I have been reading about Astra, Starlight and Starlight Mini. I have some very old Super 8mm Film that I am going to transfer.
I need some help to make the right choice. I have 7,000 ft of film. I’ve had some of it transferred already. Test runs from different companies. All of it was shot 18 fps. The transfers are 24 fps. I’m not sure what that will work out to be in minutes. So, I’ll go with 470 minutes to be safe. For 1080p/30fps output, it costs 90 credits per minute. I will need a total of 42,300 credits. As near as I can tell I am only allowed to purchase a max of 9,000 credits for $499.99 each month. That will take almost 5 months and $2,350. This is using the Starlight web app. Have I figured this correctly?
I am Mac user. I’ve never owned a PC. The other option is to purchase a PC and use Starlight Mini. Can anyone point me to a PC that conforms to the Starlight Mini requirements that I can just go purchase? I know nothing about Windows, unfortunately. Which way will cost me less? I have Video AI. It needs an upgrade purchase. The license (I believe) allows for 2 seats so I could put it on the Windows PC. I don’t see a price for Starlight Mini…is there one? Maybe I missed it. I saw in a post that Mini footage for Super 8 looks nicer than the cloud render.
Last few questions. What does the file need to be? If the file does not matter…what file SHOULD I use? I really like the way the footage looks like at 24 fps. Will my footage look lose that nice movement? What frame rate should I have my footage transferred at?
Thank you for any help. I appreciate it very much. I would like to give this to my family for Christmas. If I am only allowed 9,000 credits per month…I won’t get it done in time.
While the largest credit plan is for 9000 credits / month, you do still have the option to purchase top up credits if you run out.
Starlight (in web tool) vs Starlight Mini in the desktop app that can run locally are 2 separate models, so it will come down to which one you prefer to use with your footage.
Starlight (original) offers the highest-fidelity results through cloud-only processing, while Starlight Mini is a lighter, optimized version that runs locally with slightly less fine detail but still delivers very natural, high-quality outputs.
If the Starlight Mini results satisfy your needs, this would be the most cost effective option albeit slow. If speed is important to your workflow, there is also the option to render Starlight Mini in the cloud, which costs less than Starlight (original) in the cloud.
If you have an M-chip mac, Starlight Mini is coming to local processing very soon (already in beta). Otherwise, for right now, you would need a Windows computer with an Nvidia graphics card with at least 8GB of VRAM, though more VRAM=faster speeds. 4090s have 24gb of VRAM and 5090s have 32gb of VRAM.
Starlight Mini is not an extra cost or app, it is included (for windows) in version 7 and up. You will need to purchase an upgrade license to use the most recent versions of the app to access Starlight Mini, and I recommend doing so before 9/16 from your “My Products" page (more on upcoming changes here)
Supported file formats can be found here and I recommend keeping the input footage at the same frame rate it was shot in, or the current state it is now.
Let me know if I missed anything or if you have further questions!
@ aaron.moody-358262 what is the the resolution and aspect ratio of the source vids? So the idea is packing two or four vids side by side into one wider 16:9 video (maybe also 21:9 works? hmm interesting has to be tested…) and upload this into the cloud, on this way you can halve your costs because in the cloud 5:4, 4:3.. and 16:9 it’s all the same price but with 16:9 you get more rendered pixels for the money
Thank you so much for the excellent response. This is very helpful to me. I do have a 2023 M2 24 GB MacBook Air. Would that be sufficient? My guess is no. Maybe an M4 Mac mini? What would the bare min specs need to be for an M4 Mac mini? I would love to get in on the beta. I am not a pro anymore, though. Do you think soon…means in time to get this done for a Christmas present?
I will upgrade before 9/16. Thank you for the heads up.
