FRAME BY FRAME DIGITAL FILM SCANNING

TRUE FRAME BY FRAME DIGITAL SCANNING OF 8MM, SUPER8MM & 16MM FORMAT MOTION PICTURE FILM

IMPORTANT NOTICE: ALL orders for professional frame by frame digital scanning transfers should be scheduled in advance prior to sending us your footage.

For 8mm, Super 8mm, 16mm silent or sound motion picture films, scanned digitally frame by frame to professional Mini-DV, DVCam OR DigiBeta. We offer this service for home movies or the professional movie maker who wants to use their films for TV broadcast and theatrical release and exclusively for our film recovery, restoration and archival services.

TMTV is proud to introduce the newest addition to our telecine services. The ScanStream DV8 Sniper-HD, featuring the unique PulseGate Technology, was custom designed and fabricated to create super 8 and regular 8mm transfers that offer the breathtaking clarity that can only come from frame by frame scanning in high definition. Every super 8mm or regular 8mm frame of your reversal footage (no negative) is individually scanned directly to an HD camera The gate on the Sniper-HD is enlarged to give access to 100% of the film frame and the unique, super bright, cool LED light source provides rich, vibrant colors with zero hot spot and no chance of burning film. Frame by frame scanning means your transfers are 100% flicker free, crystal clear and razor sharp from corner to corner. The sprocketless drive assures no film damage to your priceless footage.

And, now, TMTV is happy to offer the same HD frame by frame precision in 16mm, and with sound, too! The ScanStream Sniper-16 HD offers an enlarged gate for full frame viewing of your 16mm reversal film (no negative) and the same vibrant colors, all scanned directly to the high definition camera. Unlike the sprocketless DV8 Sniper-HD, the Sniper-16 HD incorporates a precision sprocketed transport system to accommodate the larger mass and weight of 16mm reels. The end result is a rock steady transfer that is frame accurate and razor sharp edge to edge with zero hot spot and no flicker.

The first home movie transfers available to consumers were to Betamax and VHS. With the advent of DVD and its quality advantage over VHS, many people chose to re-transfer their home movies to DVD. Now, with the availability of HD video, is it worth considering re-transferring your home movies once again and is there more to consider than just resolution? The resolution of HD video exceeds the resolution of super 8 and regular 8 film and it is unlikely that any future technology will significantly surpass the quality of HD transfers.

However, HD transfer may not be appropriate in all cases. For example, film shot on a poor quality camera or by an unskilled operator may to some, look better as SD than HD once transferred. This because the grain or other flaws are somewhat softened in an SD transfer but will be made more obvious in HD. If within your budget, opting for the HD transfer will allow you the option in the future of down converting it to SD if the look is preferable. On the other hand the SD transfer is clear and sharp and the difference between the two could only be described as very significant if the original 8mm film footage is of stellar quality. There are other considerations as important as the SD vs HD question.

Capturing film to file formats

The video capture device that is used on modern transfer equipment does a much better job than those available even only 10 years ago. These capture a more pleasant and clearer transfer without the glaring highlights and no detail shadows of the past. Also, the video files on a home player compatible DVD are no match to the usefulness and quality of the digital master files such as AVI, Quicktime and others that are now provided along with the convenience of a DVD, portable hard drive or USB drive.

MORE INFO: Our frame-by-frame scans off the sharper, emulsion side of the film with a CMOS sensor with almost 3 million pixels! for maximum clarity. The built-in scanner bypasses the condenser lens and mirror assembly for increased resolution. Using the CMOS sensor set up in an optical printer fashion for both 8mm and 16mm, with the camera utilizing a high resolution macro lens to image directly off the emulsion side of the film and scanning off the enlarged gate for access to 100% of the film frame. Used in conjunction with special software, this allows the system to scan each stationary frame into a PC and build a standard video file, frame by frame. HD scans frame by frame for true, progressive output in SD (in the DV codec) as well as HD (in the Motion JPEG HD codec). Our transfer system will output both PAL or NTSC in equal quality, since the original scans are in progressive HD. Because each frame of film is maintained as a separate image, any playback speed from 6fps to 30fps can be reproduced in both progressive or interlaced pulldown patterns. As an alternative archiving choice, the software will also output true progressive frames in a numbered image sequence in a folder. These images can then be imported into any edit software, at any time to reconstitute the original frame accurate movie file.

True frame by frame digital scanning is very time consuming and expensive process. Each frame of the film is stopped, scanned and advanced to the next frame. Each frame takes seconds to scan not frames scanned in seconds. If you do not plan on using your films for television broadcast or for release as a motion picture then we do NOT recommend professional high-end frame by frame digital scanning transfers. If you want high-end home movie transfers of your 8mm or 16mm film at a fraction of the cost of true frame by frame then transferring to CinaVision™ or HDDTT™ is your best and most economical option.

Whether you need standard def or high def transfers, all films are scanned at full 1080p. Standard def files are then downcoverted from the original HD scans for maximum clarity. All films are cleaned and prepped before transfer to repair bad splices and to look for potential bad sprocket holes that might mar the quality of the transfer. After transfer, all footage is color and density corrected before going to digital tape, DVD or BluRay disc.

