HomeDVD frame by frame film transfer to DVD

Frame by Frame SD Film Transfer

Archival Film Conversions to DVD or hard drives

Our premium frame by frame telecine system offers excellent film to video conversion, full frame edge to edge capture, clean, crisp, rock solid registration, no hot spots and guaranteed flicker-free results, rivaling Hollywood sanctioned Rank systems but at a significantly lower cost.

HomeDVD’s high quality movie film to DVD transfer process offers new life to your old home movie collection, whether you have amateur or professional 8mm films, Super 8mm films or 16mm movie film formats to be converted to DVD. Once digitized and transferred to DVD, your rejuvenated family films would be fun and easy to watch right in the comfort of your living room.

Calibrated to broadcast standards, your digitally converted movie films are adjusted to bring out the best possible color richness and contrast levels for which film is known, while keeping any apparent film grain aspects to a minimum. Blacks are deep and whites are crisp, all without creating hotspots and not losing any of the existing image detail at the same time. Our process attempts to keep the true character of the home movie itself and that is what makes it so great to watch.

Film transfer preparation

All of your film footage will be examined and repaired prior to transfer
Free removal of severely over and under-exposed film
Free removal of undeveloped film lengths
Free removal of very damaged film—stripped sprockets, tears, permanently creased film
Free removal of very poor quality film frames—unrecognizable images, severe exposure flares
Free assembly of all repairable film—loose sequences, intra film joining
Free film re-orientation, running backwards, mirrored, or running upside down film segments
Free fresh leader attached where needed and intra reel leader added for easy demarcation
Free luminance balance to broadcast IRE levels for high contrast and image detail recovery
Thorough cleaning of your films for pliability recovery and image enhancement or…
Soaking of your films if necessary in special solution to rejuvenate seized, brittle or dry films
All original film reels cases and boxes are returned with your order
Free repackaging of smaller reels onto larger reels with cases with documentation recovery

Our goal is to provide continuous watchable video when the film to DVD conversion process has been completed.

Special film restorative services

Effects of aging, results of poor lab work, poor storage environments and film abuse (tears, scratches) may be present in the films that are transferred. These visual anomalies are kept as they are presented. However, we can offer restoration services to minimize or outright eliminate most of these film anomalies using sophisticated software tools, without affecting the original underlying image quality. If this is of interest, please give us a call for pricing and more details.

Benefits of our film to video telecine method

Guaranteed no flicker—just smooth video sequences upon playback on your TV
No intentionally induced hot spots—preserve image detail even in bright white* sequences
Maintaining deep blacks without loosing subtle image detail*
Edge-to-edge film frame performance producing 20% or more film frame area
No hot bulbs ensuring film safety, just cool low power white-balanced LED light source
Evenly distributed light illuminated over each film frame
No intentionally induced gradients or over-exposed areas
Manual color and density correction using calibrated video instrumentation
Full color space and luminance adjustment*
Incredibly sharp and crisp* image reproduction
Overall net result is amazing image detail, rich colors and increased image depth
The film to video conversion method of choice by film transfer professionals

* assumes original film has sufficient detail and contrast levels to process, is not already over or underexposed or has focus problems.

Our frame by frame film to video conversion system or telecine method scans each film frame one at a time. The special projector, having no spinning shutter and an enlarged gate, ensures that no annoying flicker is produced and that 20% or more image area of each film frame is exposed for capture yielding 100% edge to edge film frame capture.

The use of a white balanced cool LED light source instead of a hot bulb guarantees not only the safety of your films but greater control of how light is distributed over the entire film frame while the capture process is underway. No intentional unsightly blooming, color shifts and mixing, edge softening and loss of focus. The result is nothing short of amazing: incredible image detail, full frame, excellent color rendition and sharp clear video sequences. Great 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm film conversions of your home movies to DVD as you would expect from a professional film to DVD transfer bureau.

Our home movie to DVD transfer services has never been so complete and so affordable.

Below on the left is an example of a fairly old 8mm film frame (1950′s) of average quality, captured using the best of a low cost real-time telecine technique (lens and mirror transfer box or older direct film to composite video projector like an ELMO TRV). What is not apparent is the flicker as this a motion artifact. The frame on the right is captured using our frame by frame telecine system—an all digital, high resolution 3CCD imaging system, producing exceptional sharpness and color reproduction.

The Best of Others	HomeDVD Film Transfers

Cheaper forms of telecine usually have problems with flicker, image cropping, poor color, poor focus, blooming, hotspots and have that general washed look—no depth. Costs are low, but so is the quality.	The frame by frame film transfer to DVD process used by HomeDVD and other professional media transfer studios do not exhibit any of these shortcomings. Outstanding quality at an affordable price.

HomeDVD transfers of your home movie film reels offer complete flicker elimination, richer colors, crisper images and recovery of up to 20% of each film frame, producing a greater field of view per frame.

