,^…^, presents The Thing [spoRv] project

The Thing (1982) [special preserved or Restored version]

**LAST UPDATE: August 19, 2013; cover added on December 29, 2013.
**

Project mission: restore John Carpenter’s The Thing video to be closest to the theatrical version as could be possible at the present day, using the best video sources chosen from all the various available versions; adding the best original and remastered audio soundtracks in different languages.

Video sources: luma from HD-DVD, chroma mainly from Laserdisc.

Audio sources: uncompressed PCM soundtracks captured directly from Laserdiscs; AC3 soundtracks from DVD; DTS soundtracks from BD.

Subtitles sources: from BD.

**The Thing [spoRv]
**

Source Material

Video:

The Thing - US HD-DVD
The Thing (Pioneer Cinema) - PAL UK laserdisc CLV - for color timing reference
La Cosa (The Thing) - PAL IT DVD - for color timing reference

Audio:

The Thing (Signature Collection) - NTSC US laserdisc CLV/CAV - English soundtrack PCM 2.0 (original)
The Thing (letterbox edition) - NTSC US laserdisc CLV - English soundtrack PCM 2.0 (changed)
The Thing - PAL France laserdisc CLV - French soundtrack PCM 2.0
The Thing - 1998 US DVD - English commentary AC3 1.0
La Cosa (The Thing) - 1998 PAL IT DVD - Italian soundtrack AC3 2.0 (changed)
La Cosa (The Thing) - 1998 PAL IT DVD - Spanish soundtrack AC3 1.0 (changed)
The Thing - UK BD - English soundtrack DTS-HD MA (new remix)
The Thing - UK BD - French soundtrack DTS 5.1 (new remix)
The Thing - UK BD - Italian soundtrack DTS 5.1 (new remix)
The Thing - UK BD - German soundtrack DTS 5.1 (new remix)
The Thing - UK BD - Spanish soundtrack DTS 2.0 mono (new remix)

Subtitles:

english, italian, french, spanish, german from the BD.

Capture setup & processing info

Hardware:

Pioneer DVL-909 PAL/NTSC laserdisc/DVD player
Sony Vaio VGX-XL202 PC CPU Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz, 3GB RAM, 250GB+320GB HDDs_, BD-RE_
AverMedia BDA A16C internal video card (with Philips SAA713x chipset)
Western Digital Elements 1TB external USB HD
Microsoft XBOX360 HD-DVD player
Monster Cable S-Video 5pin cable (very high quality)
SONY optical S/PDIF cable (very high quality)
_no-brand coaxial cable (very high quality)
_

Software:

VirtualDub as capture software
VirtualDub and AviSynth for video editing
AviSynth + SoundOut and Foobar2000 for audio conversions
tsMuxeR and AVIdemux for muxing/demuxing

Settings:

laserdisc video captured at card native resolution 720x576 @25fps (PAL), YUV Lagarith lossless compression
PCM digital audio from Laserdisc to PC via S/PDIF bit-perfect 16bit 44.1KHz stereo

Project status: RELEASED on August 19, 2013, on myspleen.

Video sources and processing:

HD-DVD VC-1 and DVD MPEG2 are converted using the Lagarith lossless compression (YV12); laserdisc video is captured using the Lagarith lossless compression (YUY2).

HD-DVD is used as frame reference (so no frames are cut or duplicated); it’s simply converted to lossless with not further processing.

PAL UK laserdisc is used as primary color reference: it’s captured using AviSynth at its original resolution of 720x576@25fps; then frame rates is changed to 23.976; a rainbow remover is applied to the capture, along with mild noise reduction to get rid of eventual dropouts; at the end, video is upscaled to 1920x816 and frames are cut or duplicated to match the HD-DVD video.

PAL IT DVD is used as secondary color reference: it’s converted to lossless; then frame rates is changed to 23.976; at the end, video is upscaled to 1920x816 and frames are cut or duplicated to match the HD-DVD video.<span><span> </span></span>

After a lot (and when I mean a lot, I mean A LOT) of tests, the video will be treated as following:

opening credits (up to “Antarctica, winter 1982”) is HD-DVD video “as is”, because there is no need for color regrading, as the flying saucer and earth colors are almost the same of the laserdisc/DVD - the same for the end credits, from the last image of the movie.
the rest of the movie is made using the HD-DVD for the luma, and laserdisc for the chroma, and feeding them to the ColourMatchYUV avisynth script
except the laserdisc side 1 end / side 2 beginning scenes, as they have fade out / fade in, were not possible to be used, so I used the DVD there for color reference, tweaking a little bit to be as close as possible to the laserdisc
and except few other scenes that have some kind of artifacts (around 1000 frames in total) - there, the ColourMatch is used instead.

Then, the result video is saved as lossless, to be converted to lossy AVC for the final Blu-Ray.

Audio sources and processing:

PAL FR LD is captured (thanks to ilovewaterslides); then converted to 48KHz; as LD video frames are cut or duplicated to match the HD-DVD video, audio is adjusted accordingly to be in sync with the HD-DVD video.

NTSC US LDs are captured and processed to be in sync with the HD-DVD video (thanks to Jonno); the letterbox LD is converted to AC3.