NEGATIVE & POSITIVE FILM: WE DO NOT TRANSFER NEGATIVE 8MM OR 16MM FILMS WITH FRAME-BY-FRAME TRANSFERS

FILM CONDITION BEFORE TRANSFER: Frame by frame digital scanning requires that your films need to be in good to excellent condition. All films are cleaned and prepped before transfer to repair bad splices and to look for potential bad sprocket holes that might mar the quality of the transfer. After transfer, all footage is colour and density corrected before going to digital tape, DVD or BluRay disc.

FILM RECOVERY & RESTORATION: Films that are in poor condition such as bent, warped or brittle will have to be put through our recovery process and can only be transferred by digital scanning to avoid further damage to the film. Click on the link: http://www.tmtv.net/filmtodvd2.html

PROCESSING TIME: ALL orders for professional frame by frame digital scanning transfers should be scheduled in advance prior to sending us your footage. Average processing time for frame-by-frame is 60 days. This does does however depend on how large your order is. Please contact us before sending in your footage for specific delivery times, especially if you are facing a tight deadline for a particular project. NO RUSH ORDERS ACCEPTED

PRICING: 8MM & 16MM SD OR HD TRANSFER We charge the same for scanning in HD or SD. Minimum charges apply. Discounts on Quantity

Super 8 (sound/silent) and Regular 8mm (silent)- $30 per 50 feet. (base price, contact us for a full quote with discounts)

16mm (silent/sound) transfers - $30 per 100 feet. (base price, contact us for a full quote with discounts)

HARD DRIVE: Will be pre-formated in NTFS (not Mac/Fat32). We can deliver MJPEG-HD files or AVI SD files on a portable, plug and play hard drive. $150.00

Standard-def DVD auto-play. For delivery on a one hour (no chapter authoring) $50 per DVD Master

HD Blu-Ray auto-play disc. For delivery on (no chapter authoring) per one hour $75 per Blu-Ray Master.

PAYMENT: These payment methods are for this special service only, (Frame-by-Frame) scanning of motion picture film.

Full payment (or substantial deposit) is required in advance of scheduling frame-by-frame transfers. You may supply payment upon arrival of your films to our lab. We can inspect your films and provide a complete quote and scheduling at that time. Payment would be required before processing. If you wish to pay by credit card you must use the on-line payment service PAYPAL.

SHIPPING: More info: http://www.tmtv.net/shipping.html You may ship to our lab however you choose, however please ship by a reliable courier or by US or Canada post and get a tracking number. Return shipping to your destination will be included in the price quoted. Orders will be returned to a Canadian or US address ONLY. Returned orders to the USA may be subject to duties and US Customs charges. IMPORTANT* WHEN SHIPPING FROM THE USA TO CANADA: If shipping from the USA to TMTV Video Lab Department please put the reason for Export as: "TEMPORARY IMPORT FOR REPAIR" on the shipping, customs declaration or invoice forms. IF YOU ARE SHIPPING BY COURIER, such as, UPS OR FED-EX declare no more than $10.00 (TEN) U.S dollars. If you declare an amount of more than $10.00 USD you may be charged import fees such as Brokerage fees, duties & taxes calculated by the total amount you declared when you shipped your order by courier to Canada.

ORDER FORM: PRINT, FILL OUT, SIGN & SEND WITH YOUR ORDER: This form is used for basic submission information and to inform you of our limited liability & guarantees. To receive a quote with all pricing & detailed information please e-mail us before filling this form out or sending your order.

FREE FILM INSPECTION: You may ship your films to us for a complete inspection and quote with no obligation. If you choose not to have your films restored, cleaned or transferred after inspection by our technicians you would only pay for the shipping to and from our lab.

RECEIVING A QUOTE: Please specify the type of film, film reel sizes in FEET and the number of films you have and what you want it transferred to. For transfer information please go to our main page and select the appropriate type of movie film transfer you require.

Before requesting a quote for your film please prepare a physical description of your film as best you can. You may also send the film to our lab for a no obligation quote.

What decay and damage does the film exhibit: colour fading, shrinkage, warping and curling, image deterioration, tears, broken splices, damaged perforations, vinegar syndrome?

Will you want to add titles, credits, menus or other introductory material to the masters and copies?

SUBMITTING ORDERS TO THE LAB: If you choose to send films to our lab for transfer please e-mail or phone us before sending so we can make sure you are fully informed about the process and the options available.

When submitting film to the lab please number them CLEARLY in order of sequence, Example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (do not use POST-IT Notes, they fall off).

MIXING FILM FORMATS: R-8MM, S-8MM, 16MM with or without sound: If you have a mixture of different film formats (a combination of R-8mm, Super8, Super8 with sound or 16mm) we request that you do not mix the formats. If you require us to switch between formats for particular reels adds significantly to the transfer time and could result in an additional service charge. To avoid this simply ensure that the order of your transfer places all reels of a certain format together (R-8mm & Super8, Super8 with sound 16mm or 16mm with sound respectively) R-8mm is the older format and would usually be transferred first then we would transfer Super 8. 16mm would be transferred separately.

NOTICE: There are many great transfer companies with years of experience and many that just started the last few years. TMTV's Video Lab Department has been providing film transfers since 1980, so choose wisely!