If you own movies of your family shot before the 1980s, they’re almost certainly on Super 8 reels. Digitizing these yourself is usually impractical, especially if you want to preserve or enhance their quality. Most readers who responded to our online inquiries about movie conversion used a service, as we recommend.

Brick-and-mortar stores such as Walgreens and Ritz Camera and local video specialists offer film-to-DVD conversion. There are also Web-based services. When we searched online using terms such as “home movie to DVD conversion or transfer” we found dozens of services, with a wide range of prices and options.

What we tested: We tried several online services. The picture quality from all was satisfactory, but some services did a better job at cleaning the film before scanning it. One service cropped the picture edges. None of them did much to correct for unnatural color or to adjust the lighting in under- or overexposed scenes.

Costs vary widely. Walgreens and Ritz Camera both charge $50 for the first 250 feet of film (equivalent to about 15 minutes of playing time) and 10 cents per foot thereafter. The online Home Movie Depot charges $6 per 50-foot reel; MyMovieTransfer.com charges $20 per 50-foot reel, plus $10 for a DVD; YesVideo.com (which also services Walgreens and Ritz Camera) charges $50 for the first 250 feet and 10 cents per additional foot. All the online services charge an additional $6 to $10 for shipping.

If you ship, use a box, bubble wrap, and a shipper that lets you track your package. Ship at least four weeks before you want the DVD back and indicate the order in which you’d like the reels to appear on the DVD. Ask whether the service can transfer sound for your type of film; most don’t do it for regular 8 mm. If you have a way to connect a MiniDV camcorder to your PC, order a copy on MiniDV tape ($10 to $35). Compared with the video on the DVD we received, video from the MiniDV tape looked noticeably sharper. The tape you get back can serve as your own digital master copy.