I have been looking around for this, without much luck.
I have a bunch of old Super 8 video reels. I want them converted to files so I can edit them and eventually burn them to a DVD.
I have been searching, but all I can see are methods to get them to tape format, some involving very elaborate Rube Goldberg contraptions.
Is there a straightforward, affordable device that can do this? Failing that, is there a reputable company that can do this for me?
You need to convert from optical to tape format so the rube goldber devices you’ve seen are a necessity. It’s pretty much projecting the film so a video camera can capture it. If you use a digital video camera then there is one less conversion step. Next capture it to a PC with a firewire card to an AVI file.
i jest had this done… many camera shops will provide this service for a resonable fee… the one i went to even burned it to DVD for me.
The phrase “Super 8 video reels” is confusing.
Do you mean Super 8 film (i.e. analog, optical, hold-it-up-to-the-light-and-see-the-little-pictures)? If so, your best option is almost certainly to find a lab or service that will convert it for you. If you have a projector and a camera, you may think you could try doing it yourself, but the results will be less than ideal, because of the difference in frame rates between film and video. The service you hire will have equipment that overcomes this problem, and they should be able to provide you whatever format you want.
If what you have is Video 8 tapes, which come in the form of cassettes (not reels), you could do what I did: playback the videos straight to a DVD recorder. You can then work with them in your computer to your heart’s content.
No DVD recorder? If you have a good video card in your computer, you should be able to record them straight onto your hard disk, but here my personal expertise ends. Someone else will probably be along to explain that process.
But first, please clarify what your source material actually is, film or video.
Sorry, I thought “Super 8” was clear enough, but they are spools of 8mm color film.
Some things only confuse an expert, I guess: I thought you were talking about 8mm color film as well.
So, there isn’t any special-purpose device that has essentially a light bulb and a CCD opposite each other, with the film spooled between at an acceptable rate? Or is that what the labs use, and it’s simply too expensive to expect a layman to buy it?
To transcribe super-8 film to video, you need a “telecine transfer device”. The one I’ve seen is essentially a camcorder pointed at a screen where the film is rear-projected, but I believe there are issues of frame rate and synchronisation that make it Not-Simple to do.
Here is a workshop on transferring super-8mm and 16mm film to Mini-DV video.
Have it done by professionals. I’ve used these guys before and was very happy with the results. The basic fee is $2 per reel (setup) plus 10 cents per foot of film. They even have an online editor for you to edit your movies!
http://www.homemoviedepot.com/film/8mm/transfer.php
You will get a burned DVD in the -R format, so make sure your DVD player supports -R burned disks. If you need the +R format, call them first to see if they do it now. When I used them, it was -R and that is what my player prefers so it wasn’t an issue.
If you want to look for people in your area, I suggest googling with “super 8 conversion dvd” and add your city name. The technical term is telecine but searching with that will usually bring up too many broadcast pros that are not setup for the home market.
“Super 8” alone would have been clear enough, but when you called it “video” you mixed apples and oranges. But this kind of confusion was inevitable from the day some genius decided we had to have 8mm video formats. Would it have killed them to make it 7mm or 9mm? Noooo… they had to make it 8mm!
I also had some 8mm film converted over by the pros, though had it occured to me to shop around, I’m sure I could have found a cheaper price. In any case, trying to set up my own conversion kit would’ve been way too much hassle and complicated for a mere 7 minutes of footage. They gave it back to me on a standard VHS tape and I used my own equipment to convert it to digital.
As a side note, the footage was of the 1960 Bar Mitzvah of a cousin of mine. His mother had found the reels during a spring cleaning and realized she (or anyone else) hadn’t watched it for over 40 years. The cousin himself lives in England so before one of her visits, I gave her a CD copy with the footage in various video formats, not knowing which (if any) would work on his antiquated Mac, and knowing for certain that he wouldn’t be able to play an NTSC tape on European PAL equipment. A while later, one of my aunt’s sisters died and I played the tape for her relatives (many of whom had attended the 1960 ceremony). It was kind of cool to hear one of them say “That’s my mother”, when the speaker was in his late seventies. The family requested additional copies, which I made for them.
As for the reels themselves, they’re somewhere in my house. In forty years, I might find them again.