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.: The XØ Project - Laserdisc on Steroids :. (SEE FIRST POST FOR UPDATES) (* unfinished project *) — Page 60

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I am not too up to date on this although some of the screenshots have been great.Maybe this is a stupid question but please humour me.How,once finished,will this project be made available?

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http://www.bigbaddaddyvader.com

Original Star Wars Props and Production Material

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This thread will primarily be used to discuss the project and our official web site. Please do not use this thread to inquire about when it will be finished or how you can get a copy. We will reveal this information when/if it is evident.


quoted from Zion's first post on this thread.

I love everybody. Lets all smoke some reefer and chill. Hug and kisses for everybody.

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Ok I admit, "fishing for cash" was a poor phrase on my part and I never intended to imply that X0 was walking around with their hands out.

That said, they do "accept" donations and the donations link on their site is unique in the fan edit community. They could use our money to help with their project and that is understandable.

But please, Zion, no one is "asking for everything and we want it now." It's a simple matter that myself and others may be interested in donating, but naturally we're curious how far along the project is. That's all I ever asked.

Honestly, if you guys said "we're 20% of the way there," then, personally, I'd guess Lucas would release the OT himself in HD before X0 was finished and it would be a waste of money. But if you were far enough along that you felt, within a year, you'd be done, then I'd be all to happy to send money.

Also, asking for you guys to post a full res clip so we can compare it to the GOUT would be nice. This lets us compare it to what has been released and, if we feel that it's a big enough improvement, again, it makes us more comfortable to click the "donate" button because we'll know what we're getting.

But when no clips have been posted and everyone on the team mysteriously has no interest in even telling us how much is finished, it leaves us a little confused.

I mean, why not give us a status update or a clip? How does that hurt the project? Just saying "we're doing it our way" is not helpful.
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Mojo_LA said:

"Also, asking for you guys to post a full res clip so we can compare it to the GOUT would be nice. This lets us compare it to what has been released and, if we feel that it's a big enough improvement, again, it makes us more comfortable to click the "donate" button because we'll know what we're getting."

damn I agree with this myself,I would LOVE to see how this compares to the Sept. 12th release,some of us cleaned it up a bit and made it anamorphic,so a comparison would be very cool,becasue we already know that this release beats ALL LD releases to date so far,I am just curious now to see who brings out the best version first,X0 or George Lucas,at this point I know who I would put my $ on LOL.
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We've already seen screen shots that show the X0 project preservation/restoration is clearly superior to even the official 2006 DVD set.

I'm looking forward to seeing the best picture quality ever on home video of Star Wars combined with the great uncompressed PCM soundtrack from the Star Wars Definitive Collection. Which is why the the X0 set is going to be superb.

The Star Wars trilogy. There can be only one.

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Superb?

now I eally want to see some motion clips,and where are these stills you speak of?
I would like to see these superior pics to the GOUT myself
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http://www.x0project.com/graphics/looksirdroids-proper.jpg
http://www.x0project.com/graphics/x0speeder89.jpg

Surfing the thread.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Originally posted by: Molly
http://www.x0project.com/graphics/looksirdroids-proper.jpg
http://www.x0project.com/graphics/x0speeder89.jpg

Surfing the thread.
Eat your heart out Lucas.

I love everybody. Lets all smoke some reefer and chill. Hug and kisses for everybody.

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Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the X0 project is a hoax, but I could do those screenshots in Photoshop, and it wouldn't require donations or years of work.

It's not really proof of anything, that's why people are asking for something more.

Heck even people that do game modifications usually have progress bars like:
Coding: 5%
Modeling: 25%
Skinning: 20%
etc.

It just gives an idea of what's being done and in what time frame.

Wow, that sounded much nastier than I meant it too.
But really guys, why the mystery?

Dr. M

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doctor M, in this particular case I'm with the xo crew.

there are so many times I thought 'I'm gonna be finished soon' and then things change and new techniques/footage come out that make you rethink.

just ask russ15. the number of times I've said to him, its coming its coming and then nothing for months.

ANH is just soooo flawed in the various transfers we have, it takes a lot of fixing.
When a woman says yes, she means no - when she says maybe, she means no.

http://www.auky37.dsl.pipex.com/falconlogo_web.jpg
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Yeah, I was surprised how much better the ESB/ROTJ GOUTs looked than the ANH GOUT, and all of these compared by a 750 or so MB AVI.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Originally posted by: Doctor M
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the X0 project is a hoax, but I could do those screenshots in Photoshop, and it wouldn't require donations or years of work.

It's not really proof of anything, that's why people are asking for something more.


I still don't think some of you understand what it takes to coordinate a project like this between multiple people who aren't working in the same room.

Originally when we kicked things off with the project, we were going to clean up the DC source capture, color correct it, and call it a day. Some of our research led us to attempt incorporating SC footage to replace shots with hideously obvious ghosting trails left behind by the DC's THX cleanup process. All the while we were researching any and all methods that might improve laserdisc footage - everything from capturing to post processing. Then Laserman dropped a bomb on us with his Black Magic process. What we've shown you in the most recent screenshots is the result of his work with our X0-captured LD material.

Trust me, you will begin to see video clips of the finished product. But until Laserman comes back I don't have much I can show you because he hasn't sent me much of his BM stuff. What I have on my hard drives are cleaned up DC and SC captures, color corrected footage, and preliminary merged DC and SC footage that eliminates the ghosting and improves overall image quality. What I am preparing for the web site is to show how the whole process works. However, without L's BM processed footage, you cannot fully appreciate any of this.

