Convert my family films onto dvd or bluray discs

digitalvideo

How can I convert my family films onto dvd or bluray discs? I have some family film reels from the mid 1970's to early 1980's. The film was shot on a movie film reel camera obviously, the film is extremely small, about a half inch wide or a little less.

PrazVT

You'd probably want to get a PCI-E or USB 2.0 video capture card (AverMedia and Pinnacle are two brands that make them). The cards usually come with the capture software - and at the very least, DVD authoring. Whether you can capture film-based video/audio into a natively HD format is a question though - esp if you're using composite rca connections. But that's something to think about too...

Newegg sells a bunch -> here.

digitalvideo

I was thinking about having a professional company do it.

http://www.videoconversionexperts.com/

gdb

Did ours at Costco's photo dept. Very reasonable price.

digitalvideo

gdb wrote: »

Did ours at Costco's photo dept. Very reasonable price.

Was it converted onto a bluray disc at 1080p HD ?

gdb

No but, was the crappy old 8mm film shot in such hi-rez? Nope.:rolleyes:

PrazVT

I don't think referring to any analog video source as hi-res or low-res is even valid. You can scan a photograph using a scanner and specify a really high pixel depth. I don't see why analog video can't be transferred to digital at whatever resolution you want based on the same idea. Or ripping a vinyl track to your computer. The record is whatever it is - it's not hi-res or low-res. But you can damn well rip it as 24/96 FLAC if you want.

How do you think all the old film based movies get transferred to 1080p blu-ray? I'm sure some film formats probably lend themselves better to it ..but it should be possible. Being able to specify the target video format & resolution should be a basic option - assuming the capture software isn't dumbed down too much.

Maybe I'm wrong ..but it sounds doable to me. Hell I may try it w/ one of our 8mm movies.

digitalvideo

I'd love to convert my 8mm film collection to 1080p/24 HD onto a bluray disc if I can, I need to find the right company to do it though.

I know that the company FotoKem Laboratories in California did the remaster to the movie Baraka, they used a automated 8K film scanner and 96 kHz/24 bit audio remaster. They often offer digital film prints at a discounted price for independent and student film makers to support low budget projects. I wonder if they do what I'm looking for?

http://www.fotokem.com/

sk1939

PrazVT wrote: »

I don't think referring to any analog video source as hi-res or low-res is even valid. You can scan a photograph using a scanner and specify a really high pixel depth. I don't see why analog video can't be transferred to digital at whatever resolution you want based on the same idea. Or ripping a vinyl track to your computer. The record is whatever it is - it's not hi-res or low-res. But you can damn well rip it as 24/96 FLAC if you want.

How do you think all the old film based movies get transferred to 1080p blu-ray? I'm sure some film formats probably lend themselves better to it ..but it should be possible. Being able to specify the target video format & resolution should be a basic option - assuming the capture software isn't dumbed down too much.

Maybe I'm wrong ..but it sounds doable to me. Hell I may try it w/ one of our 8mm movies.

You can do it, but it will look like crap. Look at standard definition TV on a HD screen without any zoom or enhancements. That is how it will look, x2, because those old camcorders weren't exactly the best quality. If it was film then it will be excellent because scale wise, film is hundreds of megapixels, and is only limited by the device scanning it at this moment in time.