[quote=Anti-Matter]
Please do follow up whenever you can. I am very interested in:
1. Your conversion process
2. The results of your comparison and analysis
3. The "interesting" frame-rate issue.
For example, can you elaborate on point #3? There is something dubious (or at least confusing) about WG's WMV files, because he reports the frame rate as 23.976, but the original European fellow who is most reponsible for that material surely captured a PAL broadcast. Are you referring to a similar matter?
Hello, thread! I FINALLY have something to show using a Hi-Def source! Late (as always) but as promised, the post-massacre balcony scene betweeen Anakin and Padme has been re-edited; it's still a work-in-progress, but the bulk of it is there.
The xvid AVI can be downloaded here: ( http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3RWP9AJW )
The video is a comparison of my re-edit playing above the original DVD movie edit.
All contructive criticisms are welcome as always! If someone hears something horrible in the audio, I may need to start looking for someone to help in that aspect as I don't have the passion to take on learning how to fine-tune the mix; simple patches, not a big deal; remixing, sweetening, extracting frequencies... not my favorite thing.
Anti-Matter:
1. The conversion process involved a few steps: convert the MKV file via River Past Video Cleaner Lite using the Lagarith Lossless AVI codec which Adywan had suggested and using PCM audio (though I didn't really care about that as my audio is the DVD audio; could've been silent for all I care); while Adobe After Effects would accept this converted file, the video was all black (for what possible reason, I don't know); so, I used a bit of Adywan's know-how again and used VirtualDubMod to transcode to another AVI in Lagarith Lossless codec, which After Effects accepted AND displayed (I created an up-rezzed AVI beyond Hi-Def from the HD file in VDM as well but didn't use it for this scene and am not convinced yet that it will gain me anything in getting in closer on other shot reframings). Once the reframing was done for a clip, I encoded the clip to yet more Lagarith Lossless AVIs @ 864x486 frame size (16x9) which Premiere takes in with no problem. Video Cleaner Lite cost me $20.00, and you need some big drives to handle all of these encodings; I'm running 2 300GB externals (1 has my projects on it; the other is my back-up), 1 750GB external (where I store the Hi-Def and Super Hi-Def AVIs I created), and my internal 500GB drive. And, finally, on to your #2 interest...
2. The comparison of the WookieGroomer WMV HD file and the ESIR Matroska file resulted in my use of the ESIR file. The ESIR file was noticeably sharper in its detail and did not have the artifacting I was seeing at some points on scene changes in WG's WMV HD file. And #3...
3. The issue was something along the lines of which you wrote. I can't remember what the WG file frame rate was, but the frame-rate issue with the ESIR file was nothing more than my inexperinece with video files at the PAL frame rate of 25 frames per second versus the NTSC frame rate of 29.97 fps at which I had created my edit project based on the Episode 3 NTSC DVD. Since 25 fps is only 1 frame more than the actual film frame rate of 24 fps, I now wish I had started my project as a PAL project so that I could turn out a native PAL DVD as well as an NTSC DVD when all is said and done. Oh, well. Maybe I'll have the time and energy to recreate my edit in PAL once the NTSC version is complete (and maybe pigs will fly). To compensate for the frame rate difference once I created my reframed shots and imported them into my NTSC Adobe Premiere project, I simply placed them on my timeline and slowed the clips down enough to match the length of the clips from the DVD. And since the ESIR HD file is progressive with no pull-down used, there are no horrible interlacing issues.
Maybe that's more than you wanted to know, AM? :)
