dvd transfer, who has the best bang for the buck?

James Steven Beverly · May 17, 2006

A friend of mine want's to transfer a bunch of super 8 to DVD, who does good work at a low price?

Prem Edpuganti · May 17, 2006

I am not sure who, Captain. But if your friend is looking for good price, he/she may wants to do it himself/herself. About 15 years ago I transferred my Super 8 movies to VHS tape using my Sankyo projector, a gismo by Gold Beam to focus the image on to CCD, and my camcorder. Considering it was analog, quality was decent enough for the times. But now I am thinking of hauling out the stuff again from my garage, and do it this time on digital. From there on, it is straight shot to DVD. Of course, your friend should be able to find a projector and the gismo to do it. The added advantage of doing it yourself is being able to edit, add titles, comments, voice overs etc.

Alessandro Machi · May 17, 2006

I am not sure who, Captain. But if your friend is looking for good price, he/she may wants to do it himself/herself. About 15 years ago I transferred my Super 8 movies to VHS tape using my Sankyo projector, a gismo by Gold Beam to focus the image on to CCD, and my camcorder. Considering it was analog, quality was decent enough for the times. But now I am thinking of hauling out the stuff again from my garage, and do it this time on digital. From there on, it is straight shot to DVD. Of course, your friend should be able to find a projector and the gismo to do it. The added advantage of doing it yourself is being able to edit, add titles, comments, voice overs etc.

The best transfer is the one that goes to digital tape (or betacam sp) first and then makes a dvd from the tape master.

I'm not directly picking on the person who wrote the above comment as their message was meant to be helpful, but it is also counterproductive as well and they probably didn't even realize how.

I feel it is an unfortunate thing that every super-8 film transfer to video/dvd question has to turn into a "do it yourself" suggestion. Do it yourself if you want, but if someone asks about professional transfer options, lets just stick to that in our answers. This forum and the two super-8 magazines currently on the market rely on advertising dollars from the very same advertisers that would appreciate a referral to their own film to video transfer services, especially when a question directly asks about their services.

We become very self serving if we embrace this Super-8 forum and the two Super-8 filmmaking magazines currently out, but then slap the face of those who paid to advertise their film transfer services in these magazines or on this forum by never giving them a referral.

The advertisersr paid ads help to support this forum and super-8 magazines we like to read but if the readers never advocate anyone use their transfer services when some one has asked about them we break the chain of cooperation.

I doubt anyone purposely means malice towards the super-8 film to video transfer business but everytime we advocate "do it yourself" when the topic thread doesn't even ask about do it yourself we are accidentally being unhelpful when they help us by supporting this forum and the two Super-8 magazines.

Freya Black · May 17, 2006

A friend of mine want's to transfer a bunch of super 8 to DVD, who does good work at a low price?

These replies are a bit weird. Obviously you can get a projector and a nice piece of white paper and do a ghetto transfer.

However if you are looking for a high quality transfer than flying spot in seattle are friendly and have a talented colourist, not to mention a very high quality philips shadow datacine. But perhaps that is not a low price. Low price is kind of vague.

There is a company in Hamburg Germany that is apparently very cheap and does reasonable quality transfers. They probably do them direct to DVD too, although as someone has suggested here already, it's probably best to transfer to Mini-DV first.

There is another american company with a rank that are supposed to do good quality transfers and might be a happy medium between the two, but right now I can't remember what they are called and I have to rush out of the house. Maybe I let you know later.

There are also the people out there with workprinters too.

http://www.moviestuff.tv

In fact even moviestuff themselves do transfers.

love

Freya

Edited May 17, 2006 by Freya

David W Scott · May 17, 2006

Here's a good list to get you started:

The prices will vary wildly across these vendors -- but you can find a reasonable price for any kind of transfer (Rank Cintel, WorkPrinter, or old-school film chain).

Good luck,

Dave

Mike Crane · May 17, 2006

Yet another very good place with some of the best rank transfers I have seen. They can also transfer regular 8 and super 8 sound film with their V3 gate:

Spectra

Freya Black · May 17, 2006

Ah yes! It was cine post I was thinking of earlier, but I've heard people say nice things about spectra too. :)

I hope you find somewhere with the right kind of compromise for your friend. :)

love

Freya

Brian Rose · May 17, 2006

I use cinelab for all my processing and telecine, and I can say that their transfers are excellent. Even a one-light no frills transfer is of exceptional quality. The price is good too. Go with them!

Best,

Brian Rose

Clive Tobin · May 17, 2006

Here's a good list to get you started: ...

You forgot us:

http://www.tobincinemasystems.com

We do far better than average consumer home movie to MiniDV/DVD transfers. We also make transfer machines that are in use by many facilities worldwide, which is actually our main business.

David W Scott · May 18, 2006

You forgot us:

http://www.tobincinemasystems.com

We do far better than average consumer home movie to MiniDV/DVD transfers. We also make transfer machines that are in use by many facilities worldwide, which is actually our main business.

Sorry Clive, I should have known better. I think of you and Roger as manufacturers, and put MovieStuff in the list because Freya reminded me otherwise.

Any other neglected services? I'd like to have a good list to share with folks.

David W Scott · May 18, 2006

Clive, are you able to provide negative transfers? Or are you working on it?

Seems like Rank isn't the only game in town for neg. I've seen good neg transfers from a film chain and a Sniper.

Dave

Clive Tobin · May 18, 2006

Clive, are you able to provide negative transfers? Or are you working on it?...

We don't currently claim to offer negative transfers.

On the TVT machines we are currently making, we are currently setting the gamma on the camera module to what we think is the correct value for a negative original, when switched to Negative. But that is as far as we have gone.

If and when we get caught up on our normal orders this is something we may play with. I think the G and K versions of the TVT have enough light to offset the cyan-blue filter that will be needed to neutralize the orange mask.

As mentioned before, running negative is opening a whole new can of worms in terms of film and facility cleanliness to avoid white dirt in the transfer.