logo Sign In

"Schoolhouse Rock" Shorts Upscaled to HD (* a work in progress *)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Each short will have a restored mono soundtrack. Color correction is being handled very carefully for each short. They will all be mastered in 2K. The main source will be the Laserdisc releases from 1995. Only shorts from 1973 to 1979 will be included, though Computer Rock will be a bonus feature. Bonus features will be in SD and will not go through full restorations.

Bonus features will include:

1973 ABC Bumper
Emmy Awards Featurette
“The Simpsons” Parody
Computer Rock (1984)

Author
Time

These were a big part of my childhood so I really appreciate the effort into trying to preserve these in a higher quality!

Author
Time

You can now watch the restoration of “The Preamble” on Youtube. Consider this a trailer of sorts. 😃

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byJuKwDuniU

Please note that this is the Enhanced Stereo version. Both Mono and Stereo versions will be available where applicable. Also, youtube’s compression does pixellate the video somewhat, and the raw file looks better than this.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I personally think the originals look better, in your upscale the aspect ratio is wrong, the colors are all off, the outlines are too thick, the blacks are more of a gray, and it overall just looks blurry. Also you rendered to 60fps instead of 23.976.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Notelu said:

I personally think the originals look better, in your upscale the aspect ratio is wrong, the colors are all off, the outlines are too thick, the blacks are more of a gray, and it overall just looks blurry. Also you rendered to 60fps instead of 23.976.

  1. The aspect ratio is the same, just cropped slightly to remove video artifacting on the edges.
  2. The colors are more like technicolor film, and are probably closer to how the original film versions looked.
  3. The outlines are sharpened, not thickened.
  4. The blacks appear quite black on my screen, so I’m not sure what you mean by that.
  5. The blu ray will be encoded at 23 fps, so it doesn’t really matter if the raw file is 60 fps.
  6. Denosing can cause a slightly blurry look, but its better than having a bunch of pixellated noise all over the image.

You’re welcome to restore these yourself if mine aren’t good enough for your tastes.

Author
Time

Starting work on new restorations soon. After reviewing them, I agree that they can be improved.

This project will also serve as a memorial for Jack Sheldon, (One of the singers for Schoohouse Rock) who passed away just before the new year.

Author
Time

Just bumping this thread to say this project is still going. I may have a youtube preview for you tomorrow.

Author
Time

I’ve decided to use the 1995 laserdiscs as the main source for this project, as the dvd has bad early 2000s deinterlacing. Stay tuned for an update sometime next week.