logo Sign In

Would like help (tips/tutorials) for my upcoming SW:OUT project

Author
Time
I hope that works. I wasn't trying to say I want to start a project with anyone, but actual help like hints or tutorials or threads for my own "preservation" project.

My name is Keith and I've been browsing and participating a tiny bit in the forums. I semi-recently (last year?) got the new 2006 release of the dvds with the "bonus" disk of the original theatrical trilogy. or as some people call it on here the "Original Uncut Trilogy". And I would like to build my own "special edition" version of the trilogy.

I would like help on doing this in the form of tips, tutorials, links to threads here, and links to threads in the forum for help. So first I will outline my goals for this project, and then I will ask for help. Again I am not asking for people to join my project or anything like that, I simply mean I just want some tips, general links, tutorials, books or whatever you can link me to to accomplish my goals.

Goal #1: To get the best copy of the movies I can based on the dvds of the original star wars trilogy.
Goal #2: To make my own "special edition" version (will elaborate what I mean below)
Goal #3: To make the letterbox movies into anamorphic widescreen dvd, and convert the original 2.0 dolby into 5.1 enhanced mix.

Okay so for Goal #1 - To get the best copy of the movies I can based on the dvds of the original star wars trilogy. -- Essentially what the x0 project is doing with their laserdisc versions. I want to make sure that all the contrast is correct, (stuff like missing stars rediscovered as in one of x0 projects articles), color corrected, and that "ghosting" removed as well as getting rid of the film specs like scratches, dust particles, etc... Basically getting the best quality video I can after messing with the video. Before I can do anythiing else to it I need to be able to make the best copy of the movies I can.

Okay for Goal #2 - To make my own "special edition" version -- Basically here I want to correct things that I thought were problems in the movies, effect wise. I would like to make sure the titles and scroll are stable and not "wobbly" (like when film registration slips a bit)... I want to remove garbage mattes, and correct stuff like the fact that the contrast or brightness level between bluescreen elements and backgrounds are different. I even wouldn't mind coloring "Black artoo" blue. I know it's not original but it's my special edition version. They couldn't do blue because of the blue screen, and now it can be corrected. Anything like semi-transparent matting, matte paintings that don't quite match the live action elements, lightsaber consistancy, even turning on and off the light saber in ANH could be fixed by animation and a little morphing between frames. Basically everything to me that looked like it needed some fix up for effects I want to fix. Obviously i don't want to add any cg, because for one, I can't do cg, for another it wouldn't really be the originals would it?

Finally for Goal #3 - To make the letterbox movies into anamorphic widescreen dvd, and convert the original 2.0 dolby into 5.1 enhanced mix. -- Firstly I know there is a tutorial here that has tips on converting from letterbox into anamorphic widescreen. I realize it involves resizing the width to fit into 720, and cropping or completely redoing the black bars on top and bottom (as the widescreen is even wider than a 16:9 aspect ratio). Also a note about the sound. When I listened to the sound on the dvd's I preferred it to the sound on the "special special editions" or the 2004 dvd versions. Mostly because they seem to remix everything, and it all just sounds slightly different. I would like to take the original dolby surround (or stereo or whatever) and build a 5.1 enhanced mix. This is perhaps the hardest of all, and to some purists the most contreversial. I would just like to make sure there's more bass when I need it, and better stereo seperation. If this can't be done, well i won't do it then.

In any case if you've read this far (I thank those of you who did) I would like some help on how to do this stuff. I would like links to tutorials, maybe actual print books, links to threads in this forum, any tips you can give to do this. Basically I need help in accomplishing these goals. Could any of you help me out? (I don't mean actually doing work for my project, i just meant tips, advice, etc).

Thank you for your time,
sincerely Keith Weatherby II aka Uhfgood
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net
Author
Time
Originally posted by: Uhfgood
Okay so for Goal #1 - To get the best copy of the movies I can based on the dvds of the original star wars trilogy. -- Essentially what the x0 project is doing with their laserdisc versions. I want to make sure that all the contrast is correct, (stuff like missing stars rediscovered as in one of x0 projects articles), color corrected, and that "ghosting" removed as well as getting rid of the film specs like scratches, dust particles, etc... Basically getting the best quality video I can after messing with the video. Before I can do anythiing else to it I need to be able to make the best copy of the movies I can. Personally I don't think the GOUT DVDs need much contrast or colour correction (unlike the 2004 version), but I'm not a film expert. I think some millennium falcon scenes could do with black level adjustments.

