Modding the Kodak Reels 8mm Film Digitizer (Firmware Hack)

[sclawrenc]

Hey all, first I'd like to thank Mac84 for his excellent work on this, as well as everyone else that has had input. I am using a Kodak Reels V2.0 U.S. model I picked up on Ebay to do well over 48 3 inch and one 5 inch 8mm reels.

Couple things I noticed when going through the very detailed instructions. It looks like the original instructions were from a V 1.0 so I'd just like to add an amendment to the original instructions for V2.0.



For my V2.0 U.S. Model the address was different as shown below. For my V2.0 U.S. the address is 00ddb09C.

Screenshot from my setup via NtkMPE 1.2:

Note: Unfortunately the last column "Aspe..." is cutoff and so I was not sure what exactly that was looking for or if like FPS it is just ignored anyway (see below on FPS findings).

View attachment 15472

Resolution: So, in looking at what was available to me here, I looked at Mac84's 1920 x 1440p resolution which as posted results in a 17.4 Mb/s max bitrate video. Then also checked to see what the posted OEM resolution 1728x1296 + High Bitrate put out which resulted in a much better 22.4 Mb/s Max bitrate file.

After reading this:



This made alot of sense to me, as well once I looked at the Neat Video plugin which (now that I've tried it) seems to be pretty much the denoise standard for pro's and home alike, I realized that another benefit is the "Home" license for Neat Video for DaVinci Resolve is U.S. $99 for home use and maxed at 1080p, where it's $179 for the commercial license with no resolution restrictions. DaVinci Resolve free version does not include the Denoise tool, you have to bump up to the paid (DaVinci Resolve Studio) version for $299 for that. So, for $99 U.S. you have one heck of an editor for the money to be sure.

Bitrate for 1440 x 1080: Since JohnF did not specify what bitrate he tested I decided to give 1440 X 1080 a try as previously mentioned to see how far I could push the bitrate. As shown in my screenshot above I was able to push it to 19222 (the header in that table from NTKMPE show it as bitrate/2). This setting does in fact work and give you an output video of 26.2 Mb/s as per MediaInfo! Note *anything* higher than that and it just refuses to record the video, but at 19222 it is very stable and I am seeing far fewer compression artifacts from the stock setup.

So basically here is my summary of what's offered here for resolutions and bitrates:

I'd like to also suggest that one other metric can be taken into account besides resolution and video bitrate (though it is partially a result of both) in determining a "quality" metric and that is Bits/(Pixel*Frame). Basically if you are going to be doing any digital post processing, everything is pretty much done at that level whether it be color correction, denoising, and even down stream scaling and compression.

So, I have included it in the table below as I analyzed via MediaInfo the three current options offered "out of the can" so to speak at the top of this post, then throwing the 1440 x 1080p + Higher bitrate I tested in there giving me 4 good options.

Firmware	Resolution	Video Bitrate	Bits/(Pixel*Frame)
Original Unmodified v2.0 Firmware	1728 x 1296	8726 kb/s	0.195
1440p resolution + Higher bitrate (v2)	1920 x 1440	17.2 Mb/s	0.311
Higher Bitrate - Original Resolution (v2)	1728 x 1296	22.4 Mb/s	0.494
* 1080p resolution + Higher bitrate (v2)	1440 x 1080	26.2 Mb/s	0.843

* Firmware created in the screenshot above for Kodak Reels Version 2.0 (USA Only)

Note on Framerate: I also tried changing the frame rate (with everything else mfg setup to avoid any conflicts) and both 18fps (super 8) and 16 fps (8mm) caused the unit to freeze as soon as you hit record. So, I then figured maybe it has to be in multiples of 10 as other values in the table are 30 fps. Setting the fps to 10 or 30 fps does allow the unit to record, however the resulting output is at 20 fps so for whatever reason fps of 10 or 30 seems to just be ignored by the unit.

