Virtual Telecine of Super 8mm Sound (24 fps) cine film??

Thanks jggimi!! I appreciate the help. Doc

You're welcome. I've posted a link to this thread in the DV forum. You might get some additional insights/suggestions from that community as well.

Even if you do have a correctly timed and flicker free transfer, it will not look the best it can. If you have hundreds, I would purchase the Workprinter. Do your transfer to the computer with a nice DV camera then purchase a cheap projector that plays sound. Then transfer the sound from your projector through your camera to the computer, then sync the sound. This will give you the best quality you can get. Any other method will give you very poor quality compared to the method listed above. It really isn't worth all that trouble for the quality you will receive. I can help you out if you do not want to do all that yourself for cheaper than anyone else would. I use the a workprinter. Shoot me an email and I could even mail you a sample on DVD.

Backwoods, Thanks for writing to me and I sincerely appreciate your offer of help. I examined the workprinter option for quite a while. They even have a set-up almost identical to mine with the 20fps projection speed and everything. Although I think they are great machines, after weighing the pro's and con's of their's vs. mine, they are not my choice for my film-to-video project. With either solution (a workprinter or my set-up), I still have to post process the captured film and therein lies the real focus of my information quest. Using AviSynth (and associated filters), how can I take captured NTSC miniDV video of a 20fps film source, remove the blended/combed frames, restore the frame rates to intended rates (18fps or 24fps), perform the appropriate pulldown process to get back to NTSC, and all while simultaneously maintaining audio sync and speeds. Thanks again for your help.

Sure, no problem. Now what will you be recording from? What will your projector be facing that your miniDV camera will record from? While the workprinter runs at either 1 FPS or (roughly) 8 FPS, it records each frame perfectly, no combing or blending. With your setup you will see such either way, even after AVISynth filters. They will be greatly minimized but still there. Best thing to do is just test and retest over and over til you are satisfied. You can compare your tests to a sample from the workprinter and judge from there. I can post a sample for you if you like.

I plan to use a 45 degree mirror/condenser lens assembly like the workprinters use, although I will have to fabricate one as they are no longer sold outside the workprinter packages (I wrote them and asked). I have seen samples of the workprinter results and they are quite impressive. My set-up should be quite similar to their package that does real-time 20fps capture (not frame-by-frame). They have an enlarged gate and a low-wattage diffused light source, which I don't have. :( But I do have a higher reel capacity and I do have sound. :D Most of my films are commercially produced prints taken from feature films (either abridgements or feature length). As some of them exceed the maximum 400' reel capacity of the workprinter, I would have to cut them down to fit on smaller reels and I do not wish to do that. Also the idea of having to pass the film a second time to record sound and then attempt to post sync that sound does not appeal to me at all. As the sound projectors do not have crystal sync and will probably not hold an exact 20fps (varying slightly up or down and potentially causing the field level blending mentioned above), the audio would also have slight speed variances that could make post-synchronization a nightmare if not impossible. If the audio is "coupled" with the video during transfer, sync shouldn't be too much of a problem assuming the AviSynth filters work the way I think they do. So, I acknowledge that my video reproduction will not be optimal. But, I will save wear and tear on my film, can do the transfers faster, don't have the post audio synch headaches, and I can keep my "project" costs down. So, I am happy for the time being. Thanks again for your input. Doc Cyclops --Superstitious perhaps, baloney...perhaps not