We transfer 16mm film to digital formats, including DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital files. For the sharpest possible appearance without distortion, send your 16mm film reels to the professionals at Two Squares. We provide 16mm film conversion services to the entire United States from our Brooklyn Park location in the Minneapolis, MN area. Give us a call for superior quality, affordable, and timely 16mm film transfer services.
Eastman Kodak introduced the 16mm film standard in the 1920s. He created this amateur film format to serve the home enthusiast, business, educational, and government markets. This film type was unlike the 35mm film used for major motion pictures at the time.
We Convert Two Types of 16mm Film to Digital:
Two Squares can convert both these 16mm film formats to digital Blu-Ray, DVD, or other types of computer files.
Once your 16mm has been converted to a digital file format, you have plenty of options to watch and save it.
As a digital file, you can watch the film on your computer, share it via social media, save it on a hard drive, or back it up to the cloud. We’ll send it to you via digital download or on a physical flash drive on your request.
We’re also happy to burn your film to a DVD disc so that you can watch it on a home video player.
It’s important to properly prepare 16mm film before transferring it to DVDs or digital files. That’s because old film can become brittle and break if you’re not careful while handling it.
We train our technicians to handle old film properly. Once your film arrives, our technicians inspect, repair, and clean it with a special solution that lubricates the film before the transfer process begins. We can also splice existing breaks or cracks in your 16mm film.
The best way to capture 8mm and 16mm film for transfer to digital or DVD is by using a frame-by-frame scan method. A frame-by-frame scan captures every frame of a film to a computer, ensuring the best possible quality. This type of scan also avoids frame blur which happens with traditional scanning methods.
After capturing your frames, a repetition pattern duplicates and reinserts frames, converting film from 24 frames (or less common frame rates) to the 30 frames per second required for standard NTSC DVDs.
You will particularly notice the quality difference frame-by-frame scanning provides while pausing your movie and looking at a paused frame. This frame will be much cleaner and clearer than other capture methods could provide.
Two Squares uses professional-grade conversion equipment that provides frame-by-frame scans of 16mm film in a controlled environment. Our equipment and processes reproduce your video in the highest possible quality.
The picture to the right is one of our high-definition 16mm film-to-digital scanning machines. This HD system uses a high-grade camera mounted inside the machine and a high-quality lens to focus on the film frame surface.
This high-definition system provides exceptional quality, compared to other 16mm film transfer systems that use three to five lenses and mirrored surfaces between the film and the digitizer.
These additional lenses sometimes add minor distortions, making it difficult to focus the image and reduce the video’s sharpness.
Two Squares uses only the latest technology. To learn more about this, check out one of our recent articles: Are All Frame-by-Frame Film Scanners the Same?
The example video on the left highlights the quality of Two Squares’ frame-by-frame 16mm film transfers.
Another issue with old filmed movies is that their colors can fade or potentially shift to cyan (blue) or magenta (red). Even black-and-white film may switch to cyan or magenta, depending on the film process. Fortunately, professional-grade post-processing software can solve color-shifting problems.
Black and white films can transform into true black and white (grayscale). White-balancing color films help colors appear more natural. In most cases, a film’s quality limits the ability to correct its lighting and contrast levels.
Two Squares can also transfer your 16mm film to digital file formats in addition to DVDs. We can convert 16mm films to AVI, MOV, MP4 (MPEG4), and many other file formats.
You can then store and play these files on computers, iPods, iPads, iPhones, Android tablets, and Android smartphones.
Get in touch with Two Squares to have professionals preserve and convert your 16mm film to digital formats.
Pricing for 16mm Film to DVD Conversion Services
$0.30 per foot of 16mm film $0.45 per foot of 16mm film with sound
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$30 mastering charge – One $30 mastering charge per order. Your first DVD or DVD set is included. $10 per disc for additional DVD/sets – Hold up to 2 hours of video or $30 to convert all your captured reels to High Def 1600×1200 AVI/MPEG/etc and copy to a hard drive or flash drive (You supply the drive). or Call for Blu-ray conversion
Frame by frame scanning | Premium HD capture, down-converted to the highest DVD quality | Cleaning and splice repair included | Scenes menu on DVD included