They can't remove scratches but they do fix breaks in the film.  I just finished reviewing all 6000 feet I sent them.  There is footage that is pretty bad but I knew that going in.  There is also footage that looks remarkably well preserved.  A little CX Color correction and some Mercalli stabilization and its ready to go.  There was some footage that was so badly discolored, the best thing to do was to desaturate to a nice b&w, boost the brightness a bit and I was good to go.  I didn't need to add the old film look filter!

As for the hard drive, I bought it from them on my last job and for about $15.00, I sent them back the old drive and they gave me a new one, containing all my new files... all 80 gb with.  BTW... I'm going to be showing this at this month's ALUG meeting in February.

I like to slow the play down a bit with timewarp, improves the watchability.

Scott.

Can you tell me the name of the one you say you own or any information on where I might get one ?

Thanks,

Terry

Hey Andy

I too am an affiliat with Home movie depot for about 2 years now have not gotten any clients. Not sure what's up with that but there it is.

I use a different place here in LA where they use a real telecine machine or film chain device.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get clients to call me. It's just not working for me here in LA right now.

I also became an afflicate of Home Movie Depot and they are a great company to work with. I've send them over 25,000 ft of 8 mm film and over 2,000 slides. No compalints and everyone is happy.

Can you share how you are getting traffic to your site for this.

I advertise in a local paper and hand business cards to friends.   Once I get a happy customer, they become basically an unpaid salesman.  It is very word of mouth in my area. They like personal contact and they also like to see what you've done. My website shows them what I've done.

I guess being in LA it must be a bit more difficult then. so many of us out here. I do great work and have clients that love what I do for them however people don't want to spend more then $10 for a vhs to DVD conversion of an hour of footage.

Not sure how to get more users on board at this time.

I use a great place out here for the film conversion. Yale Film Video. They do transfers for clients like American Bandstand and the likes. Pros. Home Movie Depot uses prosumer gear and they don't clean the film prior to the conversion process. I have spoken to them numerous times on the phone and at trade shows about this. The good thing about physically cleaning the film prior to the conversion process is that it removes alot of the debris and yellowing so your computer doesen't have to.

Yale Film Vidio also puts new leader on the film and do not digitize the black or white dead spots so you don't pay for that.

Home Movie Depot only simply puts an exact copy of the film on whatever format you choose. Fast and cheap.

I guess that's good if that is all your client wants. I try and give them more for the money and educate them so that they don't need to redo this process in the future.

Many people are price sensitive. Their price of 12 cents per foot for 8mm/16mm to a DVD is pretty good.  They also get a chance to login to Home Movie Depot and edit the movie for a small additional charge.  My price as an affliliate is 8 cents per foot. It costs nothing to become an affliliate and they pay for the shipping to their facility.

 Everyone needs to do what they feel at ease with.