I don't think there's a reliable way to remove the temporal ghosting/smearing. The X0 project are using a capture from the Japanese Special Collection laserdisc (which doesn't have this processing) to replace the worst affected shots.

MeBeJedi is removing scratches and film defects by hand using Combustion. You can see this process here:
http://www.x0project.com/media.php?i=00018
Okay for Goal #2 - To make my own "special edition" version -- Basically here I want to correct things that I thought were problems in the movies, effect wise. I would like to make sure the titles and scroll are stable and not "wobbly" (like when film registration slips a bit)... I want to remove garbage mattes, and correct stuff like the fact that the contrast or brightness level between bluescreen elements and backgrounds are different. I even wouldn't mind coloring "Black artoo" blue. I know it's not original but it's my special edition version. They couldn't do blue because of the blue screen, and now it can be corrected. Anything like semi-transparent matting, matte paintings that don't quite match the live action elements, lightsaber consistancy, even turning on and off the light saber in ANH could be fixed by animation and a little morphing between frames. Basically everything to me that looked like it needed some fix up for effects I want to fix. Obviously i don't want to add any cg, because for one, I can't do cg, for another it wouldn't really be the originals would it? I'd suggest read the following threads, and put these types of question to one of these fine forum members:
Darth Editous
tellan
adywanFinally for Goal #3 - To make the letterbox movies into anamorphic widescreen dvd, and convert the original 2.0 dolby into 5.1 enhanced mix. -- Firstly I know there is a tutorial here that has tips on converting from letterbox into anamorphic widescreen. I realize it involves resizing the width to fit into 720, and cropping or completely redoing the black bars on top and bottom (as the widescreen is even wider than a 16:9 aspect ratio).
The tutorial you're referring to can be found here:
http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=12&threadid=6486Also a note about the sound. When I listened to the sound on the dvd's I preferred it to the sound on the "special special editions" or the 2004 dvd versions. Mostly because they seem to remix everything, and it all just sounds slightly different. I would like to take the original dolby surround (or stereo or whatever) and build a 5.1 enhanced mix. This is perhaps the hardest of all, and to some purists the most contreversial. I would just like to make sure there's more bass when I need it, and better stereo seperation. If this can't be done, well i won't do it then.
You're right, this is a controversial subject. You could upmix the matrixed 2-channel Dolby Surround into a "fake" 5.1 mix. IMHO there isn't really a valid reason to do this, I would leave it as it is and just play the audio through a Dolby Pro-logic decoder when watching the DVD. To make a 5.1 mix worthwhile, it would have to be sourced from individual non-matrixed channels, e.g. the 5.1 mix on the 1997 special edition laserdisc.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here

Author
Time
"You could upmix the matrixed 2-channel Dolby Surround into a "fake" 5.1 mix. IMHO there isn't really a valid reason to do this, I would leave it as it is and just play the audio through a Dolby Pro-logic decoder when watching the DVD."

When I did this, I ran the stereo feed through a "software" DPLII simulator, because my receiver doesn't have this mode. DPLII is especially suited for stereo recordings, whereas DPL works best with DPL recordings. The DPLII streams were extracted and hard-coded in an AC3 stream. It's essentially the same soundtrack you would get from a DPLII receiver. I made it for myself for these reasons (and no, I still don't have a newer receiver. )

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

Author
Time
Thanks for the replies. I will take a look into those links/messages you gave.

As far as the audio I was hoping there was a way to enhance it, but i guess not. Thanks anyways :-)

Keith
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net
Author
Time
Originally posted by: Moth3r
Originally posted by: Uhfgood
Okay so for Goal #1 - To get the best copy of the movies I can based on the dvds of the original star wars trilogy. -- Essentially what the x0 project is doing with their laserdisc versions. I want to make sure that all the contrast is correct, (stuff like missing stars rediscovered as in one of x0 projects articles), color corrected, and that "ghosting" removed as well as getting rid of the film specs like scratches, dust particles, etc... Basically getting the best quality video I can after messing with the video. Before I can do anythiing else to it I need to be able to make the best copy of the movies I can. Personally I don't think the GOUT DVDs need much contrast or colour correction (unlike the 2004 version), but I'm not a film expert. I think some millennium falcon scenes could do with black level adjustments.

