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The NumeralJoker/MechaSalesman 4K HDR Edits Megathread, Clips Previews, and Release Info — Page 5

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The scene from Duchess of Mandalore was included and should be there.

Unfortunately, the only remaining sources of deleted scenes, as you point out, would have been in the Cad Bane cut, (His s2 arc had some as well), but the only sources I was able to gain access too were too poor quality to use effectively at the time, so I felt it was best to just take the hit and move on. Perhaps an extended v2 of that specific cut could be created at a later time, but right now it’s not a major priority.

Hope you’re enjoying the rest of the cuts otherwise.

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Also, I’ve released several more clips from the various new (and updated v2) arcs in these cuts. All of these clips are in 4K HDR natively on youtube.

A Galaxy at Wars (AMV) - An update to my earlier Clone Wars Tribute project, using footage taken only from these new releases, increasing the quality of the cut as much as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsDJ4As_4MA

Yoda vs Darth Sidious (s6)
https://youtu.be/e0cQwm-KV7M
Dooku vs Anakin & Kenobi (s6)
https://youtu.be/IFNv1nWZeY0
Ahsoka exposes Almec (S3)
https://youtu.be/Nz35W1I_bXU
Clones vs Pong Krell (s4)
https://youtu.be/raE8tPAy8gQ
Dooku, Anakin & Kenobi Captured (s1)
https://youtu.be/XcUR4HzTIz4
Ahsoka & Wookiees vs Trandoshans (s3)
https://youtu.be/3QuEzYtbPt0
R2 vs Goldie (s1)
https://youtu.be/2HL9QnbiWuo
Mace & Jar Jar vs Mother Talzin (s6)
https://youtu.be/RDlAapVwH-Q
Zillo Beast Rampage (s2)
https://youtu.be/FDShgLsT77A
Grievous vs Eeth Koth
https://youtu.be/WyQPDlevExs

That should give you quite a few new samples to go through when deciding whether it’s worth collecting/upgrading to these cuts yourself. Modern youtube compression is much better about preserving video quality so these videos will still be fairly close to the final thing (though still slightly compressed).

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hedgesmfg said:

The scene from Duchess of Mandalore was included and should be there.

Unfortunately, the only remaining sources of deleted scenes, as you point out, would have been in the Cad Bane cut, (His s2 arc had some as well), but the only sources I was able to gain access too were too poor quality to use effectively at the time, so I felt it was best to just take the hit and move on. Perhaps an extended v2 of that specific cut could be created at a later time, but right now it’s not a major priority.

Hope you’re enjoying the rest of the cuts otherwise.

Ah yes, as I said I was only flicking through before whilst waiting but I’ve since got it downloaded and Mas Amedda is there.

Oh I am enjoying them. Having them all edited together seems like the way they should always have been watched. Considering that several arcs were edited together for the DVD sets I wonder why they didn’t do it with all the arcs for Disney+. Still, the visual quality isn’t as good as yours so I’ll stick with yours and leave my DVDs in the cupboard.

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Heya hedgesmfg, im extremely fascinated by your 4K HDR workflow. I’m working on a TROS fan edit myself and want to preserve 4K HDR as i believe its the best experience to watch it on my samsung tv at home.

My workflow has been for adding scenes to I would upscale fan editted scenes to 4K using Topaz Video Enhance, and then I would use Davinci resolve to add the HDR metadata in. Rec, gamma, being Rec2020, ST2084 (My “color grading” is the noob of noobs), but its the best I can do to “match” the original 4K. I would then do my video editing in final cut pro.

The issue I ran into is when I export from FCP, it has to be a 10 bit codec in order to export HDR, so the only codec available from FCP is ProRes 422. However the file size is humongous (>300-400GB), and the only way I can encode into HEVC/H.265 is to use either compressor app or handbrake, but that takes FOREVER. I was wondering if you could recommend a better easier workflow. Since you use adobe premiere pro, can that export directly to HEVC265 10 bit?

I’m working on encoding my first draft to release using handbrake.

