Skip to main content

Transferring Super8 film to HD digital

My parents celebrated their 60th birthday a couple of years ago. 

As a gift, I put together a 40-minute iMovie from all of our home movies. It was a big hit - but it could have been a lot better. ...
 
For starters, I ran out of time. I didn't get to add the narration I'd hoped to. I didn't get to include any "talking-head interviews" at all. 

But the biggest issue was the quality of the video sources I was using. 

My dad got a Super 8 camera soon after I was born in 1975. He filmed our family with that camera until about 1987, at which point we moved to a VHS camcorder. 

We had the Super 8 movies transferred to VHS sometime after that. 

So when I was working on my movie, I was exclusively dealing with VHS transfers. I'd have beautiful HD still photos with "Ken Burns" effects, and then blurry, 480i video. 

I revisited the project a few weeks ago, and I'm ready to take a shot at a second edit - a "Special Edition", so to speak.  

VHS to Digital Transfer

There's not much that we can do about the VHS camcorder footage - if your home movies were recorded in the 1990s through the mid 2000s, there's a good chance that it's going to look like garbage. 

There are only 480 interlaced lines of resolution to work with - in the BEST case scenario. 

I'm getting a high-end JVC SVHS player, in hopes that I can get somewhat better video transfers from the VHS stuff. But that's another post. 

Super 8 to Digital Transfer

THIS is where we can see some real improvement. 

Super 8 film is, obviously, analog. When you convert an analog film frame to digital, it's possible to get a very high-resolution image

We're going to farm this part of the process out to the experts. I don't want to deal with 40 year old film, and I don't want to invest in the hardware to do a transfer.

Based on what I'm seeing, I can get a HD transfer done for around $350.  It may be a bit more than that, but this project is worth it. 

The Video Project

If we're going to invest in the video sources, it makes sense to expand the scope of the project by a little bit. 

Obviously, I need to include the last 3 years. When I first started this project, my oldest son was the only grandchild, he was in kindergarten, and we lived in the city. 

Now, there are 3 grandkids, and a whole lot to catch up on. 

This probably means that I'll be breaking the movie into at least 3 parts, each of which will be a bit shorter - 30 minutes tops. 

It will be fun to add narration and some present-day interviews and reaction shots. 

And I'll post the whole thing on YouTube, so my sister and her family can watch from England!

Comments

  1. You can get even better results using a DVD Infinity scan with enhancement. It takes the detail, colour and contrast from multiple adjacent frames to actually build a frame with more detail. See Film Restoration

    ReplyDelete
  2. 8mm film, Super 8 and 16mm film is rapidly deteriorating and fading fast... Don't let your memories fade away! Have them scanned frame by frame in High Definition to Bluray or DVD before it's too late. 8mm Film Transfer to DVD

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not All AirPort Extremes are Created Equal (UPDATED)

I'm looking for a used AirPort Extreme. In all the usual places - eBay, Craigslist.  I'll probably get one this week. Why? It's a long story.  A while back, I picked up an AirPort Express A1084 router on Craigslist, and found that it was incompatible with my AirPort Utility and wireless-n network, even though it looked *identical* to the current model of AirPort Express.  So, I wrote a post on this blog about the different types of AirPort Express routers, noting that if you're looking for used Airport Express routers to extend your AirPlay network, you'd better seek out model A1264. In the months that followed, Apple updated the AirPort Express again, changing the form factor (it looks like a little white AppleTV now), adding simultaneous dual-band support, and giving it model number A1392.  ASIDE: I'm not totally convinced that the form-factor change was an improvement. The A1264 plugged directly into the wall, which was incr

Review - WOW Ultra TV vs. DirecTV HR34 Genie

Here in the Chicago suburbs, we had two options for whole-home DVR services. We initially went with WOW Ultra TV, and after about 4 months, we switched to DirecTV's HR34 Genie system. (Neither Verizon FIOS nor AT&T UVerse were available in our area, so we can't review those. I haven't used Dish's Hopper, either. This is a straight compare/contrast review of WOW vs. DirecTV.) Both Ultra TV and Genie have their plusses and minuses. Both offer 1080p output, but that's primarily for the menus, as most TV content is provided at lower resolutions.  Both systems have a similar design architecture - a central hub, with multiple tuners and a large hard drive, recording and storing all TV shows, and distributing them to televisions around the house upon request.  Both systems also bring a number of "add-on" apps and have ways of accessing "on demand" content.  We've had each system for enough time to really put them through

Review: NuCore Flooring from Floor & Decor

This NuCore flooring review will also function as a Basement Update: We're finally, officially moving forward on the Phase 2 finish work.