Slipstream 1989 (WIP) — Page 6

jdaering said:

Please delete this post

Don’t crush our hopes!

Hi. I have purchased the Japanese and US Laserdiscs, and ripped them both using a Domesday Duplicator. I am in the process of using LD-Decode to convert them to uncompressed video with accurate pulldown removal/original 24fps restoration. Once that is complete, I plan to use a mixture of upresing, color correction, frame in frame, and video adaptive fill to remove any remaining subtitles and attempt to create a high quality wide screen restoration of the film. I am using the 4:3 US Laserdisc as my primary source instead of any of the DVD releases because it has the fewest degraded/damaged frames compared to the other two DVD transfers I have seen, and should contain none of the block artifacts that the DVDs are full of. I have looked at about 5 DVD versions but they all appear to be from 2 primary masters, each of which seems to be worse in some ways than the LD. I will re-evaluate this though once the rip is converted, and may mix sources if that seems like a better approach. I expect this process will take 6-12 months. I will post updates when I have them. Your enthusiasm will keep me on track. Though I am still shocked that between Shout/Arrow/Via Vision/Scorpion Releasing/Media Blasters someone hasn’t tried to get the original negatives and do a proper BD/4k. Fingers crossed.

WHAT ABOUT, a 35mm film scan instead of upconversions?

Do you know someone with a print?

lrnk85 said:

Do you know someone with a print?

Check eBay, not me. Be wary of shady as fuck sellers, of course.

Long time no update.

I have decided to try AI upscaling… it’s in the early stages.

Nice! Which application did you use? I have tested a bit with Topaz AI. I find that the Artemis HQ does the best job at minimizing weird AI fakeness. Going to be working with that as I progress on mine. Been working to get the Japanese LD back to a good 23.976 and the ffmpeg IVTC in ld-decode really struggles to put back all the frames and decimate the right garbage ones. I think it’s because there is massive bleed in the red channel that I just can’t seem to fix, so the interlaced frames have a lot of bleed, and the correctly recompiled frames still have something that looks kind of interlacy in them. So I’m trying Vapoursynth VIVTC now to see if it is better. Also just ordered the German PAL DVD. I have the UK PAL one, and it’s probably the same file, but had to be sure. Will keep everyone posted!

If ffmpeg doesn’t work for the frame rate correction I have found the next best thing to use handbreak cli.

Also you may need to offset the start frame just incase it doesn’t seem correct.

I am having a play around in Topaz AI, so far the 3 main options seem to have good/bad points so need to do a few more tests. But I am guessing I may need to use different AI modules for different scenes.

I’m so glad SLIPSTREAM is being shown some love here. I wish we could get Kino Lorber or somebody to get the original films elements and give this cool movie a good transfer. But I’m not holding my breath on that.

I reached out to several boutique labels and suggested it, so fingers crossed. In the mean time, we soldier on!

lrnk85 said:

I reached out to several boutique labels and suggested it, so fingers crossed. In the mean time, we soldier on!

Definitely! I just don’t know HOW many times, how many things in my life that I decided I would take on and do myself since no one else was. Keep on keepin’ on.

I am giving the same treatment to the 4:3 NTSC dvd version which needs to cover the subtitles.

There are 4:3 HD versions available to download on Usenet.

stretch009 said:

There are 4:3 HD versions available to download on Usenet.

Are these the real original HD or an AI upscaled version?

It’s not real HD, I just downloaded it. It’s a “1080p” capture from a roku, but the same SD transfer we are all working with. Which only makes sense, as the film was actually shot in 2.35:1. Even the Japanese 16:9 LD crops some, but there is no reason why a proper HD scan from source would ever be 4:3.

grafxuser your NTSC DVD upscales look nice. Whose NTSC release are you working with? I have two, Frontrow and Westlake, and both seem like a worse source than what your upscales seem to come from.

lrnk85 said:

grafxuser your NTSC DVD upscales look nice. Whose NTSC release are you working with? I have two, Frontrow and Westlake, and both seem like a worse source than what your upscales seem to come from.

Not sure just purchased the NTSC version on eBay (DVD container/label are custom). But I am finding if I keep to the same resolution as the laserdisc it works better.

I am also needing to do 2 x AI upscaled versions. The reason being that one AI works great for strands of hair but terrible on faces skin, and another AI does vice versa.

I also viewed the stills on my projector and they look great 😃

Decided I would up the specs for the AI settings and the laser disc footage. What do you think?

It’s hard to tell without motion, but some of MH’s hair seems to be ghosting, and some of the skin seems a little too smooth. That’s what I’ve been struggling with with Topaz as well. I’ve heard the Avisynth upscaling actually gives Topaz a run for its money, so maybe I’ll try that and compare at somepoint.

Can someone share high bitrate downloads of the JP LaserDisc of this? I have the 1.37GB avi mentioned previously in this thread but it has some compression artefacts, unless they are a part of the laserdisc quality. I’m not sure how different capturing laserdiscs are to VHS, but having a much higher bitrate helps so much with the noise.

I have used the domesday duplicator to rip the Japanese LD. I am working on the decode now. I’ll try to have a high bitrate mp4 available within the week. PM me.

Here is the trailer in HD from VHS… hope you like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j7SpEq5rKw

…and ‘the making of’ also in HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nT8Y4WkG_g

I’ve kept tabs on this thread for almost a decade and worked with Rikk Wolf (my old account was zrfarnsworth) back in the day getting scans of both laserdiscs, etc. I even took a stab at combining the two to cover the subtitles, but I could never get it to a satisfactory level. I just want you to know what you are doing is so awesome and the trailer/making of look so good! Thank you for posting those and for the work you put into this. There are people out there, like me, who appreciate it!

I know. You need the patience of an angel to deal with the amount of work involved. AI upscale of the laserdisc… then overlapping the DVD AI upscaled version… then colour correcting etc.

I know this may sound counterintuitive, but perhaps the DVD needs to be downscaled to the laserdisc and colour corrected to be more like the laserdisc - then AI upscale the one video and colour correct to to be more like the original DVD.

Either way an epic!

Hi All, I’m a massive slipstream fan and have been googling when this will be HD widescreen I’ve looked on this forum for the past 8 years or more hoping for an answer if we will ever get it. Well I needed to come on here to tell you…. It’s now available in HD Widescreen on Amazon Prime!!! It got released today and it looks amazing!! Had to tell you guys. Enjoy!

freshjim said:

Hi All, I’m a massive slipstream fan and have been googling when this will be HD widescreen I’ve looked on this forum for the past 8 years or more hoping for an answer if we will ever get it. Well I needed to come on here to tell you…. It’s now available in HD Widescreen on Amazon Prime!!! It got released today and it looks amazing!! Had to tell you guys. Enjoy!

Are you sure? I’m still seeing the old SD version on Prime. Is this for another region outside the US?