VidFIRE
VidFIRE, or Video Field Interpolation Restoration Effect, is a restoration technique by which a film telerecording, with a framerate of 25/second, are re-interpreted to have a framerate of 50/second, so as to better approximate a video recording. The result is something that "looks like video". The technique thus allows for the recreation of a new "video master", presumed to be essentially indistinguishable from the original, lost master.
VidFIRE is sometimes casually thought of as the entire process of "cleaning up" a telerecording, but it actually refers only to the restoration of the video framerate. However, VidFIRE-ing requires that the surviving telerecording be cleaned and stabilised before the process can begin.
The process has been used extensively on the DVD releases of episodes of Doctor Who. Though the vast majority of VidFIREd episodes were originally broadcast in the 1960s, a few Jon Pertwee episodes, like The Ambassadors of Death epsiodes 2-7 and Planet of the Daleks episode 3, have also been VidFIREd, because the best surviving "master" is a telerecording.
Though heavily associated with the restoration of Doctor Who episodes, VidFIRE has been used on other programmes, as well. In fact, the broadcast debut of the process was on BBC Two on Christmas 2001, with a couple of episodes of Dad's Army.
External links
- More detailed information about VidFIRE from the Restoration Team's website
- Examination of the recording technology used on Doctor Who at The Pamela Nash Experience website