You can check out some of the pics of my work on the thread: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/the-rise-of-skywalker-my-personal-cut-wip/id/82513

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 (Edited)

jadenkorr41 said:

Heya hedgesmfg, im extremely fascinated by your 4K HDR workflow. I’m working on a TROS fan edit myself and want to preserve 4K HDR as i believe its the best experience to watch it on my samsung tv at home.

My workflow has been for adding scenes to I would upscale fan editted scenes to 4K using Topaz Video Enhance, and then I would use Davinci resolve to add the HDR metadata in. Rec, gamma, being Rec2020, ST2084 (My “color grading” is the noob of noobs), but its the best I can do to “match” the original 4K. I would then do my video editing in final cut pro.

The issue I ran into is when I export from FCP, it has to be a 10 bit codec in order to export HDR, so the only codec available from FCP is ProRes 422. However the file size is humongous (>300-400GB), and the only way I can encode into HEVC/H.265 is to use either compressor app or handbrake, but that takes FOREVER. I was wondering if you could recommend a better easier workflow. Since you use adobe premiere pro, can that export directly to HEVC265 10 bit?

I’m working on encoding my first draft to release using handbrake.

You can check out some of the pics of my work on the thread: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/the-rise-of-skywalker-my-personal-cut-wip/id/82513

Premiere Pro handles the majority of my workflow, though I have a copy of both the 2019 and 2020 version on my HDD because the former directly imports MKV files while the latter dropped support of it but allows for slightly faster encoding.

Typically my workflow for the Clone Wars Upscale is as follows…

  1. Start with the original mp4 files, either from the ISO, or in already existing high bitrate (10,000kbps) encodes. Extract the audio and video files from these and convert them to lossless mp4 files via handbrake at the highest quality setting at a constant 23.97fps rate encoded in h.264. This leaves me with files about 3GB or so for each episode, but they will easily slide into any version of Adobe without issue. I’ll also extract the audio files separately as AAC files.

  2. Set the project resolutions (and sequence setting) to 3840x1634 (or 2160p in the case of Rebels) to set a standard for cinematic widescreen that’s roughly consistent between films and TV. Also enable Maximum Bit Depth and Render Quality in these settings to enable HDR mode in Adobe.

  3. Import the MP4s and layer the audio track below them, synced up frame for frame, but still listed separately for the purpose of making the cuts easier to layer and adjust in both audio and video. Each individual video segment that needs to be upscaled is then “set to frame size” which will automatically make it scale within to whatever the predefined resolution is within the sequence setting.

  4. With each shot coming from a different source (TV Episode, film, deleted scene, ect), if I am upscaling, I test various sharpening filters at different settings until I get a clip that correctly scales up with as many details visible as possible. It’s not the AI Topaz approach (because I find many of the AI scalers still create far too many artifacts and incorrect guesses on the source material), but I find adobe is already using something akin to a bicubic upscale algorithm that works very, very well and matches a lot of industry standards for upscales as long as you configure it properly. As I’m sure you can see in the video clips I’ve put up, Clone Wars scaled extremely well with this method and preserved excellent amounts of detail while looking ever so slightly sharper. Small tweaks in sharpness or softness filters (and in rare cases, a very tiny bit of film grain, though not for this project) can produce an extremely high quality image if balanced correctly, but there is no one consistent setting, and it will always vary depending on the quality, bitrate, and native resolution of the original source material used.

  5. Adobe is set to colorize in the Rec2020 standard by default. With HDR already enabled, I can then enter the coloring tab and select a preset for every single scene/sequence in whatever project I’m working on. Episodes VII-IX hit brightness settings in the 700-1000nit range on Disney Plus, so I set each project’s maximum brightness to this range too. I can then manually calibrate every single clip’s saturation, specular, black levels, white levels, shadows, exposure, contrast, highlights, and tint until I get the best looking balance for that particular clip. I typically use a fairly uniform setting across most scenes, but I could custom color every single frame of a project manually if I had too within the timeline. Scenes can be recalibrated on a cases by cases basis. My rule of thumb was to have different configurations for clips from different sources (film, deleted scene, 2D animation, 3D animation) by default, then vary it from there as needed with each scene.

