2002 Remastering
The entire series was digitally remastered in 2002. The soundtrack was also remixed. Paul Barnes, Editor & Post-Production Supervisor, Florentine Films at that time commented:
"Ken Burns and I decided to remaster The Civil War for several reasons. First of all when we completed the film in 1989, we were operating under a very tight schedule and budget. As the main editor on the film, I always wanted to go back and improve the overall quality of the film. The other reason for remastering the film at this time is that the technology to color correct, print and transfer a film to video for broadcast has vastly improved, especially in the realm of digital computer technology... We also were able to eliminate a great deal of the dust and dirt that often get embedded into 16mm film when it is printed." The DVD release included a short documentary on how a Spirit DataCine was used to transfer and remaster the film.
The remastering was limited to producing an improved fullscreen SD digital video of the source 16mm film, for broadcast and DVD; no widescreen/HD/Blu-ray versions are currently available.
Read more about this topic: The Civil War (TV series)