8mm Movie Preservation of your Home Movies by Film Transfer

Because we use memories3 technology, the transfer process does not damage 8mm, 16mm, and super 8 film and you will receive your originals back with your new DVD. Almost 99% of film can be transferred, regardless of age.

"I recently had 19 reels converted from Super 8mm film to DVD and miniDV tapes. The price was very fair, and less than most of the other services I researched. The ultimate quality was terrific and, most important, the service level provided by your people was outstanding... I am recommending your company to everyone I know with a need to do film to digital conversion."

Herb

We can tell you about the benefits of our elite online preview and editing, our money back guarantee and our great staff of video professionals, but we realize that our customers know us best. We have listed some of our customer testimonials. Typically we are rated highest for our level of professionalism, the quality of our 8mm to dvd process, and the personal touch throughout the film transfer process. Once an order is in our facility, it is usually processed within 48-72 hours. This time grows significantly when we are written up in major publications such as the articles in The New York Times and Parade Magazine or around Christmas time (rush service is available).

Our technology guarantees the most exact transfer of your movies so that no color, light, or speed is compromised in the transfer process. Of course, if you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can return the product for a full refund. When considering an 8mm movie transfer we realize you want to know exactly what happens to your home movies. We are proud to offer a detailed explanation of our process and think that you should be fully acquainted and comfortable with how we transfer 8mm and super 8mm film to video and DVD. Read the detailed explanation of our memories 3 technology for film to video transfer.

When you order, you have the option to be involved as much as you would like. To make the ordering process easy, here's a break down of the packages that we offer.

Our Basic DVD is the simplest way to get your home-movie films into a user friendly format. Simply send us those reels of 8mm, 16mm or super 8 film and we'll send you a DVD that's ready to play in your home DVD player. You'll never have to worry about setting up a film projector and a home movie screen to enjoy your memories. We'll transfer your film using our unique digital film transfer to ensure that the quality of your film is completely maintained. With your basic order you'll receive

Once your order is transferred, you'll be given free access to our online editing tools for 30 days. Using these tools, you can customize and order a completely new DVD by

Once you have your customized DVD looking the way that you would like it, you can order additional customized copies from the online editor! Calculate your price and order here!

Our Digital Tape grants you the flexibility to incorporate your own expertise in film editing with our superb film conversion process to customize your home movie DVD. You can choose to have your transfer on a miniDV or a Digital8, depending on your own editing equipment. You'll get all of the film to video transfer benefits outlined in the Basic Package, but receive a higher resolution video. Start having fun with your memories and get involved in the transfer process! Estimate your price and place your order here!

The final option is to have your films transferred to an external USB 2.0 hard drive, NTFS formatted. They are the best media for home editing because the files can quickly be dumped onto your home hard drive! Standard and Frame by Frame Film customers will receive MPEG2 and DV files from their transfer. Premium transfer customers will receive the DVD MPEG2 and the HD MPEG2 files. To read more about the Hard Drives, please visit www.HomeMovieDepot.com/vhsdvd/homemovie_harddrives.php

Your film is cleaned and splices are repaired if necessary. We usually find regular 8 and super 8mm home movie film to be in good condition. Three inch film reels may be spliced on to larger reels with leader material left on to separate individual movies.

A trained operator uses our own custom engineered telecine equipment which passes the light image of the movie film directly into a professional video camera, hence the term "film to video". A single high quality photographic lens is used on our projectors. No screen or frosted glass is used in the conversion (such as the consumer film to video box from the 1970's). The entire frame of film is visible during the conversion. The standard film gate of an 8mm or super 8mm film projector would cut out some of the image, but our capture extends to the edge of the sprocket holes. Our cameras are professional 3CCD cameras from the Sony DXC series. This setup is optimized for recording very small images such as 8mm film frames. We do not use the Elmo Transvideo telecine projector or Goko telecine projectors designed over 20 years ago, which are unfortunately still used by some in film to video transfer. Likewise, we do not use DV camcorders. Our DXC camera with 1,140,000 pixels offers 40% higher resolution than any MiniDV or DV camcorder. We are capable of focusing on the individual grains of film which makeup each frame. Because the grains of film are visible we can know that the resolution of the transfer is limited only by the film itself and not the camera or transfer process. Your picture will be the absolute best as the film allows it to be. View some samples from our film to video transfer process.

The projected light image is separated into the three primary colors and digitally processed. The DXC cameras have large 1/2" CCD's and unique PowerHad technology which help with low light situations and great colors. An auto white tracing feature constantly adjusts and corrects many blue and red color shifts. For example, if your teeth and the clouds and everything else that should be white are actually blue from a color shift the digital processor in the camera adjusts these back to white and removes the excess blue from the rest of the 8mm film frame as much as possible. The results are outstanding for many 8mm film movies which were improperly exposed or super 8mm film which often has blue and red color shifts. Of course, there are limitations to this technology (extreme color shifts may be impossible to correct) but such attempts at improving your movies are a must.

An operator constantly monitors and adjusts during the film to video transfer. Each frame of film is saved as a frame of digital video. During this process the frame rate of the 8mm movie is adjusted and synchronized so it can be displayed with no flicker. The cameras digital processor adjusts the colors, taking out the human guesswork and delayed reaction to constant changes. The operator is able to adjust the amount of light required to optimize your movie depending on its exposure level. Relying solely on a camera iris for exposure adjustments is insufficient, we are actually adjusting the amount of light used in the film transfer process. The many adjustments we are able to make during the transfer is unique to Home Movie Depot and is much more sophisticated than simple brightness control.

To transfer 8mm to DVD directly clean video signals (all of the original high quality) are sent to various recording devices simultaneously. Super 8mm sound film is transferred with the original soundtrack. We convert 8mm to the same MPEG2 format used to record Hollywood movies to DVD. We use high-grade DVD media and print your customized title directly on the DVD. Your movies are never double compressed such as the conversion of 8mm film to DV (digital tape) and then to DVD. Of course we never transfer 8mm film or Super 8mm film to VHS and then use the VHS to make a DVD.

For Mini-DV and Digital8 film conversion orders we capture to digital tape and our servers hard drive simultaneously. Digital tape transfers are the raw digital master of the movie film and do not have editing in the final cut like our film transfer to DVD and VHS.

VHS and other analog tapes are acceptable for viewing but their resolution is far lower than DVD or Mini-DV. Using VHS for a master tape is not recommended unless no other source is available. Many customers have sent us 8mm and super8 film originals that they had previously transferred to VHS and were amazed at the difference of our transfer to DVD. We do have more information available on our 8mm to vhs transfer page.

8mm Film and Super 8mm Film Transfer To DVD