Once this is done, and any edits I need to make within the timeline are complete (say, 4 episodes stitched together as a film cut with the necessary A/V transitions put in place), I can export the clip as an mp4 file encoded in x265 in either 1080p SDR (with SDR conform turned on to ensure that the newly created HDR metadata scales down properly to SDR), or 10bit 4K HDR with rec2020 colors enabled. This means the software will manually recolor every single frame in real time based on the settings I’ve put forth in my timeline using a very efficient algorithm that scans every frame and recolors each one based on a nearest neighbor/best guess scaling solution, similar to an AI algorithm. If configured correctly, you can do this with almost any source to give it a new HDR sheen, but it has to be handled carefully to work most effectively. Clone Wars was the perfect project for this process since the show was already filled with many rich and vibrant palettes that were naturally enhanced by this approach without being oversaturated. The show’s dynamic lighting FX engine was pretty much made for an HDR transfer, and they obviously upgraded it in Season 7 to scale this way, quite beautifully.

I hope that gives you a good idea behind my workflow here. Once I’ve streamlined it and get my source material organized, I can produce effective results relatively quickly. Rendering still can be a very time consuming process for even very powerful hardware (The 4.5 hour revenge of the Sith cut in 4K HDR takes 28 uninterrupted hours to render, and that’s without upscaling or even recoloring the already existing 4K HDR content), but the results speak for themselves and I can directly import existing HDR metadata without any issue (such as when I edit using a 4K HDR mkv file as a source in Premiere 2019), or recreate a new set of metadata manually.

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WOW! thanks for such a detailed workflow approach. It appears that me getting my hands on adobe premiere pro would solve alot of my problems. It seems to be the do it all in one spot. I’m in the middle of encoding my TROS via handbrake and we are talking 100+ hours. So yeah… I’ll probably find a more efficient/effective workflow. thanks again so much for sharing your workflow. you dont know how much this will help me!

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As one last point worth mentioning, those 2 copies of Adobe also come in handy because I could literally edit on one copy (2019) and then import that file project and render on the other (2020) after it was done. This was useful as a time saving measure because it meant that even having a 6-8+ hour rendering project meant I could still do work and get the next project ready. Having 32+ GB of RAM in your system helps with multitasking like this.

Mind you, I also had to import and retime subtitles files with Aegisub to make english subs available for (most) of my releases as well. Another rather time consuming part of this process, and one that was more complex depending on the nature of the edit itself. The more changes I made to the films, the more complex editing the subtitle timing became. Luckily, most of the Clone Wars TV edits were fairly simple cuts, so that part wasn’t nearly as complex as creating good subtitles for say… the Revenge of the Sith edit was.

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Thank you for the tips sir. I’ll see how my handbrake encode comes out. For my next versions and future edits (dare I choose to endeavor in more) I’ll use your adobe workflow.

Might I add, the color grading to match it to the original 4K HDR material is difficult as hell. I completely understand what you mean by it’s the best you can get it. I can spend hours for each scene playing with every parameter to find the best match possible.

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First off, thanks for all of your hard work.

Just wanted to point out that the Holiday Special appears to have been IVTC’ed. Most of the special was shot on video tape at 30i. So it would be more appropriate to bob this to 60fps if you wanted to convert it to progressive.

There are a few scenes that could be IVTC’ed. Such as the animated segment and the reused shots from the film. Otherwise they are all video tape fps.

I went through the original KCCI and WHIO versions to verify this.

Would recommend QTGMC if you had any plans to convert this to 60fps.

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Maybe a longshot, but I’d like to add all these cuts into my Emby collection as a series. Is there a short description of each cut’s plot to put in the description box? Thanks!

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So just to give this a small bump…

I’ve decided to do a project covering the entirety of Rebels in 4K HDR similar to my Clone Wars edits. It will be composed of 13 “feature cuts” using about 55 episodes (and the season 1 shorts) while 20 episodes will remain as unedited solo affairs (more than in the TCW project), but still get the same upscale treatment.

