nocomments87

I got this release as well. 1 scene missing, and 2 smaller bits cut…the one you mentioned, with the band rehearsing at the barn. Also, some dialogue cut before Gumby shuts down the Gumby robot, and a really small cut (about 10 seconds) after the Clay Boy robots are destroyed by the water. These cuts were also done on the Director’s Cut, but the scenes themselves were included as an extra on the old DVD (but nowhere to be found on this new Blu-ray). I might just do a new restoration, using the Blu-ray for most of it, and upconverting the missing scenes from the old DVD, cropped to widescreen (they’re open matte on the DVD), and using the VHS for the audio on those missing bits. On a side note, the end credits song is still mono like the DVD, so I’ll be using the VHS audio for that too (it’s stereo there).

If the tape hasn’t degraded, then it is definitely possible for it to sound better than 192 kbps AC3 due to the compression on the latter. I’ve transferred plenty of tapes that have excellent quality audio.

Logo plastering is something that has always bothered me, and the few projects I’ve done, I do my best to include the original logo in the best possible quality. For example, when I did National Lampoon’s Vacation, I included the original “Big W” WB logo from the 70’s/early 80’s. Also, Return of the Living Dead Part II has the Lorimar Motion Pictures logo (which was absolutely needed for the original score, as the music starts during the logo…the DVD with the changed score just has the modern WB intro with that music, and the new score starts after that).

I think there should definitely be more projects that restore the original opening logos, even if that’s all there is to it.

It was me…it should still be on there too (under the title “National Lampoon’s Vacation - Original Theatrical Edition (1983, BD-25)”). It’s the full Blu-ray disc, movie-only, with multiple audio options.

If you have an account on MySpleen, it’s up on there.

I have this movie on DVD and VHS. The DVD, as far as I know, has the following audio changes:

• Cheech singing “Ya-Ya” while ironing was replaced with just him humming.

• “Lovin’ Machine” by Wynonie Harris was replaced with another song during the dream sequence featuring Cheech and Donna.

Now, the VHS release (and I believe the Laserdisc does too) has the words “Home Video Version. Some Music Rescored” on the back. Yet, the two parts that were dubbed on the DVD are intact on the VHS. Everything else, as far as I’m aware, are the same. So were there any other audio changes? If not, I can just go ahead, patch the two parts, save and compile the new disc from there. Any help is more than welcome…

I also have the VHS release of this episode, but it has Macrovision protection that prevents me from transferring it to DVD, and I don't have anything to bypass that. If anyone has any suggestions, I can probably transfer it from there.

I'll need somewhere to upload it to. Also, keep in mind, that I had to trim the beginning of the movie, so the restored audio will reflect that as well, but thankfully, I used a round figure for the trimming, so it'll be easy enough to work around.

This was another project I was working on, and the movie itself is ready to go, but perhaps Team Blu wants to take this one a step further. This is what I have done:

• Changed the codec from VC-1 (so annoying to work with) to AVC using very high quality settings to ensure the best possible quality preservation.

• Replaced the newer WB logo in the beginning with the original Warner Communications logo used in 1983 (no “presents” byline; upconverted to 1080p) using the simple guide posted on the Original Trilogy forums.

• Removed the commentary, English DTS-HD Master Audio track, and one of the Spanish AC3 tracks (this one had the changed music too), and instead, we now have a restored English PCM 2.0 Mono with the correct music (sourced from the 1997 DVD, which has stronger bass than the Blu-ray, and less hiss without the hiss removal, 1986 VHS re-release, and the TV cut recorded by me), and 1.0 Mono AC3’s in Spanish; Castillian (included on the Blu-ray), French (from the 20th anniversary DVD), Italian (from the Region 2 DVD), Portuguese (from the 20th anniversary DVD), and German (from the Blu-ray).

• All audio options that weren’t included on the Blu-ray have been properly synced up to ensure that there are no issues.

For now, this project is simply movie-only, and fits comfortably on a BD-25. Perhaps this can be expanded to a BD-50, including the extras that were on the 30th anniversary Blu-ray (which I have), and maybe even some stuff that weren’t included at all. I don’t have this one uploaded or seeded anywhere yet…I’ll work on that eventually.

