On September 1998 the first Russian modern Telecine started its activity. It was a joint project of Kodak and Salamandra companies.

The main advantage of a new Telecine facility - the high-resolution film scanner Spirit Datacine SDC 2000. The Spirit DataCine film scanner - a totally new concept from Philips offers unparalleled flexibility and image quality in a variety of television standards and film resolution up to 2K.

The Spirit DataCine Film Scanner is a professional digital multi-standard telecine, based on highly sophisticated CCD film technology, for the reproduction of colour and black/white films of the most different formats in highest quality.

The Spirit DataCine always scans the image, at 2K resolution, regardless of the output format selected.

The unit is equipped with a high resolution Kodak AIH (Analog Imaging Head) and is prepared for rotation mode. It utilizes proprietary CCD technology from Kodak, along with customized high performance optics and advanced illumination control. These features make the film scanner predestined for high end post productions.

Extended flexibility provided by optional HD- and Data-Outputs gives the film scanner a definite lead telecine technology.

A prism assembly splits up the line of the light scanning film onto the respective colour filters of the R G B line CCD sensor and onto a quad, quarter-line CCD sensor providing the high resolution detail signal. The impinging light is optoelectrically converted in pixel elements of the CCD line sensor depending on the line content, then transferred in parallel to the analog CCD shift register and read out horizontally.

The film scanner provides for reproduction of films in 625/50 and 525/59,94 (4:3/ 16:9) SDTV standards and - as optional feature - in the HDTV standards or in DPX film data format.

COLOUR PRINT (B/W positive, B/W negative, colour positive), COLOUR NEGATIVE, INTERMEDIATE and PRIMETIME films of all formats can be reproduced, which have 1 (16 mm) 2, 3, 4 (35 mm) perforation holes per frame.

The film scanner operates with 16 mm, Super 16 mm, Academy-35 mm and Full Aperture-35 mm film formats.

Another important unit of the system is VS4 Noise Reducer. All the experience gained by Philips Digital Video Systems with three generations of noise reducers has been merged in the VS4 Video Sweetener, together with the latest developments in filtering technologies and engineering. The highly integrated, compact but still modular design is a cost-effective product for an even wider range of applications.

Completely redesigned processor for noise & grain reduction, dirt & scratch concealment and contour enhancement, including Digital Make Up, enable the operator to solve problems previously considered insoluble.

The Spirit DataCine is a very flexible machine, and can be used for almost any application in modern Post Production facility.