Preserving and Transferring Film & Video onto DVD.

We have some film and video of family reunions and holiday get togethers that I would like to transfer onto DVD. Problem is two things. One, the videos are all from the mid80's to early 90's. They have not been viewed in years and I worry about tracking and jumpy pictures. Can a lab correct this before transferring onto DVD? Second, the film is mostly 8MM but some is 16 MM.These date back to the 1950's and go up to the mid to late 60's.I think my Mom said they watched them once back in the late 70's early 80's and not since then.The film is brittle and has been stored in a box in a basement for many years.My fear is once the film is threaded into a projector it could deteriorate right there. I do not know much about video or film preservation.

Can anyone recommend a decent place to have this work done? I see a few photo labs around town that can do it but I really want someone who knows what they are doing. This is very old film and video.Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated. Once it is safely transferred onto DVD I will feel a lot better.Thanks!

house I think. Our film was from the 1930s and there was no problem. Even if your film breaks I'm sure someone making a living by transferring film to dvd can handle a break.

I have no idea if the film is fading,going red,anything.Finding a professional who deals and has the experience with this sort of thing is what I am looking for. Thanks for the reply!

There was a place in the Miami, Florida area that did it professionally. Some photography stores send out their customers orders to them but you'd get a better price if you can locate them.

The film is likely to be in better condition than the video. The worst that will happen with the film other than stuttering if the sprocket holes are damaged is that the color may have degraded. Some places have the technology to manually advance the film and essentially scan each frame of the film. Of course, that will be much more expensive than if they can simply run it through automatically. It would be worth it to have the color balance adjusted when you have the film transferred to DVD.

The video will suffer because the glues that attached the magnetic layer to the tape is likely degraded and the magnetic layer may flake off. It's actually worse if the video has not been played because the magnetic layer can stick to the surface of the tape above.

Here is one service - I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THEM, I just find that they have some good information - http://www.film-to-video.com/index.html

Just google "film transfer to dvd" and you will find loads of places. I am not sure how to find a reliable place.

Thanks so much for the info!!!