Film Transfer Service – Technical Details

reels of different sizes three inches five inches and seven inches We Digitize Movie Film and 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 a playable DVD disc that is compatible with almost all DVD players. Full-quality digital video files are also available as an optional add-on.

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 also 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.

Digital Pickle transfers film formats to DVD
8mm	16mm	Super 8mm

Standard Reel Sizes

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 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 chapter points at regular time increments 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, provided you have a computer with a DVD burner and the appropriate DVD burning software.

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 an external hard drive that you provide. 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

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. Contact us via phone to add a digital file to your film transfer order.

Sample transfer and restoration of 8mm film

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National Processing Center
- Digital Pickle
- 2713 State Route 153
- Twisp, WA 98856
- (800) 975-5316

Video Transfer
Film Transfer
Audio Transfer
Photo Scanning
Restoration
DVD Slideshows
Photo Books
Slideshows

We use dedicated commercial equipment complete with noise reduction and image stabilization when we transfer home movies to DVD. Our process produces exceptional video quality. Digital Pickle can perform professional video editing and DVD authoring to your requirements. We are able to handle high volume video archiving projects and transfer video tapes to DVDs as well as uncompressed video to external hard drives or mini-DVs in AVI, Quicktime Pro-Res, or Quicktime MPEG4 (H.264) video formats.

We Digitize Movie Film – convert film to DVD. We convert 8mm, Super 8mm, and 16mm film using high fidelity digital transfer technology. Our all-digital 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.

We digitize and convert records and transfer to CD any audio cassettes, reel-to-reel audio tapes and DAT and output the digital audio files to high quality audio CDs. We also offer additional track separation and audio cleanup services to reduce noise, hiss, and to normalize audio levels for audio cassette to CD transfer. When we convert records the same service is available.

We scan and digitize photos, slides, and negatives of any format using high-end Kodak HR-500 commercial image scanners that produce unmatched image quality. Our expert digital imaging technicians spend time with each individual frame to ensure ideal exposure, focus, color fidelity, cropping, and orientation. We create files suitable for online photo sharing as well as CDs or DVDs with image files and folders.

We can perform digital retouching on any photo or digital image. Image retouching is performed by our expert technicians manually using Adobe Photoshop. Since photo touch up requirements vary greatly, we quote our work on an hourly basis and most projects take much less than an hour. Photo Editing is often requested to remove or add objects or people to an original image resulting in a very different final image. This work is also quoted on an hourly basis for the same reasons as photo touch up.

Digital Pickle specializes in producing spectacular, flicker-free DVD slide shows with interactive features and your selection of music. The final product is a DVD disc that is compatible with almost all DVD players and can be controlled just like a movie (i.e. pause, fast-forward, etc.). DVD photo slide show, or Slideshow DVD, are also known as: DVD photo album, video slide show, DVD photo slideshow, family slide show, photomontage, wedding photo montage, or digital photo montage. Essentially, a slide to video conversion is what it is about. These all refer to the same great movie that we create out of the compilation of your memories as captured in photos, slides, negatives and even clips of video and film. This product is purchased as an add-on to our image scanning services

Sharing all your digital images on the Internet or on your computer is nice. How about leafing through a glossy full color custom designed digital photo album with pictures that will never fade or discolor? How about sending these albums to family and friends at special occasions to preserve and share the memories? Well, this is what a photo book is all about. Digital Pickle offers you the full capability to unleash your creativity in creating custom designed long lasting beautiful photobooks with complete control over the layout, backgrounds, themes, and cover types.