This one is done and ready to go. Look for it on Demonoid or PM me for the links on Multiupload. It's a single layer DVD ISO, 3.91 GB total.
Just like how part 1 had its issues, part 2 does too, but even worse. On the DVD, the entire score was changed. What’s weird is that the score is only changed on the English track. If you switch to the French audio, the original score is there (but that’s mono, so it’s of no use to me).
What I’m doing here is very simple: I’m syncing the VHS audio to the DVD video (but I will change the Warner Bros. logo at the beginning with the original Lorimar Pictures logo). I hope to have this one done real soon…
Here's another one: Mister Ed. Season 1 has syndicated versions for 8 of the episodes, but here's where things get interesting: Hulu has seasons 1 and 2 up on their site, and 7 of the 8 episodes that were cut on the DVD are presented uncut on the site. Unfortunately, "The Aunt" is still the syndicated, 22 minute version. Would be nice to get that one uncut somehow, but hell, 7 out of 8 is a huge help nonetheless...
Doctor M said:
FYI, TubeDigger is a nice GetFLV alternative and its $25 (I think).
In order to use a proxy with these capture programs you must set up Internet Explorer to use the proxies (not the capture program or your preferred browser).
They interface with IE even if you are using something else normally.
I just purchased and downloaded TubeDigger on your recommendation...it's truly an excellent program, and does indeed download Hulu videos without issue. Very recommended for the $25 it costs.
I've uploaded Married...With Children season 3 (with Love and Marriage restored) and Birds of Prey: The Complete Series (with all original music restored and video converted from non-anamorphic widescreen to anamorphic widescreen) on Multiupload. Anyone who's interested in the links, just reply or PM me, and I'll give you the links from there.
I've come across a bit of a setback with season 4 of Married...With Children. I'm missing some of the original end credits sequences (the DVDs for seasons 4-11 has the end credits altered to remove the credit for Love and Marriage). I do have everything needed for season 5, though, so I might skip ahead to that one for now. If anyone can help me on season 4, it would be much appreciated.
I got to skim through a little bit of the first disc (I'm most likely going to watch the whole thing on the weekend), and the quality is shockingly pretty good for a movie of that vintage. The parts where the quality jumps due to the switch from DVD source to VHS source isn't as bad as I thought it would be, either. Thank you, Aluminum Falcon, for the links...I look forward to watching the whole thing real soon.
Would be nice to have some non-DNR and EE ridden versions of these movies. I have the Blu-ray set, and while it's not bad in part 1 (I'd even say it's a solid transfer overall), it's very noticeable in parts 2 and 3...especially 2. You know things are bad when you see rain disappear like magic due to excessive DNR.
Another update: The Birds of Prey is completely done and ready to go. It was an easier project with only 13 episodes (14 including the unaired pilot). The episodes were widescreen, but non-anamorphic. I've remedied that in this project. The music replacement was worse than I thought. The way the reviews made it seem, it was only the theme and the last song from the last episode that was replaced. Not the case at all. Although, there were quite a few songs still intact. Luckily, the show's score is still intact. It breaks down like this:
Pilot was completely intact. No problems whatsoever, audio-wise.
Episodes 2, 4 and 11 had all songs intact except the theme.
Episode 5 had all songs replaced except the last song before the credits.
The rest of the episodes had every song replaced. It gets even more interesting, though. Somewhere along the way, WB screwed up the audio completely on episodes 7-10, and the audio ended up being mono instead of stereo. I had to replace the entire audio with broadcast versions, which were stereo.
The unaired pilot had the score changed to what was used on the show. The songs were also replaced (no surprise there). Originally, the pilot didn't have a set score ready, and they ended up using the score from another source. That source was Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. The unaired pilot is easy enough to access, so I was able to change that too.
I kept the menus and everything the same, and I even changed the menu music to Aimee Allen's Revolution.
All in all, a successful project, and another step in making things right again with TV shows...
This guide has become my "bible" as far as DVD projects are concerned. It truly came in handy for the Married...With Children project I'm working on. Thanks for posting this!
