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-   -   8mm films capture advice, best transfer method? (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/7985-8mm-films-capture.html)

Buio 05-04-2017 09:58 AM

8mm films capture advice, best transfer method?
 
Hello all

I've got to capture ten 8mm films, i'm thinking to capture them using this chain:

Sony HDR-FX7>Prime image TBC or ES10>Diamond VC500 (s-video) then Huffyuv codec/virtualdub/avisynth for capture/ restoration and Winff with ffmpeg for DVD conversion.

Two questions:

1) My "ideal" chain is good (right) in yor opinion?
2)For the DVD conversion Winff/ffmpeg are good, or you suggest me other programs?

cheers

jbd5010 05-09-2017 06:59 AM

This seems like an odd capture chain, to be honest. If I understand correctly: You're taking the analog output of a digital camcorder, running it through a TBC and then capturing back to digital again. A few thoughts:

- Why do the D/A-A/D conversion? Recording on your camcorder and working with the recorded file directly would make more sense. (Plus, even if you stuck with this method, why insert a TBC into the chain? The camcorder's output should be rock solid stable.)

- From an old product page for the camera, it looks like your options are DV or MPEG, both compressed. I'm entirely unfamiliar with HDV, maybe it's high enough bitrate that the compression isn't bad. But if you were to record on the camera directly, you'd be stuck with compressed video.

- Telecining with a camcorder and getting decent results is nearly impossible. Room lighting conditions, camera positioning, and other physical setup configuration issues aside, you can't sync your camera with the film frame-for-frame. Even if you can tweak the recording frame rate to match the projector's, getting them in sync is probably impossible without some custom control circuit between the two. This will result in flickering, which is harder to eliminate than you'd think. Some projectors had a sync hookup to play back audio on a field cassette recorder, but are you an electrical engineer? (I am... but no thanks!)

Also, don't forget that film is a "progressive" source. In this day and age, you should never intentionally interlace a progressive source, which is what you would do by converting to analog video before capture.

There's an epic, 10-year-old thread on telecine over at Videohelp. I stopped following it a few years ago when I gave up, but it looks like someone has figured out capturing with the projector shutter removed and then using a custom piece of software to process:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/...e-(8mm)-System

Not trying to be negative or discourage. I'm always up to explore challenging projects, but even I gave up on this one. I plan to send my Super 8 reels to CineLab in MA.

Buio 05-09-2017 04:55 PM

Hello,thanks for your reply jbd

So, the TBC is totally no sense, i agree...perhaps by now, the result are really good using the Sony telecine. With the variabile speed of the sankyo ( a really great projector, i' ve got also a silma delta 7 and an Eumig but sankyo beat them all) and the shutter set to 50 absolutely no flickering. The Sony fx7cam gives me a lot of tweaking and no problem with wb and light ( my house pavement it's a White carrara's marble and filming on the ground with a lamp nearby gives me all the light i need , it's a strange trick, but works very well ).

In the end i will transfer all from cam to PC with my advc 110 and i will try to improve the video quality with avisynth.

Winff and ffmpeg are a good choice in your opininion? Or you suggest me other programs?

jbd5010 05-09-2017 05:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buio (Post 49283)
Hello,thanks for your reply jbd
In the end i will transfer all from cam to PC with my advc 110

Are you still using the analog output on the camcorder into the ADVC 110? If so, I would skip that and instead, simply connect the "i.Link" on the camcorder directly to the firewire port on your computer, and capture DV. You can use something like WinDV: http://windv.mourek.cz/ This will eliminate converting to analog and back to digital, and help maintain better quality. Or, even better, use the HDMI output on the Sony camcorder into an HDMI capture card. You could then capture this HDMI stream as HuffYUV AVI directly in VirtualDub. It's always better to edit and restore from lossless video than compressed video.

As far as authoring to DVD, I'll have to defer to others on the forum, I've always captured to files and simply archived them that way.

Buio 05-11-2017 02:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbd5010 (Post 49285)
Or, even better, use the HDMI output on the Sony camcorder into an HDMI capture card. You could then capture this HDMI stream as HuffYUV AVI directly in VirtualDub. It's always better to edit and restore from lossless video than compressed video..

Could be a good idea!, but the only capture card that i own with HDMI input is a Avermedia live game portable but i think that doesen't support HuffYUV...can you suggest me another good capture card with hdmi input?

jbd5010 05-11-2017 03:02 PM

I have the Avermedia AverTV HD (C027) capture card, which has been renamed the DarkCrystal I believe. I actually haven't played with it much yet, but driver installation was painless (I tried a BlackMagic Intensity card and it was terrible). I can try capturing HuffYUV this weekend and let you know.

Buio 05-21-2017 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbd5010 (Post 49307)
I have the Avermedia AverTV HD (C027) capture card, which has been renamed the DarkCrystal I believe. I actually haven't played with it much yet, but driver installation was painless (I tried a BlackMagic Intensity card and it was terrible). I can try capturing HuffYUV this weekend and let you know.

Ok, thank you very much!

-- merged --

So, after jbd5010's advices,finally, i 've got an Avermedia Darkcrystal from a friend.
Now, i've captured some footage from the cam (previously i've caputed the film, setting the cam's shutter @50 and diminuishing a little the film speed, result: no flicker) with virtualdub and HuffYUV @1920x1080. I've tried various settings in virtualdub using Avisynth and some scripts (by Video Fred and J Meyer) to improve/restore video, but my problem is the interlaced video coming from the cam, i dont know wich is the best way to handle it. Someone can give me advices for the correct workflow after the capture? My standard is PAL.

thanks

jbd5010 05-22-2017 08:57 AM

Hi Buio, sorry I haven't had a chance to play with this stuff at all, getting ready to sell my house and buy another so my A/V gear has been packed up so my office doesn't look so messy!

Does the camera have an option to capture progressive video at a lower framerate?

lordsmurf 05-25-2017 04:26 AM

If I only had 10 films -- film, not tapes -- I'd much rather pay a competent company to transfer those. Any analog method used for film will be disappointing quality.

Sony HDR-FX7 is HDV, so I'm really unsure what's going on here. :question:

@jbd: I'm often a proponent of s-video out of DV captured analog. The issue is cooperation of the IEEE1394 drivers/hardware, which is often poor. You don't lose much, if at all, going DV 720x480 to s-video 540x480. The camera optics never allowed 72 anyway. Nothing is lost. However, for HDV, at HD resolutions, I'd reconsider. Maybe. Complex topic, no one correct way.


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