I really dislike CITY HUNTER. Strange movie but if I had the video and the laserdisc sound I would perform the public service. ;)
Project S will not by in High Def. It will have restored Cantonese audio from the lasersisc and decent subs. But the image quality is subpar.
I'll have a few more DVD only titles as well, like Comrades Almost A Love Story.
Project A will be a hybrid since only the shorter English dubbed version is available in 1080p.
It would appear some have already subtitled these releases. I am working on obtaining them now. Of course, likely dubtitles. Most sub scripts are just dubtitles.
Ladies and gents, this is a slow process, but we are slogging through and working on our fan restorations as best we can. So far we have HARD BOILED and Jackie Chan’s Extended POLICE STORY in the bag.
DRUNKEN MASTER II is nearly complete and much of the work on SUPERCOP is finished. So here is a preview of what we are doing.
Any video stuttering is caused by YouTube…
Tenebrion said:
Sounds awesome!
Speaking of Drunken Master, have you guys checked out the japanese 35th Anniversary Blu-Rays of Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow yet? They look so much better than any previous versions.
No I had no idea of their release. Will have to check them out. Thanks!
Here is a preview of what's coming...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO26N5P4_80
Test BD was great. Audio was as good as I can possibly get it. No issues with the subtitles. So we are nearing home base.
Exporting final Cantonese audio as I type this. Muxing a test disc tomorrow.
Almost there. Will be doing QC on the finished product this weekend.
I'm not sure God of Cookery would be in the immediate future. We have so many titles lined up now that my mind bleeds from thinking about it.
Another update... Illness prevented me from finishing DM2 so fear not, i am recovering and back on track. My editing partner has taken care of the subtitles and added additional audio tracks (like English dubbing for those who are inclined).
We are back on track so not much longer now and then BOOM, you will see SUPERCOP come right after.
Correct. The American version.
As for the other questions... No, I have no intention of doing part 2. The 5.1 remix on that is quite faithful to the original and sound terrific. Not to mention it's not really a great film. There are so many other titles i'd like to tackle.
I do not capture the audio myself. I send my laserdiscs to a friend of mine who is "in the biz" and he handles that aspect of my restorations. This entire "bit-perfect" thing is quite overblown. Just my own personal opinion and I think the titles I have tackled speak for the quality of the captures and the work.
DNR strikes again. Wow. This is why I still have my DVHS DTheater tape of U-571. The HD-DVD is DNR'd and the BD is even more MORE SO!
SUSPIRIA has received a 4k scan from Technicolor with Don May Jr. of Synapse in charge of a 2015 release. Knowing his care of quality I have no doubt we will finally receive a definitive version of this film on Blu-Ray.
Correct. We have ripped em all.
Is the Laserdisc PCM track available for download and will it line up correctly with the 4K BD release?
Awesome. I always encourage people to PLEASE support these catalog releases. Buy them so they keep releasing more catalog titles. If they are screwed up, someone here will fix them. :)
PDB said:
Glad to hear your progress Matt. I find English soundtracks hard to sync up so I can only imagine the difficulty with HK soundtracks which were never in sync to begin with.
Imagine pulling your hair out in frustration. It's insane how bad the foley work and dubbing was. There will be a sequence with two gun shots, four kicks and three punches. Half will be spot on, 1/4 just off and the other 1/4 way off. So now try and fix that.
Then you have the dialog. It's never spot for the earlier films because they were all dubbed in post. What a nightmare.
SUPERCOP was easy in comparison to Drunken Master 2 but had its own challenges. That was Jackie Chan's first HK film to utilize on set sound recording and so for dialog scenes it was possible to get it exactly right. Except for when certain lines or scenes were dubbed, which happened here and there. Particularly during action scenes where it was impossible to get rid of rubbery lips that were always there. If music is being played, you just can't mess with it.
By the way, most HK films have the sound of a punch or a kick occurring one or two frames before the action. The Hollywood (Miramax) English dubs have sound work that is typically frame accurate so a gun shot occurs at the exact frame of the muzzle flash. But for some strange reason punches and kicks are typically a frame after the actual contact is taking place. So a full 3 or 4 frames after the original mixes.
Gents, as some of you may know I am working with another forum member on some Hong Kong "restorations." We try to use 1080p sources and only 480i from DVD when there is no other way.
However, we are being forced to use the Hong Kong laserdisc for the cut ending scene to DRUNKEN MASTER II. Needless to say, it's an eye-sore coming right after an hour and a half of gorgeous 1080p HD.
We know jack and shit about AVISYNTH but are aware that when properly utilized it can dramatically improve image quality on old 480i material.
Would anyone want to lend us a hand?
Please PM me if interested.
The POLICE STORY 3 Laserdisc 2 channel audio is now edited and synced to the 2.35:1 Echo Bridge HD release of the SUPERCOP cut.
We will rip the 5.1 from the original Miramax DVD (the Blu-Ray's all seem to have a tiny DTS 2.0 track) and include it as an option.
But I am also going to capture the 16 bit PCM stereo surround sound from the Criterion laserdisc and do a hybrid mix between it and the original.
Why not?
Being perfectly frank, a public torrent is best. When I was living in NYC and Verizon FiOS I offered all my work via Piratebey and holy crap, I had terabytes worth of activity for Hard Boiled alone.
If i still lived up there and had that unlimited connection i would offer everything i have. Unfortunately I now have a max 56k upload speed and am capped at 150GB a month (up & down combined). Forget about Netflix HD. I'll be capped in two weeks. So I am very careful with what I grab these days.
vbangle said:
This place sucks. Everybody in this forum should be falling all over themselves for a Team Blu release, instead all I hear is crickets...
It's not exactly easy to get them.
POLICE STORY's audio comes from the original Japanese laserdisc. It's 2.0 mono, restored and synced better than the original film. It needed more work than any other track in regards to noise and hum, but the end product sounds fantastic. It kills the terrible 5.1 remixes.
THE KILLER is not possible. The 1080i Dragon Dynasty BD was sourced from a noise reduced 1080i 50Hz transfer. It's an abomination. This forum's very own CSchmidlapp worked on a restoration using the best 480i source available plus the laserdisc sound and did a phenomenal job. While it isn't HD, it upscales nicely. I know he had planned on doing more work with it, but I do not know the status of that project.
I doubt if I will get to Heart of Dragon or Crime Story. Neither are films I care to see again and from all I know there are zero true HD sources. I need to concentrate on films that are doable and ones I myself won't mind slaving over.
I'm unaware of any HD source for WHO AM I? If there is a true HD source and it is uncut, point it out to me, please. I love that film.
Agreed. The issue is finding the laserdiscs and the ability to capture the sound. My LD player is long gone so I have been relying on a friend to do mine. But he is beginning to have issues with his deck so I may not be able to do this for long.
We recently captured LD sound to a bunch of John Woo and Jackie Chan films just in case.
No grain to be seen in any of those clips but I am assuming they DNR'd it for Vimeo to avoid compression artifacts.
This is no longer on My Spleen. Bummer, as I had started work on correcting some slight sound sync issues with the PCM, but unfortunately have lost the hard drive with the audio/video (long story, but it has to do with an ex).
Anyone have a way to share this with me? I need it fast as i have a small hole in my schedule where I can easily fix the sound and be done with it.