Re: An 1896 Baldwin 4-6-0 in mixed train service in El Salvador, 1971

Its not what, its WHO. They have to be sent out to a company. The best methods are ones that have special systems that can do frame by frame transfer, but first clean the films, do splice fixing, and so forth.
Then frame-by-frame transfer, of silent film, then color correction, image stabilization, and perhaps sharpening. Some are putting on the 16x9 HD formats, and giving you back wide screen, which to me is not what you want. Others can use up converting systems, on HD but leave the frame size like original. There is a lot of options and at some point you have to pick one you think is good and give it a test.
My advise is to google film transfer facilities, and see what you can find. Most places can provide the final version on DVD, Blu-Ray, or whatever file type you want. My advice is to have it put on the best file-type you can for future use. Also a DVD might be nice for viewing at home, but you can easily duplicate a file, and watch it at home as well. Not right or wrong answer, but I have seen some not so great transfers in the past, so I am gun-shy! Had two people send me their stuff on DVD from a film-to-video place, and I thought both were mediocre. In. 2 cases I had my guy transfer and it was night and day. Now finding a guy like him is the challenge for me!!!! I have about 300-400 feet of film from a 1959 last run of N&W 611 I acquired that now needs to be transferred. I haven't decided on one place yet.
Greg