Family History Fun: Convert Your 8mm Home Movie Films to DVD

Growing up, were you frequently asking what you parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents were like when they were kids? Did you ever wish you could see how they lived back then? You may be able to. Long forgotten and tucked away somewhere, often in the basement, garage, or closet, you may have old home movies on 8mm film which you should transfer to DVD for you to enjoy and share.

Transferring your 8mm film is both rewarding and a lot of fun. Everyone in the family has enjoyed watching the films of my grandparents and their parents and seeing how they really lived. It's been neat to see what their houses looked like, what kind of cars they drove, how they dressed, how they celebrated the birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations - their special moments in life.

You feel like you know someone so much better when you get to see them in motion. Viewing these movies are very much indeed a video family history. This has been a real pleasure and endless source of conversation for us - everyone now wants to know more.

Many people want to know more about their past. Websites such as genealogy.com are dedicated to helping people find family documents and old photos. A century ago, documents were all we had, leaving us unfortunately to only imagine what are ancestors were really like. But What if we had the opportunity to see them in a film: walking, talking or even just waving hello? Having something so simple would be a huge treasure. Because of this, transferring your 8mm movie film to DVD is truly giving you and future generations a treasure to enjoy.

Sadly, film preservation is a race against time. All films deteriorate, some do alarmingly quickly, even in Hollywood. This happened to Steven Spielberg when he was viewing has original master copy of Jaws a short 15 years after its production, only to find that the film had faded badly. Ever since, Mr. Spielberg has been one of the more active supporters of film preservation. A film's quality of manufacture, the stability of it's dyes, it's processing or development, and how it is stored, all play a role in determining how long it will survive.

Let's face it, we're not Hollywood, However, our movies are still very important to us but we do not have funds to spend on professional film restoration. For us, we need to concentrate on preservation and conversion. We should convert to digital to prevent further deterioration and preserve our original film the best way we can.

The task may seem daunting, but you can start as soon as today; I'll show you how. To help you along I've created a website dedicated to 8mm film to DVD conversion, 8mmfilmtodvd.net that summarizes hundreds of hours of my research on 8mm film conversion. Admittedly, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I've researched how 8mm film was manufactured, why it's decaying, all the various techniques and equipment used to convert it to digital, the best ways to store the original films, DVD media types and their respective lifespans, the video compression formats available, among many other topics. I've spent the time doing it, why not benefit from it? The website will show you that after a few quick decisions, mostly regarding how to you want to use and enjoy your movies, you can begin as soon as today. I hope you find converting and sharing your home movies as enjoyable as I have.