Spaced Ranger

poita said:
We can confidently now quantify the changes between the 1971 and 1978/Home Video releases, which up until this point were not known/recorded.

From your information, what do say about my theory of THX & Evolution (said with a lisp):

version 1 - 1970 (88m?)
the Lucas original & finished cut of THX 1138
(un-released when it was taken away from him by Warner)

version 1.WB - 1971 (86m?)
the Warner Bros.’ re-edit
(released to theaters with 4 min. removed - a flop)
(sequence re-ordering?)

version 1 - 1978 (88m?)
back to Lucas’ original & finished cut
(released to theaters & TV broadcasts [16mm] under Lucas’ terms after Star Wars success - a flop)

version 2 - 1983 (86m)
Lucas’ next edit
(re-edited for TV broadcasts & home video [LD, Beta, VHS, CED] - builds to cult status)
(less some SEN shots; sequence re-ordering?)

version 3 - 2004 (88m)
Lucas’ next edit
(added Computer Graphics & re-coloring, sequence re-ordering, and out-takes for TV broadcasts & home video [DVD] - cult status)

version 4 - 2010 (88m)
Lucas’ next edit
(added tweaks of coloring, etc., for TV broadcasts & home video [Blu-ray] - cult status)

poita said:
… a few things about … THX’s history.
According to imdb, the theatrical version had a segment from the S/F-film “Things to Come” (1936). False …

It’s probably my fault, but that is no longer in IMDb, under Alternate Versions, where I challenged the credulity of that entry … effectively. 😄

Here is the present entry:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066434/alternateversions
where there is nothing under the last line – “THX is attacked by new CGI shell dwellers at the end on his way out.”

Here was a 2015 entry:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150329074845/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066434/alternateversions
with that wrong information as the last line – “In the original release the movie includes a one minute clip from Things to Come (1936) before the opening credits. When re-released in the late-1970’s this clip was replaced by a clip from the serial Buck Rogers (1939).”

(sorry if this steps on anyone’s toes, here, who may have added that entry, there) 😃

poita said:
I need another 1GB of hosting space. If a couple of people could use infinit with my referral, it will get me the extra space …
https://infinit.io/?referral=poita
… a very useful file storage service …

My system is locked up (in ways Microsoft never intended). 😄 Unfortunately, it won’t let anything into non-browser areas. If there’s no rush, I’ll image my system, drop the shields, and sign up. It should install normally and Infinit will give you some more storage. Then I’ll put my image back in place – kind of like Back To The Future, only in reverse.

Who-a-a! Those are so-o-o awesome!!

tommodore64 said:

“Anne Hurd: It’s a funny thing. Back then, Jim didn’t have color correction in his contract. When the first VHS [of Aliens] was made, the color timer decided it should be warm! We had dinner with [Rupert] Murdoch and they deep-sixed 250,000 VHS copies so Jim could color correct it.”

Whoa! Nice find!

Could this mean that the first release (VHS only?) was definitely Cameron’s only “original vision” color-correction (as opposed to more, later revised, color-corrections)? It also begs the question … did any of those 1st, wrong VHS’s leak out into the market?

With a nothing Avisynth script, I just checked the file itself … to be sure. And it looked fine (no ghosting)! Double checked the file directly and no ghosting, too. I’m glad of that, but …

After stripping away individual statements to check that sequence (it was a pain on this under powered laptop), the problem turned out to be a 24fps “conversion” instead of a 24fps “setting”. (Who would’ve thought 24fps-to-24fps would produce a rounding error instead of being “transparent”? Well, at least I’m good at finding bugs.)

Hope I caught this soon enough to prevent any inconvenience on your end.

Of course, now, I must verify all my previous synchronizations …

UPDATE: The frame numbers of that sequence match with the script correction in place. Complete disaster averted!

Do you use secured (encrypted) communications? You should … for a lot of reasons. And one of the best solutions to keeping your communications and files and computer secure is originally from the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software by Phil Zimmerman. It started decades ago and today it has kept up.

New documents reveal which encryption tools the NSA couldn’t crack
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/28/7458159/encryption-standards-the-nsa-cant-crack-pgp-tor-otr-snowden

“The most impressive news to come out of the dump is that, as of 2012, certain emails and chats were still indecipherable by the NSA database when they had been encrypted with the right tools. Reports describe “major problems” following users across the Tor network, or deciphering messages sent through heavily encrypted email providers like Zoho. The agency reported similar problems when deciphering files that had been encrypted with TrueCrypt, an open-source disk-encryption program that was discontinued earlier this year. PGP encryption tools and OTR chat encryption also caused major problems for the agency, causing entire messages to disappear from the system, leaving only the message: ‘No decrypt available for this PGP encrypted message.’”