The same 4K HDR upscaling process will be applied, but it will be improved upon what I did for the earlier “Liberation of Lothal” finale cut (which will get a v2 using a newer and notably higher bitrate source and a newer coloring process that aligns more closely with the final TCW HDR transfer).

You can already see a revamped version of the Liberation of Lothal Prologue here, using the updated footage/HDR coloring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSr-RDQkLjk&feature=youtu.be

A very small handful of episodes will also be re-ordered to make some cuts more themed, but any alterations to order I do will take the script and continuity into close account so as not to break the story in any truly notable way. Many of the self contained Rebels episodes can occur in slightly different order with no real consequences to the larger canon. I’ve already scrutinized the scripts pretty closely to avoid any blatant errors that a first time viewer might notice and be confused by.

As an example, Maul’s story will be compressed into a film cut that mostly occurs over the early events of season 3, rather than throughout the season. This, however, allows fans to watch his entire season 3 arc in a single “film” that both wraps up his story and simultaneously serves as an introduction to Thrawn.

And here is a 4K HDR sample clip of Ahsoka fighting the Inquisitors from Season 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ASx65unozA&feature=youtu.be

The completion of this project will help bring the entirety of the Lucas era (32BBY-4ABY) into one completed 4K HDR package. While I wouldn’t be surprised if a 4K DPI of Rebels technically exists, it seems unlikely that a 4K Blu Ray release of either this or TCW will ever occur due to the already existing D+ releases, so this will fill in that gap. Sadly, I don’t know if I can ever justify doing the same for Resistance (it just… isn’t a show in the same league as the first 2), while 4K “movie” edits of Mando s1 and 2 are already out there and really don’t require my touch at this time.

For the time being, I’ve removed the download links for the v1 “Liberation of Lothal” edit. It will be replaced with a nearly identical (but visually improved) v2 cut eventually when the project is completed.

After this show is completed, I’m honestly not sure how much remaining Star Wars content there will be for me to continue working on. I may do small updates to the Episode I-IV transfers at some point based upon what I’ve learned since last April (Episode III already is on a v3 and should be pretty close to final now), but most refinements will be small technical changes to the transfers/encodes themselves at best. IV is the most likely project to get a v2 release when all is said and done. Edits for V and VI would be fun, but their content is in rough enough shape that I’d need much more extensive FX work to truly give some of their deleted content justice, and that may well go beyond the realm of this one man job I’ve been doing all year. We’ll see. Future cuts based on new content could happen, but I want to be delicate about how quickly I create them, so as not to necessarily step on the Mouse’s toes too blatantly.

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Well it should take you up to the release of The Bad Batch. There may well be no upscaling needed there but it might benefit from film cuts perhaps.

Film cuts of Rebels could always do with somebody to go over them and correct every single lightsabre and blaster bolt.

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Any new content on Disney Plus will be full 4K HDR going forward, and if Clone Wars Season 7 is anything to stand by, I have high expectations from it. While people have critized Mando’s HDR transfer (and understandably so), Clone Wars s7 had a top notch release all around, and if anything my season 1-6 upscales were designed to match them in quality as much as I could. That same process will now apply to Rebels.

I would like to do edits of Bad Batch and Kenobi at some point, but those will come at a much later time and simply may not be even necessary for me to do personally. There also remains the possibility that Bad Batch could influence the RoTS cut due to its timing of events, but I want to tread that line very carefully as I do feel their story is distinct and separate from Ahsoka and Anakin’s storylines and wouldn’t merge together the same way TCW/ROTS/2k3 Clone Wars did. We’ll see.

