How to Record 8MM Film to a DVR

Old 8mm film will eventually fade and shrink.

With today's digital technology, preserving home movies and photos for the future is virtually assured. Unfortunately, the shelf-life of old 8mm home-movie film is relatively short. Even under the best conditions, treasured home movies will eventually fade, shrink and become brittle with age. To ensure those memories will be preserved for years to come, recording 8mm film to a DVR and DVDs is essential. The following methods are direct transfers from film to DVR and do not involve editing of footage.

Things You'll Need

• Movie-projection screen
• 8mm variable speed projector
• Digital video camera
• Film-transfer box
• Tripod
• DVD recorder
• 8mm splicer
• 400-foot 8mm reels
• Rewritable DVDs

Instructions

1. Organize your footage so it can be put in chronological order. Depending on the amount of film, it should be spliced together and placed on 400-foot reels so there are fewer breaks when transferring to a DVR. Kits for splicing together 8mm film can be purchased online or from camera shops.

2. 

   Use rewritable DVDs when recording.

   Use a film-transfer converter box in which your movie projector projects the film image onto a mirror that is then deflected into your video-camera lens. Put the camera on a tripod and connect it to a DVD recorder by either a DV (digital video) or an audio/video cable. Turn off the lights and record onto rewritable DVDs, so if there is a problem with the transfer, you can go back and rerecord the footage. To eliminate image flicker, adjust the variable speed-control knob on your projector, as 8mm-film speed is 18 fps (frames per second) and video-camera capture speed is 30 fps. The video camera then records the image off the mirror and transfers it to the DVD recorder. A film-transfer box is relatively inexpensive and can be purchased online.

3. 

   Connect your video camera to the digital video recorder.

   Set up a movie-projection screen in a dark room. Place the projector on a solid surface no more than four feet away from the movie screen. The smaller the image size, the better the resolution and the sharper the image. Make sure the projector is perfectly centered and level with the screen. Use a tripod, and place the video camera and projector as close to each other as possible, making sure the camera lens and projector lens are on the same plane. Connect your camera to the DVD recorder. Again, you need to adjust the speed-control knob on your projector to eliminate any image flicker.

4. Editing your footage to add titles, optical effects and even music requires the use of video-editing software and can be done only on a computer. Once you have recorded your footage to a DVD, you can download and edit with the program, if you wish.

5. Decide if you want to send your footage to a professional video transfer service that can transfer your 8mm film to any format you choose, including external hard drive. This will guarantee the best results and highest quality, but will be the most expensive of any method. Some will include color correction of the footage in their price but it will be a straight transfer without any editing. You can find many of these services online.

References

• Photo.net: 8mm Film to DVD transfer (Do it yourself
• Microsoft Windows: Burn a Movie Maker Project to DVD