TOOT is a plugin for AVISynth: https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=78338
I believe TOOT analyzes every pixel and whenever Two Out Of Three versions of the same pixel are the same and one is different, the one that is different will be ignored. That way, any random drop outs or anaomlies unique to each capture (and not on the original source) are removed.
So capturing the same disc 3 times, or capturing multiple copies of the same title can yield cleaner results. I haven’t used it in years, but I do have multiple copies of the same 16mm Moonraker TV Spot, which I plan to scan and run through TOOT to see how well it cleans them up. Obviously, unlike with laserdisc capture, the scans will need to be stabilized, color matched and aligned with each other before trying this, so that’s an extra step and may mean it can never find 2/3 matches… Worth a try though!
What started out with some parts from an old VCR moving the film and a digital still camera, is now a full size standard 35mm cinema projector with a 4K Black Magic camera (and special lens) pointed directly into the projector.
Sorry for bumping this old message, but being a Blackmagic Camera fan boy, I’m curious to know what BM camera you are using? Is it the Blackmagic Cinema Camera 4K? Or perhaps the recent Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K? Captured RAW or on ProRes?
It’s the very first Blackmagic 4K camera - the one that looks like this:
We bought it new as soon as it became available.
Yeah, that shot could really use a Do over… It had quite a lot of damage:
Looking at it now I can see a lot of smearing and other artifacts caused by all the cloning, painting, and other processing I used to clean it up. But, I’ve learned a few new tricks in the last 3 or 4 years - I feel like I could do a better job fixing that shot today.
I’ll circle back to it one of these days and update it.
I have a CLD-99 Which has a built in comb filter which can be adjusted or disabled via the remote. My capture card (an Osprey 100e) also has a configurable comb filter, I have an Extron YCS 100, an NEC Scan Converter IDC-3000, a DVDO iScan VP-50, a Faroudia digital video processor NR series, an Extron DVS 304 and finally I have a Toshiba DVD Recorder with an excellent comb filter that I can use to pass through the signal to the capture card. I’ve tried them all and they all have their own pros and cons. For example, with the comb filter on, the osprey card can completely remove the rainbowing, at the cost of introducing little checkerboard patterns of noise:
So what I should probably do is capture each disc a few times via different routes and use TOOT (Two out of three) to average them… But what I usually do is just capture them once and then deal with the issues using software, effects and filters.
My reason for capturing the discs is that I am usually more interested in the PCM audio tracks, or using the video track as a color reference.
Usually there is a DVD or Bluray with much better picture quality available, so maximizing laserdisc video quality is rarely a priority for me. I just try to make it look presentable.
For rare titles, only available on laserdisc, like the US theatrical cut of Highlander, or the Star Wars trilogy, I seek out 35mm or 16mm film versions for the picture, and use the laserdiscs just for audio and color reference 😃
I have the DNR version. Is that one constant bitrate?
Yes, I believe so. CBR of 40 MB/s on the 1080p Mkv. 4K version is probably VBR.
This site was pretty much built on capturing these Star Wars Laserdiscs, so most of us old timers here have some experience. I captured my first mismatched OT laserdisc set in 2002. The Empire Disc was from the faces set, while the other two were from the Widescreen Collection. At the time, my captures were no where near as good as the ones being done here by Dr Gonzo, Cowclops, Citizen, etc, but nearly 20 years (and 5 LD Players) later I’m still preserving laserdisc titles to this day.
Simple: It was encoded with a lower average bitrate. A lot of people struggled to play 1.0 smoothly, so we encoded the later version at a lower bitrate and heard fewer complaints.
Yeah, I noticed that. You have implemented a more dynamic bitrate compared to V.1.0 which was more close to 80 Mbps regardless of content, whereas V.1.4 jumps all over the place and actually has a higher bitrate compared to V.1.0 where it is needed (i.e. bright scenes) and much lower when there is much darkness in the image.
Thanx for the response.
Tomas
Yes 1.0 was constant bitrate, 1.4 is variable for greater efficiency.
Since the 3:2 pulldown is completely reversible (unlike true interlaced video) I think you’ll find converting your 60fps capture back into frame accurate (capable of being GOUT Sync’d) full frames at 23.976 fps with no interlacing and no duplicates is much harder than if you just capture it at 29.97 and then IVTC it with a single line in an AVISynth script:
AVISource(“c:\path\to\my_29_97_LD_Capture.avi”).Tfm().tdecimate()
Or simply open it in Virtualdub, go to Video -> Filters -> Add -> IVTC and choose Reduce Frame Rate, Auto, Adaptive, Click OK and then save your file.
Simple: It was encoded with a lower average bitrate. A lot of people struggled to play 1.0 smoothly, so we encoded the later version at a lower bitrate and heard fewer complaints.
