DRS™Nova V7.0 Release

DRS
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MTI FILM introduces DRS™Nova V7.0, the new standard in digital film restoration. MTai FrameGen now runs on an NVIDIA TensorRT engine for faster, higher-quality generative AI renders that rebuild jump cuts, frame slugs and badly damaged frames. NOVA Paint adds Clip mode, playing two clips side by side or top to bottom, even at different frame rates, so artists can paint from source to destination and correct AI-generated errors. DRS™Nova now imports and writes back ProRes media, with all ProRes .mov formats supported. SHINE runs significantly faster up to 6K with new Grain Suppression control, and MTai Cut Detection, proven in CORTEX, speeds shot analysis. Backed by 30 years of refinement and Emmy Award-winning, DRS™Nova V7.0 gives restoration artists unmatched precision. DRS™Nova runs on Windows 10 or 11 and utilizes NVIDIA GPUs.

Download Version 7.0 Here

DRS™Nova V7.0 Tours for review

                DRS Nova version 7.0 Release Notes 10/2/2026

NEW FEATURES

ProRes Streaming Import (New)

Previously, working from a ProRes master meant transcoding the whole file to DPX and
waiting for that to finish before you could touch it. You can now open a ProRes .mov
directly and start working almost immediately: frames are unpacked to DPX in the
background while you scrub, mark and repair the portion that is already available.
The import survives being interrupted – close the application or stop the import, and
it resumes where it left off rather than starting over.

Because shot detection runs as part of the decode, the clip arrives already cut into
shots, so tools that work per-shot are usable on the first pass.

When you are done, the clip commits losslessly back to .mov, either whole or just the
marked range. Two restore points, “Original” and “Last”, let you back out of work
without re-importing, and a Restore dialog chooses how much to roll back – every frame,
or only the frames you actually altered. Alt+Insert and Alt+Delete step through just the
changed frames so you can review an entire pass quickly.

Import progress and clip state are visible at a glance in the bin, and a Streaming tab
in Preferences controls folder recursion, whether cuts are detected during decode, and
where DPX output lands. Your original .mov is never modified.

Preview Cache (New)

Previewing a range of frames used to mean recomputing every frame each time you looked
at it. Processed preview frames are now cached and replayed, so reviewing a repair over
a range is far faster and you can scrub back and forth through a preview freely.

The cache can be allowed to spill to disk (Preferences / Cache), which effectively
removes the ceiling on how long a preview range can be – useful on long shots where
memory alone was the limit. Preview to Cache may also claim more of the available cache
than it used to.

Cached preview work is no longer silently thrown away: switching tools or clips with an
unreviewed preview now asks whether to accept it, reject it, or stay where you are.

Gate Hair Removal Tool (New/Beta)

A dedicated tool for removing gate hairs, which previously had to be handled with the
general-purpose repair tools. It finds hairs automatically, and anything it misses can
be drawn in by hand; several hairs can be worked at once, each keeping its own repair
settings, and they persist across a range reset.

Repairs can be tuned rather than accepted as-is. Right-dragging trims a hair back from
its tips and dragging the other way restores it, so you can tighten a repair without
starting over, and a Reveal (un-matte) mode feathers the repair edge to avoid the hard
grain line that a hard-edged fix leaves behind. Shift+T toggles the reticle and Ctrl+T
the persistent overlay, and the status bar shows the current repair width.

Note: this tool is new in this release and is still being refined.

Batch Global Flicker Analysis (New)

Global Flicker analysis can now be run across many clips unattended, launched from the
Bin Manager, instead of opening and analyzing each clip by hand. The dialog reports
progress across the whole batch with live graph updates, lets you navigate shots while
it runs, and gives per-clip timing and counts when it finishes. Each clip’s existing
marks are respected, so you can restrict the work without editing the clips. The same
progress and statistics readout was added to the AI Cut Detection dialog.

AI Shot Detection

  • New AI-powered shot detection replaces the old algorithm.
  • Multi-clip unattended detection supported.
  • Upgraded to a newer, more accurate detection model.

MTai (Frame Reconstruction) - Major Updates

  • Upgraded to TensorRT-based interpolation engine with CUDA 12.6/12.9 support.
  • Grain addition to synthesized frames using a new algorithm that dynamically adjusts grain strength.
  • Mask support added for MTai slug preview and render.
  • Padding at the frame border now mirror-fills instead of filling with black.

Gate Hair Removal Tool (New)

A dedicated tool for removing gate hairs, which previously had to be handled with the
general-purpose repair tools. It finds hairs automatically, and anything it misses can
be drawn in by hand; several hairs can be worked at once, each keeping its own repair
settings, and they persist across a range reset.

