AMIA 2024

The domain of digital audiovisual preservation has been largely confined to grandfathered production technology. While signal processing has continued to improve in adjacent disciplines, we lag behind and stubbornly soldier onward using old technology and techniques. I'm proposing a workflow for visual restoration on image scans of optical tracks as a superior alternative to conventional sound readers and audio software. I'll show how this workflow enables results of higher fidelity, and I'll go in to detail about its archival and ethical merits. The process only uses image scans of optical tracks along with free and low cost software with a wide user base; therefore, I consider it "lateral thinking with withered technology," in the words of game designer Gunpei Yokoi, whose 16mm FMV games will be the first subject of the case study portion. We defy you to guess the second subject, and heartily ask you to divulge it afterward.