My Projects:
[Holiday Special Hybrid DVD v2]
[X0 Project]
[Backstroke of the West DVD]
[ROTS Theatrical DVD]

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Holy fucking shit man, those shots look beyond excellent.

Getting an anamorphic disc of the unaltered OT of that quality will be fucking awesome.

Awesome work.

Harrison Ford Has Pretty Much Given Up on His Son. Here's Why

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I just hope Laserman's OK.

“I love Darth Editous and I’m not ashamed to admit it.” ~ADigitalMan

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X0 team, I've got your back, yo.

Me and my posse.

Word.

(Waiting is hard, but so is life: deal with it)

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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Originally posted by: Mojo_LA
Also, asking for you guys to post a full res clip so we can compare it to the GOUT would be nice . . . But when no clips have been posted and everyone on the team mysteriously has no interest in even telling us how much is finished, it leaves us a little confused.


I realize they aren't full res, but you must admit the X0 team has shared a decent amount of material (albeit not recently) both in this thread and on their website: we've been given pics, clips, and docs regarding the work they're doing. Although I agree that a completed, full res clip of something... anything... would be a welcomed treat, I'm quite impressed with what they've shared thus far.

As for wanting to know how far along the project is, I sympathize with those of you who, like myself, are dying to know more about the X0 project's progress. As I've said before, I've literally been visiting both these forums as well as the X0 website daily for the past 2 years (sad, but true). I, as much as anyone, am dying for updates -- screen caps, docs, anything -- but I think it's worth remembering that these guys don't owe us anything. So I say sit back and be patient... after all, what's the alternative?

“It’s a lot of fun… it’s a lot of fun to watch Star Wars.” – Bill Moyers

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I agree with you 100%... but everything you said points to the possibility that we may never see a finished product from these guys. They have done outstanding work and are clearly good enough at what they are doing to be pros... but just having your heart in the right place isn't always enough.

As they have said, coordinating team members around the world, all of whom have had "life" get in the way of their work, isn't easy. In addition, it sounds like one or more of the team members have occassionally dropped off the face of the earth.

Anyway, I brought all this up because I was considering donating, but the banter of the last week or so has led me to believe the money may not be well spent.

Hopefully they will get back on track soon and we'll see some momentum... when that happens, I'll be the first to help fund them!
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Those still frames look nice.


I look forward to seeing them in the proper aspect ratio

However, in practice you must take into account the “fuckwit factor”. Just talk to Darth Mallwalker…
-Moth3r

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The problem is that if you try to take a non-anamorphic source and make it anamorphic, there isn't enough resolution to go around. You, in effect, spread the available resolution of the LD image, which is less than a natively anamorphic DVD, out over a larger area than it was intended to cover, making it appear grainy. I'd rather have it preserved in it's native non-anamorphic aspect ratio from the Definitive Collection laserdisk source and thus maximize the picture quality and clarity. Perhaps once the video preservation/restoration of A New Hope is finished there can be both original non-anamorphic and anamorphic varieties made available?

The Star Wars trilogy. There can be only one.

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Originally posted by: Dunedain
The problem is that if you try to take a non-anamorphic source and make it anamorphic, there isn't enough resolution to go around. You, in effect, spread the available resolution of the LD image, which is less than a natively anamorphic DVD, out over a larger area than it was intended to cover, making it appear grainy. I'd rather have it preserved in it's native non-anamorphic aspect ratio from the Definitive Collection laserdisk source and thus maximize the picture quality and clarity. Perhaps once the video preservation/restoration of A New Hope is finished there can be both original non-anamorphic and anamorphic varieties made available?


Yeah those stills look so grainy.

I love everybody. Lets all smoke some reefer and chill. Hug and kisses for everybody.

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The still shots look great, I'm just saying that trying to convert a non-anamorphic video source to anamorphic would likely have some affect on the clarity of the image. That's why it was pointed out by some when the 2006 GOUT DVD set came out that although the DVD's were not anamorphic, which was disappointing, that if Lucasfilm tried to convert them to anamorphic it would further degrade the image quality, considering the non-anamorphic source they were using for the transfer.

But maybe the X0 project's superior clarity and detail to the 2006 GOUT DVD set would allow for an anamorphic conversion of the laserdisk transfer that is hardly noticeable in it's affect on the picture quality. What do you think, Zion?

The Star Wars trilogy. There can be only one.

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That's just plain wrong.

Letterboxed films converted to Anamorphic may degrade in quality if done "on the fly" by just stretching to fit your TV screen and such.

When done appropriately on a PC during encoding, the image can look better than the original.
There are many resize methods available that are able to find edges or nearest neighbor pixels and intelligently resize to provide more image not just stupid line-doubling.

I have converted to anamorphic in a few projects and the final quality is almost always superior even if it's not "true" increased resolution.

It's why there is a monster-size thread discussing how to convert GOUT to anamorphic for personal home use.
It's why many SW preservations have gone anamorphic or better (Citizen's wonderful HD Xvid anyone?).

So yes, anamorphizing a laserdisc may effect clarity... it would be improved.

Dr. M

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But wouldn't trying to artificially increase the resolution introduce artifacts into the image? Maybe those that were concerned about this before the 2006 GOUT DVD set came out were being overly pessimistic about the affects it would have on the video. Obviously the X0 team would use the very best methods available to them to convert the video to anamorphic format if they do that, so maybe they could avoid any noticeable negative impact on the picture quality.

The Star Wars trilogy. There can be only one.