The Reflecta Super8 film scanner to avi conversion thread

[OneIron]

there are a few issues with this scanner, hopefully they can be fixed with firmware or software updates asap. heres what im experiencing....random skipping of frames:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5gifqHOXKw&feature=youtu.be

here is someone else having the same prob:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eALkiMi8rjw

then theres this....not spooling properly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMYU6yW9xmY

and heres a video of how flimsy and wobbly the arms and pins are....ready to break with any kind of pressure whatsoever (possibly not a firmware update will fix this one!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5rh1ToJOE&feature=youtu.be

Cheers,
Blackout

Looks like the manufacturer skipped the QA step on the arms and spindles. Seems like an odd way to cut costs on a $1,500 unit...

[fmilos]

Hello Fabio
Did you compared the CyberView S8 1.1.2.14 with 1.1.2.14m in the same USB port? I'm afraid, that the new one is not working (my opininion).

Regards
Peeter

Dear Peter,
I did it and there was no change (i.e. neither version worked as expected).
Then I changed the USB port and CyberView S8 1.1.2.14 is doing ok; I do not think I will install CyberView S8 1.1.2.14m because "if it works, don't fix it!"

Cheers,
Fabio

[OneIron]

I checked Amazon and B&H this morning and it appears this unit is still being sold (about $1,300). You would think for that price that a little QC and re-engineering would be performed. I'm just astounded reading this thread that hardware of this quality ever makes it out the door...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[filmboss80]

I checked Amazon and B&H this morning and it appears this unit is still being sold (about $1,300). You would think for that price that a little QC and re-engineering would be performed. I'm just astounded reading this thread that hardware of this quality ever makes it out the door...

Same here. Initially, the product piqued my interest. But as the posts came along, there came a clear indication that this is something one should not throw one's money away on. Are there still fans of this product? How many of you guys still like it and have not yet experienced buyer's remorse?

[Blackout]

just dropped back into the thread for a visit.

there is a lot of chroming on those Retro-8 samples. There is no denying it. You can see it on any sharp edge such as the flower petals. Looks like every petal has a white fine border around them. essentially makes it look like it was from a VHS video. I don't know why it does it but it does. But hey, then again im sure the Retro-8 handles dark scenes better without the noise that is seen on the Reflecta. And im sure it is FARRRR more gentle with your precious films than the Reflecta (would not be hard to do with the Reflectas devastating shredding of film surface without mods).


I have a few old versions of the software. It seems some ppl are having problems finding them so I have uploaded them to Dropbox for everyone here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vq3ifwh9u6027jg/AACxk9vncZbwyK3eGDR0LDufa?dl=0

it has:
Reflecta 1.1.2.14 [Sept 14].rar
Reflecta Beta Drivers 1.1.2.13d [Aug 14].rar

I use the Beta Drivers. it includes an "update" file in it you need to run as well. I don't have any frame skipping issues!

please try and report back.

Best regards,
Blackout

[Blackout]

this is interesting and may be of help from Reflecta:


"Please notice that we recently released new firmware and software for the Super 8 Scanner:

https://reflecta.de/en/downloads/drivers2/~nm.50~nc.108/Driver-and-Software.html

This should improve the “film stuck” issue. We are presently not planning to re-design the way the film is transported.


Best regards

[Jeremy75]

Thanks for pointing this out. I tried the new software/firmware. While the "film stuck" problem got better, the device now skips frames all the time (up to 5 at a time). Has anybody had that problem?

Cheers,
Jeremy

[LeifM]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and have used my S8 scanner for a week.
Great many thanks for all useful info offered here.
I have already recognized most of the problems presented. They seem to be quite common.

The film stuck error seems to be solved after update to the latest CyberView S8 1.1.2.15f.
I also tried to update firmware in the scanner by using the UPDATE key in CyberView and the new file "Firmware Super 8 v.2.0.03,
update.tar, Update was successful acc. to the programs message but after that the scanner did not responf at all.
Thanks to the info at this forum I managed to restore functionality by updating with a SD card.
I then asked Reflecta support how they want the update.tar to be treated, as a zipped file or by putting it onto the scanner as is.
They answered like this:

only in the early days of the scanner it was necessary to use an SD card for updating the firmware. Now it works by using CyberView. Only in emergency cases, when the update failed and the mainboard hang up we recommend to use the SD card slot.

Has anyone here tried to update with the update.tar file and succeeded?

