Randy Hammond wrote in 060628 MMDigest:

> Digital preservation is taking place with the recording collection
> at the Edison National Historic Site, and as for the movie and video
> industry, Turner, UCLA, and many other companies are doing digital
> copying and restoration of many classic movies, cartoons, and movie
> shorts.  Some of the work that has been done on surviving Vitaphone
> shorts is absolutely fantastic.

Though off-topic, I have to second the "absolutely fantastic" comment.
All of the Charlie Chaplin films were re-released after restoration and
even I, a knowledgeable software engineer, was impressed.  Yes, we are
used to color correction, plus scratch and dirt removal, but so what?
Films this old always still suffered from frame jitter (the picture
always jumps up and down) and inconsistent inter-frame gray levels
(they flickered).  In this restoration, all that is cured.  The result
was amazing to me.  It wasn't shot yesterday, but it was getting a
_lot_ closer.

Cheers!
Jim Cook
Bolton, Massachusetts