Tomorrow, I will start seeding season 3 of Married...With Children on Demonoid. For now, here's a preview...episode 1, with the theme music restored and the original Columbia Pictures Television logo at the end:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZGE3FCV6
Hope you enjoy it...
I finally received The Birds of Prey from WB Shop, and aside from the music issue (which I will be taking care of), the episodes are non-anamorphic widescreen (I recall them airing this way too originally...black bars on the top and bottom). Should I keep the episodes like this, or should I make them anamorphic instead?
Kikuchiyo said:
Hunter had a lot of music replacements in syndication and the DVDs, including reusing season 1's opening for season 2 for no real reason (the theme was the same, the scenes changed). Most of the music changes are understandable and nothing absolutely major, except for the two-parter in season 1 where McCall becomes a singer. The edits on that one are downright painful.
Hunter is one of my favorite shows too. Too bad I don't have any episodes from the original airings, or otherwise, this would be another one I'd be doing in a heartbeat. I have both the 3 seasons released by Anchor Bay and the complete series released by Mill Creek.
I wouldn't mind having a copy of this either :-)
An update on the Married...With Children project: I just finished burning and testing disc 1 of season 3. One thing you'll like about this one is that, on top of restoring "Love and Marriage" on the intro and end credits, I also restored the original Columbia Pictures Television logo at the end of each episode (one thing I never liked about Sony's TV on DVD releases is how they change those closing logos...nitpicking, perhaps, since it's not really a deal breaker either).
First of all, I must thank the wonderful how-to guides on this forum (mainly, the MPEG/AC-3 thread) for pointing me to the right direction on how to go about doing something like this. I used the following programs:
Adobe Audition - to change the music
Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD - to replace the audio with the new one, keeping the video the same, and also replacing the closing logo
DVD Author GUI - to author the MPEG files to DVD files, adding chapters
VOBblanker - to replace the titles with the newly-created ones, keeping the original menus, promos, "extras", etc.
The end result is a DVD that looks and acts as the old one, but with the correct music this time. The video is exactly the same, since no recompression was done whatsoever. This is truly the definitive edition...at least until someone takes it a step further and adds extras or something. Since I'm using the original DVD, that means that, of course, it's dual layer (approximately 6.45 GB). I'll start seeding it soon, and I'll work on discs 2 and 3 as well. The other seasons will be trickier, since the end credits were changed to remove the song credit, so I'll have to be on the lookout and record what I'm missing from TV (hoping that one of the channels plays the credits without interruptions).
RowMan said:
nocomments87 said:
Here's one to get the ball rolling.
The Andy Griffith Show. Now, for the most part, the DVDs have no issues, but for whatever reason, the episode "The Darlings Are Coming" is only 22:22, which doesn't seem right for a show from the 60's. On top of the official DVD sets, there's also a ton of public domain DVD releases, featuring a handful of episodes, mostly from the third season. One of those episodes is "The Darlings Are Coming". It's interesting to note that the episode on those releases lasts 25:30. So I've decided to rip the episode from one of the public domain DVDs. The DVD had the theme song changed, most likely due to copyright reasons, so I went ahead and changed it back to its original form.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QG2G4OSR
VOB file of the UNCUT "The Darlings Are Coming", 782 MB. No subtitles, and only language option is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in English (192 kbps).
Not sure if there's anything else cut from The Andy Griffith Show, but this one was one of the more obvious ones. I'll continue to add what I have ready to go, or any works-in-progress.
Wow. Another Andy Griffith Show fan out there who cares that much.
Along with the Darlings episode you mentioned, I have restored Season Three's "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" episode which was missing its epilogue on the official DVD release. It came from a 1993 VHS tape from UAV Corporation which featured an edited form of the episode, but included the epilogue.
In the Season Four official DVDs Paramount's first release omitted laugh tracks on several episodes, but later issued "fixed" discs which was supposed to correct the problem. Unfortunately, the episode "The Sermon For Today" along with "A Black Day For Mayberry" still lose their laugh tracks at the 18 minute mark of each program. I was able to restore the laugh track from this point with the soundtracks from a Columbia House VHS tape for "Sermon" and a Premiere Promotions VHS tape for "A Black Day"."We defy the Mafia!"