Now if you are using one of the PGP softwares, a “flaw” was recently discovered in the random number generator and was quickly fixed. So be sure to look for an update to your software. Here is what Security Now! reported:

Securtity Now! Our weekly audio security column & podcast by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte
https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

Routers & Micro Kernels - A critical flaw is discovered in the RNG of GnuPG
https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-574.htm

“So some security researcher discovered what they call a “critical vulnerability.” And we’ll back off of that a little bit here when I explain what it is because it isn’t the end of the world, and it’s been fixed, in the random number generator inside GnuPG, and also Libgcrypt. And those apps have been around since 1998. And so essentially it’s just been patched. But any version of GPG earlier than August 17th, that is, last week, is vulnerable.”

For Windows users, the Gpg4Win software just released a new version with this fix.

News 2016-08-18 - Gpg4win 2.3.3 released
https://gpg4win.org/

Version 2.3.3 released 2016-08-18
https://gpg4win.org/change-history.html

“The cryptography library libgcrypt has been updated to version 1.6.6 to include a fix a problem with the random number generator.”

Good that you caught that. I once read of Lucas and Williams and the original Star Wars music where it stated that Lucas specifically wanted wall-to-wall music. His previous experience with American Graffiti was to make an environment of a time and place. Clearly, he liked it and continued it, only bigger, in Star Wars.

Forgive my over-thinking this but … what about traditional Japanese instruments (Shamisen) playing Star Wars? 😄

Opening Titles
Opening Titles continued - more instruments
The Dark Side
Cantina
The Throneroom
End Titles - more instruments

… and you could cross-fade between Shamisen and full Star Wars symphony (it would probably work best only at the start and end of the film).

The problem with this Blu-ray screenshot seems typical with many hi-def releases today – they narrow and darken the spectrum to “boost” it’s apparent saturation. Just look at all that wasted spectrum!

Why? Beats me, but they ruin the picture and make it look artificial (the same with live action).

Anyway, from this one sample, it looks eminently fixable even to the point of making Hot Rod red (just my guess from reading that review). All one would need is a proper color reference for the characters.

High-Def Digest: The Transformers: The Movie - 30th Anniversary Edition - Joshua Zyber (August 31, 2016) wrote:

Back in 2007, the film was released on Blu-ray in the UK. However, no domestic version appeared on the format until now.
…
The 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray is offered in two packaging options, either a standard keepcase with reversible cover art and a slipcover, or a Limited Edition SteelBook. A DVD version is available separately.
…
‘Transformers: The Movie’ has had a long and troubled history on home video. From VHS to Laserdisc to DVD and now Blu-ray, the film’s distribution rights have changed hands a number of times, both domestically and abroad. Every new label does a new video transfer for it, and no two have ever looked quite the same, with major variances in aspect ratio and color.
…
Black levels are very elevated and washed-out, which is really problematic for a movie with a lot of scenes in outer space. The image is fairly soft, especially the opening credit text, and the source elements suffer from the appearance of dirt, dust and specks throughout.
…
The colors in this movie have always been difficult to get right for some reason … This is most evident in the character of Hot Rod, who’s supposed to be a solid red sports car. … In the Shout! Factory transfer, he’s a dull pink. In this regard, the Blu-ray matches the Sony BMG DVD, but the color seems really odd and out-of-place for the character.
…
The Blu-ray offers the movie’s soundtrack in two options, either lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 or DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. … Both sound like garbage, one slightly less than the other, but I can’t blame Shout! Factory for that. ‘Transformers: The Movie’ has always had a lousy sound mix.

I just made a paint program proof-of-concept fix, which handles this easily and hopefully universally, as is. With your far superior software, it can be completely automated and perfectly seamless. (I just love technology.)

TOP - original frames 54882 54883 54884
BOTTOM - frame 54883, differenced by frame 54884 (at 12% opacity), then brightness normalized

Actually, the free, open source, multi-platform project Audacity can change the speed without changing the pitch … called tempo:

@ SilverWook

Do we have a Wall-E registered? There’s one for him all ready to go.

.

@ TV’s Frink

mental . bosom . buddies

Any particular word that really did it?

Okay, I checked with someone else and they mentioned this is glitchy.

So it’s worth looking into. (Sometimes working, sometimes not, are the worst bugs to track down.) Would it show in your server log that some code-file didn’t go out when it should have?

EDIT: false alarm (script bug; see discovery post below)
This is something that I was seeing, but not registering, while concentrating on the films’ alignment and the missing frames on one film or the other. I came across it again on a wide brightness variation across a cut. Yes, it’s a problem and it needs fixing … across the entire film!