Random Observations:
As mentioned before, you can record on both fat32 as well as exfat formatted cards, also doesn't seem to mind micro sdxc cards with an adapter (which they usually come with) and I have used a 128 GB microsd card formatted exFat with macOS Disk Utility. Flashing does require a fat32 formatted card as Mac84 mentioned.

Thanks for doing all of the heavy lifting on this Mac84! Results are much better than stock regardless of which of the flavors offered here you choose IMO.

As I am new to this board, I am not linking to the 1080p high bitrate firmware I created. If a mod wants it to offer up at the top as an option, that's fine with me. Remember, it is ONLY tested on my Kodak Reels V 2.0 U.S. version machine.

Again, thanks so much for improving what I actually thought was a pretty decent product!

Thank you @dynaflash for sharing your updated settings. I decided to download the most recent firmware from Kodak website using my serial number, and then I made the edits you mentioned. Hopefully this minimizes the risk of issues.

Please see the screenshot below. In my case, the firmware from the Kodak site shows the address 00ddc2bc as the one to edit. I wonder why my aspe column shows as 1280 when yours and others show 1920? Maybe this doesn't matter.

I will flash my device at some point, but not sure because I might be returning or exchanging it based on my previous post with the blocky pixelation and artifacts. Maybe that's just normal and this firmware mod will help.

 

[Mac84]

Thank you @dynaflash for sharing your updated settings. I decided to download the most recent firmware from Kodak website using my serial number, and then I made the edits you mentioned. Hopefully this minimizes the risk of issues.

Please see the screenshot below. In my case, the firmware from the Kodak site shows the address 00ddc2bc as the one to edit. I wonder why my aspe column shows as 1280 when yours and others show 1920? Maybe this doesn't matter.

I will flash my device at some point, but not sure because I might be returning or exchanging it based on my previous post with the blocky pixelation and artifacts. Maybe that's just normal and this firmware mod will help.

The pre-built firmware files (with updated resolution) are displayed once you enter your serial number into the new tool. I've built and tested these and they've worked great on my three models.

With the official Kodak firmware downloaded, that's your safety belt. If after flashing your firmware to the modified type, and you're not happy, you should be able to re-flash the firmware back to the Kodak version without issue.

And especially if you were thinking of returning the device... there's even less risk involved.

 

[phoyd]

Just a quick note to say that I found a free and quick way to convert captures from 20fps to 16fps on a Mac if you're comfortable working in Terminal.

Install Homebrew and ffmpeg using Terminal (ffmpeg is a command line video editing tool - chances are you've heard of it if you've been researching capturing old films).

Once those are installed and you still have a Terminal window open, navigate to the directory that houses an 8mm capture, and run the following command:



(make sure to update your input and output file names in the command above)

It goes pretty fast, but if you have a longer capture it may take a little time. And use the number 18 instead of 16 if yours is a Super8 capture.

The above code has ffmpeg open your file that was captured at 20fps and read it as 16fps, and then save it without making any duplicate or dropped frames to the 16fps - as far as I can tell it simply slows it down the fps a bit, proper speed. You're passing through all other codec settings and changing the bitrate to 12000k if it wasn't already. The resulting file is ready to import into editing software. I wanted a corrected frame rate before doing any editing.

If someone is familiar with ffmpeg and feels I screwed up or am giving bad info, please let me know and I'll edit. This is a mish-mash of instructions found on a few different forums. I'm paying for a monthly Adobe subscription so I wanted to use Premiere Pro since I'm familiar with - but it won't natively (or easily) save to 16fps, unfortunately.

The command (ffmpeg -r 16 -i inputvideofilenamehere.MP4 -vsync passthrough -b:v 12000k outputvideofilenamehere.MP4 ) reencodes the video, which might not be desirable.

Instead you can use the -itsscale option of ffmpeg to change only the timestamps of the frames. -itscale expects a factor to apply to the timestamps and for a conversion from 20fps to 16fps the factor is 20/16=1.25. The command would be:

ffmpeg -itsscale 1.25 -i input.mp4  -c copy ouput.mp4

 

[sclawrenc]

The pre-built firmware files (with updated resolution) are displayed once you enter your serial number into the new tool. I've built and tested these and they've worked great on my three models.

