Digitizing decades-old 8mm films?

[HeaterCore]

I discovered a trove of old 8mm film reels in my folks' attic, going as far back as their wedding in the 60s. We haven't watched any of them since I was a kid; after the VCR came out, I guess it seemed too much of a hassle to pull out the projector and screen.

Anyway, I figure it'd be a great gift to transfer them to DVD. Anyone know how this might be done? Obviously I'd be contracting it out, but to where? There could be two methods for doing it, either digitizing each frame (presumably slow and prohibitively expensive) or a telesync setup (presumably poor quality).

Anybody know anything about this, or a place I can look to learn more?

 

[dman]

If you have a working projector they sell a device that projects it into a n L Shaped box with a small screen, then you put a camcorder at 90deg and record there. You could then convert from camcorder to dvd.

There may be shops in your area that do it, check yellow pages for video services I guess.

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[HeaterCore]

Thanks, that Home Movie Depot thing looks workable. Going to be weird to see this stuff after thirty years....

 

[Kelemvor]

We aimed the tapes at a wall and also aimed a camcorder at the wall and recorded the image that way. Those tapes already have not-so-great quality so we didn't notice much difference except you pick up the background noise.

 

[gsellis]

There are probably 10-20 places in a metropolis near you that do it for less than $40 a reel. As Dman says.

PS - WalMart will convert VHS video (yours) to DVD for $20.

 

[Colt45]

I wouldnt worry too much about quality, as 40 year old 8mm wasn't exactly know for quality, even when it was new.

especially if it let the vinegar out