How Can I Store and Preserve my Digitized 8mm Films?

Investing the time and money to Convert Film 8mm Film to Digital is not a trivial project, especially if you have chosen a high quality, professional service. Choosing the right way to store digitized film is doubly important and have implications on how they can be used.

What is the Next Format for Video

We have been through several generations of video formats: 8mm film, 16mm film, VHS videotape, VHS-C videotape, Video 8, Hi8, Digital8, DVCam, miniDV, microMV, DVD, mini DVD, and now digital (which includes several different format options).

People have converted 8mm film to VHS and other videotape formats, only to convert them to DVD a few years later, and are now faced with converting them to digital. What can possibly be next? There is good news and bad news. The bad news first: yes, you will have to convert your video again.  The good news: once converted to a digital format, your videos will be convertible via computer programs very quickly at very low cost if not free in the future. Whatever format is next will be closely related to today’s digital formats making it a radically more simple conversion than from videotape today. The ‘conversion’ may actually be transparent, meaning that it will happen real time as you watch the video without even knowing it.

Sharing Digitized 8mm Film

The #2 reason for digitizing 8mm film is to share it with other people. Family and friends want to see it, too. The #1 reason, of course, is just so that you can see it again yourself. The whole mindset of sharing any type of video has to shift in order to take advantage of the digitizing process.

If you choose the 8mm film to DVD conversion option, sharing requires physically giving the DVD or a copy of it to all interested people. This can either be tedious by sharing one copy that is passed from person to person over time or expensive when a copy is made for everybody to have their own copy.

While simpler to share a single USB with people, who each make a copy onto their computer before copying it to the next friend’s computer. Again, a copy can be easily made of the USB (or external hard drive) and given to all parties.

The real sharing power of digital files is truly unleashed when combined with cloud services. The cloud is much less mysterious than it sounds and can be best understood as an online disk drive with files and folders. Whichever cloud services that you use and regardless of how it is marketed, this simple idea is the foundation.

Once a file is digitized, it can be saved on any one of many cloud services like Dropbox, OneDrive, YouTube, etc. Once saved on the cloud, it can be shared via the internet using email with as many people as you desire anywhere in the world.  

Safely Storing Converted 8mm Files

While this is the #3 reason given for transferring 8mm film to digital, it is still crucial. Again, the time and investment to convert film is not trivial. While the film could be converted again, eventually it will deteriorate to the point where it cannot. By definition, each time the film is viewed, it will deteriorate and wear out just a little bit more.

DVDs are a good method for archiving digital files. The drawback is that as DVDs lose popularity, at some point there will not be any more DVD players, just like VHS players are no longer manufactured. Moreover, DVDs can become damaged and they will deteriorate over time.

Hard drives and USBs are a better choice for long-term storage of digital media. Yes, drives can themselves become damaged so if this choice is used, be sure to make multiple copies of the files on multiple devices, like 2 external hard drives. The risk is that computer and other connections change from USB to USB-C for example. Adapters can be used for a while, but eventually support for old technology gets discontinued, by some manufacturers more than others.

The best long-term option for safeguarding digital videos, just like sharing, is the cloud. There are many versions of the cloud, the best option being one that synchronizes changes to a local hard drive with files and folders on the cloud. Using this method, digital video is always available on your local drive, with a copy on the cloud in case the computer fails or is destroyed, and sharing with others is simple and easy. An additional benefit is that most cloud services also make regular backups of its own discs, maintains several versions of each file for recovery of mistakes, and upgrade their drives and computers much better than the average consumer.

How can I store and preserve my digitized 8mm films?:  Next Steps

1. Call or text Jamey (About Jamey) at 720 204-5464.
2. Set an appointment (every project receives my individual attention).
3. Drop off your tapes (and records, cassettes, slides, or negatives, too). Check Pricing!

In a week or less, pick up your new digital conversions.