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Info Wanted: What other LDs are you all transferring?

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I thought it would be interesting if some of you masters of mastering were working on LD captures other than just The Holy Trilogy. For example, TPM, whose LD represents (to the best of my knowledge, based on Rikters SW Stuff page) the theatrical version, as opposed to the official DVD release.

Or, are any of you guys working on LD releases for other stuff totally un-SW related? There are a host of great movies (and concert vids) that were released on LD that have never seen a DVD release and are currently out of print on all formats.

Just curious, and I didn’t want to pull one of the other threads off-topic.

I am fluent in over six million forms of procrastination.
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I've gota great bootleg of TPM from the LD. I paid $58 for it on eBay back when it was first released. A little soft in the pictre area, but still really nice. I'd like to see a new transfer though myslef. Too bad TPM LDs go for $100+ now. I agree, there a lot of LDs that could use a transfer to DVD. The Frighteners DC comes to mind. The current bootleg floating around is crap. DD 2.0 only, no commentary, and it went from LD to VHS to PAL VHS to DVD. Ugh. Luckily I got it for free.
What do you mean there's no ice? I gotta drink this coffee hot?!
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I'm also working on a VHS transfer of some old P.O.D. concert footage from 97-98. I'm hoping to make a cool DVD out of this someday as well. Of course, my other DVD's are taking precedence at the moment.

I also acquired a hi quality quicktime version of the "Sleeping Awake" Matrix video. From the CD audio, I created a 5.1 DTS track for it that sounds AWESOME!

My Projects:
[Holiday Special Hybrid DVD v2]
[X0 Project]
[Backstroke of the West DVD]
[ROTS Theatrical DVD]

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I'd like to see the Indy trilogy preserved in its theatrical format. i bought the R1 copy of The Terminator because it has two things the R2/R4 doesn't: 1. the original mono audio track, 2. the original opening text (as opposed to converting it to player-invoked subtitles). Ergo it is the theatrical version, and the only theatrical version to be released anywhere in the world on DVD. I'd also like to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind in its theatrical version (which has NEVER been released on any home video format). I, of course, never saw it in theatres.
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Wow, DanielB. The original theatrical Close Encounters is actually my next project. I guess I'll have to keep you posted. I have the Criterion Collection laserdisc set that actually has both the original and Special Edition versions on it along with a bunch of extras.
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Ooh. Yeah, keep us posted!! I'd like to see that too! Close Encounters was brilliant!
What do you mean there's no ice? I gotta drink this coffee hot?!
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Doing a transfer of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind is a great idea! RowMan, will you use seamless branching to offer both the theatrical cut and the special edition of CE3K on your DVD? The existing DVD has a new (and better, imho) cut of this movie. Also you should consider transferring the extras of the Criterion LD too, a lot of them aren't on the commercial DVD.

Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!

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The Frighteners DC comes to mind.


I guarantee that would spread like wildfire around the internet if a quality capture along the likes of what everyone's doing with Star Wars was done with Frighteners. Especially considering all the extras on that set.

I think someone capturing and doing up "Frighteners" would be even more anticipated than a capture of Close Encounters theatrical release.

And I know there's a capture of the various versions of Blade Runner out there somewhere. You'd think someone would try to capture that, and apply the same meticulous standards we're applying to Star Wars.
The Best Show You've Never Heard
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This isn't exactly an LD transfer or anything, but I'm working on two video projects now.

1. Editing all 30 (eventually, that is) episodes of CLONE WARS into one continuous movie. All 20 currently released episodes are done now, though I want to polish it up a bit, and I'm going to cut the Kit Fisto episode entirely. It interrupts the flow of CLONE WARS as a film and is never referenced before or after in the whole thing. I've also cut the first episode down considerably; the film now opens in Palpatine's office and Yoda's voiceover is never heard. I'd like to play around with his voiceover a bit and make an opening crawl for the film, but that would mean more editing. The first episode adds nothing as well, so I may take a quick clip from about episode 7 or so which actually pans down from an empty starfield to show a battle, and use that somehow...but I'd need someone to make a crawl for me as I'm doing all this in VirtualDub...

