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Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 665

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Hi, guys, I know I haven’t updated you in quite a while and it’s because I haven’t really been working on Despecialized.

One reason was that I have been waiting for the new 4K Blu-Rays to come out and now they have and together with the 4K77 project, they should be a great source for a version 3.0 - they do seem to offer have more detail than the 2011 BDs, even though the DNR is pretty awful, but I will definitely try to add grain to them - ideally real scanned 35mm grain, which I might even be able to extract from Star Wars scans to keep it super-authentic.

Right now there are several problems with using the new UHD masters though.

  1. The UHD Blu-Rays haven’t come out in Europe yet, as far as I know.
  2. They are really expensive, so I’ll have to think twice before purchasing them when they do.
  3. Even if I buy them, I don’t even have a UHD player, let alone UHD BD drive, so I haven’t got the ability to rip them or even view them.
  4. Even if I could rip them or get them in some other way, I have no idea how to properly work with HDR streams.

So, if someone could help me with the proper HDR workflow, it would be appreciated. I don’t even really want to make the final result 4K HDR - I’d like the result to be a regular BD, as I feel like this way the sources will match better and there shouldn’t be a significant loss in quality anyway but would like to source the HDR BDs to use the better dynamic range for color-grading.

But maybe, in the end, it would be best to just use the regular BD versions of the new transfers, which would eliminate all the above problems and I could work as I am used to.

The main reason work on Despecialized has slowed down significantly in recent years is that I have a full-time job in the visual effects industry and, frankly also more of a social life, so I have far less time to work on Despecialized and, to be honest, also less drive, because after coming home from work, where I stare at a monitor all day and work on VFX, I seldom feel like doing the same thing at home.

Another reason is that the 4K77 version is wonderful and for my own viewing pleasure it is quite sufficient and I actually really enjoy it for its retro-charm.

But it is still more of a preservation of what the experience of watching a slightly beat-up print in drive-in theater would have been rather than what a proper modern transfer of a milestone film should look like and that’s what Despecialized v3.0 should supplement, when it gets finished.

In my country, the COVID-19 crisis, at least so far, hasn’t reached a point where it would prevent me from going to work, so I’m still working, albeit, since there’s no new productions being made, the post production side of things is winding down as well. But after the current big work-project is finished, which should be at the end of may, I’d like to take some time off and finally get going on Despecialized again. I’m not sure, though, if, given the current economic climate, I’ll be able to afford to do that.

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Thank you for the update Harmy. Take your time on this project - overworking isn’t good. The 2.x versions still hold up and will tide us over for now.

I’m 100% hyped for 3.0 but I’d rather wait for a perfected product. Maybe somebody on The Star Wars Trilogy Forums could be of assistance - I’ve seen some impressive reconstruction work using the 4K BDs, including HDR tonemapping like you mentioned.

Thank you again for all of your hard work, time and artistry you’ve already put into these preservations. I eagerly await the day I can watch your 3.0 versions.

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I can buy, and I have a “Libre” drive for ripping, but not nearly enough storage space, so I’d need to buy that too. But I’d need to know how to rip UHD properly so’s not to screw anything up. And I have no idea at all about HDR workflows.

So in a pinch, with coaching about the ripping process, I could mail a bunch of drives (along with the original discs, of course). I doubt I could find another way to transfer that much data that would work for me.

I’m hoping you get a better offer, but that’s what I can do!

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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First of all, I hope you are alright in these difficult times and also hope it won’t be too hard economically when the crisis is over.
Unfortunately, I can’t help at all on a technical level. But keeping the goal to a bluray format (1080p) for the 3.0 is, in my opinion, the best idea, mostly because the final work will still have a reasonable size in proportions, just like the 2.X versions.
Take your time, think about yourself first (the 2.X versions are like a dream come true!), and I’m sure the results will be amazing, as always!

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SmoothKaz said:

I’m 100% hyped for 3.0 but I’d rather wait for a perfected product. Maybe somebody on The Star Wars Trilogy Forums could be of assistance - I’ve seen some impressive reconstruction work using the 4K BDs, including HDR tonemapping like you mentioned.

+1

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seeing Harmy and oohteedee come together to create the ultimate de-specialized edition would be pretty cool, if they wanted to pool their resources together.

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Harmy said:

Hi, guys, I know I haven’t updated you in quite a while and it’s because I haven’t really been working on Despecialized.

One reason was that I have been waiting for the new 4K Blu-Rays to come out and now they have and together with the 4K77 project, they should be a great source for a version 3.0 - they do seem to offer have more detail than the 2011 BDs, even though the DNR is pretty awful, but I will definitely try to add grain to them - ideally real scanned 35mm grain, which I might even be able to extract from Star Wars scans to keep it super-authentic.

Right now there are several problems with using the new UHD masters though.

  1. The UHD Blu-Rays haven’t come out in Europe yet, as far as I know.
  2. They are really expensive, so I’ll have to think twice before purchasing them when they do.
  3. Even if I buy them, I don’t even have a UHD player, let alone UHD BD drive, so I haven’t got the ability to rip them or even view them.
  4. Even if I could rip them or get them in some other way, I have no idea how to properly work with HDR streams.

