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CONVERTING FILM TO DIGITAL

PRESERVE YPUR PRECIOUS MEMORIES TO DIGITAL FILE 

Film Conversion

 

The Montage Maven can preserve your precious memories to Digital files, DVD, or Blu-ray with our professional transfer services using our 100% digital process.

If you are searching for the best way to save your memories from the deterioration that occurs with time, our signature Transfer Service will more than satisfy your needs. Our trained technicians provide individual attention to every transfer that we receive. The Montage Maven will not only preserve your treasured memories, but many of our services enhance them using our proprietary technologies and the highest quality broadcast quality equipment available.

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Our services are designed to take the guesswork out of the film and video conversion decisions. We have included everything you need for a truly professional transfer at a reasonable price.

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Now is the time to gather all those old memories collecting dust in your attic and let The Montage Maven preserve them for future generations.

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Our HD scans are designed to capture every detail of what’s in a movie frame. Even if that movie frame image is larger than the traditional area, we can get that old frame to look much better. We do this because we believe your memories are important, and it’s a big project to get your movie film scanned. You only want to do it once. The only parts of the frame we crop out are the sprocket holes of the film. So even if you order a standard DVD from us, you will still get the benefit of our HD scanning — mainly if you view your DVD on a computer.

Here are sample videos of our 8mm film conversion:

Here is what the client had to say: 5 Stars on our Google review page!

Jill Caruso 5 stars .png

Our process

 

Transfer your old home movies to DVD

  • Transfer to a Digital File

  • Transfer to DVD/Blu-ray

  • Transfer to YouTube/Vimeo/Dropbox Etc.

  • You can book additional editing time

 

The Montage Maven uses the state-of-the-art, MWA Flashtransfer Choice2K+™, and FlashscanHD™, the latest in film transfer technology, producing the most beautiful picture quality available. This equipment, up until now, has only been available to film archivists and Hollywood filmmakers. With a full-time staff of experienced technicians, dedicated to film transfers, The Montage Maven can improve the quality of your fading films when you transfer them to Digital DVD or hard drive in standard definition or high definition. We will remove the blank spots and correct the colors, contrast, and brightness.

 

Your DVD will include chapter points, menus, and background music. It is this attention to detail that sets us apart from the others. Over time, movie film deteriorates. Not only will the projected picture fade, but the film itself can become brittle and snap. Digitizing and transferring your home movies to DVD will ensure that your memories will last a lifetime. The Montage Maven uses a proprietary system for editing, removal of blank spots, and correcting color, contrast, and brightness. Also, our production value is second to none. 

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What’s Included with Your Home Movie Transfer:

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  • Cleaning

The tiniest speck of dust or dirt will look enormous on your TV screen. We clean all 8mm and Super 8mm movie film to assure you get the most precise picture possible.

  • Splicing

As your film gets older, the splices you may have applied years ago may not hold as well as they used to. Should those splices break, we will repair them (within reason) at no extra charge.

If you have three or more 50-foot reels, they will be spliced onto 200 or 400-foot reels. Each reel will be labeled, indicating which 50-foot reels have been spliced into it. Empty reels, with writing on them, will be returned.

  • Transfer & Monitoring

Trained technicians carefully monitor the entire transfer for picture framing and focus. Your film is digitally scanned, frame by frame, and captured in its entirety in high resolution directly to the computer hard drive before going to our editing department for further enhancement.

  • Editing & Enhancement

Our editors view your entire transfer scene by scene, eliminating blank footage, and enhancing brightness, contrast, and color on our exclusive transfer system.

  • Opening Title

We begin your home movie production with your personalized title (Example: “The Smith Family Memories”). This same title will be imprinted on the face of your DVD.

  • Background Music

We will add background hi-fi Dolby digital music to the entire length of the transfer. This can be from our library of family-oriented, easy listening music or you can provide your CD to bring your movies to life for an additional fee.

  • Conversion Process

Your film will be converted to a file, DVD, or Blu-ray utilizing VBR (Variable Bitrate) encoding technology which produces an overall higher and more consistent quality level than Constant Bit Rate encoding.

  • Custom DVD Imprint

The same Opening Title that you choose will be custom printed on the face of your DVD.

FAQs About Your Movie Film Transfer

 

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  • What will I get back? When your transfer is completed, all of your movie films will be returned along with any boxes in which the reels were stored. The film will be cleaned, spliced onto larger reels where necessary, and renumbered. Your transfer will be on a Hi-Grade DVD-R with a Deluxe plastic storage case.

  • Can I have my film returned on the original 50-foot reels unspliced? Yes.

  • How many films can fit on a DVD?

Reg 8mm = Approximately 1600 feet

Super 8mm = Approximately 2000 feet

16mm (24 fps) = Approximately 4000 feet

16mm (18 fps) = Approximately 2500 feet

  • How can I estimate how much footage of film I have?

3-inch reel = 50 feet

4-inch reel = 100 feet

5-inch reel = 200 feet

6-inch reel = 300 feet

7-inch reel = 400 feet

  • My projector only accepts 200-foot reels. Can I have all my 50-foot film reels spliced onto 200-foot reels? Yes.

  • Can I have specific scenes edited out of the film transfer? During our film transfer process, we do not provide scene editing. You may, however, do your editing before submitting your order to us. See our editing services for post-transfer editing.

  • My film contains scenes that are very light and very dark. Can you fix that? If you are transferring your film to DVD, we can enhance the picture and have a better chance of improving the picture on our editing system.

  • I have Regular 8mm, Super 8mm, slides, and photos I want to transfer onto the same DVD. Can this be done? Yes. Different media formats can be transferred onto the same DVD. See Repeating Video/Media in film transfer for additional services for details.

  • Can a video record on my camcorder be added to film transfers? Yes. See our section on videotape editing for details.

  • Our film reel boxes say that the enclosed reels contain only 25 feet of film. Is this so?  The original film was purchased, it contained 25 feet of 16mm film (although it had the proper amount of sprocket holes for R 8 Mm film). After the first 25 feet of film was shot, the camera was opened, and the film spool was flipped to the other side, and the other 25 feet of film was shot. During processing, the film is split down the middle, resulting in two lengths of 8mm film, each with a single row of perforations along one edge, and glued together on the reel which you now have containing 50 feet of film.

  • Can I have extra copies made for my family? Yes. See additional services for details.

  • Will my DVD play on my DVD player? DVD-R disks are used for transferring your images to DVD. To take advantage of this technology, your DVD player MUST be compatible with DVD-R. 99% of DVD players manufactured in the past two years will play your DVD transfer. Please check your DVD player manual for compatibility or contact the manufacturer.

  • What is DVD-R? DVD-R is a disk onto which information (your video) can be written. Think of it as the same type of CD-R you may use to copy music files on your computer. However, the DVD-R can hold much more data.

  • I have an editing program on my PC, can I edit the files on the DVD? The data on your completed DVD are not editable. If you want editable files, you may want to consider having us transfer your film and/or videotape to .avi (most popular), or another type of video file. We can accommodate whatever editing needs you may have.

  • I had my film transferred to VHS many years ago. Should I transfer that VHS videotape to DVD or should I have my film transferred again directly to DVD? We can transfer your VHS videotape to DVD, but you should consider having your films converted to DVD. The picture quality is astonishingly better.

  • I have an old 16mm movie film. It was shot at 18fps (frames per second). I understand that most projectors run at 24fps and make the film run in fast motion, looking like an old Charlie Chaplin movie. Is this true? We can deliver your film at the correct speed so that you can enjoy your movies at the speed that it was filmed at.

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