Repairs can be tuned rather than accepted as-is. Right-dragging trims a hair back from
its tips and dragging the other way restores it, so you can tighten a repair without
starting over, and a Reveal (un-matte) mode feathers the repair edge to avoid the hard
grain line that a hard-edged fix leaves behind. Shift+T toggles the reticle and Ctrl+T
the persistent overlay, and the status bar shows the current repair width.

Note: this tool is new in this release and is still being refined.

Paint Tool Enhancements

  • Shift+Insert command to copy entire import frame to target in Reveal, Orig, and Clip modes.
  • Ctrl+Shift+Ins and Ctrl+Shift+LeftMouseButton also paint full frame.
  • Unified tracking controls with other tools at top of Tool Palette.

General

  • New “Stacked” dual frame display mode (frames shown one on top of the other).
  • Navigation buttons moved from main window timeline to bottom of Tool Palette.
  • Escape now exits Full Screen / Presentation mode back to the normal window.
  • Toggling Original/Processed jumps to the closest pending provisional frame.
  • Alpha stripping for 16-bit RGBA DPX and TIFF files, and for EXR files.

Create Project

  • Up to eight per-reel Project Bins can now be created automatically.
  • Tool Folders is now a gate (on/off) rather than a bulk per-tool selection; both
    settings persist between sessions.

PDL Viewer

  • Rebuilt on a single list control: cleaner columns, a full-width flexible
    Bin/Clip/Version/Range column, and column auto-fit on divider double-click.
  • The list follows along during a render, scrolling to the entry being worked on.
  • The Format Columns dialog was removed; column widths are remembered instead.

Global Flicker

  • ROI blending added to Global Flicker.
  • Presets now save and restore ROI and blend settings, and warn before a preset restore
    would invalidate existing analysis.
  • Warning before re-analyzing frames that already have analysis.
  • The graph stays live while frames render, so you can watch correction progress
    instead of waiting for a static graph to refresh at the end.
  • GUI layout reworked to match the approved mock-up.

DRS Grain Override

  • Better grain addition model used when “Use Grain Tool Presets” is not selected.
  • 6K and 8K resolutions added to DRS Preferences GUI.
  • DRS border defaults now scale with image size.
  • Grain matching added to Hard Motion Blur and Edge-Preserving fixes, including brush strokes.

Shine Alpha Detection

  • Per-filter alpha detection mode replaces the old separate Alpha filter.
  • Improved repair correlation and screening out of false positives.

New Import Media Dialog

Importing media now uses a new file browser that shows a live preview of whatever you
have selected, so you can confirm you have the right take before committing to the
import. The Bin Manager also gains “Browse to Files…” for importing several files at
once, and “Browse to Source Folder…” for jumping to a streaming clip’s source media.

User Guide and Help (New)

The User Guide has been revised for version 7 and now opens in DRS Nova’s own help
window instead of a PDF in Acrobat. The window floats beside the main window and stays
usable while a dialog such as Import Media is open, so you can read the instructions as
you follow them. It has Back and Forward (or Alt+Left / Alt+Right), a Contents button, a
chapter list that shows the chapter you are reading, and a search box: Ctrl+F, then Enter
or F3 for the next match.

F1 opens the chapter for the tool you are using, Ctrl+F1 that tool’s shortcut keys and
Shift+F1 the shortcut keys that work everywhere. F1 also works with a menu open.

Every chapter has been checked against version 7 and its screenshots brought up to
date. New chapters cover ProRes clips, MTai, GateHair, the tutorial movie, and Timelines
and Bookmarks; the Project Manager’s importing section and the Help, Licensing and
Preferences chapters have been rewritten.

A PDF of the same guide is also installed (DRSNovaUserGuide_v7_2026.pdf) and opens if the
help window can’t start. The Feedback App now has its own help (Help > Help Topics, F1),
and the menus show their keyboard shortcuts.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Shine Processing Speed

  • New GPU pipeline for Shine preprocessing.
  • Improved CPU threading model for faster repairs.
  • Faster EXR preprocessing.

DRS Processing Speed

  • Multi-frame DRS now processes several frames in parallel (4 workers by default).
  • Luminance band extraction for grain runs in parallel (roughly 2x faster band stage).
  • Faster image preparation for Hard Motion repairs.
  • Faster grain model build.

Global Flicker Preview Performance

  • Out-of-place LUT, multi-threaded extraction, and IPP SIMD optimizations for preview.
  • Per-shot dirty tracking for graph correction.