[GiftMicha]

Hi everyone, I am a new owner of this device and I am glad I didn't read this thread prior to buying it, as it would for sure have made me think twice.
Here are my experiences so far:
After receiving the unit I downloaded the latest Windows software (V1.1.2.15f at the time) and started scanning. Consistently after 120 - 150 scanned frames the program crashes. Upon further investigation there seems to be a memory leak as it gradually grows towads 2GB.
Upon restarting, it asks me if I wanted to continue or overwrite the existing images. I chose continue, but it overwrote anyway (thanks for asking though).

So I switched to a Mac, and downloaded the latest Mac version (V1.1.2.14 at the time), which worked fine. I see that both versions have been updated now, but I won't go back to PC as I have been taught to "never change a running system", and obviously Reflecta's software release process doesn't seem to have a solid QA step.
So anyway, the film (400ft, 40 years old) got stuck a couple of times but that was to be expected. Paranoid from the prior experience, I always backed up the scanned images before continuing, however it never overwrote images again. When all was done, I clicked the button to create the movie file. It took a LONG time (its an iMac from 2010 I believe), and when it was finally done, the resulting file had breaks and at one point it just froze a frame for the rest of the movie (10 minutes) ! No problem, I thought, I will just combine the JPGs myself. But oh look - the program had deleted all the JPGs. Aaaaargh. Lets take a break!
Since the movie was pretty dirty anyway, I got informed about film cleaning, built myself a handcrank, bought some "Filmrenew" and cleaned the film (I don't trust the device's cleaning mode for some reason, with that tiny sponge. I rather do it manually). After a few days of drying the cleaning solution I scanned the whole thing again. It only got stuck once this time. When done, I didn't bother to let the program build the movie file, just ran FFMPEG. If anyone cares:
ffmpeg -framerate 18 -i planname%08d.jpg -codec copy movie.avi
This only took seconds to complete, and creates an AVI encapsulated MJPG file, which Sony Vegas can read (the video editor I am using). For some reason Vegas would refuse all other formats I tried (except if I would use raw or compressed).

So far I have scanned 4 more reels, and its working great. Thankfully I don't have any of the trouble that everyone else is describing here.

One thing I have noticed on the last reel though is that some frames are scanned in the middle (ie. you can see the bottom of the next frame at the top). There are not a lot of those instances, but enough for me to have to manually deal with it in post processing (anyone know how to do this in Vegas?) and to worry about it for future scans. Any Ideas about the cause of this?

[elcarpanta]

Hi
I have a problema with the scanner now.
After 180 hours using well in MAX OSX i update the software (from V14 to V15) and firmware of the scanner and mac.
And now jumps a lot of frames.
I try to use in a Windows with CyberView Software V 1.1.2.14 and Works ok.
Can anybody send me the CyberView Software V 1.1.2.14 FOR MAC??? PLEASE!!!!!
THANKS A LOT

[GiftMicha]

I happen to have that version. Worked fine for me, so far only one crash in 4000ft so far.

I uploaded it here:

http://www.filedropper.com/20151203104234super811214

[Blackout]

One thing I have noticed on the last reel though is that some frames are scanned in the middle (ie. you can see the bottom of the next frame at the top). There are not a lot of those instances, but enough for me to have to manually deal with it in post processing (anyone know how to do this in Vegas?) and to worry about it for future scans. Any Ideas about the cause of this?

this is due to the film being stretched in that spot. You probably were fast forwarding one day years ago and stuck your finger on the reels, or it bounced in that spot and just pulled the film. happens to all of us, and ive had a lot of these in scans as well.

just in relation to using FFMPEG, you can also use Virtualdub. You just load the first jpg frame into it, and it reads the subsequent ones and you can view your whole movie. and save as an uncompressed avi. Excellent.

(yes Cyberview deletes the jpgs. Found out the hard way too OUCH! this is really bad. I asked them to make it an option to "keep jpgs" when doing a combine to avi but it apparently fell on deaf ears).

[Wikipiero]

hi guys
I'm Piero and I'm new to this forum.
I just bought an used reflecta scanner from somebody who write in this thread and I had a lot of problems wich I solved in a very easy fast and effective way.

