Snell’s Archangel Ph.C-HD real-time video restoration system was used to restore a 37-year-old World War II documentary series for release on DVD and Blu-ray formats. The London-based post-production operation, Dubs, and its digital media division, Eyeframe, performed the restoration of “The World at War” using the new Snell technology.
“Since we were providing an expensive Blu-ray edition of a highly popular and well-known title, the quality of the restoration had to be top-notch,” said Simon Marbrook, Eyeframe’s head of restoration. “Archangel provided the perfect solution, with a complete set of tools for restoration tasks such as stabilization, de-flicker, and dust removal all in a single box. The system completed the restoration in just three to four times the program's total length, and it reduced the amount of frame-by-frame work by 60 to 70 percent.”
The 26-episode series was originally prepared by ITV and aired on British television in 1973. The restoration process was aimed at creating Blu-ray and DVD box sets, as well as a full set of HD broadcast masters. The Blu-ray edition includes extra material and some “lost” footage that needed extensive restoration work.