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If Lucasfilms release those deleted scenes:

Star Wars Episode I Extended:

  1. Obi-Wan’s arrival on Naboo
  2. Qui-Gon lecturing Obi-Wan about allowing a lightsaber to die out
  3. Extended Arrival on Theed
  4. Qui-Gon putting on a poncho
  5. Jar Jar juggling
  6. Extended scene of Watto’s junkyard
  7. Tatooine Sandstorm
  8. Darth Sidious saying “It’s too late for them. All is according to plan. Soo the republic will be in my control.”
  9. Obi-Wan vs. Maul on Tatooine (If that existed)
  10. Extended Qui-Gon vs. Maul in Tatooine
  11. Anakin and R2-D2 talk
  12. Extended Vote of No confidence scene
  13. Cut lines from the Jedi Council in Ep. I
  14. Extended Discussion with the Trade Federation Leaders and Maul
  15. Extended Duel of the Fates

Star Wars Episode II Extended:

  1. Mace and Yoda talk after the Senate hearing
  2. Anakin staying on guard at Padme’s apartment
  3. Extended version of Zam Wessel’s Assasination plan
  4. Anakin saying to Obi-Wan “I heard this lesson before.” and Obi-Wan replies “You haven’t learned anything yet.”
  5. Extended version of Anakin’s Search
  6. Extended Transport Travel
  7. Extended Arrival on Theed
  8. Extended love montage in the grass plains
  9. Obi-Wan discovering Jango’s departure
  10. Extended version of Obi-Wan vs. Jango Fett
  11. Awaiting Anakin’s return
  12. Extended version of Obi-Wan’s investigation on Geonosis
  13. Extended Separatist meeting with Passel’s line
  14. Extended Tusken Raider slaughter
  15. Departure from Tatooine
  16. Bail Organa saying “We must stop them before they’re ready.”
  17. Investigation on Geonosis
  18. Extended Geonosis Arena fight
  19. Extended Battle of Geonosis
  20. Extended Dooku Duel

Episode III Siege of Mandalore Cut:

  1. Extended Intro
  2. Extended Dooku duel
  3. Extended Obi-Wan and Anakin conversation
  4. Obi-Wan telling Anakin the tensions between the Council and the Chancellor
  5. Padme returning to her apartment and Anakin visits her
  6. Extended Opera scene
  7. Obi-Wan visiting Padme
  8. Anakin telling Palpatine that Obi-Wan will have Greivous’ head
  9. Palpatine telling Anakin that Obi-Wan’s mind is influenced by Padme
  10. Extended Anakin and Padme conversation
  11. Tion talking to the Magnaguard
  12. Extended Search for Greivous
  13. Obi-Wan vs. Magnaguards
  14. Obi-Wan encountering a Nos Monster
  15. Extended Kashyyk Ambush
  16. Bail Organa departure from the senate to get the Jedi
  17. C3-PO telling R2 a rumor that will banish all droids
  18. Organa arriving at the Senate with Obi-Wan and Yoda
  19. Extended Separatists slaughter (features the deaths of Rune Haako, Shu Mai, San Hill, and Wat Tambor)
  20. Extended Hologram of Anakin killing Cin Dralling
  21. Obi-Wan arriving to see Padme
  22. Extended Departure to Mustafar
  23. Extended Mustafar and Senate fight scenes
  24. Anakin syaing to Obi-Wan “Help me!” this line is muted in that shot. Obi-Wan yells at him “Don’t ask me, Anakin! You’re evil! You bring nothing but pain and suffering! I can’t help you!”
  25. Extended Mustafar Departure
  26. Extended version of Palpatine’s arrival on Mustafar
  27. Paplatine’s departure from Mustafar
  28. Extended Palpatine’s arrival to Coruscant
  29. Extended Birth of the Twins and Anakin’s transformation
  30. Extended Conversation between Darth Vader and Palpatine.

