Home Movies Is it possible to save individual frames to a computer?

[mgeneas]

We have home movies from the 1960's. The originals and transferred to video tape.
Is it possible to save individual frames to a computer? How?

[greenrig]

Short answer is Yes, you can do this.  The answer to "How" could fill a book.

I suggest you find a local photo shop, who do slide scanning and film and VHS transfers to DVD etc.  They can advise, and probably do the work, for a charge which will be much less than the fairly steep learning curve you would encounter.

In short, if you have original film, then individual frames can be scanned (similar to 35mm slide scans), and the resultant file (JPG etc.) put on a PC.   If you have VHS tapes, then individual frames can be "captured" by many pieces of software on a PC, and a JPG produced.

[Nick_Ips]

I would echo greenrig's comments, and perhaps add that if you still have the original films it would be worth considering any additional cost/hassle of getting these scanned/digitised compared to getting framegrabs from VHS video.

A lot of detail and quality in the original film will have been lost in the conversion to VHS tape, and capturing individual frames from VHS will give you a less than satisfactory end result.

However, if you really don't want to pay for a conversion service then it is possible to buy fairly cheap USB video capture devices (under £20) which plug into your PC/Laptop and connect to the video/audio outputs of a VHS player (if you still have one that works!). They are simple to use, but the price of that is the quality of the resulting image is poor in comparison to getting the original film scanned.

If using a professional service, one important thing is to try and find a local one where you can drop off and collect your films/tapes in person - you really don't want to rely on the post to send irreplaceable memories.

[Ray T]

The original film would give you the best quality image but bear in mind that the quality of individual frames on cine film is likely to be pitifully low in the first place; largely due to their size and the fact that they were intended to be viewed in quick series rather than individually.

[mgeneas]

Thank you for the suggestions.

Yes we have the original films, both regular 8 and Super 8. We even have the Super 8 camera tucked away somewhere!