Comments on: Costco – Transfer 8mm Movie Film to DVD

By: Aaron Mortson

Aaron Mortson — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:05:37 +0000

If you’re going to send you film to Toronto, or near, then send it to Toronto Home Movies.

We currently have Toronto Home Movies, Montreal Home Movies, Florida Home Movies, Valley Home Movies (Denver). September 1st we will be opening an office in Mississauga, Ontario (Toronto).

Visit us at http://www.torontohomemovies.com

Call me at 416-479-0537 x1 or 1-866-559-1163 and let me know which office is closest to you. I am connected to every office.

By: FUJIFILM Canada

FUJIFILM Canada — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:41:35 +0000

In response to Costco Member. Please contact me to discuss your order. 905-755-2787

By: Transfers Unlimited

Transfers Unlimited — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:52:53 +0000

Send your film to a long established professional company.
Quit using Costco.
We have been doing transfers since 1984.
Why do you think we have been in business so long???????

!-800-463-3222 m-f..
By the way, we have re-done many Costco, Rite-aid and Walgreen transfers.

By: Aaron Mortson

Aaron Mortson — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:14:49 +0000

In response to Costco Member,

It’s a shame you had a bad experience.

However, even if you buy a kit to transfer the film yourself you would have issues with flicker. Unless you have the equipment to record at the proper frame rate, you will always have flicker.

There are professionals you can search for that will do a premium transfer for a reasonable price. Don’t hesitate to look around.

You’re film is most likely 30 years old, give or take. Wouldn’t it be nice to know who is doing the transfer of your film? Talk to the people who will SEE you film while being edited and corrected?

I hope it all works out in the end for you!

Best regards,

Aaron Mortson
TorontoHomeMovies.com
3893 Chesswood Dr.
Toronto, ON M3J 2R8

Tel: 416-479-0537
T/F: 866-559-1163

http://www.TorontoHomeMovies.com — 416-479-0537
http://www.FloridaHomeMovies.com — 866-559-1163
http://www.MontrealHomeMovies.com — 514-868-2120
http://www.ExcellencePhoto.com — 905-326-9622

By: Costco Member

Costco Member — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:29:00 +0000

My film conversion experience was EXPENSIVE AND HORRIBLE.

Costco Canada: Apparently they use FUJINON (Fujifilm) Canada on the east coast to do their transfer work. Naturally I assumed that the “FUJI” name would guarantee some standard of quality; I sure was mistaken!

Firstly: Waited for 2 months and when I finally called them, they said the film “hadn’t been processed yet”. Second: Costco promised that film would be returned on new, clean 8 mm reels, with film footage “cleaned up and color enhanced”. Never happened.

Secondly: Music soundtrack supposed to be placed in areas with no sound. Guess what? Never happened.

Thirdly: Film was barely watchable, with flickering artifacts, unstable “chipmunk sound”, poor color balance (hue was too red), and worst of all, it was digitized with a high compression ratio, causing a type of “mesh” artifact throughout the DVD, as if you’re staring at the TV through a bug screen.

Basically, a home transfer kit (like the kind sold by Optex) would have done a better job. I know this because I’ve used them before (where you take your movie projector and videotape a small mirror box with your video camcorder)

Costco Canada should be ashamed of putting their name behind this.

If the memory didn’t mean so much, I would’ve thrown the DVD into the garbage. Instead, I’ll be letting Costco know about this and hopefully I will get a refund.

By: Randy

Randy — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:58:56 +0000

In response to “Linda”, I own Just8mm.com and would like to offer my point of view. All of Linda’s film was warped and damaged due to vinegar syndrome caused by improper storage. She knew in advance that there were major problems with her film as indicated in correspondence from her. Some of the damage was so severe that the film could not be transferred at all, and the film frequently stopped in our equipment, causing the pauses and skips. Another result of curled film is that when it runs past a film gate, the film image on each frame is not on the same focal plane, so the edges are out of focus.

In addition, our company does not offer color digital color correction, which can produce a whole range of unintended consequences and an artificial look, not to mention a higher price. We do not state anywhere on our website that we perform color correction.

