That would suggest it's a standard of some sort; though whether it's a standard for the entire industry, the BD spec, or just that authoring house remains to be seen.
I hope it's possible with different amounts - I can't think of many commercially-sourced assets that will provide 11 seconds of slack unless they've been specifically prepared with branching in mind.
That's a point, actually - do those m2ts files have an 11 second black leader at the front?
No they don't have any blank space. Also, it's the same value on the Alien Anthology discs as well. And they don't have the same authoring - Alien was compressed with the Sirius Pixels AVC encoder, whereas BR and T2 are the Microsoft VC-1. If you like you could compare to the newer BR disc encoded with AVC and see what settings they use on that one.
[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]
The branched Blade Runner disc is identical in the newer set (as is the Final Cut) - it's just the workprint that received the AVC re-encode since it was being compiled together with the SD special features on one disc.
I checked anyway and those settings are identical. What other branched discs are there to look at? I'll have a look through my collection.
Perhaps I asked the wrong question about the m2ts files. The excess 11 seconds might not be black, but rather redundant footage, e.g. does clip B begin with the last 11 seconds of clip A?
They don't have repeated footage, they're completely sequential. I believe Close Encounters has branching, Gladiator, and Apocalypse Now.
I should note that I believe that the maximum bit-rate needs to be considered when branching is involved. That is, the maximum A/V bitrate for Bluray is 48Mbps. At the point of branching both the current m2ts and the following m2ts files are loaded into memory together for 11 seconds - and even though they're sequential it would appear that the data rate for the final 11 seconds and the first 11 seconds of the following clip should add up to no more than 48Mbps. If the bitrate exceeds 48Mbps when the two parts are added together you would likely experience a non-seamless transition.
This is largely undocumented, and I'm mostly speculating, but I do believe that's how studio discs are authored - the professional authoring software like Sony Blu-print will ensure that the files get encoded to a conforming bitrate. If you want to do it manually you probably need to set the maximum video bit-rate to 20Mbps instead of 40, and ensure the audio adds up to 4Mbps or less. You may be able to join the video together - 20Mbps max 11.65 seconds + 40Mbps max (clip length - 23.3s) + 20Mbps max 11.65 seconds and so on.
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That's an interesting thought, RU.08. And it makes sense.
But I've just BDInfo'ed Blade Runner disc 2, and it looks like the average bitrates are around 25Mbps. Is that what you see as well?
I can take a look at Close Encounters later.
Yes I think you can have a higher average so long as the "overlap" parts (each end of each clip) is within the set amount. And I should note I don't know that it's 11 seconds or half of that or double that either, since we're just assuming it pre-loads the clip 11 seconds in advance.
[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]
RU.08 said:
Yes I think you can have a higher average so long as the "overlap" parts (each end of each clip) is within the set amount. And I should note I don't know that it's 11 seconds or half of that or double that either, since we're just assuming it pre-loads the clip 11 seconds in advance.
Right, I understand the assumptions. But if it turns out to be true: Is it possible to encode something such that the max bitrate is differently specified for different segments of the same file? Perhaps much fancier encoding software is required (than, say, adobe)? BDInfo spat out the numbers chapter by chapter, and there were no noticeable dips at branching points or in the short m2ts files. But of course if it's only 11 seconds with lower bitrate it would be masked by the average.
I'm mainly asking because if there is indeed a 20mbps max for the entire film, it might actually be preferable to not use branching at all. Assuming one is only creating two versions of Star Wars, for instance, and has no qualms going from BD25 to BD50, a higher bitrate could be used without branching. Obviously, that goes out the window if 3+ branching options, or if the disc was already intended to be a BD50 packed with bonus material. A very inefficient use of space, but it should look better.
Given that I'm planning for all the bonus material to be on a separate disc, j am actually considering dropping the branching and seeing how well everything can fit as their own separate thing. I am happy to report that my computer is finally up and running again, so there should be much more coming out of the woodwork for this soon
Darth Lucas said:
Given that I'm planning for all the bonus material to be on a separate disc, j am actually considering dropping the branching and seeing how well everything can fit as their own separate thing. I am happy to report that my computer is finally up and running again, so there should be much more coming out of the woodwork for this soon
That'll work fine for doing the two SW crawls. If you want to include all three SEs on another disc, you'll want to figure out branching between 04/11 and then have a separate 97 (I would use Team Blu's for ANH).
towne32 said:
Darth Lucas said:
Given that I'm planning for all the bonus material to be on a separate disc, j am actually considering dropping the branching and seeing how well everything can fit as their own separate thing. I am happy to report that my computer is finally up and running again, so there should be much more coming out of the woodwork for this soon
That'll work fine for doing the two SW crawls. If you want to include all three SEs on another disc, you'll want to figure out branching between 04/11 and then have a separate 97 (I would use Team Blu's for ANH).