-main problem was continuos messages of "film stuck" even if the film was not stuck at all
-another problem was a horrible noise from the gears
-another one was a temporary misalignment of the film in the scan window wich caused a dark area on one side of the frame
-the last one was the low scan speed due to vertical alignment problems of the frame in the scanning area which reqired three or more motor steps.

the cause: mechanism wich spins the take up reel always try to spin the reel more than necessary and a friction clutch allow te reel to spin as much as the film tail permits. this is necessary to compensate for the change in diameter (empty or full) of the take up reel. if the friction clutch is too tight the film tail became too tight also and it does not permit the stepper motor to spin as it would and so the sprokets. even if there is no film the stepepr motor movment is so "sharp" and the inertia of an empty take up reel is so high that the gears would skip the step. this causes all the problems mentioned above.

the solution: with a small screwdriver I loosened the screw on the backside of the take up arm, now there is only the minimum necessary tension to take up the film. all the mentioned problems are completely gone.

some more words about the side slip on the scan area: the excessive tension of the film tail and the fact that the film holes are only on one side of the film can cause the film to twist or bend and slip outside of the correct position on the scan area (try to gently pull the film tail by hands, you will see a misalignment in the prewiw window). the (sometimes poor) design of this machine is ABOUT the same as every super8 machine: the film goes trough two sproket, the first one is necessary to pull the film outside the first reel the second to prevent the take up reel to "remove" the film form the scan window, (in our machine the second sprocket also positions the frame in the right place). there should be a sag film between the two sprockets, no tension at all, plastic feeders between the sprockets allow for a sag film, require a sag film, othewise the pressure plate will not be able to avoid the side slip caused by the assimmetric tension due to the side holes on the film.

in the hope it will help somebody.
Piero

[rdmeyer]

Looking at the Reflecta as a possible purchase to scan tons of film. I however have some film that the sprocket holes are stretched or the edge cut off completely and no sprocket holes available. Does this projector need the holes for frame advancement or is it using capstan type? Has anyone had the same type of film issues and successfully captured using the Reflecta?
thanks much.
Rich

[Wikipiero]

Looking at the Reflecta as a possible purchase to scan tons of film. I however have some film that the sprocket holes are stretched or the edge cut off completely and no sprocket holes available. Does this projector need the holes for frame advancement or is it using capstan type? Has anyone had the same type of film issues and successfully captured using the Reflecta?
thanks much.
Rich

hello Rich
this projector has no capstain and needs the holes for frame advancement by the sprocket, but it seems it has some capabilities to auto align the frame in the scan area so may be you can try to build a couple capstains to replace the sprockets... hard job.

[camera8mm]

I acquired this 8mm super 8 scanner.
http://www.thanko.jp/shopdetail/000000002560
it so far hasn't done a good job of transferring film as it jumps in the frame. maybe it needs a firmware update or anyone else has acquired it, post some opinions here.

[bambi01]

Perhaps as this is about the 8ｍｍフィルムデジタルコンバーター「スーパーダビング8」 (replying to above post) - 8mm film Digital converter 'Super Dubbing 8" - Super 8 and standard 8mm device - a new thread should be started? I have this item and the film progression is smooth on my machine. Make sure you have threaded it as per the manual (the film has to go under the 2 metal pieces that are on the away side of the film from you in the gate) and also that you have selected the correct type of film (Standard 8 or Super 8). For me the issue with this item is not the mechanical side but rather that the camera is of low quality and very noisy. The only auto color balance too is a pain as it is often wrong. I did have to dismantle the front gray cover as the lens was out of focus - but this may have been understandable if it was set up for Japan Single 8 which has a thinner film base than Super 8. Sadly horizontally the item also crops the image maybe 15%(?) too.

[Constantine138]

I tried running the software for the first time today and could not get the "capture" button in the GUI to work. I tried uninstalling the software, downloading the newest version and installing it. Alas, it still does not let me click capture. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[Blackout]

hi guys


some more words about the side slip on the scan area: the excessive tension of the film tail and the fact that the film holes are only on one side of the film can cause the film to twist or bend and slip outside of the correct position on the scan area (try to gently pull the film tail by hands, you will see a misalignment in the prewiw window). the (sometimes poor) design of this machine is ABOUT the same as every super8 machine: the film goes trough two sproket, the first one is necessary to pull the film outside the first reel the second to prevent the take up reel to "remove" the film form the scan window, (in our machine the second sprocket also positions the frame in the right place). there should be a sag film between the two sprockets, no tension at all, plastic feeders between the sprockets allow for a sag film, require a sag film, othewise the pressure plate will not be able to avoid the side slip caused by the assimmetric tension due to the side holes on the film.

in the hope it will help somebody.
Piero

you are not quite right. the problem is that when your film is stretched, it "buckles" between the two sprockets because it is locked in by the sprocket teeth and the film is longer than the normal distance between the sprockets and it has to move SOMEWHERE because it is too long between the sprockets so it moves sideways a little. Enough to make the scan frame move sideways.