2. Editing RED DRAGON a little bit to remove extraneous Lecter action (the beginning and the Clarice thing at the end mainly). I'm nearly done with this, as it's fairly easy. What I want to do (though it may be near impossible) is subtly edit MANHUNTER (the good bits) and RED DRAGON (namely Emily Watson, Ralph Feinnes and Anthony Hopkins) together. Mainly the William Petersen performance. However, this may not be possible because of the end of RED DRAGON versus the end of MANUNTER, and I want to keep RED DRAGON's ending. Nohting against Ed Norton, but he just doesn't play Will Graham as well as William Petersen did.
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I've said it before. Red Dragon is a terrible excuse for a remake. Manhunter is excellent the way it is. It chose to follow the book's interest in Graham and not to follow Dollarhyde. The problem is, even if you remove all the crap from Red Dragon you will still be missing the character development and other important bits that were given to Lecter. They basically made a comedy of the movie. People only saw it to watch Hopkins as Lecter.
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But MANHUNTER butchered the book. I loved Petersen's performance and that IMHO was the only good thing about MANHUNTER.
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"Nohting against Ed Norton, but he just doesn't play Will Graham as well as William Petersen did."

No doubt. My preference is for the original Manhunter. I just wish they had the "As an adult, I want to blow the sick fuck out of his shoes" line (or something like that) in ANY of the DVD releases. That's one of my favorite lines, and it only exists on the VHS.

"I've said it before. Red Dragon is a terrible excuse for a remake. Manhunter is excellent the way it is. It chose to follow the book's interest in Graham and not to follow Dollarhyde. The problem is, even if you remove all the crap from Red Dragon you will still be missing the character development and other important bits that were given to Lecter. They basically made a comedy of the movie. People only saw it to watch Hopkins as Lecter."

Wow.....for once, DanielB and I are in complete agreement!

"But MANHUNTER butchered the book. I loved Petersen's performance and that IMHO was the only good thing about MANHUNTER."

It may have butchered the ending (though I like it regardless), but the films are very similar beyond that (not exact, but similar.)

BTW, if anyone has a "Howard the Duck" LD, I'd LOVE to transfer that to DVD. Lea Thompson......mmmm, mmmmm, good!

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I'll never forget a post on another message board not long after Red Dragon's release by a "fan" which went something like:

...I'm a huge Hannibal Lecture fan. The first 15 minutes was the best...

I'd seen Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal before I read the books. I'm not sure if I read Red Dragon first before I saw manhunter, but I know I read the books in order.
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See, the first 15 minutes and the last 2 minutes are what I'm cutting OUT of RED DRAGON, because that was just to capitalize on Anthony Hopkins' popularity. I'll try to cut the 'dinner' scene in the middle, too - not even any dialogue in there...

But I did read the books (all but HANNIBAL, which I still have not read unfortunately) before I saw either MANHUNTER or THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. I saw MANHUNTER first, and I was extremely disappointed in that a) Hannibal wasn't a cannibal b) Dolarhyde lost all his characterization and c) the ending was destroyed. The only thing I thought was good in any way was William Peterson, and he was a-frickin-mazing. I still can't see anyone but him in the role. Then I saw SILENCE, completely loved it, one of the best movies of all time IMHO. Then HANNIBAL, which was just as ridiculous as MANHUNTER (it seems the one-word HANNIBAL titles just aren't very good...). Then RED DRAGON, which was very good but had its low points (and Norton replacing Petersen, who didn't seem anywhere near as traumatized by his experiences as Petersen did).
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Originally posted by: Z6PO
Doing a transfer of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind is a great idea! RowMan, will you use seamless branching to offer both the theatrical cut and the special edition of CE3K on your DVD?


True seamless branching is not possible on home-made DVDs at this point, unfortunately. There is a program on the Mac that costs $500 that can do it (but you have to have a mac too). The only other way to make seamless branching DVDs is on hundred-thousand dollar workstations from Sony etc.

