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Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Sat Apr 20, 2019 7:09 pm
by PaulB
My Mum has a few reels of std (not even super) 8 ciné film. They are at least 50 years old.

I was going to look at them, but to be honest don't really feel like plugging the projector or frame viewer into the mains (they are as old.)

A quick Google suggests that getting them digitised is, whilst not cheap, is not *that* expensive either.

So, does the panel have any experience of getting this done and have any recommendations.

I'd prefer it in a video format that I can play on Windows and Mac and that I could edit if required.

TIA. Paul

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:36 pm
by Iceman
I'm also interested in the response as I have a few reels of cine that I've nvpever actually seen.

Iceman 8)

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:42 pm
by flybymike
Same here. Lots of stuff from the fifties shot by my father.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Sun Apr 21, 2019 8:58 am
by Colonel Panic
There are loads of How-To videos / recommendations on YouTube; I did some of my parents cines many years ago by placing a video camera beside the projector and filming the cine screen. Worked fine, but not "brilliant". Sending them off is probably your best bet, but whilst it might look cheap initially, by the time you factor in film lengths etc it can get quite expensive quite quickly.

When I looked in to it a couple of months ago this chap stood out as being worthy of further investigation.


He has more and better kit (& skills) than I could ever amass. More at https://www.avpstudios.co.uk

If you ever use him, let us know how you get on and I might follow :D

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:29 am
by cotterpot
I used these people about 8/9 years ago but can't remember how much they charged.

Cine to DVD, Portland Gate Studios, 21D Portland Square, Bristol, BS2 8SJ UK
http://www.cine-to-dvd-transfer.co.uk/c ... N=SHOWFORM

They did a good job of transferring film that was in good condition, and some very poor film was improved a bit. It was all Super 8.

They can also add soundtrack if you want.

They will also keep/store your film.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:58 am
by Lindsayp
I had it done (with Std 8 from the 1960's) by a local place in Chesham about 10 years ago, onto DVD which I then put onto the computer to share with my sister. All came out very well, with the cine flicker but very good quality all things considered. I definitely recommend doing this, rather than letting them deteriorate or be lost.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:31 am
by PaulB
It seems to be a case of picking one of the many suppliers after doing what due diligence that you can.

Tangentially related, if I want it playable on Mac/windows and prob TV, what format do I want (I don’t have a DVD player (well not one that’s connected to anything) any more.)

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:42 am
by stevelup
H264 is playable by pretty much any modern device.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:55 am
by PaulB
stevelup wrote:H264 is playable by pretty much any modern device.


Thx... I keep asking Q's like this because I just can't get video formats/wrappers/packages into my thick skull!! :oops:

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:04 am
by stevelup
There's no universal answer.

On a PC/Mac, as long as you have VLC installed, you can play pretty much anything anyway. I'd say everyone should have VLC installed...

H264 in a QuickTime MOV container should play on any Mac that is capable of booting in 2019.

It's not so simple on Windows where things are (goes without saying) a bit of a mess. Which is why VLC covers all bases.

Most modern smart TVs are pretty tolerant of different containers, but some experimentation may be required. You can always use Handbrake to transcode if needed.

If you want to just share a link for people to view online, just upload it to Vimeo or something and create a sharing link. Or dropbox - their video player works quite well cross platform.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:17 am
by PaulB
stevelup wrote:On a PC/Mac, as long as you have VLC installed, you can play pretty much anything anyway. I'd say everyone should have VLC installed...


I did, but it was version 1.something - just downloaded 3.0.6

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:30 am
by stevelup
:lol:

VLC 2.0.0 came out in 2012

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Fri Apr 26, 2019 4:17 pm
by PaulB
Well, I googled and googled and yesterday despatched the films off to the company mentioned by Cotterpot above (which came up in google searches a few times.)

I do feel it is a bit random though..... I'll let you know how it goes.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue May 14, 2019 5:17 pm
by PaulB
Well I had the films (all std 8mm) digitised. I estimated the running time of all going to be about an hour. In conversations with the company, they said I'd need about 16Gb of space of an SD card. In the event the .MOV file was just over 1Gb.

I have to say that I'm not overly impressed. It's quite blurred and lacking in resolution. That said I don't know what the resolution of std 8 actually is.

It cost just over £100 for 60 mins.

Re: Digitising Ciné film.....

PostPosted:Tue May 14, 2019 5:24 pm
by Colonel Panic
PaulB wrote:That said I don't know what the resolution of std 8 actually is.


Being effectively "analogue" you can't ascribe a resolution really.