The solution (as described earlier in this thread) is to bypass the second lower sprocket so the film is tight across the scanning area regardless of small differences in film length. The film no longer moves sideways because it is always tight.

[Isabel]

Here are some sample frames:


[Attachment 31699 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 31700 - Click to enlarge]
[Attachment 31701 - Click to enlarge]

Hi litemakr,

I wanted to purchase the Reflecta scanner, but I also have some dark footage, like this kind of photograms :



I have the feeling I shouldn't try this scanner, seeing the issue you had. Some parts of my films are completely black and I'm afraid I'll get the same problems.

What solution did you choose in the end ?

[StehtimSchilf]

Hi everyone

I've just bought the reflecta super 8 scanner with firmware 1.013, downloaded CyberView S8 v1.1.2.15k(c0) from the website and installed it on my Windows 7 SP1 64 bit System.

Unfortuntately the "capture" button is disabled! I have no idea why? There isn't any step that omitted. I can use the up/down buttons, the film transports "nicely". So the driver is installed properly.

So I installed CyberView S8 v1.1.2.14i from the installation cd. The button is still disabled.

So I've downloaded the firmware update V2008 from the vendor site and updated it. Still no avail.

I have 4 physical HDDs installed with free space from 17GB up to 400 GB and tried to set the working directory to any of those drives. the button is still disabled.




Anyone any idea why my capture button is disabled?

cheerioh
SiS

[Neutron]

Hi StehtimSchilf.

The only way I can reproduce this myself is to leave the gate empty. I think that before it will allow Capture, the firmware needs to see a correlation between motor action (e.g. using Up/Down) which should be moving the film; and the sprocket hole detector above the gate which can actually detect film motion. Do you have film (with good sprocket holes) threaded through the gate in the normal way? If so, check that nothing (such as dust or a piece of broken film) is obscuring the sprocket hole detector above the gate.

[StehtimSchilf]

Dear Neutron

Thank you for dealing with my case. Unfortunately I do not understand what you mean with the "empty gate"? I've checked the english manual and couldn't locate the sprocket hole detector. Any detailed information are appreciated. The film is moving fine with the forward/rewind button of the scanner and the up/down button of the ugly user interface.

As I've updated to FW v2008 the up/down button do not forward/rewind one frame but endlessly until i push the stop button of the scanner. Maybe something is broken with my scan device?

SiS

[Neutron]

Hi StehtimSchilf,

If you look at post #97, the second photo is a close-up of the gate area with the LED housing folded back and no film threaded.

The gate is at the bottom, and above it to the left is a vertical slot. When film is threaded, this slot is behind the sprocket holes. Behind the slot is what I think is a reflective opto switch to detect the holes in order to align the vertical scanning and sense film motion, but this is only a guess.

I speculated that an obstruction here could make the firmware behave as if there was no film threaded, so not activate the Capture function.

When you say the film is moving fine, do you see mages in the preview window? Your screen grab shows the yellow-white of an empty gate.

The continuous motion you describe with Up/Down could again be the firmware failing to detect a sprocket hole signal, so not having any way of controlling a single frame movement.

[StehtimSchilf]

Dear Neutron

My thanks for your detailed information. yes I do see an image in the preview window (I made the screenshot after I a complete rewind. Sorry for the confusion). and there is nothing obscuring the sprocket hole detector. I've pushed the forward/rewind buttons on the scanner a few times, activated the Auto Contrast and Auto Brightness a few times and suddenly the capture button beacame active. The sprocket holes are fine and the film is not dusty, though.

short: it's scanning
thank you

[StehtimSchilf]

Hi guys

As the scanner is producing some images I'd like to convert them to a movie. I know I could use the built-in converter of CyberView 8S but if the converter is programmed as the user interface - oh boy.

Therefor I've got some question:

• What's better: preprocess each image (batch mode) or post process the movie (After Effects, ...)?
• Do you suggest an upscale to HD (1920x1080) or just use the image output size for the movie size (1192x876)? Upscaling by image editing or video software?
• What programs do you use for postprocessing?