Startup and I/O

  • AI engine loading is deferred until first use, so the application starts faster.
  • Improved handling of very large files.
  • Smoother playback while previewing, by skipping redundant frame reads.

Bookmark Timeline

  • Fixed slowness in bookmark timeline rendering.

BUG FIXES

Most Important Fixes

  • Crashes when starting a GOV brush stroke outside the frame, using Shine on all-white
    (slug) frames, rendering in Scratch, and closing a tool just as its processing finished.
  • Version commits: two overlapping commits could lose frames; cancelling a commit now
    restores the clip as it was.
  • Shine: “past frames only” mode, large debris such as long lines missed by the alpha
    filter, and results that varied from run to run. Shine and AutoFilter now work on EXR.
  • DRS: hangs during background processing and at the end of macros; Grain Override
    brightening 10-bit DPX and over-sharpening.
  • Deflicker: Global keeps its analysis when you switch to a clip of a different size,
    Zonal’s Channels control works, and Mistime’s Render All works.
  • Paint: Clone mode works after a restart, side-by-side view shows and syncs the right
    frames, and the import-frame offset no longer jumps.
  • Display: 3D LUTs from cube files no longer swap red and blue; 12-bit packed DPX
    displays correctly at any width.
  • Bookmarks show on clips whose file numbers differ from their timecode, and Add
    Bookmark works inside an existing bookmark.
  • MTai: the AI engine no longer fails to load at startup now and then, and the R,
    Alt+R and Ctrl+Alt+R keys mark the same frames as their buttons.
  • F1 with a menu open opens the help instead of an error.

The detailed list follows.

Crashes Fixed

  • Fix crash when starting a GOV brush stroke outside the frame (in the gray background).
  • Fix crash in Shine when working with completely white frames (slug frames).
  • Fix crash in Paint when deleting a bin while Paint is active.
  • Fix intermittent stack overflow crash when tool processing time per iteration is short (e.g. Global Flicker).
  • Fix potential crash in DRS when extracting 12-bit-in-3-byte packed pixels.
  • Fix crash when closing a tool at the moment its processing finishes.
  • Fix crash when working with DPX RGBA files whose alpha channels are all zeros.
  • Fix crash in the Replacer when an RGBA alpha channel was not detected.
  • Fix stack overflow crash in Scratch when rendering.
  • Application now exits cleanly instead of hanging when the bin cannot be opened at startup.

Data Loss Fixed

  • Fix version commit issue where two overlapping commits could race and lose frames.
  • Cancelling a version commit now unwinds the partial commit and restores the pre-commit state.

Debris Tool Fixes

  • Fix Shine “past frames only” mode: unresponsive D key and first frame writing bugs.
  • Fix Shine repeatability issue caused by non-thread-safe Intel function.
  • Fix bug where previewing in “past frames only” then turning it off would continue in that mode.
  • Fix bug in AutoFilter single frame mode.
  • Fix incorrect progress monitor readout.
  • Fix bug in Shine where previewing BLACK and WHITE debris simultaneously could prevent some defects from being detected.
  • Prevent grain from sticking/freezing.
  • Fix Shine alpha filtering dropping large debris such as long lines.
  • Fix hang on very short shots.
  • Fix Alpha Filter button not enabling the presets Save button; fix Shine track bar hotkeys and hints.

DRS Tool Fixes

  • Prevent DRS hang when doing a GOV while DRS processes in the background.
  • Use blending for DRS repair when motion fails.
  • Fix DRS tool double-fix issue when changing overrides on a different frame.
  • Fix DRS 10-bit DPX frames being inappropriately brightened with Grain Override.
  • Fix DRS grain override oversharpening.
  • Fix DRS hang when a macro finished with stacked fixes pending.
  • Fix DRS refix race where a repair could be read back from disk before the newest version was written.
  • Fix bezier drawing showing nothing until the frame was scrubbed.
  • Fix invisible GOV rectangle when stretching after an AutoFilter/Shine fix.
  • Brush cursor now scales correctly above 100% zoom.
  • Fix DRS Hard Motion overrides displacing existing fixes when using Move/Rotate.

Flicker Tool Fixes

  • Fix Global Flicker losing analysis when switching to a clip of a different size.
  • Fix ROI drawing, ROI reset, and a stray Render Frame button.
  • Fix the Channels control in Zonal Flicker, which previously did nothing; unchecked
    channels are now correctly excluded from processing.
  • Fix render status label messages.
  • Fix display flicker when switching from Global to Debris and back.
  • GUI alignment cleaned up in both Global and Zonal Flicker.