I don't think there's a reliable way to remove the temporal ghosting/smearing. The X0 project are using a capture from the Japanese Special Collection laserdisc (which doesn't have this processing) to replace the worst affected shots.

MeBeJedi is removing scratches and film defects by hand using Combustion. You can see this process here:
http://www.x0project.com/media.php?i=00018
Okay for Goal #2 - To make my own "special edition" version -- Basically here I want to correct things that I thought were problems in the movies, effect wise. I would like to make sure the titles and scroll are stable and not "wobbly" (like when film registration slips a bit)... I want to remove garbage mattes, and correct stuff like the fact that the contrast or brightness level between bluescreen elements and backgrounds are different. I even wouldn't mind coloring "Black artoo" blue. I know it's not original but it's my special edition version. They couldn't do blue because of the blue screen, and now it can be corrected. Anything like semi-transparent matting, matte paintings that don't quite match the live action elements, lightsaber consistancy, even turning on and off the light saber in ANH could be fixed by animation and a little morphing between frames. Basically everything to me that looked like it needed some fix up for effects I want to fix. Obviously i don't want to add any cg, because for one, I can't do cg, for another it wouldn't really be the originals would it? I'd suggest read the following threads, and put these types of question to one of these fine forum members:
Darth Editous
tellan
adywanFinally for Goal #3 - To make the letterbox movies into anamorphic widescreen dvd, and convert the original 2.0 dolby into 5.1 enhanced mix. -- Firstly I know there is a tutorial here that has tips on converting from letterbox into anamorphic widescreen. I realize it involves resizing the width to fit into 720, and cropping or completely redoing the black bars on top and bottom (as the widescreen is even wider than a 16:9 aspect ratio).
The tutorial you're referring to can be found here:
http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=12&threadid=6486Also a note about the sound. When I listened to the sound on the dvd's I preferred it to the sound on the "special special editions" or the 2004 dvd versions. Mostly because they seem to remix everything, and it all just sounds slightly different. I would like to take the original dolby surround (or stereo or whatever) and build a 5.1 enhanced mix. This is perhaps the hardest of all, and to some purists the most contreversial. I would just like to make sure there's more bass when I need it, and better stereo seperation. If this can't be done, well i won't do it then.
You're right, this is a controversial subject. You could upmix the matrixed 2-channel Dolby Surround into a "fake" 5.1 mix. IMHO there isn't really a valid reason to do this, I would leave it as it is and just play the audio through a Dolby Pro-logic decoder when watching the DVD. To make a 5.1 mix worthwhile, it would have to be sourced from individual non-matrixed channels, e.g. the 5.1 mix on the 1997 special edition laserdisc.


Okay, maybe I wasn't making myself clear. My point wasn't because I thought that converting it to 5.1 would help anything. What I meant to ask is to take the surround, deconstruct it into it's individual parts (channels) then do some enhancement possibly boosting the base, and making the seperation and balance more distinct, etc. Then convert it to AC3 -- as you're right converting surround to 5.1 wouldn't help, but if I can have control of the channels and stuff I could play around with it and enhance it to my liking. Is there a way to do this?

And you don't even have to tell me how to do it yourself (if it's possible), but rather just give me some links to some audio threads (anywhere it doesn't have to be in these forums), to some sites, etc...

The only other possible thing is what software that I can do this with that is free.

Thanks
Keith
Keith Weatherby II
Uhfgood -AT- verizon -DOT- net
Uhfgood's Blog:
http://uhfgood.artoo.net
Author
Time
A multitude of 2-channel to multichannel guides can be found HERE. For film sound, I would steer towards the GraphEdit/DirectX methods because they use Dolby Pro-logic or Pro-logic II processing.

Once you have generated your channels, you can use the new Sound Forge 9 to play around with your multi-channel audio (and then render as AC3). I don't know of any free program that is able to edit multi-channel audio.

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here