No I have not compared it yet, because I have no access to film material and a projector.
But from theoretic standpoint, the quality should be at least the same, if the signal is read only (@ modern 2K scan, without scanner artifacts). But if there are scanner artifacts, they can be eliminated digitally.
The example videos shown in this thread had really strong scanner artifacts, which have been removed completely.
If the optical soundtrack is treated with algorithmic restoration, the quality would be far better than with a projector.
Most optical soundtracks have signal redundancy which can be used to detect and remove dirt and damages. And even the noise, which is produced by the emulsion grain, can be removed without digital artifacts.
Thanks so much for the explanation. There are some examples from Kinetta, where sound extraction s were done using AEO Light. Wish to see your
Thanks for the clip Dan.
Hey Andreas, your software seems like the perfect solution so far.
What are the effects of dolby A or SR using your program? Can they be captured properly without equipment?
I haven’t tested it yet.
But analogue optical dolby audio is an extension of dual bilateral soundtracks (2.0 mono), so it should be readable the same way without special equipment. What you’ll get would be a 2.0 surround file, which should be decodable by a dolby pro logic decoder once flagged as that. What I do not know at the moment is the difference of dynamic range compression of dolby to dual bilateral, and which equalisation was applied to such soundtracks. So maybe there has to be an expander and an equalizer to be applied to a dolby soundtrack.
It is on my to-do list too. 
But at the moment I am under time pressure to finalize the dirt removal and the thesis.
So first results with GUI will take a while.
Andreas, looking forward to it.
Hello Andreas.
Advice on setting up the windows in the program AEO-Light.
I’m in the program make only one change. The picture shown by the arrow -
You portray their settings when did my test scans.
That’s 100 frames, the sound pulls why? How to increase the speed of sound?
Well, that seems like AEO-Light computes the overlap between frames false, so that are
fewer samples per frame to the soundtrack than recorded (actually with gaps in the audio). The scan of the image has not enough overlap, so the software fails to find it. That is compensated via resampling, so the fewer samples are interpolated to match the
duration of a frame, thus results in a seemingly slower/deeper audio playback.
The best thing you can do is, to scan the frames with a bigger overlap, so that gaps do not
occur. If the scanner has not enough sensor area to do so, you can maybe make two shifted scans per frame (shift by 3 perforations instead of 4, in an extra scan only
for the audio). If you have scanned with 3 perforations, you have to change the frame rate to 4/3 of the original rate, in this case that would be 32 fps. And an overlap registration by image should be better.
My thesis isn’t finished yet too. I had to make a pause, due to a broken right hand. So the
thesis will end a little bit later.
At the moment my software is able to detect and remove most dirt, so that about 80-90% of
clicks and pops are removed, and the noise caused by the emulsion grain, is reduced too. Looking forward to bring it over 98% dirt removal and a detection of the rest 2% (for removal by hand), but that is on the agenda after the thesis has finished.
Andreas thanks for the information.
I wish a speedy recovery! Take care of yourself!
We look forward to your soft.Vsego good!
Anatoly.
The new version of AEO-Light 2.1 beta
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzUqIylYXFI3NWV2d1BhZXFlc0k
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Courtesy - University of South Carolina - Greg Wilsbacher
The new version of AEO-Light 2.2 beta - Release 2.2 Beta · usc-imi/aeo-light · GitHub
Added work with files - * .tiff
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Andreas health as a? what’s new?
Hi,
my health is OK, the hand is cured. I have finished the thesis and now I am waiting for the colloquium.
The research results will be presented next month at the TMT29 in Cologne.
At that point there is still no GUI implemented, but the restoration quality is better than that of AEO-Light 2.2.
The University of Emden will continue the research in other projects by other students and I will continue too.
But for now I have to search a new job and perhaps investors for the audio restoration software.
I will also apply at the University of South Carolina to join their development team, as they seem to have good opportunities (access to scanners and film material etc.).
So, the next few months will show…
Andreas, we will wait for realization of your ideas.
Someone tell me where to download this software?
It seems a proprietary software used by the Company. Not for sale or distribution. AEO or hopefully Andreas
Andreas,
Did you change your earlier intention to release the software as open source.? I got that idea since you are looking for investors. Whatever, Wish you success.
No, I haven’t changed my intention. I am also not related to the ScanPERFect clip.
But as I wrote, I am currently searching for a new job. It would be nice, if that could be an optical audio restoration related project at a university, so that I would be paid for it, while writing my PhD.
That was, what I meant by investors.
At Emden it is highly unlikely, because they have no budget for it. The university of Emden will continue that project too, but based on students work (without wages).
The AEO-Light team were six to eight persons who worked on that topic for six years with a budget of about 300.000$.
I am only one guy, who worked on it for one year without budget and without broad access to film material and a film scanner.
If I don’t get an opportunity to work in that direction, I will reorient but continue the optical audio restoration software on a private basis.
But that will take time.
My research results will be presented this weekend in Cologne at the TMT29. That is a convention for sound editors and sound engineers. I hope that will offer some opportunities.
By the way, here is a new restoration clip, that also will be shown at the TMT:
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Excellent work Andreas, Hope everything would turnout well for you. All the best.
What I intended from my earlier post was that SCANPERfect is a proprietary software used by the Company. And only solution available for us would be AEO or (hopefully) Andreas software. I was not clear it seems. Sorry for the confusion.
Let us know the outcome of the screening at the TMT29.
Wish you all the best and luck.