How do you tell the difference between sound film and silent film?

Ever wonder if the old home movies you've been holding onto all these years have sound on them?

There are many different film formats that have been used in the US over the years for both commercial film production and consumer home movies. The most popular are Regular 8mm film, Super8mm film, and 16mm film. All three film types may or may not be recorded with sound. Prior to the advent of Regular 8mm film in the 1930's, home movies were shot on silent 16mm film, but this was expensive. In 1932 the Eastman Kodak company released the Cine Kodak Eight which used Regular 8mm film (also known as standard 8mm film). Regular 8mm film is similar to 16mm film except that it is only 8mm wide and only has sprocket holes on one side whereas silent 16mm film has sprocket holes on both sides.

Super 8mm film came later as a technical innovation.  The sprocket holes were made narrower so the frame size of the film could be larger, thus increasing image quality and sharpness. Below are what the silent versions of these film sizes look like.

However, the sound versions of these films are all quite different. While Regular 8mm film could have sound added to the film during the processing phase at a film lab, there were no 8mm cameras that recorded audio onto film while it was being shot. During processing at a film lab, a magnetic strip (much like the magnetic tape in an audio cassette) was glued to the edge where the sprocket holes were to enable narration or music recording after the fact. This was called sound striping.  There were also projectors that could record music and narration over the film, but not a synchronized audio track recorded at the time of filming.

This changed in the 1960's when Super8mm film came out.  Since the magnetic strip on Super8mm was on the opposite side of the sprocket holes, a sound head in the camera could easily record audio at the time of shooting. Below is a diagram and a picture comparing Regular 8mm sound film to Super8mm sound film.

Regular 8mm film with sound is very rare, but Super 8mm sound is more common. However, most of your relatives probably shot silent film because both the cameras and film capable of recording sound were far more expensive. Super 8mm sound film has not been manufactured for over a decade, and there are virtually no labs left that will process it. As opposed to Regular8mm sound film, Super8mm's sound strip was not glued on during processing.

Magnetic strips on film, especially strips that were pasted on after processing, have been known to fall off of the film due to the glue wearing out. That's why it's very important to have your Super 8mm film digitized as soon as possible to preserve film and the films soundtrack.

So, how do you tell if your Regular 8mm or Super 8mm has sound? Just roll out approx. five feet of film and look for these magnetic tracks. If you don't want to unwind your film and expose it to dust, you can simply look at the side of your film reel for the copper color of the magnetic track.

Regular8mm film and Super8 had what is called a balance stripe. We won't go into what it's for, but it's a narrower magnetic stripe located on the other side of the film with respect to the main one. Some projectors can actually read and record onto the balance stripe, so sometimes families would record music onto it, and it would play in tandem with the sound they recorded while filming. Typically, the balance stripe has no sound on it.

While most people shot 8mm and Super 8 film back in the 1950's and 60's, silent 16mm was used primarily for home movies in the 1940's and earlier. After Regular8mm came along, 16mm became a commercial format mostly...shot by independent filmmakers, television producers, and for the news.

There are two general kinds of 16mm soundtracks: magnetic and optical (shown below).

Like Regular 8mm sound film and Super8mm sound film, the magnetic track on 16mm is read like an audio cassette with a magnetic sound head. However, optical sound is quite different. Optical sound is literally an image of a sound waves located on the non-perforated side of the film. As light is shined through it, pulses of light are interpreted by a sensor in a projector which are then translated into an analog audio signal that can played out of a speaker.

Chances are none of your film is magnetic as magnetic 16mm film was primarily used for the news (they needed their sound on the film right away). In terms of optical soundtracks, they cannot be recorded by a camera, only added later by a lab. Usually, the only time you will have film that has an optical soundtrack will be when it's a commercially produced film, such as educational films meant for distribution to classrooms. Sometimes even, and this is especially true if your commercial film is from the UK, you'll see an optical soundtrack called a variable density soundtrack. It can be read by the same projector that can read a normal optical track. Below is a closeup of the track itself.

How can you tell whether your 16mm film has sound or not? Unwind the film past the leader (film of a solid color that is attached to the beginning the reel) and look for the spocket holes (perforations). If your film is double perforated; it has sprocket holes on both sides, then it is silent and most likely home movie footage. If it's single perforated; sprocket holes on one side only, then it's more likely to have sound. However, there is silent single perforated 16mm film, so after you unwind the film a bit, check directly for the soundtrack.

Remember, sound is just as important as your image and the older the film gets the worse the sound gets as well. By doing a high quality film to video transfer at Audio Video Workshop, you will preserve not just your sound, but your film as well!

mail@av-workshop.com
703 Woodside Road, Suite 3, Redwood City, California 94061

650-369-4366

Super8 Film Transfer to DVD or Bluray

Regular 8mm Film Conversion to Digital
16mm Film Transfer to DVD or Bluray

Reduced Photo Scanning Prices for the San Francisco Bay Area

Audio Video Workshop has just reduced their photo scanning prices to make them affordable for just about anyone and everyone. Let's face it, we all have boxes and photo albums full of priceless memories. With AV Workshop's reduced prices, there has never been a better time to preserve and protect those precious memories. Loose photo scanning prices are now as low as .35 cents per photo. 

We scan your photos into high resolution JPEGs so you can archive, reprint, email, share, and enjoy them all over again. Don't let your photos deteriorate, and fade away! Bring them to AV Workshop and let us digitize your photos so they will be there for generations to come! With our enhanced photo scanning service, we make your photos look as good as possible with: 

• Dust Removal
• Slight Color Correction
• Brightness / Contrast Improvement
• Red Eye Removal
• De-skewing (image leveling)
• Picture Orientation Correction

All photos are scanned right here in the San Francisco By Area by skilled technicians and not shipped over-seas!

