoot the box with my dv camera manual focus and manual iris. Once completed, load the video into Adobe Premier, and reduce the speed to whatever normal speed is, for example if your film is 24 frames per second, and you sped it up to 30 frames per second, you would need to reduce it to 80 percent speed. Then export the clip to an avi file or to tmpg or a frame server or even to tape and you should have a clip transfered from film at 30 frames per second that plays at real speed without flutter.

[Anonymous65]

You can also use a flicker remover filter in Vdub made just for this purpose.

[jbarr]

You can also use a flicker remover filter in Vdub made just for this purpose.

Yes, I must agree! I downloaded the deflicker filter last night, and after playing with it for a while, I came up with excellent results.

The only real down side to the filter is that it requires "two passes" to work. You must first set the filter to "Preview" mode and then you must play the video from beginning to end. Then, you must reset the filter to "Process" mode, rewind the video, and then save or frameserve normally. If you don't follow the instructions, it will NOT work! RTFM!

The results were quite stunning. I opened two windows, one for the before and one for the after version, and played the two videos side-by-side. The filtered version had very little flicker.

Download the examples and play them (you need a DiVX codec installed). They are a great representation of what the filter can do.

[Nelson37]

I initially dealt with the flicker problem in the time-honored fashion, I ignored it. In fact, its not objectionable and similar to watching the original film. The rented projector was speed-adjustable but there was a noticable flicker to start with. I'll have to try the Deflicker filter.

How did you guys deal with sound when making a VCD? bbMpeg complains when I try to Mux with no sound file, I plan to add a sound track later but I want to copy it silent, also.

[Riccardom]

I tested the shooting of screen with my PAL camera, and the results are comparable to the professionaly made VHS tape.
They are definitely better than the AVI captured from that VHS, that I was trying to convert in a SVCD.
Just a little bit darker and I have some problems in getting the right focus on the camera. But when i convert the AVI DV to SVCD is quite nice.
I don't see an evident flickering effect, to need some other processing.
Could be the PAL system frame rate?
Riccardom