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Is FilmFabriek aware that their sound scanner has audio problems?


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Hey

what exactly is the point of this?

Can this be kept to a specific area of optical sound and not go all over the place? Its a million posts now.

it seems that there are a few ways to approach optical sound recording.

1. analog semi free run D to A i.e. the subject header.

2. Analog with sync to an encoder so analog data can be correlated to run of the capstan.

3. Digitizing with picture taking imager (AEO)

4. Digitizing with a separate track reading camera.

not to diminish the possibilities of optical analog sound but if wow and flutter can be eliminated 3/4 of these the approaches all seem like they are workable depending on the amount of post work to be done.

 

ymmv

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14 hours ago, Perry Paolantonio said:

I have the thread with you from that conversation which contradicts all that you're saying above. I also have the emails with the client from after I figured out who you were talking about. Amicable is definitely the tone of the communications with the client, which began with a request from him for a new quote, not a complaint. 

You began that PM by telling me "I’ve just had a complaint against your company Perry." (you have no relation to my company so I'm not sure why you're the one they're talking to). He has never once contacted us about a problem. Had he, my first course of action would have been to ask him to send the film back so we could look into it.

Good lord, I'm not responding to this any further. I was simply talking to him collector-to-collector he brought up a negative experience he had and I told him to take his complaint to you. I'm not discussing this client any further, he's now a client with a friend of mine and the matter between you has nothing to do with me.

14 hours ago, Perry Paolantonio said:

We did advise the client, who brought up the idea of scanning one reel to start, then the other as his budget allowed. That was not the first time we've done work like that. We advised him on ways he could reduce the cost without having a detrimental effect on the image quality.

I'm happy to discuss service delivery at length. I don't want to argue with you, I would rather we shift to a positive discussion not an argument. I think you've perhaps lost sight of where my POV on this comes from, your company would look great if I compared it against many others who deliver similar post-production/restoration services. That's where the discussion should be heading, not arguing over tiny/individual matters.

I've heard of complaints with companies that are absolutely outrageous if you want talk about bad service delivery. I heard from a guy last year that sent his magnetic audio film to a company (7x 6" 16mm reels) and asked them to do one reel as a sample, they did the entire lot and sent him a bill for £2.5K (about $3,000). We told him not to pay it, but I think he was too afraid that they wouldn't return his film so he went ahead and I paid it I believe. To be honest I can't remember the exact company off-hand right now, but it doesn't really matter because the point is you've got a LOT of companies out there like that which are doing the wrong thing and giving people bad experiences. People should not be afraid that a company isn't going to return their film!!

You've got companies with their Tobins and Retroscans that have flooded the home-movies transfer market and make it almost impossible for the average punter to find a proper company with a real scanner that's delivering a proper quality service to transfer their memories. Let me state that again, you need to start with a good company that has the proper equipment and delivers that particular service. Plenty of post-production companies for example just don't have the equipment for archival film/home movies, or if they do they choose not to deliver that service and focus only on the clients they want. And even if you get all three right, it then needs to be within what they can afford as well because the price for the same quality service varies wildly depending on where you go. As for the "bad" companies you just look at their websites and social media - they make false and misleading claims about the quality of their services and they're not even shy about it (in America you call it truth in advertising I believe). I've got dozens of examples - Legacy Box, Reel Box, etc etc. That's what I care about. Don't get me wrong those low-end systems have a place in the market, it's just that THAT place is about 10-15 years in the past.

I talked to someone last year who's rescanned his film now I think 4 times and is still not happy - and with good reason. He has unfortunately never found a good company (until now). The reason why it's difficult is because people come in with the wrong assumptions, companies tell them their home movies can't be transferred in better quality, and once someone is given the wrong information it's hard to give them right right information because it's not intuitive to them. That's why I care that they get the right information in the first place. For example - I hear it all the time from people that have been told by the (wrong) home movie companies "I don't think it's worth the extra effort with a better scanner because it's only 8mm and low-quality". That's intuitive, it's what they're told by those companies, but it's not right.

Edited by Dan Baxter
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8 hours ago, Robert Houllahan said:

what exactly is the point of this?

 

Rob's right. This has gone off the rails, and I'm sorry about that. 

After asking him not to contact me privately, Dan keeps doing it so I've blocked him where possible. too many distractions when there's actual work to be done. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I now have a solid answer on the audio, from an audio expert. He said scan any normal geometry film and you'll notice there's always a slight slant or rotation - it's never perfectly flat. For visual restoration this isn't a problem as the film itself wasn't designed with where the pixel grid would land. For audio though it's another matter. For an optical audio track to be read perfectly the film captured must be 100% flat or it degrades the quality. Think about a variable area track - your pixels left-to-right must match exactly or your capture is imperfect. Even a slight slant or rotation leads to degradation in quality. The light source must either be constant or supersonic otherwise it is picked up as noise.

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