As I'm sure you know, Lucasfilm made several "master tapes" for their various 1993 releases, only the one used to create the definitive edition (/faces) was used for the DVD. Capturing multiple releases would be useful as they could be edited to use the best quality video (though this has been done with the retail DVD as it is), but especially if there's an NTSC version that doesn't suffer from DVNR.Aleksbmw said:
Im thinking of releasing a blue ray format release also, since whats the point in IVTC the whole thing then cramming it back into interlaced for a dvd.
Progressive > interlaced. Technically by the way those owning the re release gout dvd can watch mine with no trouble since the master tape is basically the same.
I know Mother already touched on this but I'll throw in my 2 cents. I don't know why people still bother releasing in the DVD format to be honest, if it was up to me I'd say simply encode it as an XVID, if you're cropping the video (which is probably necessary since otherwise the black borders affect picture quality on the edges in encoding) just resize it to 720 x 304 and let the player do the scaling. You can leave the soundtrack in AC3 format, while having the benefits of MPEG4 video. Releasing in DVD format is a waste of space when so many standalone players are compatible with XVID and DIVX anyway.
As far as IVTC is concerned, NTSC DVD's that are not progressive play back at 29.97fps on computers, and in 59.97i on DVD players (even if the movie "once was progressive") because as you well know the telecine pattern changes at any point because it was edited using an interlaced digital version of the movie. On a computer, the software blends the fields together so you effectively get pppii in a repeating pattern. Hence merely IVTCing the DVD and re-encoding as a progressive DVD will improve the playback quality, particularly on computer. I've also seen frame-blended encodes - for instance it's prevalent on the Brother's Keeper DVD. Using an avisynth script to remove it and restore it to 24p and then encoding will improve the quality whether it's watched progressively at 23.97fps or interlaced as NTSC (since the fidelity is preserved and not softened with frame blending).
I'd suggest using an avisynth filter (maybe a modified version of the G-Force script) before release, the two main benefits of the G-Force script are to reduce the image-shake and to antialias. The video quality, IMO, of the GOUT is still way below par even with the G-Force script applied, but at least it's a bit better. Maybe if Lucasfilm hadn't wasted their money on several different transfers in 1993, and instead only got one done they would have gotten a better result?
Are you planing on capturing any other Laserdiscs, besides Star Wars when you're done?