Film Restoration Software

[Biggiesized]

Has anyone tried any of the leading film restoration software programs and compared them?

I'm talking about Correct DRS V8, Diamant, CTC's reneat, etc.

[scharfis_brain]

if you've got links to demo versions of these programs, we could try.

[mp3dom]

We have an old workstation with Diamant (I think it's version 1.8 or something similar). The "Automatic" mode is worst than what you could obtain with Avisynth. Don't know about CTC or Correct DRS but Diamant works with image files so this would need a YUY2->RGB->YUY2 colorspace conversion. Noise reduction is better with Avisynth and MVTools2 (remove more grain and destroy less details). The only strong point left is the manual mode of Diamant, useful, for example, with white/black spots or vertical scratch where you select (with the mouse) the points that you want to process (excluding the rest of the image). Obviously this end with better results (with this kind of problems) but is very time-consuming (not only for the pc but also for the worker).
I've heard good things about Snell and Wilcox Archangel Ph.C but I think it's an hardware-based solution (also very expansive).

[Biggiesized]

Don't you get free upgrades to the latest versions of Diamant? The website lists v3.6 as the most recent.

[mp3dom]

The updates are only for minor release. For major (from v1.x to 2.x or 3.x) you need to re-pay.

[Biggiesized]

What's a typical license cost? Do you have to buy the hardware too or can you build your own?

[mp3dom]

I don't know the typical license cost but they told me that it's not so cheap. Regarding the hardware, you can build your own. The software uses a 'master' workstation (a pc with the software installed) and other 'satellite' workstation that are used for distribuited work (we have 3 satellite + 1 master). The workstation is quite old (WinXP SP1 32bit, dual P4). Like I said, it works on images and work best in group of pictures of about 5000 frames, so first you need to split your film in blocks of 5000 images per folder. Then you can start to restore the images. The processing is quite slow (a full film require about 3-4 days of raw calculation). Keep in mind that I'm speaking of version 1.x. Since now the 3.x version is out, it could be that some limitation (5000 frames) and/or time required for restoration could be improved (due to new CPU on the market and optimization of the software). I don't have a feedback of version 3.x so I couldn't tell you if version 3.x works better than Avisynth. Surely current Avisynth filters works best than version 1.x :)

[Lyris]

I've been disappointed with the trials I've tried. I'd love to try ReNeat, the automatic Diamant product, and of course, MTI, but I don't want to waste these companies' time until we actually have a project that needs it.

The SRemoveDirtMC() function for AVISynth has given me the best results so far, but the biggest issue I have is that it eats film grain, so isn't totally usable for my purposes.

[scharfis_brain]

you always can try to extract the grain before dirt removal and add it back after dirt removal.

[Lyris]

That's what I've resorted to right now :)

[odyssey]

I'm looking for some software that can assist me in restoring individual frames manually. I primarily use Avisynth, with great success, but it's next to impossible to work on single frames (unless someone has a suggestion as to how I can accomplish this). Can anyone recommend something?

[Stephen R. Savage]

I'm looking for some software that can assist me in restoring individual frames manually. I primarily use Avisynth, with great success, but it's next to impossible to work on single frames (unless someone has a suggestion as to how I can accomplish this). Can anyone recommend something?

I think this (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html)is what you're looking for.

[odyssey]

I think this (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html)is what you're looking for.

...except, Photoshop is not really suited to edit videos.

Edit: Except, it really is... (sorry 'bout that): http://www.creativepro.com/article/easy-video-editing-photoshop-yes-photoshop

Sounds promising. I really need to try that!

[CruNcher]

http://www.cinepaint.org/

[Blue_MiSfit]

I've heard good things about DaVinci Revival by Blackmagic Design...

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/davincirevival/

[dadix]

DaVinci Resolve Lite is free and is for Windows.

[Ghitulescu]

It's the Resolve version that one which is lite and free :)

[Biggiesized]

DaVinci Revival Lite would be sweet too!

[dadix]

Alphabetical order:

Free:

Cinelerra CV http://cinelerra.org/
Kdenlive http://www.kdenlive.org/
Lives http://lives.sourceforge.net/
Lumiera: http://lumiera.org/

Non-Free:

Lustre have demo http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=13572804&siteID=123112
Nucoda FilmMaster http://imagesystems.tv/media-bu/products/nucoda.aspx
Pablo http://www.quantel.com
PFClean http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/product.php?productId=PFClean
Scratch have free trial: http://www.assimilateinc.com
SGO Mistika http://www.sgo.es/mistika/