Mistime Tool Fixes

  • Fix Mistime “Render All” button, which previously did nothing.
  • Fix display refresh after a Mistime “Reject”.

EXR Support

  • Shine and AutoFilter now work correctly on EXR files.

Paint Tool Fixes

  • Fix W key in Paint being interfered with by Shift+W (blue overlay) state.
  • Fix Shift+E in “tracking edit” mode going to Mark In instead of first tracking frame.
  • Fix Paint Clip import frame offset jumping to random numbers.
  • Fix “Quick Align” exiting to wrong mode.
  • Fix inability to enter Track mode in Paint when in Clip mode.
  • Fix mask cursor showing brush instead of cross in Draw mode.
  • Fix mask controls: Track button detaching after enter/exit without changes.
  • Fix controls not re-enabled after closing tracking mode in Paint Clip.
  • Fix clone source point selection (Ctrl+Shift) showing import frame instead.
  • Fix mask drawing ignoring “use arrow instead of cross cursor” preference.
  • Fix side-by-side mode: frame syncing, flashing on PageUp/PageDown, wrong frames shown, left frame not updating
    during playback.
  • Fix frame offset not cleared when exiting side-by-side view.
  • Fix “red eye” button caption initialized to 9.9% instead of 0.0%.
  • Fix Clone mode doing nothing after an application restart.
  • Fix Alt+Q auto-align bugs in alternate clip mode.
  • Fix the last frame of a range macro showing the original instead of the corrected frame.
  • Fix Processed/Original button enable and caption state.
  • Fix tracking with a source frame offset (e.g. Reveal) going past the end of the clip.

Stabilize / Dewarp Fixes

  • Fix exec toolbar buttons flashing during Stabilizer preview playback.
  • Fix Dewarp buttons appearing greyed out while still working.
  • Fix stale Dewarp error message.
  • Fix several issues with stabilizing/dewarping the alpha channel dirt map to keep it synced with the RGB data when an ROI is active.

MTai Fixes

  • Fix intermittent engine load failure on startup.
  • Alt+R, Ctrl+Alt+R and R now use inclusive range semantics, matching their buttons.
  • Fix busy-arrows animation not being found when the working directory differed from
    the install directory.

Timeline/Navigation Fixes

  • Fix timeline zoom thumb jumping to the right in side-by-side mode.
  • Fix PageUp/PageDn timecode issues between version clip and master.
  • Fix clip loading jumping to random frame when frame rates don’t match.
  • Fix two consecutive PageUps causing random frame jump on return.
  • Fix out-mark timecode display off by one on the last frame.
  • Fix Ctrl+Space (STOP) and Space (PAUSE) being swallowed mid-run inside tools.
  • Frame compare modes now keep the current zoom when you exit them instead of resetting to fit.
  • Fix bookmarks not showing on clips whose file numbers differ from their timecode.
  • Fix Add Bookmark on the Bookmark timeline menu being greyed out inside a bookmark.
  • Clear All Bookmarks and Export Bookmark Events are greyed out when there are none.

Project/Clip Management

  • Fix Project Manager “Open/Close” menu item doing nothing when minimized.
  • Fix issues with “Open Recent” File menu item.
  • Fix occasional crash when adding a comment to a Master Clip.
  • Fix subclip frame rate not matching source after source FPS was changed.
  • Fix clips not being recognized as changed on disk.
  • Skip the unnecessary clip reload when only the comment is changed in Clip Properties.
  • Fix new versions not being loadable.
  • Preferences dialog widened for the Streaming tab and now opens on the General tab.

Displayer/Display

  • Fix 3D LUT construction from cube file data (was causing red/blue swap).
  • Fix 12-bit packed DPX display for widths not divisible by 8 (e.g. 1900x1080).
  • Fix display channel selection not being restored at startup.
  • Fix exec-toolbar buttons staying visually stuck in the Down state after release.
  • Fix Color Breathing being left in the wrong state.
  • LUT Settings editor: Enter now applies the value and returns focus to OK.

Other Fixes

  • Fix motion graph coordinate mismatch when clicking in the graph.
  • Fix F1 with a menu open showing “No context-sensitive help installed”.

INFRASTRUCTURE/BUILD

  • Upgraded to CUDA 12.9 with support for newer GPUs.
  • Upgraded to the TensorRT 10.16 runtime.
  • AI engine caching is now per-GPU and correctly rebuilds when the runtime or engine
    DLL changes, so engines are no longer silently stale on multi-GPU machines.
  • Dewarp tracking boxes changed to magenta to differentiate from Stabilize boxes.
  • Added preference checkbox to control whether last clip is reloaded at startup.