Supported Home Movie Film Formats

8mm movie film (silent or magnetic sound stripe)
Super 8mm movie film (silent, magnetic or optical sound stripe—mono, stereo, duo)
16mm movie film (silent, optical or magnetic sound stripe—mono only)

How much it costs

	50 feet Approx 3min	To transfer your 8mm home movies to DVD, we charge $0.25 per foot of film. Free cleaning, repair, editing and fresh leader. Volume discounts apply—call for details.
	200 Feet Approx 12min	Easily calculate the total number of feet you have by using the reel charts shown to the left. Multiply that total number of feet by $0.25.If your total footage submitted is less than 300 feet, the minimum charge is $75.00.
	400 Feet Approx 25–30min	Films with magnetic or optical sound stripe and requested color correction are extra.

Available options

Color and density Correction

add $0.10 / foot

Removal of color casts and general color recovery. Correction applies to entire film sequence. This option is highly recommended for older 8mm and some 16mm film stock. Super 8mm film may need attention.

Free luminance adjustment to proper broadcast IRE light and dark levels to help bring out any image detail and improve contrast levels. This adjustment is included in the transfer cost.

Film restoration services for grain and scratch reduction/removal—please inquire.

TV Playable DVD’s on Gold

add $7.00 / disc

Instead of using standard DVD-R discs, your DVD playable movies can be recorded onto Archival Gold DVD’s. These discs are the latest in archival grade media and use 24 karat gold as the reflective layer, offering maximum resistance to chemical breakdown—one of the major causes of disc failure.

Masters on Gold

add $10/disk

The master version of your movie film can be recorded to Archival Gold disc(s) and be included with your final TV playable DVD(s). The files stored on these discs are a high quality archive of your home movie films. They can also be used as high-resolution DV source material ready for editing. Archival Gold discs are the latest in archival quality media and use 24 karat gold as the reflective layer, offering maximum resistance to chemical breakdown—one of the major causes of disc failure.

Masters on Hard Disk

no extra charge

Your DV film masters can be transferred to a hard disk (in Windows or Mac DV format). These DV files can be used as video source material ready for editing in your NLE of choice.

Masters on MiniDV tape

add $0.06 / foot

Your DV based film masters can be transferred to MiniDV digital tapes. The MiniDV tape contents can be used as video source material ready for editing (already Windows or Mac friendly).

Audio tracks

add $0.02 per foot

Quality royalty-free music will play throughout your entire movie. There will be no synchronization or editing of the audio tracks to the film sequences. Each track will play to its end, followed by the next track until all of the film has played. No commercial copyrighted material will be used or accepted.

Film Audio Synchro

add $0.12 / foot

The frame by frame process is non real-time, and as such any audio track encoded on the film strip cannot be captured at that time. To retrieve the audio, we must capture the movie film reel again, though this time in real-time, and manually re-synchronize the frame-by-frame video with the captured audio.

We support regular 8mm magnetic sound, Super 8 magnetic sound, and 16mm optical sound.

Extra Copies

add $9.95 / disc

Each extra copy is fully packaged just like the one included with your order. If you would prefer to have the copies burned onto Archival Gold DVD-R discs rather than standard DVD-R discs, add another $7.00 per disc.

PAL Output

add $0.03 / foot

We can transcode your digitized home movie film files into PAL format for an additional $0.03 per foot. Any files generated thereafter will retain their PAL format (such as MPEG2 for DVD).

Do not include DVD

subtract $0.02 per foot

This option is for those who are not interested in a TV playable DVD version of their videos. There will be no TV playable DVD provided.

Mac DV format

add $0.02 per foot

We can transcode your digitized home movie film files into Mac QuickTime MOV format for an additional $0.02 per foot

How long it takes

An initial baseline of three (3) weeks applies to all movie film orders of 1200 feet or less. Typically add one week for each additional 1200 feet, but can be less in time. The actual delivery date can be narrowed down when we have discussed your order in more detail. For rush orders (7 working days or less), expect a 25% surcharge on the value of the entire order.

What you get from your film transfer

Professional Artwork and Packaging

Our authoring and publishing system automatically extracts 20 images at equally spaced time intervals from your transferred films and publishes them directly onto the top surface of a hi-gloss photographic quality DVD disc. Likewise, these same pictures appear in your DVD menu (numbered correspondingly as chapter points) so you can easily choose the scene you would like to view using your DVD remote control.

Your DVD’s will be packaged in professional archival grade media cases.


Disc Surface	DVD Menu

Satisfaction Guarantee

Our ultimate goal is to make sure that you’re happy with your home movie transfer—making sure that you don’t lose precious memories to the normal decay of film.

If you have problems with your DVD’s, we will make every attempt to resolve them. Simply send us your DVD’s with a note explaining the problem. If it has been determined that the problem originates with HomeDVD, we will do our utmost to resolve it at no charge to you (we’ll also pay for shipping).

Just $0.25/ft - Archival Film Transfer to DVD Services

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