Hacking the Kodak Reels 8mm Film Digitizer (New Thread)

[Hook Line and Tinker]

Thanks so much for the detailed testing @Hook Line and Tinker.

It's almost certainly the card, not the menu/playback timing.

Both truncations were on the 128GB card. A 128GB card is formatted exFAT by default, and this firmware seems to write to exFAT / large cards a lot slower. During capture the motor and preview keep running normally, so it looks fine — but if the card can't keep up with the higher bitrate, the write buffer fills and the clip gets cut short. That would also explains the difference you saw: ×4 fills it faster (~8s), ×2 slower (~1min).

Meanwhile your 16GB card completed the full reel at ×4 — and I get the same result with a 32GB V10 card. Both are FAT32.

Recommendation:

• Use a FAT32-formatted card, 32GB or smaller
• Class 10 / V10 or better — there's plenty of headroom (×4 only needs ~4 MB/s - a V10 card support 10+ MB/s)

With a card like that, ×4 is the one to use — better quality, and it should run a full reel no problem.

Thanks again for helping testing this!

I think you nailed it with the formatting theory. I had forgotten that I had a 128GB SD that I formatted with FAT32 and was using an exFAT formatted 128GB card for the failed captures. I switched to the FAT32 128GB with the post #594 4X firmware and it worked. Both 128GB SD cards and the 16GB are V10.

So - same conditions as my first try of the post #594 drop also using the post #594 drop with only the formatting (FAT32) changed:

1. Pushed OK immediately when the playback/close screen popped up
2. I pressed playback
3. I used the 128GB card (formatted to FAT32)

Full 3:20 minute clip resulted.

 

[ArgieBargie]

Hello everybody (Nick Rivera voice)

Thanks for all your hard work in disenshittifying these units. That can't be stated enough; your sharing of this is phenomenal.

I have a serial number that looks like it's different to everybody else's. I've bought it recently, so I'm not sure where it sits in the firmware hierarchy. My serial is A3026148BK01272. It probably uses the B firmware, since it's not on The List but it also has a pattern reminiscent of the D firmware.

H2825148BKxxxx - the D
A3026148BK01272

I bought it via Amazon, in Australia. The plugs it shipped with are european style, UK style and US (I just bend those out to the angled AU shape, after verifying it can handle 240).

It scans ok, but with all the usual crappiness of the standard firmware. I'm not planning to go whole hog with 12mm lens upgrades and case mods, but having a better resolution and bitrate would be great. I also expect that the takeup reel motor has a finite lifespan given the issues others have reported with the motor.