With the official Kodak firmware downloaded, that's your safety belt. If after flashing your firmware to the modified type, and you're not happy, you should be able to re-flash the firmware back to the Kodak version without issue.

And especially if you were thinking of returning the device... there's even less risk involved.

Thanks again @Mac84

I just downloaded the firmware from the Kodak site using my serial number and then edited the resolution and bitrate based on some feedback from @dynaflash and loaded it to my Kodak Reels, however, I now have a display that is not working correctly. I see horizontal yellow and red bands across the screen at the home screen instead of the standard Kodak screen. I have tried loading the default firmware (with no modifications) from the Kodak website using my serial number, and the firmware @Mac84 provided based on my serial number, but I still get the messed up yellow/red display. I'm not sure what to do now with it not working. It seems to respond to my commands, but the display isn't working. I have the 2.0 firmware and I'm in the US.

 

[Mac84]

Thanks again @Mac84

I just downloaded the firmware from the Kodak site using my serial number and then edited the resolution and bitrate based on some feedback from @dynaflash and loaded it to my Kodak Reels, however, I now have a display that is not working correctly. I see horizontal yellow and red bands across the screen at the home screen instead of the standard Kodak screen. I have tried loading the default firmware (with no modifications) from the Kodak website using my serial number, and the firmware @Mac84 provided based on my serial number, but I still get the messed up yellow/red display. I'm not sure what to do now with it not working. It seems to respond to my commands, but the display isn't working. I have the 2.0 firmware and I'm in the US.

This probably is likely caused by Kodak (or rather, the Chinese company they licensed their name to) using different LCD screen parts and panels in these systems. As some users experienced this before, but I was hopeful that their recent firmware update worked as a solution for this.

Originally Kodak posted their firmware update which only covered one of their units, this was quickly taken down and they posted a tool that checks the serial number and points you to either firmware file A or B. However, it seems like maybe they need a third option. Sadly, this is part of the risk of using the modified firmware files.

Here's what I would do:
Email Kodak support. I would not mention anything about trying this modified firmware. I doubt that is the cause of the issue and it would just confuse matters.

I'd write that you downloaded the Kodak firmware from their website and now the LCD screen is displaying funny colors. I'd provide them with your serial number too. In the past they've updated the firmware files to accommodate users who were having issues with their updates, so it's possible they'd be able to help. However their reply times are sometimes slow. Feel free to post or direct message me your serial number, I can't do anything with it now, but maybe in the future it would be helpful in identifying the root cause.

 

[sclawrenc]

This probably is likely caused by Kodak (or rather, the Chinese company they licensed their name to) using different LCD screen parts and panels in these systems. As some users experienced this before, but I was hopeful that their recent firmware update worked as a solution for this.

Originally Kodak posted their firmware update which only covered one of their units, this was quickly taken down and they posted a tool that checks the serial number and points you to either firmware file A or B. However, it seems like maybe they need a third option. Sadly, this is part of the risk of using the modified firmware files.

Here's what I would do:
Email Kodak support. I would not mention anything about trying this modified firmware. I doubt that is the cause of the issue and it would just confuse matters.

I'd write that you downloaded the Kodak firmware from their website and now the LCD screen is displaying funny colors. I'd provide them with your serial number too. In the past they've updated the firmware files to accommodate users who were having issues with their updates, so it's possible they'd be able to help. However their reply times are sometimes slow. Feel free to post or direct message me your serial number, I can't do anything with it now, but maybe in the future it would be helpful in identifying the root cause.

Thanks @Mac84 and that's exactly what I did today. I'm hopeful they will be able to provide me the correct firmware for the version I have. Kodak Support was very helpful when I had another question/issue a few weeks ago, and I am optimistic they will come through on this issue too. I will keep you all updated once I have a resolution. Thanks again!