Solo Extended edition:
85% of Phil Lord and Chris Miller

STAR WARS IV A New Hope The Rogue Cut:

  1. Saw Gerrera taking care of Jyn asking her “What will you do if they catch you? What will you do if they break you? If you continue to fight, what will you become?”
  2. Extended Rebel Briefing with Jyn
  3. A hot of a fallen Jedi statue on Jedha
  4. Captured Rebels on Jedha
  5. Krennic and Darth Vader (Anakin) in the Death Star Control Room where Krennic says “The power that we’re dealing with ehre is immeasurable.”
  6. Krennic’s walk in the Scarif Battlefield
  7. Jyn facing off against a TIE Fighter
  8. Alternate Death Star Plans Heist
  9. Vader Observing the capture of the Rebels
  10. Luke saying “I know I don’t feel so good.” after Obi-Wan says “You must do what you feel what’s right.”
  11. Extended Mourning of Owen and Beru
  12. Luke selling his landspeeder
  13. Extended Stormtrooper Search
  14. Sccenes of the Falcon shooting back at the Stormtroopers
  15. Extended Destruction of Alderaan
  16. Extended version of Stormtroopers heading to their stations
  17. Luke and Han celebrating destroying the TIE fighters
  18. TIE Fighter Pilots heading to their ships

How will you add them back in?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o_3NP2QjuI&feature=youtu.be

New Trailer is out for the Rebels 4K HDR Recut Project. Planning to release these in the first half of next month.

There are 13 film cuts using 54 episodes, while 21 episodes will be upscaled to 4K HDR and left as standalones (then also included in the 1080p batch with the new color timings as well). The order will be near identical to the official chronological order, with a very small number of minor exceptions.

Edit: Here is the list of the new viewing order for The Dark Times/OT Era with my cuts:

Dark Times/Original Trilogy Era Viewing Order

Solo: A Star Wars Story – Extended Edition (Solo + Deleted Scenes) (13-10BBY)

Star Wars: Rebels (5-0BBY)

Season 1
Film Cut 1.0 – A Spark of Rebellion (S1 shorts, S1 01-05)
1.1 Breaking Ranks (s1e06)
1.2 Out of Darkness (s1e07)
Film Cut 2.0 – The Path of the Jedi (s1 08-10)
2.1 Idiot’s Array (s1e11)
Film Cut 3.0 – Fire Across the Galaxy (S1 e12-15)

Season 2
Film Cut 4.0 - Relics of the Old Republic (s2 1-5+10)
4.01 Brothers of the Broken Horn (s2e06)
4.02 Wings of the Master (s2e07)
4.03 Blood Sisters (s2e08)
4.04 Stealth Strike (S2e09)
4.05 Legacy (s2e11)
4.06 A Princess on Lothal (s2e12)
4.07 The Protector of Concord Dawn (S2e13)
4.08 Legends of the Lasat (s2e14)
4.09 The Call (s2e15)
4.10 Homecoming (s2e16)
4.11 The Honorable Ones (s2e17)
Film Cut 5.0 – Twilight of the Apprentice (s2 e18-22)

Season 3
Film Cut 6.0 – Powerful Light, Powerful Darkness (s3 01-03, 05, 11, 20)
6.1 The Antilles Extraction (S3e04)
6.2 The Last Battle (s3e06)
6.3 Iron Squadron (s3e08)
6.4 The Wynkahthu Job (s3e09)
6.5 An Inside Man (S3e10)
Film Cut 7.0 – Ghosts of Geonosis (s3 e12-13)
7.1 Warhead (S3e14)
Film Cut 8.0 - The Legacy of Mandalore (s3 e07, e15-16)
8.1 Double Agent Droid (S3e19)
Film Cut 9.0 – The Fires of Rebellion (s3 e17-18, 21-22)

Season 4
Film Cut 10.0 – Heroes of Mandalore (s4 01-02)
Film Cut 11.0 – In the Name of the Rebellion (s4 03-04)
Film Cut 12.0 – The Spirit of Lothal (s4 05-08)
Film Cut 13.0 – The Liberation of Lothal v2 (s4 09-15)

Star Wars Episode IV – The Rogue Cut v2 (Rogue One + ANH + SC38 + Deleted Scenes) (0BBY)
Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (Official, on Disney+ or Home Video) (3BBY)
Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (Official, on Disney+ or Home Video) (4BBY)

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I’d love to get a copy of the Microseries edit as well as the The Clone Wars feature film edit!