So, if someone could help me with the proper HDR workflow, it would be appreciated. I don’t even really want to make the final result 4K HDR - I’d like the result to be a regular BD, as I feel like this way the sources will match better and there shouldn’t be a significant loss in quality anyway but would like to source the HDR BDs to use the better dynamic range for color-grading.

But maybe, in the end, it would be best to just use the regular BD versions of the new transfers, which would eliminate all the above problems and I could work as I am used to.

The main reason work on Despecialized has slowed down significantly in recent years is that I have a full-time job in the visual effects industry and, frankly also more of a social life, so I have far less time to work on Despecialized and, to be honest, also less drive, because after coming home from work, where I stare at a monitor all day and work on VFX, I seldom feel like doing the same thing at home.

Another reason is that the 4K77 version is wonderful and for my own viewing pleasure it is quite sufficient and I actually really enjoy it for its retro-charm.

But it is still more of a preservation of what the experience of watching a slightly beat-up print in drive-in theater would have been rather than what a proper modern transfer of a milestone film should look like and that’s what Despecialized v3.0 should supplement, when it gets finished.

In my country, the COVID-19 crisis, at least so far, hasn’t reached a point where it would prevent me from going to work, so I’m still working, albeit, since there’s no new productions being made, the post production side of things is winding down as well. But after the current big work-project is finished, which should be at the end of may, I’d like to take some time off and finally get going on Despecialized again. I’m not sure, though, if, given the current economic climate, I’ll be able to afford to do that.

You can do it!!! Sure, it might take a while but, it will be worth it.

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Broom Kid said:

seeing Harmy and oohteedee come together to create the ultimate de-specialized edition would be pretty cool, if they wanted to pool their resources together.

Who’s oohteedee? Links please?

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Harmy said:

Broom Kid said:

seeing Harmy and oohteedee come together to create the ultimate de-specialized edition would be pretty cool, if they wanted to pool their resources together.

Who’s oohteedee? Links please?

The second and third links are of his projects:

https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com/index.php

https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com/index.php?threads/d-77-theatrical-reconstruction-using-disney-v1-x-uhd-br-v2-x.342/

https://forums.thestarwarstrilogy.com/index.php?threads/d-80-theatrical-reconstruction-using-disney-v1-x-uhd-br-v2-x.359/

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Yeah, that’s not exaxtly cheap and then you have to at least double that price for shipping to EU and import taxes.

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Well, my offer still stands on the UHD front. And I suppose I can mention, in relation to other ideas being circulated, that my offer definitely comes with no conditions. You can do whatever you like with them, I don’t care.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Thank you, CatBus, I’ll think about it but I think we can find an easier way - I’ll probably buy them when they come out and then get remuxes from some bay 😄

I will also definitely try to set up some collaboration with oohteedee, because it seems he’s already done a lot of the work and maybe I could just provide him with despecialized shots for his version to replace shots that in his version are just cleaned up scans but could be put together in higher quality by despecializing.

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Harmy said:
I will also definitely try to set up some collaboration with oohteedee, because it seems he’s already done a lot of the work and maybe I could just provide him with despecialized shots for his version to replace shots that in his version are just cleaned up scans but could be put together in higher quality by despecializing.

That’s awesome news. You two joining resources is like a theatrical reconstruction dream team.

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Harmy said:

I will also definitely try to set up some collaboration with oohteedee, because it seems he’s already done a lot of the work and maybe I could just provide him with despecialized shots for his version to replace shots that in his version are just cleaned up scans but could be put together in higher quality by despecializing.

Indeed. You two working together would be a dream come true! The work done by oohteedee (and Skydude, for some shots) is fantastic and will really add to a proper “Despecialized” version of the movie.

We’ve come a long way since upscaled Laserdisc footage, and thanks to work like yours and oohteedee’s, we may soon have near-seamless OOT reconstructions.

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Hey Harmy, thanks for the update. Love your work. Here are my two cents. You’ll definitely be able to do more with the new UHD rips than the new HD rips, because of the wide color gamut and 10-bit color. Even if your final delivery is in SDR, having the HDR version as a source will give you more details to pull from, especially in the shadows. Essentially, you can use it the same way you’d use Log camera footage. It will need to be graded though, otherwise it will look very flat. The other alternative would be to use the UHD source tonemapped to SDR, but in my opinion a tonemapped version would serve as an inferior source because you wouldn’t have that wide color gamut to work with anymore.

You can bring HDR footage into DaVinci Resolve and export it as ProRes (or TIFF/EXR/DPX, although those are overkill IMO), without tonemapping, and then that would serve as your best source for creating an SDR restoration with a custom grade. Resolve doesn’t handle MKV-wrappped files though, so you’d first need to rewrap an HEVC MKV remux to HEVC MP4 with ffmpeg (I recommend the GUI called Hybrid). I’d be happy to walk you through how to do any of this if you’d like. (Or I could do it myself and send the files to you, if someone can provide the BD UHD remuxes).

