RootsWorks
Transferring Film to Digital Video
by Beau Sharbrough

Almost everyone has some old home movies. Some have sound, some do not. All of them are deteriorating gradually. Most of us want to do something about it, but we have several problems.

First, we don't know what we should do. We could pay a vendor to transfer them, but each of them says that the other one is incompetent and immoral. Do we buy a DVD, or a mini-DV tape, or what? Do you want to mix the video with music? Would you rather have an "A&E Biography" or just a copy of your movies? Whatever we do, something cheaper and better comes along the next year.

Second, we don't know whether to do it ourselves or to pay someone. We have thousands of feet of film, and the prices for transfer to DVD range from ten cents to thirty cents. Even at the lowest price, we are faced with costs in the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. But if we do it ourselves, we have a lot to learn, and it still costs time.

Third, the work itself is somewhat technical. Do you use single-layer or multi-layer DVD? There are four DVD formats (-R, +R, RAM, +RW). What kind of projectors, camcorders, cables, and media do you need? I've seen s-video cables for $20, and for $80--what's the difference in them besides the price?

There is no single answer that works for everyone. Let's explore those issues. Before we do, let's agree on a few basics:

• Just like in real life, you won't get anything you don't ask for.
• Just like in real life, you can be certain you won't get anything you don't pay for.
• Don't throw away your film after you transfer it. Store it in a box in a nice dark closet in case they find a better, cheaper, faster way to transfer them. Just like in real life, always preserve your options.
  

Start with the Reel Thing
You're going to start with a piece of film. The most common film formats are 8mm, Super 8mm, and (much less common) 16mm. The size refers to the width of the film.

Over 100 years ago, Dick Eastman's distant Uncle George Eastman sought a better format than the exploding 35mm film of the day (okay, to be fair, it spontaneously combusted, it didn't literally explode), and by 1923 had a working 16mm format. Not long after, the economy went south, and only the wealthy could afford to make 16mm movies. Kodak engineers came up with a negative one-fourth the size of 16mm, and then put it into two "tracks." Like an audiocassette, you would record one side and then flip the cartridge over and record on the other--and 8mm film was born. Thirty years later, Kodak improved on the 8mm film by making Super 8 in 1965. For a better story on Super 8 film, see the link to "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Super 8" below. Super 8 film comes in plastic cartridges containing 50 feet of film, holding something like 2-4 minutes of action such as skinny people at a beach and pets underfoot.

Why do you need to know what kind of film you have? Well, it doesn't matter--provided that you are having someone else do it. But you'd want to know how long it is, so you can estimate the cost of the transfer. And it absolutely matters, if you are going to try to do it yourself.

Why Would You Ever Do It Yourself?
If you choose to do your own transfer, you will need to get the right projector for your film. If you don't have one already, you can find them on eBay for under $100 every day, and sometimes as low as $50. When I looked this morning, they had 71 super 8 projectors for sale, 64 16mm, and 61 8mm. I have no idea which models are good and which are bad, but I know that film is a very fickle medium: it breaks, cracks, burns, and otherwise finds creative ways to confound the faithful. Still, you can save money if you have a lot of film to transfer. Let's assume that your time is worth $5.00 per hour--the minimum wage is more than that. And let's assume further that you will need 20 minutes to transfer a 50 foot cartridge, from start to finish. After you do a few dozen, you'll speed up, but you'll be slow as Aunt Eller when you begin.

If you already have a computer with a DVD burner in it, and you already have a mini-DV camcorder, the projector and your time are all that you would have to buy. Well, that plus a big old white piece of paper and something to black out the windows in your "studio." In that case you can save money if you have to transfer as little as 3,000 feet (that would be about 60 Super 8 cartridges). If you have to buy a camcorder, too, you'll have to spend something like $300 for a used one, and you would lose money if you transferred less than a mile of film (100 cartridges of Super 8).

If you don't have a computer with a big hard drive (200 gigabytes) and a DVD burner, and you have less than 15,000 feet of film, just shop it out.

Oh, and if you're going to splice the reels together before you send it, do yourself a favor. Don't tape over the tractor holes.

