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

[rdesros]

I think I’ve spotted a bug. The capture quality looks fine when starting from a blank movie strip (the white section), but if you begin capturing with existing footage beyond the white area, even with QP set to 16, you can end up with high-bandwidth media that doesn’t match in quality. Film grain disappears, and there’s noticeable macroblocking in dark areas, almost like recording at 20 Mbit or less.

 

[0dan0]

I think I’ve spotted a bug. The capture quality looks fine when starting from a blank movie strip (the white section), but if you begin capturing with existing footage beyond the white area, even with QP set to 16, you can end up with high-bandwidth media that doesn’t match in quality. Film grain disappears, and there’s noticeable macroblocking in dark areas, almost like recording at 20 Mbit or less.

Share examples? I do this all the time, not seeing it.

 

[omega]

Maybe it is more of a support question rather than a hack, but how can I improve my capture?

I am trying to digitize old Super8 reels and the capture is jumping around like crazy. The footage to me is useless this way.

The result:

What is happening during capture:

Is my machine faulty? Or they all this bad? Can I do anything to improve?

I tried this with three reels (two sizes/types) and the film seems fine.

After reading and watching a ton, I started prodding the machine like a monkey, I tried: 1) creating slack in the take up reel, 2) no take up reel, 3) slack in the film reel, 4) different paths (this you see in the video), 5) toggled the selector switch to improve engagement with the film, 6) slide finger pressure on right side of the guide. Nothing has really improved my situation. Sometimes it seems like something is working until it doesn't.

Thanks!

My experience is that the shaking is caused by dried or poorly cut film. The gripper on dried film does not fit exactly into the perforation. On poorly cut film, the gripper does not have the strength to advance the film. Both of these problems are indicated by a loud clicking sound.
Try using my modification that I write about here #573

 

[P-car]

I've noticed that the scanner sometimes stops mid roll , and just freezes up. has anyone else noticed this behavior ? is there a solve? thanks

 

[ThePhage]

I've noticed that the scanner sometimes stops mid roll , and just freezes up. has anyone else noticed this behavior ? is there a solve? thanks

This is most likely due to the encoder freezing up and can be mitigated in various ways. See the “Known Issues” section of the User Guide (link in my signature).

Also, it could be the file size limit being reached.

 

[0dan0]

I've noticed that the scanner sometimes stops mid roll , and just freezes up. has anyone else noticed this behavior ? is there a solve? thanks

This is the risk you take when using a Qp below 22. Unit will randomly crash with the highest bitrates. This is way I added the Qp control, for max quality, you might have to rescan more, for a longer reels that you want to work reliability use a higher Qp.

 

[MHreels]

I've noticed that the scanner sometimes stops mid roll , and just freezes up. has anyone else noticed this behavior ? is there a solve? thanks

I experienced this several times with Version 7.4. I guess that this was due to a falsly triggered automatic film stop. This version also in low quality (i.e. high Qp) showed jitter on the bottom of the film which was not due to missed transport of the film during scanning. As I needed the scans for a Bday present on 14th Dec, I did not wait for any new versions and resorted to reinstall one of the first versions with 20fps, 1920 x 1440 resolution and about 17 Mbit/s data rate. This worked fine for my 10 rolls normal 8 film. I may try the newer versions whether they show improved results....

 

[P-car]

I raised the Qp above 22 - as OdanO suggested - and it sopped locking up mid-roll. Unfortunately, quality is not very good now.