I can't remember if he said he was using Harmy for the OT but if that's the case, then the Respecialized might be of better use than just Team Blu. Just spitballing here.
she/her
mwah
clutchins said:
towne32 said:
Darth Lucas said:
Given that I'm planning for all the bonus material to be on a separate disc, j am actually considering dropping the branching and seeing how well everything can fit as their own separate thing. I am happy to report that my computer is finally up and running again, so there should be much more coming out of the woodwork for this soon
That'll work fine for doing the two SW crawls. If you want to include all three SEs on another disc, you'll want to figure out branching between 04/11 and then have a separate 97 (I would use Team Blu's for ANH).
I can't remember if he said he was using Harmy for the OT but if that's the case, then the Respecialized might be of better use than just Team Blu. Just spitballing here.
Yeah, it's up to him. I think a big part of preserving the 1997 (for the few who are interested) is getting the color from that actual release.
towne32 said:
Right, I understand the assumptions. But if it turns out to be true: Is it possible to encode something such that the max bitrate is differently specified for different segments of the same file? Perhaps much fancier encoding software is required (than, say, adobe)? BDInfo spat out the numbers chapter by chapter, and there were no noticeable dips at branching points or in the short m2ts files. But of course if it's only 11 seconds with lower bitrate it would be masked by the average.
I'm mainly asking because if there is indeed a 20mbps max for the entire film, it might actually be preferable to not use branching at all. Assuming one is only creating two versions of Star Wars, for instance, and has no qualms going from BD25 to BD50, a higher bitrate could be used without branching. Obviously, that goes out the window if 3+ branching options, or if the disc was already intended to be a BD50 packed with bonus material. A very inefficient use of space, but it should look better.
Well yes if you were limited to 20Mbps you could just set the 2-hour film to CBR and be done with it (you'd still need branching to fit two versions on though). I suggest testing my theory by trimming 5.825 seconds from the ends of the braching-points of the videos, and then joining all the heads together in one file, and all the tails together in another file and checking the average bitrate. Of course if it's lower than 20Mbps it doesn't prove anything since there's a 68% chance the sample would fall within 1 SDs of the mean, and 95% chance that the sample would fall within 2 SDs of the mean, however if it's higher than 20Mbps it proves the theory wrong (at least for the heads or for the tails of the joining points). And you could continue testing the other discs if it was lower than 20.
[ Scanning stuff since 2015 ]
Work in progress. Don't worry, I'm gonna fix the x wings on the front, its just to see how it will look.
I would just call the last two SE's the 2004 release and the 2011 release, or something to that effect. Or simply drop the v2 and v3 at the end.
Seeking only the most natural looking colors for Star Wars '77
Honestly, I would have done OUT (with 1977/1981 titles and other minor changes via seamless branching) as disc 1, the 1997 SE as disc 2, and the 2004/2011 SE as disc 3 using seamless branching; but it's your project, so do what you wish :P
Nobody sang The Bunny Song in years…
Looking great! Can't Wait for this project! :)
This looks awesome! I really like the ultimate edition across the top.
Looking forward to this awsum set and project! Keep up the Xcellent work guys!
Here’s an update on the cover art. Sorry it’s just a link. I’m still figuring out the new site.
http://i.imgur.com/chDFPVCl.jpg
I decided to forego the completely custom cover art in favor of a slightly modified Struzan. I also decided to drop the 2011 version of the film. The logic behind it being that it allows for a consistent two versions per disc, and most people already own the 2011 editions on bluray (in fact, all people who eventually download this should own the official blurays).
Anyways, let me know your opinions on the cover art. Still not 100% on it, but it’s almost there I think.
I’m not a fan of the pseudo-3D rebel logo, but other than that, it looks great. I think it would be nice to see a version of this art that lists the Blu Ray as a separate disc (i.e., disc 1 OOT/81, disc 2 97/04, disc 3 2011, disc 4 bonus).
Wow. This sounds… incredible. This will most likely be my go-to choice, once it’s released. Can’t wait to hear more!
I’ve been working on authoring the discs for ANH as well as recreating the '81 crawl to splice into the film for disc 1. I will post the menu design soon to see what you all think.
Here is the rough menu. When you press “play”, a new menu will appear where you will specify either “Theatrical Edition (1977)” or “Re-Release Edition (1981)” on disc 1 and either “Special Edition (1997)” or “Special Edition Redux (2004)” for disc 2.
Looks nice! Is the background static?
For now it is. I may have either the star field or planet move slowly, or possibly have some clips or screenshots from the movie playing in the empty area of space at the right side of the screen, but I personally like menus kept relatively simple.