Choose a Vendor
If you decide to send it out, you'll have to choose a vendor. Don't be concerned if the spelling and grammar on the site isn't perfect--apparently they don't focus on that in video production class. I've been contacted by several vendors who have experience with transfers, and have seen many others on the web. A search for "film transfer service" and similar terms should turn up a number of potential vendors. Do the usual smart shopping thing and check references, compare prices, etc. and you should be able to find a service that meets your needs. If you'd like to learn more or discuss services available, check out the "Digital Video" forum on the RootsWorks.
Registration is free, and I'd be interested to know what you think.

Link
1. "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Super 8"
A quick read on what Super 8 is and how it came about

Beau Sharbrough is an employee of MyFamily.com. His articles contain his own views and opinions and do not reflect any corporate policy or statement by the company. He lives in Provo, UT. The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for generic technologies. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual computer and genealogy problems. Visit the RootsWorks website (www.rootsworks.com) for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule.

Copyright 2005, MyFamily.com.

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Ancestry Quick Tip
Dealing with Genealogy Burn-out
Linda Lee Holmes

After reading George Morgan's advice to deal with genealogy burn-out, I thought I'd share my technique for re-energizing when I am at a dead end. I start work on someone else's line. I spent one entire afternoon tracing the paternal ancestry of an old boyfriend, and found I felt equally rewarded finding the right census records for someone else's relatives. And after all that positive reinforcement, I was ready to start chipping away at that old brick wall again.

Thanks to Linda for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to ADN editor@ancestry.com.

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your message.

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Clipping of the Day
Two Hundred and Ninety Dollars Reward
Adams Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), 17 August 1814, page 4:

Deserted
From my Company of the Fifth Detachment of Pennsylvania Militia, commanded by Col. James Fenton, the following persons, viz.

James Stocks, deserted 12 March, 1814
George Sellars do.
William Blankly 14th do.
Abraham Sanders do.
Mathias Bowser do.
Joseph Ross 16th
Mathew Tagg do.
William Kennedy do.
John Ross do.
John Bush do.
Jacob Griner do.
Hugh Kennedy do.
John Nicholson 20th
William Proctor do.
Hugh King 21st
James Middleton do.
Joseph Deardorff 12th
Patrick Logue 20th April
John Myers 20th May
John McClure do.
Jacob Bowersock 27th
Jacob Gisler do.
Conrad Par do.
Daniel Shilt do.
Henry Shilt do.
Jacob Sell do.
John Fickle 4th June
Paul Swartz 6th
Anthony Swartz 8th

The above Reward will be paid for delivering the above named persons to me at Buffalo or lodging them in any jail in the United States, or Ten Dollars for each of them.

The above named Deserters having (with the exception of two) received a large sum of money to serve as substitutes for draughted men, it is sincerely hoped that the public will be assiduous in apprehending men who would thus deceive their fellow citizens, and desert their country's cause.

Samuel White, Captain 10th Company, Col. Fenton's Regiment of Pennsylvania Militia.

June 25, 1814

Subscribers with access to the Historical Newspapers Collection can view this clipping.

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Fast Fact
Coming Soon to Ancestry.com...

• Every-name Index to the 1920 U.S. Federal Census
  Ancestry.com is making final preparations to launch the first every-name index to the 1920 U.S. Federal Census. The current index only lists the heads of households enumerated in the 1920 United States Federal Census, the Fourteenth Census of the United States. The names of those heads of households listed on the population schedule are linked to the actual images of the 1920 Federal Census, copied from the National Archives and Records Administration microfilm (T625, 2,076 rolls). Learn more about the upcoming 1920 index.

In Upcoming Months...

• Completion of the WWI Draft Registration Cards
  In 1917 and 1918, approximately 24 million men living in the United States completed a World War I draft registration card. These registration cards represent approximately 98% of the men under the age of 46. The total U.S. population in 1917-1918 was about 100 million individuals. In other words, close to 25% of the total population is represented in these records. The collection currently contains cards from 43 states and the District of Columbia and the remainder are expected to be made available in upcoming months.
• Every-name Index to the 1910 U.S. Federal Census
  The launch of this every-name index at Ancestry.com will give customers access to every-name indexes for all U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1930. This is the first time ever that all of these enumerations will be every-name searchable!

Look for more detailed information on these upcoming releases in upcoming issues of the Ancestry Daily News.

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Thought for Today
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-82

It is one of those beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.