Alternative to CinePost? AVP?

[npcoombs]

One recent contributor recently had a very bad experience with the quality of the telecine from CinePost and when I look at my images I then start to see the same problem: softer than they were on projection and big blocks of pixels where they shouldn't be.

I have checked Todd-AO in the UK, who would charge £200 ($400) to scan 400ft of material, which is a bit steep for my budget.

I wonder if anyone has had any experience with AVP in Munich? Their website is all in German so I don;t have any idea of prices?

[Stevedix]

I wonder if anyone has had any experience with AVP in Munich? Their website is all in German so I don;t have any idea of prices?

If you have the website address, I can have a look and possibly translate it for you.

[Chris-B]

Todd-AO give very good results.

It is cheaper to buy and get the film processed by them than to just go with the telecine. They only sell Vision 200 & 500. It is £50.00 per cart inc telecine and processing or £40.00 per cart if you buy in bulk (8 carts or more).

I have had good telecine results from Video Station and you normally get it back within the week. They also offer a free sample dvd of their work.
http://www.videostation.co.uk/

Good luck!
Chris.

[Dr_Strangelove]

My plan is to get my 16mm footage transfered at 3516.com (Debenhem Media group), they use a ''Rank Cintel Turbo II'' according to their website and the stills they provide on their frontpage look very impressive.

Can anyone who has tried their transfers give a comment or two about the quality?


/Jan

[MovieStuff]

One recent contributor recently had a very bad experience with the quality of the telecine from CinePost and when I look at my images I then start to see the same problem: softer than they were on projection and big blocks of pixels where they shouldn't be.

That has to be an anomaly. CinePost does terrific transfers, usually. I used to do film restoration for DVD (Sundown, Cisco Kid, Terry and the Pirates, etc) and the best transfers given to me to work with came from CinePost. I would talk to Myron at CinePost and discuss your issues with him directly before jumping ship.

Roger

[npcoombs]

My theory is that the problem is that they scan at NTSC resolution and perform some sort of digital blow-up to PAL resolution, which would explaining aliasing and the softness.

But you are right I should talk to them directly about any concerns.

[tlatosmd]

Nathan, in case you're talking about S8 and have three months, try DVP in Düsseldorf, Germany. 50 cents up to 1 Euro per footage minute for a boadcasting-quality result depending upon your destination medium, full color, contrast, and density control included. Plus 1% discount per reel you'll send in, and pre-scan cleaning.

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

Plus 1% discount per reel you'll send in,

Wow, if I send them 100 reels I get 100% discount!
That has got to be unbeatable!

[tlatosmd]

Um, I forgot, it's limited to 30% discount. :oops:

[audadvnc]

One recent contributor recently had a very bad experience with the quality of the telecine from CinePost ...

That has to be an anomaly...Roger

If you read the contributor's post over at cinematography you can tell she's a rank beginner film student and can't clearly describe either what she had done or provide examples of the problem. Post studios have problems with student materials that come with quality problems all over the place.

Now here comes Nathan spreading bad news about Cinepost based on an Internet rumor - maybe it's true, I dunno, but without some examples of the issue these comments aren't worthwhile to us or the post house. Show us samples of the problem and what you'd like to see different.

[MovieStuff]

One recent contributor recently had a very bad experience with the quality of the telecine from CinePost ...

That has to be an anomaly...Roger

If you read the contributor's post over at cinematography you can tell she's a rank beginner film student and can't clearly describe either what she had done or provide examples of the problem. Post studios have problems with student materials that come with quality problems all over the place.

Boy isn't that the truth?

We get in student films all the time. Bad exposure, lousy splices, out of focus etc. And, always, the people with the worst looking films will call up to grill us about whether we use uncompressed or compressed capture or to make sure we put it on DVcam and not just miniDV, etc because they are sooooo concerned about quality. Amazing, really.

Roger

[fastwind]

Cinepost is good. Damn good. The prices are reasonable. I live here in Atlanta, I've been there for sessions in super 8 and 35mm. John, the
telecine operator knows his stuff backwards and forwards. Once I brought
a purple roll of Kodachrome that was 30 + years old. I went in there
thinking he could only pull a black & white image from the old roll.
Much to my suprise, he was able to wrestle a wonderful image from the
old film that also had heat damage(shrunken film). There's 2 Rank
machines in there. 1 Turbo, non Turbo. That old man knows his stuff.

[Evan Kubota]

Uh, did I miss something? While you two are busy agreeing on the mediocre quality of a lot of student film footage (which may well be valid) Nathan also mentioned that in addition to the anecdotal evidence, he also had some footage transferred there that was less than satisfactory.

No lab is perfect all the time, and some are more consistently good than others.

[MovieStuff]

Uh, did I miss something? While you two are busy agreeing on the mediocre quality of a lot of student film footage (which may well be valid) Nathan also mentioned that in addition to the anecdotal evidence, he also had some footage transferred there that was less than satisfactory.

No lab is perfect all the time, and some are more consistently good than others.

Exactly. Which is why I gave him my experience in using CinePost, which was quite good. Since CinePost can produce good footage, then I would say something was wrong that can be attenuated, which is why I suggested he talk to Myron.

Roger

[flatwood]

..... always, the people with the worst looking films will call up to grill us ....about quality. Amazing, really....

Same in the commercial recording studio business. The crappiest beginners are the worst clients, I always dreaded it when somebody like that came up with the dough. Fortunately for me I started my studio career at the top, seconding on a Willie Nelson album and I got to see how the real pros handle being in the studio.

Funny story, sorta; I quoted one of the above types $90 an hour on the phone and he came up to cut a few guitar vocal demos. We spent a good half day on it so I cut him some slack and gave him half a day rate. When he got the bill he almost died. He thought the $90 an hour was the rate charged for finished recordings. Since he cut about 15 minutes of music he thought is would be about $22.50.