Screen caps: http://imgur.com/a/LvdDJ#0

The only DVD release to date has the 76 minute Director’s Cut instead. You can also find this version on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. However, the theatrical cut, released in 1995 (and also on VHS) is a longer cut, at 90 minutes. This release restores those 14 minutes removed, and maintains its widescreen aspect ratio (1.78:1).

I’ve posted it on MySpleen. For those interested, look for it on there (my username on there is the same as here, or just search for Gumby, since that doesn’t yield many results to begin with).

Hope you enjoy this reconstruction…

I don't have a membership to MySpleen, sorry.

Don't know if anyone is still working on this, but I have the 30 disc "Studio Masters" set and also the Holy Batmania DVD set in my collection. I also have alternate audio for the first two episodes (first episode with and without opening narration, and second episode recap with narration and an isolated music track for just the recap only). So I'm sure something could be done with that, along with some higher quality versions...the screencaps posted look great as it is.

I wish you good luck on this preservation project :-)

If Hulu does have the original versions, I can easily save the FLV files from the site with TubeDigger (I've purchased the program, and it's come in handy on stuff like that), and extract the audio from there. If anyone can confirm that they are the originals, perhaps I can help in that regard, at least.

The most recent DVD releases from Vivendi use the uncut masters that were used by Cabin Fever, and are of great quality. There are 7 volumes in total, which cover the same 80 shorts that Genius Entertainment released in their set (1929-1938), but fixes all of the problems that the set had, and the volumes are affordable.

Here's Amazon's listing for Volume 1:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Little-Rascals-Vol-1/dp/B004G9UXDK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1334340495&sr=8-5

I still have the DVD files of the original 1927 version that you sent me on my hard drive. If there was a way to upload them, I'd be glad to. I can also start a torrent on Demonoid and get it shared from there.

I'm currently putting together a few supplements to the Batman "Network Masters" set, which I'll be sharing here when I'm finished. So far, I got the following:

Alternate audio for "Hi Diddle Riddle" (with William Dozier narration)

Alternate audio for "Smack in the Middle" (without William Dozier narration for the Part 1 recap; music-only recap)

Missing dialogue from "The Penguin's A Jinx" (During the scene with The Penguin and his goons listening in on Batman and Robin, The Penguin says "I know Batman's fertile mind. He'll come up with another.")

The audio is synced to the "Network Masters", and I'm burning it on a dual layer DVD, so I won't have to reduce the quality of the episodes.

These caps appear to be the same "Network Masters" bootleg floating around...I have this same one. Quality is good for what it is.

The one I'm curious about, which you mentioned, is The Green Hornet. I've been looking for a bootleg similar to the Batman "Network Masters", but to no avail. I do have the Encore Action caps downloaded, in AVI format.

Yeah, only a UK PAL release for the English version (I'm sure the original Spanish version is out on DVD as well). At least the episodes don't suffer from PAL speed-up, since the episodes are video-sourced. It's worth importing if you have a region free player, since the episodes themselves are unedited...the UK just used a different intro and end credits compared to the US (the UK intro and credits seem to resemble the original Spanish version more than anything, with the credits music being an instrumental version of the Spanish end credits music.)

That's a shame about the movie. That would be something worth tracking down and preserving too.

Not sure how many people remember this show, or even consider it a project worth taking, but I like the show, and so does my 7 year old sister.

The show was released on DVD in the UK, but the UK used a different intro (same music) and different credits compared to what aired in the US on Nickelodeon (which is what I grew up with). To compare, here is a YouTube link of the UK version, a full episode, just to give you an idea of both the intro and credits used on the DVD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMdflpRwwgQ

This is the intro used in the US airings (the episode title appears during the intro instead of the episodes themselves, so I would have to get the intros for all 26 episodes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH_EnCaHm5Q

And last, the end credits used in the US airings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVDdM56I8g

What I want to do is very simple: Intro from the US version (with episode title and all) + episode itself from the DVD (nothing different there between the US and UK versions) + end credits from the US version. Now the credits are easy, since it’s the same sequence used for all 26 episodes. The tough part is the intro. If anyone who is interested in the project can help me out in that regard, it would be much appreciated.

Now, for what I do have: I have the UK DVD and one of the VHS releases (Rabbits, Rabbits Everywhere), so I can source the credits and the intro to that episode at least from that. I had considered doing an edit of the intro by embedding the text for the episode title. I don’t know what to do there.

