The Repair-collection

Dropout Eliminator V1.0

Repair even the worst dropouts with content from nearby frames

Dropout Eliminator is made to repair damages like dropouts or burn holes. If your video contains big damages in a single frame or field, you can replace the lost content with the content of a nearby frame. As a requirement your video must have a similar frame close to the damaged frame. You might understand that there is not even a chance for this plugins to repair a big dropout if there is nothing that can be used to fill the damaged hole.

At first you have to determine if the damaged area is visible only in a single field or in a full frame. If you use interlaced footage it is most likely that the damage is only visible on a single field. Film usually gets damaged by the full frame. This determination is important, because the correct version of Dropout Eliminator must be used for best results. There is a version for interlaced material and a version for progressive material included in the Repair-collection. Both versions are clearly marked. The only difference between the two versions is, that the version for interlaced material holds an additional popup, where you can select the desired field to repair. The version for progressive material does not have this control and always uses the full frame.

The description below explains how to use the interlaced version. The procedure is the same for progressive material, except the field controls selection. Don't use the interlaced version for progressive video. You could, but you would have to do everything twice, because the interlaced version repairs only one field at once.

If you have more than one damage in a single frame, you can also apply the filter twice in order to repair the second damage.

Let's take a look at our damaged example:

As you can see, the damage is clearly visible. The magnification to the right shows that only one field is damaged. So we choose the interlace version of Dropout Eliminator to repair the damage.

Now you have to isolate the frame that contains the damage. Take the blade-tool (press B) and make a cut at the left and right side of the damaged frame.

Now drop Dropout Eliminator (Interlace) onto the single frame you have just isolated. Double-click the frame and select the Controls-tab in the viewer.

Step-by-Step

To repair your video Dropout Eliminator uses a 4-step method. Just follow the four steps and the damage is gone. First you have to select the damaged field and area. Then you have to select a field that looks similar to the damaged one. It might be possible that a field from a nearby frame fits better. So take a look around and select an appropriate field. The next step is to modify the inserted field to match motion and color. At last you can look at the repaired field and render it.

Step 1: Select Damaged Field/Area
At first you have to select the damaged field. In our case it's field 1

Now you have to mark the damaged area with the four Corner controls. You might want to make the area a little bigger than the actual damage. If you do so, you can feather the mask in a later step without getting the damaged area back.

Step 2: Select Restoration Field
At next you have to select a field that is not damaged. We have seen (in this example) that field 1 is damaged. So let's see if field 0 is ok:

Field 1 is ok. If it also would have been damaged or if the content does not fit, we can choose a different frame to select a field from. You can select a frame (and field) from the 6 surrounding frames (and fields).

Step 3: Modify Overlay
Here you can modify the insert. You don't have to do anything if your video did not change over time between the damaged field and the inserted field.

But if the camera has moved, the brightness, contrast or color did change between those two field, you can compensate the difference by doing the proper modifications in this section.

You can also find the Feather Overlay slider in this section. If the field used for the restoration does not fit by 100%, you can feather the edges of the overlay in order to "hide" the little difference and to avoid that you will be able to see it.

Remember: Dropout Eliminator can only do a good job, when you have some content that can be used to overlay the damaged area. If the damage is too big and you don't have any content to insert, even Dropout Eliminator won't be able to help you. In this case it is usefull to extract the damaged field and use a photo editing tool to repair the damage manually. But experience showed that usually there is enough footage that fits into the damaged area.

Step 4: Show Final
This is the last step. Look at the final result and decide if the repaired area is good to go.