PAL IT DVD italian, spanish and english commentary AC3 soundtracks are demuxed, then converted to PCM to be processed; as DVD video frames are cut or duplicated to match the HD-DVD video, all the soundtracks are adjusted accordingly to be in sync with the HD-DVD video; the resulted tracks are then reconverted to AC3 to be BD compliant.

UK BD english DTS-HD MA, french, italian, german DTS 5.1 and spanish DTS 2.0 (mono) are used as they are (thanks to Jonno)

Final format: BD-25

Video:

letterbox 2.35:1 1920x816 pixel inside the 16:9 1920x1080 pixel FHD frame, AVC (x264) 23.976fps, average bitrate 18500kbps

Audio:

english PCM 2.0 16bit 1536kbps - from NTSC Signature Collection LD
english AC3 2.0 16bit 384kbps - from NTSC letterbox LD
english DTS-HD MA 5.1 24bit 3900kbps (1536kbps core DTS) - from UK BD
french PCM 2.0 16bit 1536kbps - from PAL french LD
french DTS 5.1 24bit 768kbps - from UK BD
italian AC3 2.0 16bit 192kbps - from PAL IT DVD
italian DTS 5.1 24bit 768kbps - from UK BD
spanish DTS 2.0 24bit 384kbps (mono) - from UK BD
spanish AC3 1.0 16bit 96kbps - from PAL IT DVD
german DTS 5.1 24bit 768kbps - from UK BD
commentary AC3 16bit 1.0 96kbps - from PAL IT DVD

Subtitles:

english (full and SDH); french, italian, spanish, german (full and forced) from UK BD

Special thanks to:

Jonno, for english laserdisc, all BD soundtracks, missing frames, and A LOT OF HELP!!! Without you, this project could not be the same! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Other credits:

The Aluminum Falcon for the HD-DVD video
zeropc for DVD english soundtrack and commentary
ilovewaterslides for the PCM french soundtrack
Namtar for the isolated score
Jetrell Fo for general supporting and encouragement
everyone who showed interest and appreciation

Self comment (posted on July 18, 2013):

OK, before you throw me out of the window, please keep reading…

I don’t wanted to derail Jonno’s thread more, so I decided to start my own project. His idea (Jonno’s) to use the HD-DVD video, along with laserdisc soundtrack(s) is good; I asked in his thread if the HD-DVD video is the best video released until now, and, after I have made some homeworks, I discovered that it is, but… it’s not the “perfect” one!

I mean, it’s better than the BD; the latter has a DNR that cancelled some film drop outs, along with a lot of grain and resolution… so, what is the problem? Is the frame too cropped? I think not - comparing it to my PAL LD (which seems to be one of the finest PAL laserdisc ever produced, a very good Pioneer Cinema edtion) the HD-DVD has often some lines of resolution more on all the four sides, while few times the contrary it’s true, but the difference is negligible.

So, where lies the problem? Well, to my eyes (yes, it’s a personal point of view) the color timing is not good… maybe it’s due to the light in the scanner used for capturing the film (poita will know surely more about it), but the picture seems to have that “pinkish” tone, often seen on some HD releases…

I based my suppositions after I’ve seen screenshot comparison of HD-DVD Vs BD; as I have not (yet) the HD-DVD video, I downloaded a couple youtube HD clips (almost surely taken from the BD) to make some comparisons with my PAL LD captures; altough these HD clips are only at 720p, and heavily compressed, the colors are retained… and, as I wrote before, they are… well, wrong? The LD colors, at the contrary, seems more real to me, even if not perfect - again, a personal thought: so I had the idea to use the HD luma and the LD chroma to obtain the best resolution with right colors, and it seems to work!

Here you are some comparison screenshots; top, laserdisc captures (1-5 denoised, 6-8 raw); middle, youtube HD clips; bottom, HD luma + LD chroma (click image for larger version):

I don’t like pinkish snow and clouds, and you?

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Another case of the infamous pinkish snow…

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This time is less pink than the previous two…

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This time snow is blue, but… wait a moment…

are these two different dog breeds, or only two dog color varieties?

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This time snow is white, but sky is yellowish…

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I don’t remember their skirts were blueish…

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…or their faces so pinkish!

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Maybe flames are not so yellow, but neither pink!

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Because the old adage “A picture worth a thousand words” is ever valid, I carefully choose some extreme screenshots to showcase the problem, but obviosly there are some scenes where the HD colors are better than LD; in those cases, the original chroma will be left untouched or mixed (depending on the scene) to obtain the best colors. I know this is not the best practice, but until there is a valid reference for colors, it’s the best I can do!

Or. better, I could release a pre-version, with both original and laserdisc chroma, and let the users (who want to help) decide which is better, with the best chroma amount (e.g. “scene 12 could be better with 20% HD chroma and 80% LD chroma, while scene 13 should have 100% LD chroma and scene 14 is better 50/50”)

Test clips - test clip 1 - test clip 2

last comparison clip - final result clip (dog)

Let the debate begins!

Covers:

Blu-ray custom cover (click for larger version, or follow the link):