Stabilizing your old videos can bring back life to something that you did not think was possible. They take 100% of the actual video itself just in computer processing. Example, a 2 hour video will take 2 hours of processing on a very fast computer.
Camcorders of today have image stabilization built in after about 2010. But older camcorders do not. So here is a comparison.
This is the new video after it was converted with our broadcast quality card used in medical imaging.
As you can see from these 2 videos the difference is apparent. Notice Central Virginia Video on the left is image stabilized and NO 3rd party offers it.
I spent my own dollars sending this tape to a 3rd-party to have it converted by them to see the quality that they would produce. It cost me $4 in shipping plus $13 to convert it. It then cost me $10 to send the video back.
A customer sent several videos to a different major competitor. These guys are probably one of the major competitions in the country. He converted it a few years ago. This is from the actual DVDs that this customer received from the 3rd party. It only took up 3.4 GB of space on the DVD when the DVD holds 4.7 GB.
At first glance you would think these look better because the color is brighter. But in reality the video is oversaturated. This is very common on older videos.
The H264 codec was the original one used for Blu-rays. With the new 4K Internet streaming videos we now have H265 which if done right is one fourth the size. However, it takes 4 times longer in computer power to compress it. So a 2 hour video would take an hour on a very fast computer.
The H265 is specifically designed for phones and tablets.
Small sample of an 8mm wedding 53 years ago reduced to 75% speed. The original MP4 is returned unchanged at 100% speed.
Here is also a sample of the wedding stabilized and reduced to 75% speed. All 8mm film is run through the stabilizer and stored as an extra file.
Notice the color is a little off. That's because they were using natural lighting and not because it was an older film. As a photographer I chose to use the original lighting.
In trying to determine how many hours can be stored on a Blu-ray disk it can vary depending on your type of camcorder. The example below uses a Hi8 camcorder from the early 90s and could only store about 15 hours on a Blu-ray disk. Other VHS tapes could store as many as 30 hours on a single disk.
A higher level of video compression can be used and store as much as 80 hours on one Blu-ray disk.
A simple Blu-ray/DVD player from Walmart for $70 will play this.