The best practices we recommend to AvyScan Lab users — drawn from the field and from the questions we hear most often.
Put each TIFF, PNG, JPG or BMP sequence in its own folder, with continuous numbering. File names hardly matter: with or without a prefix ("img_0001", "scan12", "000123"…), with any number of digits, and the numbering can start at any value. Selecting a single frame is enough: AvyScan Lab rebuilds the whole sequence. And if numbers are missing, the application lists the absent frames instead of creating a broken clip.
Some files (MKV, MOV from cameras, JPG/PNG sequences) require a full indexing pass on first opening — be patient, the index of video files is kept and subsequent openings are much faster. Other formats open immediately, with no indexing: ProRes MOV, MP4, TIFF/BMP sequences.
Most amateur films (8 mm, Super 8) were shot at around 18 fps, 16 mm rather at 24 fps — the exact rate depends on the camera. If your scanner delivered a 25 or 30 fps file, set the shooting rate instead: the existing frames are simply played at the right speed — no interpolation, no invented frames. Do a test on your playback equipment: some players handle unusual frame rates poorly.
First, be reasonable with the resolution of your images (4K maximum): 1600 to 1800 pixels high for Super 8 is more than enough. Then use the "Preview downscale" button: it reduces the image size in the player and in the script without affecting the aspect — the larger the original image, the more you can reduce (above 1800 pixels: 1/4). The processing load drops considerably and AvyScan Lab becomes much faster. The final video is unaffected: it is encoded at the original dimensions.
You can slow down playback ("Playback speed" setting): if your video or image sequence plays at 25 fps, set the speed to 0.75 — about 18 fps, the shooting rate of most amateur films.
This is normal behaviour: some formats have no usable direct-access table. To allow reliable frame-by-frame navigation, AvyScan Lab must first build an index by reading the file once in full; the duration depends on the file size and the disk speed. Formats requiring indexing (longer opening): MKV, MOV from cameras, JPG/PNG sequences. Formats with no indexing (fast opening): ProRes MOV, MP4, TIFF/BMP sequences.
Temporal grain reduction compares each frame to its neighbours: on a shaky picture it works poorly. Place stabilization before degraining in the chain — the default order — and the grain comes off better, with fewer artifacts.
To digitize by filming the projection screen: camera at 50 fps, projector set to 16.66 fps, then enable the Projector capture filter (Expert version) at the head of the chain. Frames sheared by the shutter are detected and removed automatically.
Reels from the same era and format look alike. Carefully tune a first film, save the chain as a preset ("Super 8 seventies", "dark 16 mm"…), then apply it to the next reels as a starting point. In the Expert version, export your presets to share them.
Draw the area of the image the filter should analyse for colours: if black, white or fluctuating borders enter the analysis, the colour and brightness correction will not be stable.
Enable the black protection ("DarkProtect" checkbox) to limit the correction GamMac applies in dark areas; an adjustment slider lets you set the desired level.
Several settings can help in the Parameters panel: lower GamMax, reduce Scale to 0 or 1 — the tooltips explain what each setting does. If that is not enough, place a Luma/Level filter before GamMac and lower the brightness and/or raise the gamma.
First encode a lossless archival master (FFV1, TIFF/PNG sequence) or a near-lossless one (ProRes): that is the file you will keep. Then produce your distribution files (x264/x265) from that master — you can always regenerate them without redoing the restoration.
If your restoration workstation is not connected to the internet, you can still report a problem: the software's Contact form exports the full report (diagnostic log included) to a file, to be emailed from any other computer.
Our philosophy is a little different: we improve the image to soften the defects caused by scanning and by the ageing of the film stock, with respect for the medium itself. We aim to erase, soften and improve certain defects — not to reinvent the image.