I saw behind-the-scenes of a 4K movie restoration — and it's made me appreciate the quality of my 4K Blu-rays more than ever now I understand the 'ethical dilemmas' and artistry involved

4K Blu-ray is a big part of my work at TechRadar.

Not only is it my staple source for testing the best TVs and best soundbars , but thanks to its superior picture and audio quality over 4K streaming, the movies themselves have now become one of my main areas of coverage.

As a big fan of 4K Blu-ray, both as a user in AV testing and as a collector, I helped start our Blu-ray Bounty series, where we review the latest 4K releases from each month, scrutinizing their picture and audio quality, back in 2024.

While the 4K Blu-ray market (and the market for physical media in general) has been a volatile one in recent years, the Blu-ray fan base has always been a passionate one.

As I’ve been testing more 4K releases, I’ve come to appreciate what the format can do for older titles and general at-home watching even more, and I now include myself in that passionate fanbase.

So, when I was invited to visit Silversalt Restorations, a company whose work ranges from audio restoration, data archiving and restoration and transfer of movies to Blu-ray restoration (including 4K), I jumped at the chance.

The company has some big-name clients, having worked with Hammer, Arrow Video, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Criterion, among others.

All of those brand’s 4Ks have been featured in Blu-ray Bounty, so I was excited to see how the magic happens.

A meticulous process Each film is inspected frame-by-frame for marks, scratches and other imperfections (Image credit: Future) Silversalt Restorations was founded in 2017 by a team of restoration artists, before being acquired in 2024 by John Gore Studios, another company dedicated to the preservation and restoration of classic titles, especially British cinema.

Some of Silversalt’s biggest projects include The Deer Hunter , The Wicker Man , The Dollars Trilogy , The Curse of Frankenstein and the upcoming release of Dracula (the iconic Hammer horror classic starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing).

I was taken on a tour of Silversalt’s studio in Hammersmith, led by Managing Director Mark Bonnici, during which I was shown everything that goes into the meticulous process of restoring a movie.

My journey begins at the film inspection table, where Marie Fieldman, Silversalt’s resident film inspector, is hard at work inspecting an old film reel for damage, including visible scratches, marks, wear and tear, degradation, and even mould on each individual frame, before crafting a detailed report for the respective client.

“Some of these haven’t been looked at by a human for a very long time,” Fieldman says, as she shows me an older report she did for 1954’s Men of Sherwood Forest .

Here, she’s labelled every single defect she can find, noting the level of damage and the best course of action.