Super 8 conversion to DVD
Super 8 conversion to DVD
I am currently trying to convert my families Super 8 home movies to DVD and have had limited success. To begin with I thought I would just pay to have a professional do the work for me. I started by getting DVD Transfer in Adelaide city to do one, 3 minute tape first. I got it back and was very disappoint as he told me the film had degraded very badly and the footage was very purple. I decided to get my Super 8 projector working so I could see the quality of the rest before paying the $3,500 to convert the other 20 I had.
After getting the projector fixed I played the tape and was surprised at how clear it was. Here is a side by side comparison of what DVD transfer gave me and a simple “Cam” job by me, against the wall.
As you can see they are very different. For starters mine has more in the frame and is no where near as dark and purple. By the way, the picture that is projected on my home wall is much, much better that what I can show here. DVD Transfer is apparently using a state of the art scanning system but my handy cam is doing a better job???
I decided to give another company a go and went to Hut street photo. Below is the results.
Again my handy cam is doing a better job. I talked to the manager about the process and he explained they had an excellent system where the Super 8 tape is projected in to a special prism and re captured and saved on to a DVD.
After a lengthy discussion and more probing this is actually what happens.
Light is projected though the super 8 film in to a glass prism.
A camera is pointed at the other side of the prism and the footage is captured and encoded down to a VHS tap.
A 6 head VHS recorder reads the VHS tape and converts it in to a composite signal that is captured by a video capture card on a computer and saved in the most lossless format possible. (RAW ish) . This file is then converted into DVD format.
I'm sticking with my handy cam until someone gives me better results.
I am currently trying to convert my families Super 8 home movies to DVD and have had limited success. To begin with I thought I would just pay to have a professional do the work for me. I started by getting DVD Transfer in Adelaide city to do one, 3 minute tape first. I got it back and was very disappoint as he told me the film had degraded very badly and the footage was very purple. I decided to get my Super 8 projector working so I could see the quality of the rest before paying the $3,500 to convert the other 20 I had.
After getting the projector fixed I played the tape and was surprised at how clear it was. Here is a side by side comparison of what DVD transfer gave me and a simple “Cam” job by me, against the wall.
 |
As you can see they are very different. For starters mine has more in the frame and is no where near as dark and purple. By the way, the picture that is projected on my home wall is much, much better that what I can show here. DVD Transfer is apparently using a state of the art scanning system but my handy cam is doing a better job???
I decided to give another company a go and went to Hut street photo. Below is the results.
 |
Again my handy cam is doing a better job. I talked to the manager about the process and he explained they had an excellent system where the Super 8 tape is projected in to a special prism and re captured and saved on to a DVD.
After a lengthy discussion and more probing this is actually what happens.
Light is projected though the super 8 film in to a glass prism.
A camera is pointed at the other side of the prism and the footage is captured and encoded down to a VHS tap.
A 6 head VHS recorder reads the VHS tape and converts it in to a composite signal that is captured by a video capture card on a computer and saved in the most lossless format possible. (RAW ish) . This file is then converted into DVD format.
I'm sticking with my handy cam until someone gives me better results.
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