Are you thinking of converting film to DVD? Are you wondering what you’re going to do with all those old tapes? The good news is that you can put them to good use in your home. Old videotapes are the perfect secret space to hide important things. Perhaps you want to find a safe spot to store precious jewelry. Or, perhaps you have secrets that you need to hide from your family or friends. Either way, you can use those old tapes to keep things safe from prying eyes. So, how do you start to transfer film?
What Will I Need?
First, you’ll need to get together a few simple items in order to capture and convert film:
- Film Projector or film scanning machine
- Powerful computer able to capture each frame in real time
- Software for capturing each film frame
- Software to convert captured film and encode it to DVD format
- Software to burn onto DVD
- Archive quality blank DVDs
- Optional: Printer capable of printing on new DVD
Steps To Convert Film
Basic steps to transfer film to DVD (or other digitial format)
- Start film capture machine, capture computer, and capture software
- Create capture project in capture software
- Load film onto capture machine
- Start capture on both capture machine and capture software
- Optional: clean film as it feeds through capture machine using film cleaning cloth and solution
- Optional: adjust lighting and/or color scene by scene as film plays
- Stop and save caputre when completed
- Use capture software to compile converted film frames into video format
- Utilize video editing software to crop captured film so that frams are clean and blank space is eliminiatd
- Using video editing software, encode the edited film into DVD format (or other digital format)
- Burn DVD or copy video to flash or esternal hard drive
- Using disc labeling software, print appropriate label on printable DVD
Why Convert Film To Digital?
I am most concerned about the possibility of permanent loss of memories captured on 8mm film, 16mm film, and Super 8mm film if it is not transferred to digital. Over time, film degrades from humid storage temparatures, extra dry storage temperatures, and natural decomposition over time. High humidity, especially in warm temperatures, will cause mold to invade film, literally eating away film and ink, destroying the film and its contents. Very dry conditions produce brittle film, making it to brittle to run through capture devices, breaking every few feet or even every few inches. Finally, film is organically based and will simply decompose over time, rendering it visually useless. Unless we digitize film today, we will lose it tomorrow.
In practical terms, very few working projectors exist to play these films, and parts are close to nonexistent to repair them. Soon there will be no projectors at all to play films. When we convert film to DVD or digital, they can be played on TVs or computers through DVD players or bulit in software that plays video files. Other than simply preserving the film’s images, being able to watch them on many devices is the most important reason to digitize film.
Finally, a huge bonus of digitized film is the ability to share that film through email, the cloud, or USB devices. With DVDs, copies can be made and shared, but digitally, videos can be shared worldwide almost instantly.
Convert Film to DVD: Get Started!
- Call or text Jamey: 720 204-5464
- Set an appointment (every project receives my individual attention)
- Drop off your tapes (and records, cassettes, slides, or negatives, too)
- In a week or less, pick up your new digitized film.