We also offer photo restoration where we can remove scratches, people, and just about anything... In addition, we perform slide scanning and negative scanning as well. So bring your memories into AV Workshop and keep em Safe! Keep em Local!

mail@av-workshop.com
703 Woodside Road, Suite 3, Redwood City, California 94061

Audio Video Workshop Sponsors Little League Baseball

Thanks to the continued support of our local San Francisco Bay Area customers, AV Workshop was able to sponsor Pacifica American - Little League Baseball in 2012. In addition, I (Scott Sargent) coached the team.

It was a joy to give back to the community and make a difference in Society and in the youth of today! I put in approx. 300 hrs on the field and enjoyed every moment of it. My goal was to give kids a sense of accomplishment through following and focusing on good technique, thousands of repetitions, and pure hustle. I wanted them to be able look back on a successful season and realize that this is the recipe for success and it could be applied to just about anything they wanted in life. Looking back, it was the best time and money we've ever spent! As a result, I want to thank all of you who have supported Audio Video Workshop by entrusting us in your Audio / Video projects - I want to thank you for keeping it local! You made a difference!

Now Offering High Defintion Film Scanning to Bluray

Audio Video Workshop now offers full Frame-by-Frame High Definition Film Scanning. We can transfer Super8 film to DVD, 8mm film to DVD and 16mm film to DVD, Bluray or a hard drive for editing. Our standard film transfer and enhanced film transfers are done in house with the Sniper-HD Pro Telecine Scanning System which utilizes PulseGate Technology. Every super 8mm frame of your film is individually scanned directly with an HD camera using a CMOS sensor and 3 million pixels! The gate on the Sniper-HD is enlarged to give us access to 100% of the film frame. Using a super bright and cool LED light source, we are able to provide rich vibrant colors with zero hot spot and no chance of burning your film. High Defintion mp4 files can be edited from your compueter using software such as iMovie, Final Cut, or Adobe Premiere.

Frame by frame scanning means your transfers are 100% flicker free, crystal clear and razor sharp from corner to corner. Our equipment uses a sprocketless drive to assure no film damage to your priceless memories. These are just some of the advantages of our Standard and Enhanced film transfer methods, however, we still offer an economical film transfer which is done in realtime utilizing an ariel capture method.
In addition to frame-by-frame film scanning, our Enhanced film transfer includes scene by scene color correction as well as brightness and contrast improvement. Since almost all film will shift in color over time, your film will benefit from the use of our sophisticated digital tools such as our digital vector scope. A technician will analyze your film (which is now digital) and balance the colors scene by scene. For example, if you had an indoor scene that ended where an outdoor scene began, we would color correct them independently. Moreover, we can enhance the clarity of your film by adjusting the brightness and contrast to improve exposure problems where the film may be too dark or too bright; as a result, your memories will look better than ever and be there for generations to come!

mail@av-workshop.com
703 Woodside Road, Suite 3, Redwood City, California 94061
http://av-workshop.com/super8-film-to-dvd/
http://av-workshop.com/16mm-film-to-dvd/
http://av-workshop.com/8mm-film-to-dvd/

Instant Chat Now Available

Audio Video Workshop now has a live chat option to answer any of your questions. Whether it is a question about video to dvd transfer, film transfer to dvd, converting video to quicktime, video to avi files, dvd duplication, cd duplication, or any of our services - we are here to assist you. The chat window will appear on the lower part of your screen (when we are available) and will give you access to us and information in realtime. Thus, giving you one more way to communicate your needs.

Have Broken Video Tapes?

Many of us have had different video cameras / camcorders in the past ranging from the big VCR which you carried on your back and was connected to the camera as well as VHS-C, 8mm, Hi8, Digitial 8 (D8), mini DV and HDV. Since most consumers don't have professional playback decks, the tapes are played back out of the camera that recorded them and as these cameras age the likelihood of them chewing up your videotape increases. Once your videotape is crinkled, twisted, snapped, riffled, broken, etc... a moment of panic sets in because you feel that you might have just lost those precious memories forever! If this sounds familiar, don't worry and certainly don't throw your tapes / memories away. Instead, bring your broken video tapes to Audio Video Workshop and have us provide you with our video tape repair service. We can repair just about any type of video tape format including VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, D8, 8mm, Betamax, DV, mini DV, DVCAM, Betacam SP, and HDV tapes.

Typically, what we do is open up the videotape cassette housing, carefully unwind the damaged section, trim out the damaged section (which usually only equates to a few seconds lost), splice the videotape together with special splicing tape, put the tape back into the housing (or a new housing if it needs it)  and pack the tape by fast forwarding and rewinding the tape (which releives the tape of any loose particles as well as seats the tape evenly on the reels / spools. Finally, we transfer your video to DVD or convert your video to a hard drive in the form of an uncompressed AVI file for the PC or a quicktime file for the MAC. Thus, you will not have to ever worry about breaking your videotape again because they will be digital and there for generations to come!

In addition, we can digitally restore your video tape by running the video signal through our time base corrector and digital filter system. Once the audio and video has been digitized, we can enhance the audio with our digital noise reduction & level optimization process. These enhancements are part of our premium DVD service. Also, we provide audio tape repair services as well. So, bring your broken video tapes into AV-Workshop and Back to Life Today!

mail@av-workshop.com
703 Woodside Road, Suite 3, Redwood City, California 94061
Video Tape Repair Services
Audio Tape Repair Services