This is great...I almost set my DVR to record "Barney Mends A Broken Heart" from TV Land, since the epilogue is intact there too. Good thing to know you did a restoration on that episode. I did some reading, and there's also a brief dialogue cut on "Barney and the Governor". Makes you wonder what else is cut from season 3, cause I didn't hear any issues on seasons 1-2, and 5-8 (4, as you mentioned, had the missing laugh tracks...I have the Complete Series set, so I assume that has the fixed disc with most of the laugh tracks restored)
ThiefCobbler4ever said:
Shows on DVD with music replacements:
-The Super Mario Bros. Super Show
-The PJ's
-Daria
Shows on DVD with cuts/edits:
-The Ren and Stimpy Show (an insult I tell ya)
I may update this later.
I did not know about The PJ's having music replacements. That sucks!
Here's a few more to add to the list:
The Fugitive (supposedly, the new Complete Series release restores some, but not all of the cues that were replaced in the first place)
Tales From The Darkside (the scores to most of the episodes were replaced)
And shows with cuts:
In Living Color: Seasons 2-5 has a bunch of cuts due to music rights
The Flintstones: Only one episode, thankfully, but it's one that's questionable. The episode "The Big Move" from season 3. I say it's questionable, because Boomerang airs the same episode uncut, so no idea why it would be cut on the DVD.
The Odd Couple: Mostly music-related cuts in seasons 3-5
Bosom Buddies: Same situation as The Odd Couple; affects both seasons.
Sanford and Son: 3 episodes are syndicated cuts; TV Land airs one of those episodes with the missing scene intact, though. Another one may possibly be uncut on the Columbia House tapes.
Darth Hade said:
nocomments87 said:
For starters, myself and a good friend of mine, Josh, have been working on one for "Married...With Children". Starting with season 3, "Love and Marriage" was removed, and replaced with generic music. So what I've done was rip the audio from the DVDs, replace the generic music with "Love and Marriage" on the intro and credits, and remux from there. Seasons 4-11 are where things get a little trickier, because of the end credits being altered to remove the song credit all together. Season 4 also has syndicated versions for 7 episodes, and the Christmas episode is split as two parts (and also loses about 2-3 minutes of footage as a result, mostly on part 2). To fill in those gaps, I'm using the German DVD for those 7 episodes, since the episodes are presented uncut (but with the same theme changes), and a VHS of It's A Bundyful Life, which Josh hooked me up with a VHS-to-DVD transfer of, for the uncut version of that episode. I still have a lot to go with this one, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.
Why did they use syndicated episodes for a DVD release?
Did they do that to any episodees for seasons 5-11?
Seasons 5-11 are fine...all of those episodes are intact, aside from the closing credits being altered like season 4. Sony's excuse for season 4's syndicated episodes was that the original elements weren't available, or something along those lines. Sounded like a load of crap, if you ask me, especially when Germany got the uncut episodes on their DVD set.
I recently ordered the complete series of "The Birds of Prey" on DVD, courtesy of WBShop.com's blowout sale (they have the DVD set for only $8.90). From what I know, the episodes are uncut and widescreen, but non-anamorphic, but some of the music has been changed. I have the episodes from the original run in my collection, so there's another one to the list, and one I can actually handle...
Here's one to get the ball rolling.
The Andy Griffith Show. Now, for the most part, the DVDs have no issues, but for whatever reason, the episode "The Darlings Are Coming" is only 22:22, which doesn't seem right for a show from the 60's. On top of the official DVD sets, there's also a ton of public domain DVD releases, featuring a handful of episodes, mostly from the third season. One of those episodes is "The Darlings Are Coming". It's interesting to note that the episode on those releases lasts 25:30. So I've decided to rip the episode from one of the public domain DVDs. The DVD had the theme song changed, most likely due to copyright reasons, so I went ahead and changed it back to its original form.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QG2G4OSR
VOB file of the UNCUT "The Darlings Are Coming", 782 MB. No subtitles, and only language option is Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono in English (192 kbps).
Not sure if there's anything else cut from The Andy Griffith Show, but this one was one of the more obvious ones. I'll continue to add what I have ready to go, or any works-in-progress.
