8mm and super8mm video and sound to digital

[Phillip Daniel]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum, so please bear with me.

I have a little side business where I convert taped videos, 8mm, super8mm, 35mm slides and 35mm negatives to digital and burn to DVD, CD, SD card or Flash drives.
I have a customer who has a bunch of 8mm and super8mm reels of film they want put on DVD. I can do the video with no problem, I have done a ton of those. Some of their film has sound and I have been asked if I can bring the sound over along with the video. I have never done sound before, so I am wondering what kind of equipment would be needed to do the job and what such equipment costs.
Maybe some of you have done this and have created a way to get the job done without having to rob a bank.
I would appreciate any advice or inputs, suggestions.

Thanks so very much and Merry Christmas to everyone.

[David Brown]

Buy a used Super8 sound projector from Ebay.

[Maurice Leakey]

Phillip
You will need a dual gauge sound projector if you wish to use standard/regular 8 and also Super 8.
An ideal model is the Eumig S 810D. (The D standing for "Dual").
eumig (filmkorn.org)

Maurice

[Phillip Daniel]

Maurice, it just so happens I have a EUMIG Mark 610 D. It has the two pin jack on the left end for the cassette recorder. The issue is that I did not get that cable with the projector, I bought it used. I can probably replace that jack with a 3.5mm jack or such. I think I know what I need to do but not 100% sure. I assume if I bought a cassette recorder with a wired remote control I would rewire the remote line to fit the jack I install on the projector and when the video starts the projector will trip the cassette recorder and it will start recording the audio from the projector????

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Isn't that EUMIG Mark 610 D just SILENT only projector?

[Phillip Daniel]

The manual shows it connected to a cassette recorder and it tells you how the projector signals the cassette recorder to start recording, but I will double check.

[Brian Fretwell]

That, I believe, is to play non sync music from the cassette so that it starts and stops with the film.

[Phillip Daniel]

Brian, I believe you are correct. I would need a Eumig S 810 D in order to pull the audio off the film onto a cassette. Then I would edit and actual video and sound with my video editing program and then burn to a DVD.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

One more thing - be assure that ALL sound films are Super8 only or some Double8 too?

If yes, most Eumig dual 8 sound model should be the best choice since that will play both film types.

But if ALL sound films are Super8 only, then it will be much easier. You can use literally any Super8 sound projector as long as the audio output quality is decent and the running speed is fairy constant.



I'm currently using this Minolta Sound 7000 for real-time telecine and audio capture (for frame-by-frame scan). When aligning up the audio track with the scanned film I found that the speed is pretty steady. For 50ft spool I have to only align the head and tail end - the rest will stay in perfect sync the whole time.

[Phillip Daniel]

Thank you for your response and information. In order for me to be able to do this particular conversion I will have to purchase a projector and a cassette recorder to the tune of about $300.00. At this point the customer has not made up their minds as to whether they want the audio along with the video. I don't even know how many reels of film they have with sound on them. Out of all the conversions I have done they are only the second customer that has film with sound, so I really have to consider if the cost to do this conversion is worth it. I may never get another reel of film with sound on it!

[David Brown]

Sound projectors on Ebay can be less than $100, of course that varies. A Walmart cassette recorder, in store, is $24.

That is not a huge investment to discover if you WANT to offer the service. I assume you already have video editing capabilities if you're thinking of delivering DVD/Blueray.

Super8 sound cameras appeared in the early 70's and would have lip-synced dialogue. That's an added effort as sync can be lost thru minor speed variations accumulated across projector, recorder, and computer. It is correctable with a good video editor. That problem depends on your capture method.

Good luck!

[Phillip Daniel]

David, thank you for your input. I saw some of the type projectors I will need on ebay. Right now I am waiting to hear from the person who has the film with sound. They say they have about 50 years of movies and slides they want me to convert. Right now I don't know how many are film or slide trays or how many of the films have sound. If they have as much as they say they do I am going to offer a deal: They pay for the projector and cassette recorder, I will do the conversions, I get to keep the projector and recorder and give them a great deal on the conversion of all the film and slides. My standard price for a VHS or other format tape is $10 per tape. 8mm and super8mm is $12 per 50 feet of film and 35mm slides are $.30 per slide. I hand clean each roll of film before digitizing. I also clean the slides if they look dirty. I can only digitize 3 slides at a time, so that will go very slow. My video editing software is Video Pad and so far it has done everything I need to do and does it well.

[Gregory Oliver]

Phillip,
If you want to subcontract the video/audio work out I am available. I have the moviestuff.tv equipment (retroscan and soundsync) and have been able to get a good sync between the two halfs.
Gregory

[Phillip Daniel]

Gregory, I still have not been able to get a response from the people who have the films, probably because of the holiday. I will keep your offer in mind. I need to know how many reels of film with sound they have before I will do anything.

[Lee Mannering]

Phil. I've been doing film sound transfers since 1978 cough cough and still at it!

Get yourself a super 8 sound projector that has a AUX OUT SOCKET FOR AUDIO you can cable this into your computer, capture the sound and link it with you video transfer. These days pros are scanning films and the better scanners will take the sound as well at the same time. MWA scanner is the best in my opinion doing most of the gauges but you will be needing upwards of 20+ k for dat setup.

Its come a long way since I started with the old Videostar colour camera,vcr4 unit and a Ferguson Videostar VCR but my goodness the quality is now astounding correctly saving our memories.