Old Home Movies Resurrected

All film is carefully inspected, hand-cleaned & lubricated before conversion. Any broken or breaking splices repaired. This is included in our service at no extra charge.

NB: Any mould we may find on the film can also be cleaned, but charges apply for this type of cleaning. It is important to note that this cleaning needs to be done for our scan technicians' health & safety, and so we cannot convert mouldy film without cleaning it first. Any damage the mould may have caused to the film is irreversible, but in most cases the mould tends towards the edges of the frame leaving the centre of the picture still viewable.

Our standard offering is frame-by-frame scanning of Regular 8mm, Super 8, 9.5mm & 16mm silent film, as well as Super 8 magnetic sound film & both 16mm optical sound & magnetic sound film (where film is in projectable condition), delivered on USB3 as archive quality AVI files in Full High Definition 1080p resolution (minimum), or 2K or 4K resolutions. We also further convert these to mp4 as an easy-to-share option, easily watchable on the widest range of devices, including most TVs.

Please note that we don't scan film at Standard Definition at all, as technology has moved past that point with all TVs being at least High Definition. Please bear this in mind when comparing our services with others who only offer Standard Def. Our minimum resolution of Full High Def 1080p is around 4 times the resolution of Standard Def, so with our conversions your TV will not have to enlarge a low res picture to fill the screen.

For our basic 1080p Full High Definition service, all scanning is now actually performed at the higher resolution of 2K 16x9 & then down-converted to 1080p for delivery to you. We do this to take advantage of our scanner's 2K camera to give an even better picture than a straight 1080p conversion.

AVI Files: These archive-quality AVI files are currently the best quality we can supply - an editable file perfect for future-proofing. It will play back on any Apple Mac or Windows PC, and through them (via HDMI) on your TV. (NB: You may need to download the free VLC player)

MOV Files: If we're also editing/enhancing your films we would instead supply MOV files made by our editing suites, of the same archive-quality.

Mp4 Files: Our transfer rates also include a further conversion to popular, shareable mp4 h264 files, which will be easy to watch on your TV & to share with family & friends.

The quality of the mp4 files will be very close to that of your archive-quality AVI for well lit, properly exposed film, but can suffer from some pixelation if you have dark, grainy, underexposed film. Unfortunately this is a limit of the mp4 technology at this point in time, though if you choose optional noise reduction as part of your transfer package this will also greatly improve the quality of any subsequent mp4 conversions, as you can see in our sample mp4 clip below.

Please enjoy our sample clip of an mp4 h264 conversion, of a Super 8 film from the 70's that we have transferred at 1080p resolution with optional Noise Reduction applied to reduce the film grain.

For Regular 8mm & Super 8mm film silent film we charge a once-off setup fee of $35 per project, then for Full High Def 1080p conversions it’s $33 per 3 inch reel. For larger reels - 5 inch diameter/200 foot capacity, or 7 inch diameter/400 foot capacity - we charge for the actual footage of film on the reel. So if your 400ft reel has, let's say, 129 feet of film on it, that’s precisely what you’ll pay for. (Please note that this is not saying that we don't charge for blank film. We do. But in actuality blank film is exceedingly rare, as usually it has been physically removed in the past, back in the day the film was being projected.)

The footage rate for silent 8mm formats is .49c per ft. So a full 5 inch reel (200ft) would be $98, and a full 7 inch reel (400ft) would be $196, but our example 129 ft on a 400ft reel would be $63.20. We may offer discounted footage rates for reels larger than 400ft capacity.

Plus the USB. NB: For film, because of the potential for some very large files at times, we supply a higher speed USB3 device.

For 16mm film, we charge a setup fee of $50 (once-off per project) then the conversion rate for silent film is .59c per foot (with a min charge per reel of $44). We may offer discounted footage rates for reels larger than 400ft capacity.

For 9.5mm film, we charge a setup fee of $50 (once-off per project) then the film conversion rate is $1.10 per foot (with a min charge per reel of $77).

Higher Resolutions: For our basic 1080p Full High Definition service, all scanning is now actually performed at the higher resolution of 2K 16x9 & then down-converted to 1080p for delivery to the client. We do this to take advantage of our scanner's 2K camera to give an even better picture than a straight 1080p conversion. We can supply these 2K 16x9 versions instead of 1080p resolution for a 20% surcharge.

We charge a 40% surcharge for 2K 4x3, and a 60% surcharge for 4K 4x3. Please note that these are 4x3, and you may have to instruct your TV how you'd like these displayed - to show pillar-boxed as 4x3, rather than stretched to 16x9. We can further convert these to 16x9 if desired. Hourly rates will apply.

NB: All film must be supplied on reels in order to be converted on our system. In cases where film is supplied without reels (coiled loose, or on cores) there will be some extra costs in labour & for the supply of reels themselves.

Turnaround Timeframes:

Depending on your quantities, we’re quoting from approx 3 weeks at the moment, not including shipping time. If you’re in a hurry and need it sooner than that let us know, and we may be able to accommodate you.

Please note that with the Christmas season rapidly approaching, large jobs may need to carry over until the new year. Or we can arrange to deliver a part of the job before Christmas.

