Film Transfer Services - Technical Details
We Digitize Movie Film – convert film to DVD. We convert 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film using high fidelity digital transfer technology. Our aerial-capture process produces uniform lighting, unmatched clarity, and stunning color depth. Your film is converted to digital video in the form of full quality digital video files and/or a playable DVD disc that is compatible with almost all DVD players.
Film projection in a dark room on a screen has unique visual characteristics and our film to DVD transfer process is aimed at achieving that effect as much as possible. Get your home movies to DVD with Digital Pickle
We perform HD film transfer of 8mm and 16mm film reels.
We transfer 8mm to DVD, we perform full Super-8 conversion (super 8 movie to DVD) including sound, and we also convert 16mm to DVD. There is actually 8mm video tape too – which we convert to DVD. In this section we are describing 8mm film to DVD conversion.
Our Process and Equipment
High quality film transfer - offering HD transfers
- Prior to digitizing your film we perform minor repairs, add leader, and splice the film as necessary. We then carefully clean your film with anti-static solvent and visually inspect it for dust and lint.
- Multiple small reels are consolidated into larger reels for ease of transferring and storage.
- Please see the Film Length table to calculate how much content you have.
- We use HD and frame-by-frame telecine equipment with integrated optics and video cameras for maximum image quality.
- We use a digital process to remove color casts (typically red, yellow, or blue). We also try to compensate for under- or over-exposed film.
- The sound track is captured real-time and synchronized with the video file. Audio quality on 8mm film is fairly limited. On 16mm film audio quality is better and has more enhancement potential using our video editing service. Since original sound track on film is mono, we split the signal and create simulated stereo so that the sound will come from both channels.
- New! HD transfer:
We transfer the film using our 1080p (1920x1080) frame-by-frame telecine equipment using the Blackmagic Motion JPEG codec.
Transfers can be output in HD or downconverted to SD rendering higher quality standard definition video.
Output Formats
High quality movies - offering HD format
- After your film is digitized we edit out leaders and large blank spots and perform a detailed quality check. We then burn to high quality DVD-R discs that are compatible with almost all DVD players.
By default we set up your DVD for auto-play and we install a chapter point at the beginning of each reel so you can quickly advance or retreat to any point in the movie. A single DVD disc holds up to 2 hours of video, which equals about 1600' of 8mm film transfer or 3200' of 16mm film.
We do not install any copyright protection, so you are free to make copies of your DVD. - If you plan to do any serious editing it is best to use full quality digital video files ("uncompressed" AVI or QuickTime). We can provide these files on mini-DV, DVD-ROM, or an external hard drive. Uncompressed files occupy about 15GB per hour of video (interlaced) at the default bit rate of 4Mb/s and resolution of 720x480.
- New! HD formats:
A. Blu-ray discs
B. Downconverted to SD progressive scan full quality digital video files (AVI or QT, 4/Mb/s 480p (720x480))
C. For Mac users only, using Apple Pro-Res 422 compression we can deliver HD files at SD file sizes
D. Full uncompressed (up to 10 bit) HD files produced to your exact specifications.
Service D is designed for professional video editors.
Note: File size can be up to 500GB per 1 hour of content!. - Even if you don't have immediate plans to edit your video we recommend that you preserve an uncompressed master copy of your film. It will be invaluable in the future.
- We can prepare your video clips in the proper format and upload them to the online gallery of your choice. Please provide your user information and note that clips may be up to 10 minutes long and up to 100MB in size.