We are full accredited members of the BBB with an A+ rating. Linda’s complaint is the only one we have ever received in nearly 10 years of doing business. She was never treated rudely by anyone at my company. I offered to personally look at her film to see if there was anything that could be done, but she refused to send it back. I offered to let the BBB arbitrate her complaint, but she refused. She finally had her credit card charge reversed by her card company.

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:44:34 +0000

Mike, just8mm.com must have changed their transfer process since I used them to transfer 12 7″ reels of film back in December 2009. Granted, a lot of the film was old (dated back to the mid-60′s) and warped due to aging and heat (I live in Texas), but the last 4 reels were relatively “new,” as in 20 to 30 years, and the films’ condition was good. This company’s website advertised “super quality” and stated that your film would look better than it ever did, so due to the low price, I stupidly sent all 12 reels to them without testing just 1 or 2 reels. They ALL turned out a far cry from “super quality.” In a nutshell, MAJOR color problems on all 12 reels (even the newer ones), blurriness at the edges where the film was warped (other transfer companies processed these same films and did a MUCH better job at correcting that), and sometimes the picture would just stop right in the middle of a scene, sometimes for 15 to 20 seconds, obviously because the technician was not paying attention to what he was doing. I immediately (the next day) wrote just8mm.com and asked for a refund–the owner flatly refused and offered to re-do the films. I said no, (why would the transfer turn out any better on the same equipment?), and again asked for a refund. Again, the owner said no. Unbelievably, he then offered me to get another company to transfer a film and send it to him, and if HE thought it turned out more crisp, clear, and in focus (he didn’t even mention the color issue, which was the worst problem) than his, then he would refund my money! I said no, I just want a refund so I could take my films somewhere else (they were gifts for my family–at this point I was horrified that a business owner could treat a customer so rudely, and I did not want to deal with him anymore). Bottom line: just8mm.com (or aka DVD Memories) might have different equipment and a better transfer method now, but Buyer beware: if you aren’t happy with the results, don’t expect to get a refund! His motto is: the customer is always wrong!

Two suggestions: I haven’t had all of the 12 reels re-done yet, but the ones that I have I used two online transfer companies. One is mymovietransfer.com. They did an excellent job for the money–I got the result that I was expecting when I sent my films to just8mm.com. The color was super! There was still some blurriness on the edges from the warped film, but because of their process, it wasn’t nearly as bad. I HIGHLY recommend them. If you can afford to spend more, another suggestion is mastercomputerandvideo.com. This guy adds period music and sound effects, which really brings the film to life! It is awesome! And the color is great, too. I didn’t need the music, but I wanted to try it out on a few reels.

By: Transfers Unlimited

Transfers Unlimited — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 19:02:26 +0000

Visit our site and call us toll free at 1-800-463-3222.
We can handle all of your Audio & Video needs.
We have been in the High Desert since 1989 transferring film.
I have over 30 years experience by myself in Telecine work.
Tom

By: Aaron Mortson

Aaron Mortson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:43:36 +0000

Hi there Pris,

I don’t want to leave a huge rant and rave like I did previously.

Give me a shout and we can help you out. We have an office in Miami, Florida, Toronto, Ontario and Montreal Quebec that you could send your order to.

1-866-559-1163

I look forward to hearing from you!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:21:43 +0000

THis is the same Mike as posted on Nov. 27, 2009. After much research, I settled on just8mm.com. I did a test batch of 2 reels with them, then after that looked good, I sent in all 75 reels. I also had them transfer the uncompressed AVI files to a hard drive I provided for a little extra money ($30/hour). I haven’t watched all of it yet (over 8 hours of footage), but what I have seen so far is good. A lot of the film I had transferred is faded and grainy, but I looked at some under a 20x loupe, and what I got on DVD is an accurate rendition of what’s on film. I attribute the faded and grainy to 1) the original exposure of the film, 2) its age – some over 30 years old, and 3) probably not being stored properly all this time – cardboard box in my mom’s house. I recommend just8mm.com. They did a good job, fast turnaround, at a decent price. If you want, just try them out on a couple reels – it only costs $27.