Newbie Q about file format to archive to and current conversion attempts.

[Robert Lukas]

Hi!

First post, forgive me if I'm bleeding too many questions! This first one is really what prompted me to post.

"Generally" what is the best file format to save created video projects for archive and to playback on TV and computer and maybe burn to DVD? Using Pinnacle and the tutorials are about what buttons to push and not what each choice yields. So many choices compared to old version Pinnacle. I know this is not high end software, but I am so familiar with it I stuck with it. Does bad software choice lead to lesser qulaity outcome? (Like Pinnacle vs Adobe vs other)

I thought avi was supposed to be the file format to save in for archival purposes. Is it?
Pinnacle 23 gives avi option of Full Screen DV, mjpeg, small screen, medium screen -- what to choose? File size these days does not matter.

If I choose another format like mp4 it gives many SD, HD options which I can't imagine help my Super 8mm quality - or does it?

Any tutorial links you may have would be great.

I'm in the beginning stages of converting Super 8 film to digital. Doing it old school projection onto matte board and capturing with Canon Vixia HF R11 AVCHD camcorder. Image quality of the projection method is not bad. What's bad is the Super 8 camera used back in the day! I'm not making it worse than when I watch it on projection screen at least.

Despite mixed reviews I ordered the Wolverine frame by frame unit -- has not arrived yet. Projection capture is tedious, always trying to redo capture to get "just a little better focus" when in fact it is partly the film.

I went to Pinnacle 23 because it has a crop feature. The square image of film projection and the camera's wider capture area left me with no image left and right edges when I zoom to capture the full top and bottom aspects of the projected image. My camera does not have an aspect ratio setting -- are there camcorders that do?

Thank you so much!

Bob

[Brian Fretwell]

It would seem that TV and film archives round the world are asking the same question, also about the devices to store on. They all aeem to be improved regularly and with limited back compatibility needing them to be copied/converted again.

[James G. Brown]

Which version of the Wolverine did you get? Standard or Pro? I use the Pro version which gives me 1440x1080 image. The recording is saved as an mp4 at 20 frames per second. Even though the original films was shot at 16fps for Regular 8mm or 18fps for Super 8mm. You should change the frame rate (speed) to the appropriate speed. Most of the video editors change the fps of the output file without changing the actual speed. In the case of going from 20fps to 16fps, they do this by dropping frames and the speed of the video is not changed. Also changing the resolution to a higher resolution really does not buy you any better video quality. When increasing the resolution, the conversion programs have to interpolate the existing frames and create additional pixels. But every video system either TV or PC video card does it's own interpolation when presented with a lower resolution video. So why bother?

I also do an overscan and then crop the video to remove the sprocket holes and garbage around the film gate of the original camera. Doing this can give you 20% more image than your 8mm projector would provide.

Since I also needed to crop the image and needed to adjust the film speed, I created my own app to do that. You can find it for free at http://instipics.com/Film_Crop/Download.htm. You may get frequent updates as I am still adding features to it.

[Robert Lukas]

Thanks James,

Just saw this!

I did get the Pro version.

Using Pinnacle 23 as video editor to crop and change speed. After changing speed I have to "extend" out the timeline to get to the end of the clip. If I didn't do that the clip would be slower, but end sooner. Is that telling you it is dropping frames?

Bob

[James G. Brown]

I'm not sure. Most editors change the frame rate without adjusting the speed which means they either drop frames, duplicate frames, or interpolate new frames. That is mostly for people that have movies they want to convert from 30fps to 24fps or visa-versa and they want the speed to be the same. I think I would report the fact that it ends sooner as an error. Try my app. It's simple, has a small footprint, and does what you need. Oh. And it's free more or less. It's been fairly stable as I have added everything I need to it. Unless you have a suggestion. Have a nice day and stay safe.

After thinking about it, it may actually be adjusting the frame rate properly. However, with a timeline editor the timeline specifies the beginning and end time for the video. So slowing down the frame rate does make it longer but since the timeline already has an end time, it stays where it is. On my app whatever you have set for the start time or end time changes to an equivalent time at the new frame rate.