Jumpy 8mm film due to sprocket or shutter errors

[Charlie Howard]

We converted our family's 8mm films (taken in the 1940's - 60's) to AVI, and have been restoring it with VS 9. One problem we haven't been able to solve is that some scenes are "jumpy" because some of the original frames weren't aligned properly as they were taken. Either the shutter didn't open/close at just the right time or the sprocket wheel didn't pull the film to the right place at the right time. (This must have been a common equipment problem, because the films were taken by different people on at least four different cameras over a 35-year period.)

Looking at the video frame-by-frame, it's apparent that every n'th frame, more or less, is too high or too low. Sometimes, it's just one frame, and sometimes, it's 3-5 in a row. Then, there will be several frames, or even a second or two, of smooth footage before the next error occurs.

One way to fix the problem has been to manually delete the misaligned frames, but it can take an hour to fix just a few seconds of material. This isn't very practical, and takes away the joy of doing restoration.

My question, of course, is whether there are software tools available to do this automagically, and if so, whether any of them work with VS or are built into it?

Thanks,