TPM 1080p Theatrical Preservation (a WIP) — Page 2

Interesting comments. DVDSource() is just the upscale function, I altered it significantly a couple of days ago (to take care of the combing artefacts on the DVD) and I'll be happy to post it when it's done in its final form.

To get back to Episode I here is the complete list of changes (Theatrical to DVD) that I'm aware of:

1. Original subtitles removed and replaced with player-invoked subs (and of course burned-in on the HDTV versions).
2. A couple of night shots on Tatooine are significantly darker.
3. The pod-race "grid sequence" and pod-race itself was altered significantly (too much to mention here).
4. Air taxi sequence was incorporated into Naboo, and a previous shot was removed.
5. Orn Free Taa's aids are replaced with two aliens in the Senate.
6. On a night shot of Naboo there is a bridge that was added.

I went through the entire movie scene-by-scene, and couldn't find any other changes. Some of the shots on Naboo have their whites blown-out (see 2nd screenshot in this post), but I've decided not to use the BD at all and to rely solely on the previous releases. So although as you see I can turn the gamma down a bit, I can't bring back the texture on the pavement. Well not unless I want to use the laserdisc, which doesn't have enough resolution to depict the pavement anyway.

Those seem like all of the changes.  I'd love to see your script when you're done.  Thanks

Fang Zei said:

Which night shots are you referring to?

 I'll post some screenshots later.

Also, just to avoid confusion (and I'm sure you meant to type this), the air taxi sequence is on Coruscant, not Naboo.

Correct, I'm just getting my planets mixed up!

I always liked the blown-out whites in those Theed shots. It gave a more realistic feel to what was going on, like it just happened to be a particularly bright day.

Well I can't say I particularly like the look, but as I said I won't be substituting anything from the BD because I believe the HDTV is sufficient. If someone buys a print and scans those scenes they could easily spice in an improvement a few years down the track.

I'll be away for a few days, so this project whilst not dead will be in limbo for the moment - I will hope to complete it for early January, and yes I will do some more work before Christmas. :) It's really not difficult, it just takes time to script it and trial-and-error concepts, and of course completing the subtitle removal, etc. None of it is very difficult, just takes time.

Also, I may end up releasing a 1080p as well - as I mentioned I don't think the quality warrants it, but if I think there's enough interest I'm happy to do it, it's not difficult.

Good job! Even if I'd like to watch a 1080p version, too!

Hey, just letting everyone know I've been doing other things atm, but I'll get back to this soon. :) I also have 2x new HDDs I need to install sometime in the next few days.

Okay, so I've completed the subtitle removal today. There are 28 subtitles in the film, and removing them was time consuming. I used individual masks for each subtitle rather than creating one big mask that would work for all 28. Now I'm just double-checking I haven't made any errors in the frame codes. You can see the sample image I posted back here. Here's the code for it, as you can see it's one big sequential manual-labour effort.

To remove the subtitles I had to de-grain those frames. So, once I've finished checking them I'll use grainfactory to restore the correct grain level for the frames where subtitles were removed. Then all that's left to do is to put in the theatrically-correct subtitles using the Z-VCD theatrical bootleg as a guide for the timing and placement. They'll be burned-in as requested.

Could you post a screenshot? I'm happy to compare it to the Z-VCD to determined whether it was changed. Cheers - :)

I know you said you didn't want to use the Blu-ray for this project, but how hard would it be to incorporate it and what are the cons of using it? On a technical level it's a better scan than the DVD/HDTV version because of the digital source used for the 2011 restoration. Maybe you could use kk650's Regrained and Recolored version as the source instead of the actual Blu-ray.

While some aspects of the Bluray's picture are better, overall it is over-sharpened and the cropping is wrong. Note that because it was converted to 3D, all the previously out-of-focus elements in the picture are often brought into focus where-ever possible so that the viewer can explore the depth of the movie. Here are some examples (bluray top, hdtv middle and z-vcd bot):

In this shot the bluray cropping is closer to the theatrical version.




But in this shot (and most others) the hdtv cropping is closer to the theatrical version.

Okay so the Subtitle styling is done.

AOTC HDTV:


ITC Franklin Gothic Demi, 69pt / 28-width:

Blur applied to the text (note: the background is untouched and has not been blurred):

The exact font used by Lucasfilm is a variant of this, if you have the exact one let me know otherwise this is as close as it gets.

Yes the final vertical placement will be according to what I see in "Z".

On that note...

Seems the font is larger than Attack of the Clones. Interesting.

This looks right:

Also, although the above screenshot makes it seem like the drop shadow goes down and to the right this one shows it clearly going straight down as in AOTC:

...so it seems you have updated the project from 720p to 1080p... good choice!!!

Has some poor soul out there got a 35mm print of TPM?

Didn't Team Negative 1 say that after they do the OUT, they might do the 97se and the prequels?

Which I find incredibly disappointing because I think 35mm scans of AotC and RotS would be far easier to bring in line with the OT than the pristine Digital sources we have.

...

Any ETA on this? Really excited to see your final results. :)

Danfun128 said:

Didn't Team Negative 1 say that after they do the OUT, they might do the 97se and the prequels?

That might reassure me in another universe where I knew how much longer they have til they finish the OUT. I don't mean to be crass or rude by that but it is true. I'm still patiently waiting :)

Also, Valeyard, "Theatrical Preservation" is incorrect terminology since you're not preserving anything in particular. What you're doing is a reconstruction of the Theatrical version.