It’s The Phantom Menace, in HD and in its theatrical form. Many have started such a project but none seem to have made it in circulation. Here’s my attempt. Ive read through several threads and thanks for everyone whos put effort into solving a lot of these problems.
This Theatrical restoration is based off a capture of a HD broadcast tape of the DVD cut of the film. A High def telecine made in 1999, ported to Laserdisc & VHS, later recut into the Extended edition for DVD. Then distributed for HDTV broadcast. This one is largely identical to existing HDTV captures but a much higher bitrate. Here are a few stills that show improvements on some of the more extreme frames http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/114205.
It’s been recut into the theatrical version using the laserdisc and ORF broadcast as a guide, then synced to the laserdisc audio captured bit by bit by Schorman. To match the audio a few frames had to be dropped or duped at reel changes and side changes. The laser disc audio will be muxed with the video to avoid transcoding. Edit: Cinema DTS audio may also be included.
The HDTV source is regraded slightly to match the THX podrace demo DVD using Dr Dre’s color match tool. This is a subtle change and merely removes a light pink tint. The THX podrace is the theatrical cut so its assumed that it comes from the Theatrical scan of the film. Comparison between HDTV colors and regraded to the THX demo colors http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/114206
The HDTV burn in subtitles have been cut out with a mask made in photoshop and the fill in replaced with the PAL DVD. Theatrically accurate (or as close as one can get) subtitles have been created and match the timing and placement using the Z theatrical bootleg. http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/114207/
Missing TE shots come from the ORF broadcast (and one from the DVD bonus features), The bridge shot and the Senate shot have been fixed by rotoscoping the changed bits from the ORF broadcast into the HDTV. All other shots have been scaled up and regrained.
Some extra color corrections have been made. The blood test scene was shot on digital and the theatrical version would have had this as a video to film transfer, my guess is that the HDTV replaced these shots with a Video to Video transfer and has more natural colors. So a bit of grading makes those scenes resemble what’s on the LD/ORF a little more. http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/FB2FNNNU# Also during the podrace, a few shots in a tunnel are much redder on the THX and LD but neutral grey on the HDTV and Blu Ray, fixed with Dr Dre’s color match tool. http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/KLPGNNNX
I’ve also corrected a sync error on the HDTV master. The scene in the queen’s ship before they land on Naboo is one frame too early, with a frame duplicated to catch back up after 33 seconds. Its present on the HDTV and the PAL dvd so looks to be an error that occured when recutting the extended edition. Both the bluray and the LD/DVB versions do not have this error. i’ve fixed this by duping a frame a the start of the scene.
Here is a list of sources (UPDATED)
A high bitrate HD capture of the HDTV version.
Austrian ORF PAL broadcast (for patches and some grading references)
Podrace Theatrical Version from Disney TPM Digital Release (for two missing shots) Thanks Schorman
THX podrace demo DVD (grading reference)
PAL DVD (for subtitle fill in)
Schorman’s Laserdisc Audio Archive. (Audio source)
Schorman’s Cinema DTS conversion/sync.
Althor’s Laserdisc rip (for Reference)
Z theatrical bootleg VCD (for subtitle placement), Thanks Youtoo
2015 Pan and Scan HDTV recording (for subtitle timing, titles are different but timing seems to be frame accurate)
Bluray (Reference only)
Why not use the Bluray as a base? The HDTV is a scan of some sort of release print, possibly struck specifically for Telecine transfer (no subtitles) so is pretty close to what the theatrical experience would have been like. The Bluray on the other hand is a scan of the original negatives/film-outs but with a heck of a lot of DNR, presumably done for ease of 3D conversion. While the HDTV has a significant amount of Edge Enhancement and sharpening, it’s still leaps and bounds a better version of the film than the Bluray, IMHO.
I’m currently rendering out a copy from Premiere for preview purposes. If anyone wants to watch and quality check for me please let me know and I’ll send you a link to download. Once all is approved I’ll be uploading it to the usual places.