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I’ve sent you a DM with the relevant info.

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For those who have access to the release document, a v2 copy of the Rogue One/A New Hope Supercut has been updated and added to the google drive links. Torrents will come at a later time. I’m still working on proofing the rebels batches to ensure there are no encoding errors… so that will keep me busy for much of this weekend, but changes for the Episode IV V2 Supercut are as follows.

  1. A typo in the crawl has been fixed.
  2. The HDR color timings of Rogue One have been very subtly tweaked to ensure they display correctly.
  3. A fade to black crossfade between young Jyn and the Rogue One present “montage” has been added to make that transition a tad more natural.
  4. An HDR color timing error when the Tantitive IV flies away has been fixed to ensure proper brightness above 100 nits is preserved.
  5. The 3 New Hope Deleted Scene bits have been newly white balanced to help them match the aesthetic of the rest of the film more closely, removing the overly orange tint from the previous raw version.
  6. The transitions both in and out of the second Biggs deleted scene have been modified by a few frames to fit more naturally, slightly better covering up the original transition the restored scene was replacing.
  7. The entire HDR color transfer of A New Hope has had very small tweaks, but nothing substantial. My goal is to retain the color timing of the 4K HDR/4K Blu Ray version as much as possible, even though it sharply contrasts with the more vivid look of Rogue One. Many fans are so used to the DVD and Blu Ray releases of the film they don’t even realize that those transfers were overly saturated and did not closely resemble the color timing of the theatrical release. The 4K Blu Ray version is a much closer match for the original.
  8. A new, higher bitrate source for the entire A New Hope encode was used, making the transfer look just a sharp more crisp as a whole. It’s a small difference, but it’s there for those who want the best looking encodes these file sizes can provide. As a result, the file size is just a tad larger (maybe about 500MB).
  9. A few small subtitle errors have been corrected, including slightly off or missing lines.
  10. The HDR color balance of the entire SC38 sequence has been modified, with extra focus being placed on the shots of Han, Luke and Leia to have the shots more closely match the rest of the transfer. I can’t make it match perfectly, but it should be close enough to prevent it from standing out too much.
  11. Very small alterations to the color timing of the Lucasfilm and Disney logos at the start of the cut have been made, ensuring better black levels and color levels. Same applies to the end credits to ensure better black levels.

The sound and runtime of the cut is otherwise frame for frame identical. No scene order changes have been made, and I’m keeping the 4K 2019 Special Edition transfer as the version of ANH hope used due to the excellent quality of this master as a whole and the fact that the Special Edition “changes” more line up with the modernized Rogue One aesthetic. Using bits of Adywan’s cut would have been an interesting alternate take, but his version being permanently stuck in 720p SDR just doesn’t produce quite the same visual quality that I want to see here.

I’m not planning to release any new clips of this cut at this time, but you can still see the original youtube clips at the top of the thread. I’m quite pleased with the current updated version of this cut.

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i downloaded the 1080p version of Rebels and immediately noticed the image seemed unusually bright. a comparison with my blu-ray rips revealed not only a difference in brightness but also loss of detail.

blu-ray
blu-ray

NumeralJoker 1080p (notice the grass blades have almost entirely disappeared)
1080p

it’s especially noticeable on faces where it sometimes makes skin look like it’s literally glowing.
blu-ray
blu-ray2

NumeralJoker 1080p
1080p2

i don’t usually notice or look for this kind of thing but it was immediately apparent that the image looked off. idk if this is an unintended effect of your process converting to 4k and then back to 1080p or intentional, but i have to say i much prefer the original look. also, i proceeded to compare your clone wars 1080p version with the blu-ray and found similar brighness increase, though it didn’t seem as pronounced in the few shots i checked. unfortunately, i don’t have the equipment to enjoy your 4k hdr upscales which seem to be the primary goal of your project, so i understand if this isn’t worth addressing.