In this exemplary sequence of frames, with different brightness levels in different parts of the picture, it is easy to see that only the frame immediately before the cut is ghosted with the incoming frame. (This should be impossible with printing equipment that made these films, but is possible with software in the scanning and post-scanning processes [stabilization, et al].) Also note that the reverse is not true – that is, on the other side of the cut, there is no ghosting from the outgoing frame onto it. And this phenomenon occurs on both 35mm and 16mm, which further reinforces the supposition of it happening from the scan on forward.

Please check this out on the actual film and tell me I’m wrong, that it’s Avisynth, or Media Player Classic HC, or undiagnosed double-vision.

My thoughts exactly! It’s like … mental bosom buddies. 😄

I’ll get to work on this right away!!

Should we get one of the Knick Knack girls for a test fit?

Just suggesting some pixel trimming. Maybe we can call in John Lasseter to do the job … 😉

Creating a demo of a 3 row, 4 column table works as expected with identical images (the control test) …

typed code for a “table”, with multiple rows and columns of pictures (with empty cells):
|||||
|-|-|-|-|
| ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) |
| ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | |
| | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) |

… until the addition of titles. Then, it seems, the relatively more characters in any particular title (not even close to any over-size boundary), the larger that column’s images become …

typed code for a “table”, with multiple rows and columns of pictures (with empty cells), with titles:
| BD | DVD | LD | BD regraded to LD |
|-|-|-|-|
| ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) |
| ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | |
| | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) | ![](http://i.imgur.com/S03PGQ9.jpg) |

In this case, with identical pictures filling the table, images should be identically resized. Titles should wrap only if longer than the column width but they never came that close, here.

(I don’t know the table priorities of titles-to-images. Here’s hoping you don’t have to eat your way through twisted spaghetti specs.)

After submitting a PM, it’s landing page Click-on-icon for options (I wanted to sign out) did not work (like there was no script to execute). Opening a forum page in another tab, however, worked fine.

EDIT: I tested this again with a test PM to that same someone (the forum wouldn’t let me send to just myself). It worked properly this time. The first time must’ve been a page download glitch. Sorry … or glad, depending on how you look at it. 😃

EDIT 2: Hold the celebration! (See next the post.)

thxita said:
I would love a making-of but it’s really up to Poita … and I don’t know if he would like to appear on camera … but I’d love something like that …

Done … the on-camera exclusive interview (with special identity-protection technology)!

PDB said:
I’m kind of surprised that everyone favors the laserdisc regrade. Is it because of the skin tones?

I hope I’m not too late to chime in on this. 😃

I’ve found that most any re-imagined coloring can be slipped in without protests if the skin color remains recognizable. As a quick proof-of-concept, I bumped up the Red color-wheel saturation of the original Blu-ray (and nudged up a bit the surrounding Yellow and Magneta for a smoother blend into the rest of the spectrum).

[TOP ROW shows the original BD compared to the BD-regraded-to-LD]
[BOTTOM ROW shows the original BD with extra Red saturation compared again to the BD-regraded-to-LD]

It’s interesting that both bottom row pictures now look perfectly good, and the extra-Red even gives the original Blu-ray a more “up to date”-tech feel.
(Maybe I should go work for Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, George Lucas, et al ?)

Post Content: Normal Bold Italic Bold-Italic Italic-Bold

.

Topic Title as typed -
Topic Title: Normal **Bold** _Italic_ _**Bold-Italic**_ **_Italic-Bold_**

Post Content as typed -
Post Content: Normal **Bold** _Italic_ _**Bold-Italic**_ **_Italic-Bold_**

.

In the above lines, I found that bracketed combinations of the bold operator (double star) and italic operator (single underscore) on the same text produce different results (one comes out as bold only, while the other is both bold & italic).

Also, no operator for Title text is bold and condensed. When the bold and/or italic operators are specified, that text loses it’s condensed operation/font. (I can see this may be of necessity, for legibility, but just wanted to mention it anyway for your review.)

Some suggestions to make a pinned thread distinct:

• a color ring (probably yellow would best show) around the OP’s avatar vignette
• background color (again, something yellow-ish but not as strong as the above ring)
• an extra graphic (perhaps OT’s Death Star pinned?) as the first item in the row
• any combination of the above

Oh yeah! That stronger smoothing compares much more favorably to the original WOWOW’s picture texture.

LOL Built in fix! That’s great!

If the smoothing is levels-targeted, I may suggest twice of what you just did? 1x leaves some residue (viewed when angling this laptop’s LCD screen) but 2x should eradicate it.

I noticed the glare on Belloq’s forehead, so I’m guessing this problem is throughout the DVD. Also, I see edge enhancement there, too (thick darker/lighter blue sky edging the actors). I’m amazed that faux coloring didn’t carry over to your regrade. Built in fix, too?