To my feelings I think it's better to preprocess the images with an editor instead of postprocess the video.

Here are some personal achievments:

Full HD result
Use an image editor for filters, then First resize to 1470x1080 (keeping ration of 1192x876) then resize the canvas size to 1920x1080 (adds pillar box).

I've tried to achieve this with Adobe Photoshop CS5. The actions and batches are very neat. Huge disadvantage: Photoshop Batch mode supports only 4 digit serial number as I have 5 (around 28000 frames). Therefor I have to run the batch 3 times (0-9999, 10000-19999, 20000-28133). I could create a droplet for a default path like "output\9999", "output\19999", ... and copy the scan results into those folders so I won't have to create new droplets for new scan projects ...

I've tried IrfanView with batch modes. Unfortuntely IrfanView does not support a set canvas size as command line parameter. It supports canvas by /Advancedbatch but if you apply /AdvanceBatch the canvas resize option is applied first becoming usless because resulting in a window box! I thought I could fist run the /Advancebatch and secondly the /resize but this would result in two times compressing the jpg

Neither of those are satisfying for me.


result in image resolution
Thus I thought, why do I need to upscale? All media players upscale an video to fullscreen outomatically adding letter/pillar box and even my SmartTV does.


To merge the images into a video I've used ffmpeg.

ffmpeg -y -framerate 18 -start_number %START_NUMBER% -i "%INPUT_FILE%" -c:v libx264 -r 18 -pix_fmt yuv420p %OUTPUT_FILE%

This is a neat one-liner. I haven't currently investigated into avisynth and virtualdub. As far as I know, virtualdub handles only avi?

cheerioh
SiS

[Blackout]

cheerio...virtualdub loads jpg files.

you just open the folder that cyberview has created full of jpgs, click on the first jpg and open it with virtualdub, and you can watch the video of jpgs.

you will need to set the correct frame rate. But then you can save as avi and use the virtualdub plugins. This is what i do...i use the stabilize and descratch in virtualdub, make an uncompressed AVI, then i go into Sony Vegas and do further video processing, (noise reduction and color tweaks) as well as add / sync audio there. Then i create another avi and finally use TotalCode studio to create a high q mp4 to watch on my WD media player, and give to the rest of my family.

i always keep the avi tho, as storage for the future (maybe a better codec convertor or maybe we wont need the mp4s and avi will be considered a SMALL size one day hehe).

[s8hello]

I love this thread! so much ingenuity and sticktoitiveness. But I'll admit, I am now confused.

Should I do the firmware upgrade? (edit: I just looked and mine is already at 1.013. This appears to be the latest version, so I don't think I have a choice to "undo" even if I wanted to!)

Should I do Blackout's modification? (edit: I am going to do it this afternoon. Brilliant idea)

Is there a summary of all of this knowledge? Maybe that's for me to write? I was so psyched when the first reel went through so easily, and then I got into trouble with Film Stuck messages...exploring this forum has helped so much and I would like to "give back." I think one service I can do is to write a summary, and provide links to old software versions. Unless someone has already done this?

[s8hello]

I searched the forum, but don't know how to get my film out if the process gets "stuck" in the middle.

I am running the Mac version.

If I restart the application, it seems to always want to recalibrate, and won't let me advance to scanning without taking the film out of the gate. I don't want to run the film backwards through the reflecta device, and can't see a way to get the film out.

I suppose unscrewing the autofeeder and sprocket area is an option.

Another option would be to cut the film, and then resplice it.

What have you more experienced folks done in this situation? It seems as if others have been able to simply restart the application. Is that a difference between the Windows version and the Mac one?

[Goulenn]

Hi guys,

New on the forum, may be a future owner of the Reflecta. I’m a little disappointed after reading the topics : should I buy this Reflecta that has many manufacturing problems around the film path or let a professional do the job with a stronger scanner ? Could you help me to choose ?

With your experience :
- is the use of the Reflecta possible for everyone (no specific skill) ?
- is the scanning quality pretty good ? Is there a difference with a professional scanner ?
- professionals offer manual adjustment of contrast, light and color during scanning. Are these settings possible with the Reflecta ?
- do the mods proposed on the topics allow not to damage the films ?
- for films with sound track, is it possible to digitize the sound with a Super 8 projector and then synchronize it with the film made with the Reflecta ?

Many thanks.

Goulenn