Info: Droids and Ewoks, anybody ? — Page 2

I've found sources for the missing episodes from Droids and Ewoks. They are AVIs from taped broadcasts and markedly inferior to the ones I'm transfering.

Anyone have any opinions on wether these should be included for completeness sake, or left out because they are not part of the original tapes and therefore not a "preservation" per se?

I have also reconstructed an OK (not great) version of the original season 1 intro from Youtube sources. The same quandary applies.

It IS possible to reconstruct these episodes to approximate the way in which they were originally presented, but is it necessary? Do we add the same opening and closing credits to every episode just for the sake of it?

Okay, there are a few torrents scattered about for the whole Ewok series, so how do we justify this effort?

Here's how:

The .avi of season 2's Crystal Cloak (Xvid 720x480):

My MPEG2 transfer of the UK VHS tape (720x576 PAL):

... more to come.

Curse of the Jindas from season 1:

The Wish Plant, season 2:

And the playback is smoother as well. The Xvids suffer from horrible compression.

In fairness, the MPEG2 caps are the raw captures at 9 mpbs, they will be slightly more compressed on the DVDs Pittrek will author, I'd imagine. Still, this should be a better alternative to the +/- 170 MB .avi files.

I can't wait until these preservations are done! Thank you, Video Collector, and all others involved in finally making a worthwhile Droids and Ewoks collection.

That Pal tape capture almost looks like DVD quality.

It must be nice to live in pal land because you can get a pal vhs deck, or laserdisc player for very little.  But if you try and buy them when you live in the States, you have to deal with shipping issues, inflated cost, and voltage differences.

I must say the pal VHS tapes even look better than the video quality of the butchered late 90's video edit of the tapes as a feature in the USA.

Never mind the quality of the 80's video tapes if any are still in existence without tape rot nearly thirty years later.

I had bought a sealed copy of the Star Wars fox video rental tape.  The very first release.  When i opened it and played it had mild rot even though it tracked perfectly fine.

So i wonder if the tapes for the cartoons would be in the same shape, that is if they are not what usually ends up on the market at insane prices being much used rental tapes.

Success!

All the Ewok episodes are now transferred. That's 35 GB of video, which works out to 7 or 8 DVDs if left at the bitrate they are now. I'm sure they could be compressed quite a bit without sacrificing quality, but that's Pittrek's call.

What to do with the "missing" episodes? Encode the Xvids to DVD and plug them into the continuity, or leave them as DVD-ROM supplements?

dark_jedi said:

pittrek said:

So ... boys and girls, what do you prefer ?

To have a clean transfer of the VHS tapes, and putting all the rest as a "bonus feature" or to have all episodes properly re-created to their original broadcast state from best available sources ?

Have all episodes properly re-created to their original broadcast state from best available sources.

Seconded.

LexX said:

Seconded.

Speaking of which...

LexX, we still need your help with the recaps.

Also, I need a clean version of the Droids opening. The UK tapes all have a voiceover telling you to buy the other Droids tapes as well, and you have facsimilies of the video covers flying across the screen.

Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXlsXHibsEA&feature=player_detailpage

For the Ewoks series I used the opening from my Norwegian tapes that haven't been tampered with. I'm hoping your Finnish Droids tapes are the same.

Video Collector said:

LexX said:

Seconded.

Speaking of which...

LexX, we still need your help with the recaps.

Also, I need a clean version of the Droids opening. The UK tapes all have a voiceover telling you to buy the other Droids tapes as well, and you have facsimilies of the video covers flying across the screen.

Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXlsXHibsEA&feature=player_detailpage

For the Ewoks series I used the opening from my Norwegian tapes that haven't been tampered with. I'm hoping your Finnish Droids tapes are the same.

If I even ever get a chance... I really hope that I can help you. But what would you be using for audio, DivX? Also, my recorded dubbed Droids consist only from episodes 1-7 and 11-13...

Finnish rental Droids have a clean opening, if the tapes are just in good shape for that part.

Edit: btw, Fritz, what are you using capturing them? They look great so just wondering if I could invest into some equipment.

Edit2: Episode 10 probably won't even have a recap since it starts a new story arc.

What is the quality of the Droids tapes like the Great Heep for instance ?

Those ewoks caps look fantastic.

Was there a reason not using the official DVDs as video material, aren't they better?

pittrek said:

The DVDs have only a couple of episodes edited together into "movies"

Of course but I didn't see anyone to mention using them as a base and then adding stuff to them making them complete.

LexX said:

Was there a reason not using the official DVDs as video material, aren't they better?

It's a matter of time and convenience, really

At the moment I am only doing simple transfers of the VHS tapes, a preservation, if you like.

I agree that there are advantages to using the available DVD footage and mixing it with any missing parts found on the tapes. However, at this time I am not prepared to put in the work to do so. Anyone else is free to use this project as a springboard to do exactly that*.

I AM going to reconstruct the missing Droids episode from the DVD, mixed with the VCD recording from the Sci-Fi channel broadcast (if needed). The DVD may have the entire episode on there, sans the opening and closing credits, but I have yet to delve into this.    Oops! It seems the DVD doesn't use any footage from episode 9 either. The VCD will be used for this one. Wikipedia states that there are some music substitutions on the Droids DVD as well, furthering the need for a VHS preservation.

*LexX, keeping this in PAL territory, would you care to give it a shot for inclusion in this release? Anyone? According to Wikipedia, the Ewoks DVD contains footage from episodes 2, 1, 3 and 9 (The Haunted Village)  & eps 10, 5, 4 and 13 (Tales from the Endor woods). Knock yourself out.

LexX said:

Edit: btw, Fritz, what are you using capturing them? They look great so just wondering if I could invest into some equipment.

I'm using my trusty Packard-Bell HDD recorder (POS, really). (Those of you with capture cards in your PCs may roll in your graves now.)

It has a so-called "crystal clear" circuit (that's noise reduction filter to you and me) which actually works well with recordings from the inherently noisy VHS system. It's more or less artifact-free, but I still wish it was possible to toggle it off.

Still, it's well suited for animation with large areas of flat colour that otherwise would be filled with noise. It mostly doesn't smear any of the outlines either, remarkably.

skyjedi2005 said:

What is the quality of the Droids tapes like the Great Heep for instance ?

Those ewoks caps look fantastic.

The Ewoks tapes were remarkably clean, and the results surprised even me. (See above post w/description of the minute noise filtering applied in the capture). The later Ewoks tapes (#4-6) didn't appear used at all.

So far, the Droids tapes have been in rougher condition. Maybe they were more popular and more heavily used than the Ewoks tapes ever were? Luckily I have more than one copy of some of them, so I can mix and match the best sources. Still have Tape 3 and The Great Heep to go. I've never watched them, so for all I know they may not even play. *Crossing fingers*

I've bought all my tapes 2nd hand on eBay, so it's a crapshoot, really.

Some comparisons for Great Heep.

(I've upscaled the Xvid and VCD to match the 720x576 MPEG2 capture for easier comparison):

Xvid (torrent):

VCD (with Sci-Fi channel identifier):

PAL VHS (My capture):