Just feel free to DM me if you want me to walk you through anything! Working with HDR footage is pretty simple once you wrap your head around it. 😃

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Just in case Harmy doesn’t recognize 44rh1n from other parts of the forum, he knows his stuff. DrDre would be a good contact as well – he may already be well on his way to an already-color-corrected UHD source.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Is it wise to use the UHD as the primary source for Despecialized, considering the use of Power Windows?

Army of Darkness: The Medieval Deadit | The Terminator - Color Regrade | The Wrong Trousers - Audio Preservation
SONIC RACES THROUGH THE GREEN FIELDS.
THE SUN RACES THROUGH A BLUE SKY FILLED WITH WHITE CLOUDS.
THE WAYS OF HIS HEART ARE MUCH LIKE THE SUN. SONIC RUNS AND RESTS; THE SUN RISES AND SETS.
DON’T GIVE UP ON THE SUN. DON’T MAKE THE SUN LAUGH AT YOU.

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Dek Rollins said:

Is it wise to use the UHD as the primary source for Despecialized, considering the use of Power Windows?

In my opinion it’s a non-issue. The UHD is still the cleanest source (even though it’s DNR’d) and Power Windows can easily be undone in the grade, if necessary. The 2011 Blu-ray had Power Windows in the grade too.

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Any car purchased in the las—

Oh, wrong power windows. I didn’t want Harmy to tire out his arm before he could get home to work on this thing.

Maybe Harmy could start a training temple and divide the trilogy among his student to complete. If 13 people each take half an hour of footage, assigned based on difficulty and mastery, and then passed the results up to Harmy to approve and maybe tweak…

My stance on revising fan edits.

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44rh1n said:

Hey Harmy, thanks for the update. Love your work. Here are my two cents. You’ll definitely be able to do more with the new UHD rips than the new HD rips, because of the wide color gamut and 10-bit color. Even if your final delivery is in SDR, having the HDR version as a source will give you more details to pull from, especially in the shadows. Essentially, you can use it the same way you’d use Log camera footage. It will need to be graded though, otherwise it will look very flat. The other alternative would be to use the UHD source tonemapped to SDR, but in my opinion a tonemapped version would serve as an inferior source because you wouldn’t have that wide color gamut to work with anymore.

You can bring HDR footage into DaVinci Resolve and export it as ProRes (or TIFF/EXR/DPX, although those are overkill IMO), without tonemapping, and then that would serve as your best source for creating an SDR restoration with a custom grade. Resolve doesn’t handle MKV-wrappped files though, so you’d first need to rewrap an HEVC MKV remux to HEVC MP4 with ffmpeg (I recommend the GUI called Hybrid). I’d be happy to walk you through how to do any of this if you’d like. (Or I could do it myself and send the files to you, if someone can provide the BD UHD remuxes).

Just feel free to DM me if you want me to walk you through anything! Working with HDR footage is pretty simple once you wrap your head around it. 😃

Could you, please, make a tutorial on how to grade and export(in SDR) HDR Blu-rays or general video/media files in Resolve? Or at least point the way?

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Power windows will definitely be in the 2020 BRs too. And probably some in the 11 BRs.

I’m my opinion some of those corrections are a bit revisionist and should be replaced on a shot by shot basis.

But not all. Despecialized seems to be the project where such modern grading techniques are acceptable. And In a world where we have 4K77. Some work done to invisibly tidy up the presentation of Star Wars is… fine.

As had as the sources go. I do believe that a 10bit SDR workflow is the way to go.

  1. The current HDR BR do not use HDR to its fullest. Keeping the picture largely in the lower range of the brightness spectrum. There isn’t a tone of HDRness to use there.

  2. Considering how difficult it is even for professionals to do quality HDR grading I would strongly advise against amateur HDR grading, even as an optional release.

If I were in this position I would cap both releases and look at how we can conform one to the other. Either by using Dr Dre’s tool shot by shot (It can be done), or a blanket adjustment if it works. There is detail in the 4K surprisingly, but the image on the 1080p is more than enough to make a future presentation.

I’d like to think that the future of Despecialized becomes more of a community driven project than a largely solo effort. As a community we should look at what Despecialized look like. And how we would achieve that goal.

Despecialized has become the “brandname” of the theatrical editions of Star Wars. It’s what people talk about outside of the Star Wars forum (that and 4K77). It’s important that all the fans out there (who aren’t as savvy as us) that perfect, comprehensive, community approved versions are out there and easily identifiable. And it should happen soon.

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I have talked with Harmy and my D+77 and D+80 projects are going to be the basis for Despecialized v3.0.

These projects are mostly theatrical already so this saves him a lot of time.

This will be a collaboration effort between us.

My existing projects are 100% 4K sourced.

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To quote one of history’s most famous Hannibals:

I love it when a plan comes together.

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I am now in contact with oohteedee and we’re talking about collaborating on v3.0 using his D+xy versions as a basis and despecializing them further.

I have said before that now that we have 4K77 and 4K83 as 100% true theatrical preservstions (with 4K80 hopefully coming soon) the focus of Despecialized can shift to being what a modern transfer of the movie, if the SE never existed, could be. This is why I don’t think power-windows, not 100% theatrically accurate grading or redone wipes and such are really a problem.