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Converting the 4K HDR transfer back to 1080p is indeed a bit trickier, but it’s a bit more complex than just saying the image is brighter. There is more contrast and a sharper difference between the brightest of brights and the darkest of black levels, as is intended for an HDR image, but the benefits of that conversion get somewhat muddled when conforming the HDR benefits to SDR. This is made even worse by the fact that it’s almost impossible for PCs to take proper HDR screenshots as well. Only youtube clips viewed on Chrome or Edge on an HDR capable monitor should show the true benefits of these transfers accurately, or the original files displayed on a correctly calibrated 4K HDR TV.

In truth, this project is indeed intended for 4K HDR viewing and benefits by far the most from that transfer, but due to demand it was best to offer an SDR version as well, and for simplicity’s sake I had to render the 1080p version based on the HDR template. Most of my viewers actually like the brighter SDR transfer, but understandably some won’t and that’s okay. The impact of it will also vary depending on where the HDR source came from (an official transfer vs down-scaling one I made myself).

Overall, you’ll see far better retaining of detail and the more accurately intended contrast and color differences in the $K HDR version, but I’ve had such a wide audience of demand for these that I need to offer both versions from the same template.

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thanks for the explanation! aside from this, i thought your editing work was excellent. hopefully i’ll be able to upgrade my equipment sometime soon to enjoy the full 4k experience you’ve provided.

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There are a few moments in REVENGE of the SITH that you may one day add:

  1. Nos Monster

  2. Yoda’s struggle to get off Kashyyk

  3. Anakin killing San Hill, Rune Haako (PS: Rute Gunnay has an on screen death and not Rune Haako because the shot of Rune is lifted from the Conference room which is where he was supposed to be killed and placed it on Rute Gunnay’s reaction), Shu Mai, Cat Miin, Sun Rac, and Wat Tambor. He also killed the guards which are the first ones to be killed and droidekas which are before Nute gets killed which would explain why Nute Gunray flinched as Anakin jumped to him. He thought the Droidekas would’ve killed him.

  4. Obi-Wan visiting Padme before he leaves Utapau (It was mentioned in ROTS and in the featurettes, it is indeed filmed but was cut out for time constraits)

  5. Extended Obi-Wan vs. Anakin which would explain why Obi-Wan has Anakin’s lightsaber during the duel. He is using both lightsabers.

  6. R2-D2 and C-3PO taking an unconcious Padme to the Naboo Skiff (It is also mentioned in the film).

  7. Extended Anakin and Padme on Veranda (Most of the opening with Typho, Motee, and C-3PO, Anakin not being an errand boy, ETC)

  8. Obi-Wan talking to Anakin about the tensions between the Jedi Council and the Chancellor.

  9. Anakin being lifted from the Medical Capsule and placed onto the operating table.

  10. Stuff from Anakin’s 2nd nightmare being in the birth of the Twins and the Death of Padme which includes the Japor Snippet.

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Thank you for your efforts to bring awesomeness to both Clone Wars and Rebels. While being a separate film, your 5 minute recap at the start of Film 13 Liberation of Lothal is a welcome addition, it seems to be redundant and unnecessary when watching that Film in order with the series itself. Would you be willing to remove this from the start of Film 13 and return the title card to its original placement?

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Just wanted to give this a necro-bump to say a few things…

  1. I’m fixing the crawl typo error in the first Rebels cut and releasing a v2 on Google Drive only in the coming days.
  2. The previous download links have migrated to new locations and will be updated in the original document gradually over the next several days.
  3. Same applies to most video clips on my youtube channel. I ended up pulling them due to issues with a series of trolls and problems with youtube specifically (no problems with the IP holder, don’t worry), but will be in the process of restoring most of the clips (and a uploading a few additional ones) in the upcoming weeks.

I don’t have explicit plans for new edits in the short term, though I want to see how Bad Batch plays out when it airs. After much deliberation, I’ve decided to either keep any Bad Batch material in a hypothetical future ROTS v4 to a minimum (a few establishing shots here and there depending on the timeline of the early episodes), or just leave it out entirely (letting future Bad Batch Edits be a separate project down the line). We’ll see.