Low Cost Film Transfer by MyMovieTransfer.com

MyMovieTransfer.com is proud to introduce
a new lower cost film transfer service!

While the quality of this film transfer is lower than
our standard full-service transfers, we believe that
the image quality is still better than the vast majority
of film transfers at this price point. Take a look at
the full-resolution examples on the right.

For many people, this new service will provide good quality
transfers at a much lower total cost. If you're looking for
higher quality images in your 8mm, Super 8 or 16mm film
transfer, click here to see our full range of film transfer options.

Please review the chart below to see
if the low cost transfer is right for you.

Film is scanned at high speed, 30 frames per second. There is ZERO blur, loss of sharpness or flicker in this process. Individual film grain is still visable!

The scan is recorded to the MiniDV master tape, DVD and or portable hard drive at 30 frames per second as well. Purchasing the MiniDV master tape is required for low-cost transfers.

When viewing your film on your DVD player or computer, just push "play" then press "slow". Your DVD player will now play back your film transfer at 15 frames per second. This will be very close to the original film speed. In some cases, the playback may be slightly slower than the original film. For more information on adjusting playback speed, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

When viewing your film on your portable hard drive you can adjust the playback speed to exactly the correct speed using quicktime or almost any video playback program. For more information on adjusting playback speed, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Files on the hard drive or MiniDV tape can be loaded into an editing program and adjusted to nearly any speed that you desire.

We do not add extra frames or a pulldown to the film transfer.

The transfer has a "progressive scan" look and feel even though ALL standard defintion video is interlaced.

Film that is warped, badly deteriorated, or severely corroded is not eligible for the low-cost transfer.

After the initial one-light setup, we do not manipulate the film content in any way in low-cost transfers. Blank sections of film will not be removed. A frame line may be visable occasionally on the top or bottom of the image depending on the consistancy of the customer's film.

MiniDV Tapes/DVDs will be filled to capacity or until all film is transferred.

Custom-content DVDs will not be provided. Sequences provided by the client will be honored, but only if they do not mix film formats (all Regular 8mm together, all Super 8mm together, all 16mm together).

To order a low-cost transfer, use the low-cost order form.

The following instructions are for Sony Vegas Pro, a common editing program. If you are using a different editing program, we recommend searching your software's help guide for "frame rate" or "playback speed" to find instructions specific to your program.

1. Open Sony Vegas

2. Connect camera (or DV deck) to your computer and turn it on

3. Place transfer tape in camera (DV deck)

4. From the "File" menu, select "Capture Video"

5. Make sure "DV" is the selected video capture format

6. When the dialog box appears, type in the name of the clip to be captured and click "OK"

7. Click the "Capture Video" button

8. Once the video is finished capturing, click "Done" on the dialog box

9. The captured clip will now appear in the "Project Media" tab. Click and drag it into the timeline.

10. Right-click on the video clip in the timeline and select "Properties..."

11. It is recommended that "Smart Resample" is selected in the dialog box that appears

12. Your captured video clip is at 29.97 frames per second (fps). In order to slow it down to the appropriate frame rate, you must adjust the playback rate to a percentage of 29.97 fps. To do this, you simply divide your film's original frame rate by 29.97. For example, if the original frame rate of your film is 16 fps, you would divide 16 by 29.97 to get a playback rate of 0.534. In other words, 16 fps is 53.4% of 29.97 fps, so the computer will play your video at 53.4% speed. We recommend that you use 16 fps (.534) for Regular 8mm and 18 fps (.601) for Super 8mm, but these can vary. 16mm can be shot anywhere from 16 fps to 24 fps (.801), and older film is likely to be at a slower frame rate.

13. When ready to output your video, select "Render As..." from the "File" menu

14. Select the "Custom..." button on the right side of the dialog box

15. Click on the "Video" tab at the bottom of the dialog box

16. Click on the "Video Format" drop-menu and select "DV/DVCPRO - NTSC"

17. Below that, drag the "Quality" slider to "High, 100%"

18. Click "OK"

19. Select a location for video output and click "Save"

Full-resolution Regular 8mm sample frames captured from a Low Cost Film Transfer MiniDV tape

Regular 8mm Film from the 1980s

Regular 8mm Film from the 1950s

Looking for higher quality images? Click Here

...in Sony Vegas Pro

How to Adjust the Playback Speed of Your Low-Cost Transfer...

...in your DVD Player

1. Insert your transfer DVD into your player.

2. Press the "Enter" or "Play" button on your remote. Playback will begin at normal speed (30 frames per second).

3. Press the "Slow" button on your remote. Playback will slow to half-speed (15 frames per second).

1. Open Windows Media Player.

2. Insert your transfer DVD into your computer's DVD drive and wait a moment for it to load.

3. When the menu appears, click on the color bars thumbnail labled "TITLE 01" to begin playback.

From here, there are two options. To simply watch your DVD at half-speed (15 frames per second), press the Control, Shift and S keys on your keyboard all at the same time. Or, to adjust the playback speed more accurately, follow steps 4 through 8:

4. Click on "View" in the menu bar at the top left of the window. If it is not visible, right-click at the bottom of the window where the words "Playing" and Title 1, Chapter 1" are alternating and select "View."

5. Select "Enhancements."

6. Select "Play Speed Settings."

7. In the window that appears, drag the marker along the line to adjust playback speed. The line marked "1.0" is 30 frames per second, and the other numbers represent multiples of that speed. For example, "0.5" would be half speed, or 15 frames per second.

8. When you have found the appropriate speed, you can close the Play Speed Settings window by clicking the "X" in its upper right corner.

...in Windows Media Player

Regular 8mm Film from the 1980s

Regular 8mm Film from the 1950s

Regular 8mm Film from the 1980s

Looking for higher quality images? Click Here

Larry H., Cottonwood, AZ 26 June 2009

I'm a long time commercial photographer and
more recently a documentary videographer.
Got my film transfer and viewed it last night.
Great color saturation. Overall very good
except for some of the daylight snow scenes,
which washed out pretty badly. I understand
the problem of transfer and extended contrast
range, though. Most of the snow scenes in
overcast light were fine.

I do VHS transfers to DVD as part of my video
business, and from now on I'll refer all the 8mm
film transfers to you. I had previously gone to
two other transfer companies and neither of
them came close to your quality of reproduction.
I have more personal film from the 50's which I'll
be sending your way.