Todd-AO UK, a company that specializes in placing video and film on DVDs and the Internet, recently purchased an Edifis Scratchbox SD film restoration system, equipment that is designed for retouching film prior to editing and compilation on video tape.
The Scratchbox performs film restoration with applications in telecine and television post production. It's optimized for image retouching and scratch removal and combines storage and matte painting. The system removes sparkle and scratches from film or video with the use of an operator's stylus and replaces the damaged image with better material. A simple user interface and intuitive control panel improve the speed of repairs.
The system consists of an Edifis Sting video disk server, compositor, mask layer and paint tools. It operates on four layers of image data. When implementing an internal keyer and mixer, a soft-edged matte or key is painted over a damaged frame using a tablet and pen interface. Scratches, blemishes and sparkle are painted away. The repaired frame is then rerecorded. Storage capacity is expandable to six hours, allowing several projects to be held at one time.