This is a really exciting project - I wonder where you are with it? If you have a scan available I’d love to discuss accessing it somehow - I wouldn’t be so fussed with corrections and restoration, the vintage look (even missing frames) would be fantastic.
I recently finished writing a book about the film (an analysis, rather than making of). I’d be happy to trade, if feasible.
PM sent.
Gad to hear it!
In a Cinemark theater, there were wayyyy more trailers than you guys are mentioning. My girlfriend and her dad were joking about how many trailers there were, like double the normal amount. Although Barb & Star is the only one I remember that wasn’t mentioned. If I see it again with my dad or something, I’ll write down what trailers I saw.
Same here: a Full 32 minutes of Trailers - I haven’t been to the cinema in a while, I can’t even remember the last film I went to see before Episode IX - it may have been Last Jedi, but I’ve never seen so many trailers and ads before a film. And yet none of them really appealed to me so I guess I won’t be back any time soon. Well, perhaps for Top Gun. I was hoping to see the new Bond trailer, but it was not to be.
A Quiet Place 2 Teaser
Wonder Woman '84
Onward
Tenet
Barb & Star
Free Guy
Black Widow
Dolittle
Top Gun Maverick
Mulan
That’s all I can remember, but I think there were more!
I’m sorry, I don’t know how to make it compatible. It was compiled on OSX using a 64 bit version of Matlab. We might have to wait for a newer version of Matlab.
Try a different media player, like Media Player Classic or MPV. Chances are the one you are using now, e.g. Windows Movies & TV Player, doesn’t support DTSHD-MA Audio tracks, so it skips those and plays the first track it can play, which might be in a different language.
Usually, you can right click in the player and select a different audio track - there should be other English tracks that your player can play.
I have compiled a 64-bit version for OSX. I tested it on my Macbook pro (still running OSX High Sierra) and on a virtual machine (still running on OSX Sierra), and it worked on both but I can’t tell you for sure that it will run on Catalina, so give it a go:
Web installer (32 MB): https://mega.nz/#!D9JUzCRC!0B482Vg6yIC9eZXKAsOMdLnLvFItG5bv5JKJ0BJraYI
Full installer (879 MB): https://mega.nz/#!D1YUnATI!g21ed17ldNaXQ0ZZN43_j3dEFBxsNeO8foslxuDD98A
Note: either way, you will have to download about 900 MB: the only difference is that the web installer will download the other 800+ MB during install whereas the full installer requires the download up front. When I tested them, the web installer was unable to connect to the matlab URL it needed to in order to download the rest of it, so you might be better off with the bigger download…
It’s on my (very long) list of things to do…
I have it. PM sent…
I’d love to borrow those reels and get them scanned.
Got it - huge thanks to Karyudo!
Download it here if you need it.
Any chance somebody can reup this gem?
The Star Wars Trilogy Forum site is back up!
I need to move my sites to a new hosting service.
Basically, after 10+ years of hosting the site on an Unlimited Storage/Unlimited Bandwidth plan, GoDaddy has determined that I have too many files (all the wallpapers, cover art, videos, PDFs, etc.). All of it has to go before they will lift the suspension. They said it is because the platform I’ve been using all these years is being retired and the new platform won’t support this many files, unless I want to pay lots of money for dedicated hosting.
Some of the sites will hopefully be back up later today, including the forum, but the Star Wars and James Bond blog sites will be down for a while - perhaps for a long time. It’ll take me some time to reconfigure them for a cheaper Linux based host.
It’s a trick of the light and shadow. If you look closely, it’s a full length VHS tape. EP/SLP had such lousy tracking problems playing back on machines other than what it was originally recorded on, I can’t see a company putting out tapes for airlines using it to just save a few pennies on tapes.
Oh yeah, the right side looked almost empty, but you’re right, I can see the tape there now.
From the photo, it appears to be letterboxed (probably cropped a little too) rather than properly Pan and Scanned. That tape also looks very short, suggesting an SLP/EP recording. Presumably one could create a digital version from the DVD that reproduces this same cropping and then play it, recording the results onto a VHS Tape in EP mode, and then capture that tape back onto your PC…
But… Why? It’s unlikely that the video was edited for content or language so there’s probably nothing unique about it. So whether you are able to make a genuine Delta tape capture or even just a home made VHS replica, it will still just be the worst quality version of this film you’ve ever seen. A novelty sure, but nothing more.
It’s like taking 4K77 and recording that onto VHS and then recapturing it. Sure, you could do it, but why would you? Alright, I’ll admit I have thought about doing that, it would be fun just to skim through it and look at it to see how it compares to the old tapes, but I’d never sit down and watch it all the way through. Well, probably not anyway 😃