You can make DVDs that point to the same data in Scenarist or DVDLab Pro, but there will be a slight pause when a branch is encountered on a standalone player (like a layer break). Commercial seamless branching DVDs are made by mixing small amounts of the MPEG files within each other so that the laser can skip across these small gaps. It is an extremely complex thing to do properly.

I know a bit about it because I am currently doing a W1ngs of H0nneam1se (anime) dvd, with the video from the japanese disc which uses seamless branching. (the numbers are not in the actual name I just put them there so no one finds it via search and gets me in trouble). The official DVD has shocking video quality so I'm making a disc that combines the us extras with the japanese video. But I can't recreate the seamless branching. Anyone interested in a copy can email/PM...

You can make one version play back normally and the other version play back with pauses though. Perhaps you should do this for Close Encounters, having the director's cut (laserdisc version) play back with pauses. Anyway I'd be in line for any copy of the theatrical version put to DVD!

Others that I'm after are Song of the South, Blade Runner theatrical and THX1138. I know these are out there but can't find anyone to sell me them. Anyone here got copies?
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Id like to get my LD of ITS A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD on DVD... its the "extended cut" , and restores most known trims to the movie.... still not quite what it should be, but more accurate than the current official DVD.

aka nostromo777 on myspleen

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Originally posted by: Z6PO
Doing a transfer of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind is a great idea! RowMan, will you use seamless branching to offer both the theatrical cut and the special edition of CE3K on your DVD? The existing DVD has a new (and better, imho) cut of this movie. Also you should consider transferring the extras of the Criterion LD too, a lot of them aren't on the commercial DVD.


Well, with my skill level, equipment, and expertise I'll just be doing the original theatrical on one disc and the extras on the other.

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I've got the Blade Runner DVD, transferred from te Criterion LD. Its pretty good, though not as nice as what some of the guys here are capable of. I would trade you a copy for your Wings DVD when its done. Tat anime is great, and I hate watching my crappy old dubbed VHS.
What do you mean there's no ice? I gotta drink this coffee hot?!
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Originally posted by: skeg64
Originally posted by: Z6PO

Others that I'm after are Song of the South, Blade Runner theatrical and THX1138. I know these are out there but can't find anyone to sell me them. Anyone here got copies?


drop me a pm
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"But I did read the books (all but HANNIBAL, which I still have not read unfortunately)"

You're not missing much...

"(and Norton replacing Petersen, who didn't seem anywhere near as traumatized by his experiences as Petersen did). "

THANK YOU! I love Norton as an actor, but he simply didn't convey what the character was.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Exactly.

Anyway, back OT...

I've been working on CLONE WARS a little more now and here's my idea for the opening crawl (paraphrased from Yoda's voiceover at the beginning of episode 1, which will be cut along with episode 5):

STAR
WARS

CLONE WARS

The CLONE WARS have
spread like fire across
the galaxy. More and
more planets succumb
to the wicked Count
Dooku.

To act against these
threats, the duty falls
upon the JEDI KNIGHTS
to lead the newly-formed
Army of the Republic.

As the heat of war grows,
so, too, grows the prowess
of ANAKIN SKYWALKER, one
most gifted student of the
Force. . . .



There is no EPISODE... title added on to CLONE WARS, mainly because I don't want to do something stupid like II.V or something like that. Anyways, what do you think about that, and can anyone please make a crawl for me if I provide the background?
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To those looking for SONG OF THE SOUTH.... Ive already got a great LD transfer of that, with full menus and trailers.

aka nostromo777 on myspleen

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Originally posted by: Echo3
To those looking for SONG OF THE SOUTH.... Ive already got a great LD transfer of that, with full menus and trailers.


Holy shit, seriously?!?

Please tell me that you plan to torrent that! Yet another peice of cinema history that has been buried due to Politically Correct bullshit. Love it or hate it, this movie should still be available.
For as much as some people claim to hate what Star Wars has become, they sure seem incapable of shutting up about it.