Can the other episodes be restored and remastered?

[James Anderson]

Can the episodes that are already out on dvd be restored and remastered? so they can look as good as web of fear ? I know it cost allot of time and money but can the same be done ?

Thanks

[Richard Bignell]

They already have been, James. The episodes that have appeared on every DVD have been restored.

[Simon Collis]

I think the RT have said that there are a few episodes that they would like to revisit and make a few more "Revisitations" sets, if that's what you mean?

[brianfretwell]

Yes Vidfire 2 and other new techniques could improve some.

[Darren Jones]

Feb 27, 2014 12:36:39 GMT brianfretwell said:

Yes Vidfire 2 and other new techniques could improve some.

Please could you enlighten me. Heard of vidfire, but not vidfire 2. Any info on this and 'other new techniques' you mention?

[Sue Butcher]

They seem to have better noise reduction techniques now. The Troughton releases since the War Games have been very "clean" looking.

[Kieran Seymour]

Feb 27, 2014 22:19:46 GMT Darren Jones said:

Heard of vidfire, but not vidfire 2. Any info on this and 'other new techniques' you mention?

I don't think VidFIRE 2 was ever an official thing, just a way of describing a refined version of the process

From what I remember reading, the original version used the motion estimation software to create a new frame between each existing frame of the telerecordings, from which they could then create a new interlaced video file.

telerecording frame
- VidFIRE frame
telerecording frame

The problem with that was the new intermediate frames weren't of the same quality as the originals, which led to some image problems as you had one field from the original telerecording and then one field from the intermediate frame.

"VidFIRE 2" took things a step further, so that further intermediate frames were created between the original telerecording frames and the one that was right in the middle.

telerecording frame
- - VidFIRE 2 frame
- intermediate VidFIRE frame
- - VidFIRE 2 frame
telerecording frame

The idea, I believe, is that you then interlace the two VidFIRE 2 frames. Because each one is derived equally from an original telerecording frame and the intermediate one, the associated image problems disappear.

[brianfretwell]

IIRC Steve Roberts described it in a clock-face way for timing of frames

Original Vidfire

Film recording frames 12 o'clock; extract vidfire frames at 6 o'clock, interlaced to 2 fields

Vidfire 2

Extract frames at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock discard film recording frame and interlace the vidfire frames to 2 fields.

I'm sure he described it more clearly.

[charles drummel]

Feb 26, 2014 15:52:00 GMT Richard Bignell said:

They already have been, James. The episodes that have appeared on every DVD have been restored.

It would be great to see some of the other Lost in Time orphan episodes (or, what remains to be an orphan episode once Phil Morris throws his hands up) get the treatment that recent episodes have gotten. Just watched the Moonbase DVD last night and the improvement is immense. 

Not sure which other B+W episodes would benefit greatly from re-releases. Probably Mind Robber and those on the beginning box set? Perhaps Invasion?

[scotttelfer]

Many of the episodes are at the best picture quality that is physically achievable. However, the audio quality can be improved in practically every single case due to poor audio compression on DVDs in general, the trouble appears to be that they can't release on Blu-Ray unless they can improve the picture quality to HD (which is impossible for most stories) even though it is really just a storage medium, and you could stick anything on it in theory (you could have a whole series on a single disc, might need to stretch to 2 for the 60s ones, although the missing episodes would probably make it feasible).