Christmas Cut-Off Times* for incoming orders:

All jobs requiring shipping must be received no later than 9 am Monday, 11th December 2023, for completion*/invoicing by Dec 18th & Express Postage dispatching no later than Wednesday, 20th December 2023. Australia Post states that the last mailing day is Dec 20th for WA & NT, and Dec 21st for the rest of Australia. Please note that we cannot be held responsible for Australia Post's services.

Pick-up Orders can be placed until Friday, 15th December 2023, for completion*/invoicing by Dec 20th, for collection Dec 20, 21 & 22.

*Any undertaking to try to fully complete a project before Christmas is subject to realistic timeframes considering the size & scope of the project. We will advise if your project cannot fully be processed within the desired timeframe, and discuss options for partial pre-Christmas delivery if that helps.



Store Christmas Closure Notice:

RetroMedia will close 5pm Friday, 22nd December 2023, re-opening 9am Monday, 15th January 2024

PLEASE NOTE: During the holiday month of January, our store will operate with reduced staff, as we conduct annual general maintenance. As a result, service timeframes may be longer than anticipated.



Left Your Run A Little Late?

For Christmas this year we are offering beautifully gift-wrapped Gift Certificates! Any service, any value from $100. For that special somebody in your life! And so easy for you to take advantage of!

Ask us how!

Our frame-by-frame scanners do not convert sound. For film with sound, we currently offer 2 approaches.

1) We can scan the film frame-by-frame, and then for Super 8 magnetic sound, & 16mm (magnetic or optical sound), do a second additional projector-based pass to capture the sound, which we then have to sync together. The extra sound pass plus editing to sync the sound together doubles the applicable rates for silent film scanning of that format. We may offer a discount on sound capture/sync rates for reels larger than 400ft capacity.

2) A second option can be that we scan the film & leave the sound unrecorded - not such a bad option as in some cases the audio hasn't weathered the years as well as the film has, being a thin magnetic strip in the case of Super 8 & 16mm with mag sound. We are beginning to sometimes see the sound strip lifting off the film at this point in time. We'd be likely to catch such a problem at the film cleaning/inspection stage, so a decision could be made at that time.

Additionally, this is the best approach when you're unsure of the value of the content to you. Once you receive the initial silent conversion you can decide on whether or not you will convert the sound based on the importance of the content to you, and the quality of the content. There's no overall price disadvantage to waiting & getting the sound done at a later stage.

It's also important to note that not all film with a film stripe actually has sound recorded. Sometimes sound film was purchased in error, or because that was all the store had in stock.

Lastly, while we can convert mag sound for Super 8, as well as mag & optical sound for 16mm, and present them to you in perfect sync, the film needs to be in a physically projectable condition. In cases where the film has shrunken or curled in such a way that the perforations can no longer be aligned with a projector's pull down claw, then we would not be able to play the film on our sound projectors. Therefore we cannot convert the sound in such cases.

Such a high quality, perfectly synced audio capture/sync process as we offer is very labour intensive, but we may offer bulk discounts on very large jobs, subject to workload.

NB: All film must be supplied on reels in order to be converted on our system. In cases where film is supplied without reels (coiled loose, or on cores) there will be some extra costs in labour & for us to supply reels.


Turnaround Timeframes:

We are no longer accepting sound film for full sound conversion for this year. We can still accept sound film for silent transfer. Depending on your quantities, we’re quoting from approx 3 weeks at the moment, not including shipping time. If you’re in a hurry and need it sooner than that let us know, and we may be able to accommodate you.


Store Christmas Closure Notice:

RetroMedia will close 5pm Friday, 22nd December 2023, re-opening 9am Monday, 15th January 2024

PLEASE NOTE: During the holiday month of January, our store will operate with reduced staff, as we conduct annual general maintenance. As a result, service timeframes may be longer than anticipated.



Left Your Run A Little Late?

For Christmas this year we are offering beautifully gift-wrapped Gift Certificates! Any service, any value from $100. For that special somebody in your life! And so easy for you to take advantage of!

Ask us how!



Terms:

• We ask for a part payment (deposit) at commencement, of $10 per film. 

• To keep things as fair as possible, for regular timeframe projects your job will go into a queue of work and will be attended in turn. We're always very busy, dealing with very old, obsolete media, in a wide range of physical conditions, and with widely differing play durations which must be played through in a little slower than real time (we know of no high-speed film digitizing system). So predicting timeframes is not an exact science. It's simply not possible to precisely allow for unforeseen issues that may occur in your job, or in the jobs preceding yours in the queue.

So we aim at estimated turnaround targets. We ask for your patience with us on this. To do the best possible job, and to do it at a reasonable price, means it can't also be quick. We can choose only two of the three, and we're unwilling to cut corners on quality. If you have a looming deadline or event, please let us know, and we can discuss some options with you.

• Original media is available for collection upon full payment. Unless prior arrangements have been made, we ask for payments to be made within 7 days of invoicing.

• We like to be as flexible as possible. We’re happy to work with you before commencement of the job to come to a mutually acceptable arrangement. But we do ask that if we have not made alternate arrangements with you before commencement, that you will honour our terms.