Kimberly,

This may sound like a dumb idea but I am quite sure I read somewhere of someone simply doing a video camera recording of a projection of such older technology. Are you talking something like 8mm or super-8 or 16mm home movies? My family has such from around 1954 made by my parents on a trip cross country (east to west) and back. Let me know if we should communicate off list. I work near Washington, D.C.

Hi, Yes I am talking about the old home movies. It is amazing there easy way to move them over and it I have to may tapes to afford to pay someone to do it for me.

From http://forums.about.com/ab-hometheater/messages?msg=1251.2&redirCnt=1 

Frankly, the best way to accomplish this is do take your films ( I assume you are referring to actual 16mm or 8mm films and not old reel to reel video tapes - into a video editing or production service in your area and have it done professionally -- this will insure the best results -- in addition, if you are trying to transfer old reel-to-reel 3/4 inch or one inch films on video tape to DVD-- a service is your only option as the availability of this type of video playback equipment is very rare.

However, if you want to transfer 8mm or 16 mm film to DVD or to a hard drive yourself, you need to take several things into account --

1. You need a good 8mm or 16mm movie projector, preferably one that has at least a three bladed shutter and variable speed control.

2. You need a camcorder that has variable exposure and shutter speed control.

3. You need either a white card or film transfer box -- if you use the box method, the movie projector projects the image onto a mirror that is then deflected into the camcorder lens.

Basically, the AV outputs of the camcorder are connected to the AV inputs of a DVD recorder or VCR (you don't have to put tape into the camcorder, unless you wish to make a simultaneous back up copy) -- basically, the camcorder will feed the live image to the video inputs of the DVD recorder or VCR. If use a PC you would need either a video card with Firewire inputs if you are using a digital camcorder in this setup or a video card that has a either composite or S-video connections or an external analog to digital video converter that connects either to a firewire or USB port. In addition, you would need an extremely large hard drive -- for extensive storage of lots of films -- I would not consider anything less that 250GB - 500GB would be better.

The reason you need a film projector with variable speed control and
multi-bladed shutter and a camcorder with variable exposure and shutter speeds is that the film rate for 8mm film is usually 18 frames per second and the frame rate of 16mm film is 24 frames per secone while the frame rate of the camcorder is 30 frames per second.

What happens if you don't compensate for this is that you will see frame skips and jumps on the video after it is recorded, as well as variable flicker -- with variable speed and shutter control, you can compensate for this enough to make your film to video
transfer look smoother in appearance. In addition, when transfering film to video, you also need to able to adjust the apeture of the camcorder to match the more closely the original film brightnesss.

In conclusion, this can be a fun project to undertake, but be prepared to spend some time - I have experience doing this myself with 16mm film and the main challenge is the actual setup -- be prepared to do several test recordings -- once you get it down though it can be fun.

One more side note -- you have the ability in this process to actually view the end result as you are recording by connecting the video outputs of your DVD recorder or VCR to a TV -- this will show you how the signal is actually passing through to the recorder(s) -- however, it is a live image -- the recording itself may not quite as good, as your end result on tape or disc may show a slightly lower resolution -- especially if you are using a VCR instead of a DVD
recorder.

One last piece of advice -- if you use a VCR -- make sure you record in the 2 hour SP speed - which will give you the best results in the VHS format -- if you use a DVD recorder, make sure you use the One or Two hour recording modes -- as this will insure the best picture quality.

I hope this info helps to get you started, let me know if you have more questions.

Robert Silva
hometheater.guide@about.com