What Is Telecine?
Telecine is defined as the process of transferring images that originate on film to those that can be viewed on video equipment. Most commonly telecine projectors are used to transfer 8mm film to DVD’s. telecine projector lamps make storing, editing, and caring for film easier.

The History Of Telecine
The first Elmo telecine projector was developed by CINTEL in 1938. These projectors were originally designed specifically for film transfer for television. The popularity of Telecine projectors allowed television stations to rely on prerecorded episodes rather that solely live broadcasting. Today these projectors are becoming more and more popular for individuals wishing to transfer their old home movies from film to video, specifically DVD. In fact the process has become so popular that you can even order a telecine projector by mail.

How It Works
A telecine projector works in a way that is similar to a standard projector. In comparing telecine projectors the main difference is that standard projectors project an image onto a screen, whereas telecine projectors project the image into the lens of a camera. Low end telecine projectors cast the image onto a screen and then have the camera record off of the screen. This for of telecine often produces poor quality images.

Telecine projector reviews reveal that high quality telecine projectors work by passing the image directly through a camera’s charges coupling device of CCD. A CCD is a types of sensor that is comprised of pixels which convert the light that passes through the film into electric pulses that can be recorded onto a digital video medium.

The part of the telecine process that usually proves to be most difficult involves the differences in frame rates. Synchronizing the film and video signal can be quite complicated if the frame rates are different. For example, some countries use NTSC standards which have a frame rate of 29.97 frames per second and most films are recorded at 24 frames per second. In this situation a process called a 3:2 pull down is used. This process will stretch the 24 frames per second into 30 frames per second. This will allow the film to be transferred and viewed correctly. If a 3:2 pull down is not used the movie will appear to be sped up.

However, in countries that use the SECAM or PAL video standards this pull down process is not required. The SECAM or PAL standards record video at a rate of 25 framed per second. When converting 24 frames per second film the only noticeable difference will be audio distortion, which can be easily corrected.