Right now, this project is in its earliest stage…mere planning and gathering of material.

bkev said:

I didn't know that the TV Land rips had time cuts... :( shame, they were fairly good quality.

The Hub aired the series in full, with your average "cut the credits for an advertisement" thing that everyone does now.  They have an HD channel but I do not get that so I didn't cap them.  Did anyone?  That might be the best plausible source, assuming someone could just splice the credits in from a lower quality version.

While The Hub HD airings would provide the best quality, they're cut (but not as bad as typical 22 minute syndicated cuts...they seem to run longer) and they're badly time compressed. Also, I would imagine the HD airings are cropped to fill the screen (the SD airings don't have any cropping, but suffer from the same cuts and time compression).

As it stands, the best source for episodes of Batman are the "Network Masters" bootleg (no network bugs at all, but VHS quality) or the TV Land Canada airings (higher quality than the "Network Masters", but TV Land logo on bottom right corner throughout the episode). Both provide the uncut, 25 minute episodes as originally aired.

I do wonder if there are any other sources for The Green Hornet episodes, though.

The Green Hornet episodes that are online were actually capped from the Encore Action channel, back when they were airing the show. The Action logo pops up only once or twice for like 15 seconds, and again during the end credits, but for the most part, it's a logo-free presentation. Also, for the most part, the episodes are unedited, except for the first episode (missing epilogue...syndicated cuts have it intact for some reason) and the Part 1 recaps on all Part 2 episodes.

As for Batman, I have the "Network Masters" bootleg that is circulating around the market. I have the one that's on 30 discs, with 4 episodes to a disc, so less compression. The quality is basically high quality VHS transfers. They're decent, but you can only get so much out of VHS. I'm still more than satisfied with them, though. What's cool about those is that most of the episodes start with "ABC Color Presentation" intro, followed by the "Batman In Color" logo. The 2nd parts of most episodes have a quick promo for "next week's villain" before the end credits. Some of the season 2 episodes have an "Insert Commercial Here" logo between scene breaks. On the bootleg, someone slipped up and one of the episodes isn't from the "Network Masters", but rather, it's from TV Land Canada. The episode is uncut at least, but still, I would've rather had consistency.

One thing I ended up doing with the Batman episodes is put together the original narration by William Dozier for the first episode "Hi Diddle Riddle" (which can be found on YouTube) with the audio for the episode itself, matching quality and everything, and synced it to the "Network Master" version. Turned out pretty good.

dark_jedi said:

What is the size of the 720p file of Prince of Darkness floating around?

4.37 GB...seems to be the standard for most 720p files that are posted online. One thing that's interesting is that it's 1.78:1 instead of the original 2.35:1, so I wonder if it's cropped or open-matte.

If idea number 4 is possible, maybe a similar reconstruction can be done for the unrated version of Live Free or Die Hard. I have the Blu-ray (theatrical cut) and the Unrated DVD (I don't even think there's an HD version available for the unrated cut).

Sadly, I only have the DVD for Prince of Darkness. I only know of 720p versions floating around...haven't seen any 1080i or 1080p versions. Considering it's a Universal property, I could see Universal botching it like they usually do with their catalog Blu-ray releases (there are some exceptions, though).

I'd be all for the uncut version of Scream if it's possible, along with the uncensored audio for Day of the Dead. I have this on Blu-ray as well, and it is definitely the best available version, but it still has its faults (a heavy case of DNR for starters). It's a shame that Germany didn't get a truly uncut version on Blu-ray (instead labeling the R-rated cut as "uncut").

There's some potential in these ideas, that's for sure...

The UK is getting a Blu-ray release from Second Sight on April 9th. It's a new disc with 3 new extras (but none of the old extras from MGM's release). No word on the transfer itself, but fingers crossed on the original audio, and maybe even a new transfer. At worst, it'll be the same MGM transfer, but a new encode.

I have the TV cut of Halloween II, recorded from AMC before they made the switch to HD (when they switched to HD, they started airing an edited for content and time version of the theatrical cut). It's in 1.33:1, so of course it's pan and scan. The 30th Anniversary Blu-ray released by Universal has some of the deleted and alternate scenes from the TV cut as an extra, but not all were included.