This is something I've been wanting to do for a while. There have been many TV shows released on DVD; a good portion of them have no issues whatsoever, but there are quite the handful of shows that have their issues, such as syndicated episodes or music replacement. Let's gather up a list, our resources, and see what we can put together for this one...
For starters, myself and a good friend of mine, Josh, have been working on one for "Married...With Children". Starting with season 3, "Love and Marriage" was removed, and replaced with generic music. So what I've done was rip the audio from the DVDs, replace the generic music with "Love and Marriage" on the intro and credits, and remux from there. Seasons 4-11 are where things get a little trickier, because of the end credits being altered to remove the song credit all together. Season 4 also has syndicated versions for 7 episodes, and the Christmas episode is split as two parts (and also loses about 2-3 minutes of footage as a result, mostly on part 2). To fill in those gaps, I'm using the German DVD for those 7 episodes, since the episodes are presented uncut (but with the same theme changes), and a VHS of It's A Bundyful Life, which Josh hooked me up with a VHS-to-DVD transfer of, for the uncut version of that episode. I still have a lot to go with this one, but it's definitely worth it in the long run.
That's just one show, though. What other shows have been ruined, in some form, by music replacement or cuts/edits...or both?
Update 1: Married...With Children: Season 3 and Birds of Prey: The Complete Series DONE
Update 2: The Andy Griffith Show: Season 3 DONE
Look for all finished projects on Demonoid (my username is nocomments87) or PM me for downloadable links.
I got a chance to skim through this one after remuxing the Blu-ray with the Mono mix...excellent job! Everything cues up nicely, and it's great hearing the original audio again. This is how the Blu-ray should've been in the first place. Only thing that would truly make it definitive would be remastered video, but given MGM's financial issues, I doubt that'll ever happen...at least, not for a long while.
I am interested in this as well. I have the Blu-ray, and while the picture quality is an improvement over the DVD (it's not as bad as people make it out to be), the 5.1 remix just doesn't feel right. I much prefer the original mono mix.
I just posted a torrent on Demonoid (under the title "Return of the Living Dead (Original Theatrical Edition, 2 discs, Full DVD ISO)"...if it helps, my name on there is the same as my name here) Not sure if we can post torrent links here, but I figured I'd play it safe this way.
I hope you all enjoy this one. I'm also doing something similar for Return of the Living Dead Part II, which had the whole score changed on the DVD (the VHS was unaffected), and to a lesser extent, Part 3 (DVD was the theatrical version, while the VHS and Region 2 DVD release was unrated, with a minute of more footage).
I finally finished my ROTLD DVD project. I've done this on 2 single-layered DVD discs. First disc is just the film, sourced from the Collector's Edition DVD, although I removed the MGM logo at the beginning and end, and replaced the intro logo with the Orion Pictures logo, just as it was originally. Only one audio option: the original theatrical audio, in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, at 192 kbps. Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Disc 2 is the extras, and all the featurettes and stuff are ported over from the Collector's Edition DVD, along with the Concept Art and TV spots from the 2002 DVD release. Also included in disc 2 is a comparison menu (done in the form of an easter egg), showcasing the 5 major scenes that were changed. You can toggle between the theatrical version and the remixed audio.
I'll see about getting it on some torrent sites for all to download. I would like to do a Blu-ray version as well, but my computer isn't exactly HD ready. I'm working on that, slowly but surely...
I actually have the 2002 DVD...while the colors do look a bit more natural, it's also a bit too bright and the contrast is way off. The cropping is normal, since the CE DVD is in its original 1.85:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The 2002 DVD has the 1.33:1 full frame, but open-matte print, and also an incorrectly framed 1.78:1 aspect ratio on the flip side. Of course, the best picture quality is on the Blu-ray, but it does have the same warmer colors that the CE DVD has and it's also the same 1.85:1 aspect ratio that the CE DVD has, since it's the same print. While not the best source for comparison, the 1989 VHS has the same warmer colors as the CE DVD and Blu-ray, so the colors on the 2002 DVD are off, if using that for a basis of judgment. If I knew anything about do-it-yourself color correcting, I'd try to match the 1.33:1 version to the CE DVD, and have the best of both worlds...