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Info: Get rid of the Chroma Shift in Empire (GOUT)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

For those who are still interested in improving the GOUT, here’s a way to deal with the bad color registration in Empire.

The frames that needs correction:

NTSC

  • 90888 - 96324
  • 96447 - 96650
  • 96946 - 97040
  • 97530 - 106132
  • 129146 - 129574
  • 150204 - 155767
  • 155838 - 159587
  • 159653 - 163075
  • 163146 - 165306
  • 165517 - 166149
  • 166214 - 168066
  • 168237 - 168761
  • 168850 - 169402
  • 169485 - 169928
  • 170764 - 170858
  • 170979 - 172852

Just add this command into your AviSynth script: chromashift(v=2,u=2)

Plugin:

http://www.geocities.com/siwalters_uk/chromashift.html

The frame numbers have been updated and a blue plane correction have also been added, thank you Red5!

You_Too was kind to make this script of the fix to make things easier for you implementing it into your projects:

chroma=last

a=trim(chroma,0,90887)
b=trim(chroma,90888,96324).ChromaShift(C=2)
c=trim(chroma,96325,96446)
d=trim(chroma,96447,96650).ChromaShift(C=2)
e=trim(chroma,96651,96945)
f=trim(chroma,96946,97040).ChromaShift(C=2)
g=trim(chroma,97041,97529)
h=trim(chroma,97530,106132).ChromaShift(C=2)
i=trim(chroma,106133,129145)
j=trim(chroma,129146,129574).ChromaShift(C=2)
k=trim(chroma,129575,150203)
l=trim(chroma,150204,155767).ChromaShift(C=2)
m=trim(chroma,155768,155837)
n=trim(chroma,155838,159587).ChromaShift(C=2)
o=trim(chroma,159588,159652)
p=trim(chroma,159653,163075).ChromaShift(C=2)
q=trim(chroma,163076,163145)
r=trim(chroma,163146,165306).ChromaShift(C=2)
s=trim(chroma,165307,165516)
t=trim(chroma,165517,166149).ChromaShift(C=2)
u=trim(chroma,166150,166213)
v=trim(chroma,166214,168066).ChromaShift(C=2)
w=trim(chroma,168067,168236)
x=trim(chroma,168237,168761).ChromaShift(C=2)
y=trim(chroma,168762,168849)
z=trim(chroma,168850,169402).ChromaShift(C=2)
z2=trim(chroma,169403,169484)
z3=trim(chroma,169485,169928).ChromaShift(C=2)
z4=trim(chroma,169929,170763)
z5=trim(chroma,170764,170858).ChromaShift(C=2)
z6=trim(chroma,170859,170978)
z7=trim(chroma,170979,172852).ChromaShift(C=2)
z8=trim(chroma,172853,0)

a+b+c+d+e+f+g+h+i+j+k+l+m+n+o+p+q+r+s+t+u+v+w+x+y+z+z2+z3+z4+z5+z6+z7+z8

Some examples with chromashift applied, unfiltered on top.

A simple shift of the chroma makes a subtle but in the end big difference.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
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Weird, I hadn't even noticed this until now!

Is the chroma shift only happening in ESB?

Author
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forgive my ignorance but what differences am I supposed to be noticing here?

Author
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This particular issue is not on Star Wars as far as I know, never did watch if Jedi have this problem, but it's possible. This was actually something I applied when I made my own encode over a year ago, have wanted to point out this easy fix before but thought I had trashed my notes of it, until I found them today. These transfers really have every video-flaw in the book, Empire is hands down the single worst video transfer I have ever seen of a major motion picture. Can anyone tell me if they've seen any other film with the amount of DVNR-artifacts that is on display here? 

For those of you who wants to apply my correction, be sure to not apply the chroma shift on any other parts of the video except on those frame counts I posted. I remember going through the whole film meticulously and making notes, so it can be trusted. Don't know how good it can be seen on those comparisons I made, but it really makes a difference.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
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djchaseb said:

forgive my ignorance but what differences am I supposed to be noticing here?

See the improper color registration, watch the color red in my screenshots.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

This maybe makes it easier.

Before

After

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

Got it now! Thanks for clearing that up!

Author
Time

msycamore,

Nice work, and nice catch! I hadn't noticed that before.

-G

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Thanks, g-force. I blame you and Moth3r as it was you two who made me want to check out AviSynth scripting in the first place. ;) Maybe this could be incorporated into your script somehow?

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

Yeah, maybe it's time to dust those things off. Don't you also have some subtitle updates?

-G

Author
Time
 (Edited)

No, I haven't actually tried anything to get the subs any better, I also think other guys have since improved upon my work.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

I hear you. I'm hoping You Too has improved on the GOUT script as well. I'll wait to dig those up once I see how he does. No pressure You Too ;)

-G

Author
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 (Edited)

 

msycamore said:

. These transfers really have every video-flaw in the book, Empire is hands down the single worst video transfer I have ever seen of a major motion picture.

 

 

Your fix definitely makes the lights sit better and make the image much righter to look at for the eye/brain - except its a shame what your working with looks so bad to begin with. To me its the same faded red-shifted print business where everything takes on a pink/grey flatness. I remember in my head the lights in the backgroud of the Luke/Vader duel were so much more bright and colourful suggesting a whole city at night =

PUGGO 8mm

http://i.imgur.com/OEFZn.png

 

 

Author
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 (Edited)

or the ship interiors were not just big slabs of undifferentiated grey:

http://i.imgur.com/FVTUB.jpg

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Great post, msycamore!  I remember spotting some of these, but not sure if I ever adjusted it for my Hyperspace set.  If not, I'll be sure to apply it to the Anniversary edition.

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Oh good god, it didn't even register exactly what was wrong with these shots when I was watching them.  What the hell was going on here?  Is this introduced in the telecine, or in mastering?   How works from such a technologically innovative company constently be treated so poorly from a technological standpoint?  Mind boggling.

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INv8r_ZIM said:

Is this introduced in the telecine, or in mastering? 

I'm not sure, but I don't think the actual LD's had this problem, so it was probably something introduced when they mastered the DVD's. Icing on the cake. ;)

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

I just checked my raw Faces transfer and you are right.  This problem is GOUT, not in the original LD.  What the heck are they doing at Lucasfilm???

Author
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Maybe someone with expertise could explain what causes chroma shift? What makes it a little odd is that it's not present through the whole transfer.

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Another case where it looks like chroma shift of the blue information, see the very saturated blue on the ship in the upper right corner.

I'm not even sure what's going on in this particular case but you cannot fix it with chroma shift as the blue information doesn't seem to be shifted evenly across the picture, I think I've seen it on other places in the transfer as well. It's definitely not how it should look. To give you an idea, here's an example on how this shot looked like in the SC/SWE LD master:

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

^ Yeah it's true you can't fix that with the chromashift filter but you should be able to resize only the U (blue) plane i.e. like this:

(just a quick and dirty example, there're probably better ways to do it) 

blue=last.bicubicresize(724,480)
mt_lutxy(last,blue,y=2,v=2,u=4)

you'll need the masktool filter.

 

Great find BTW with the chroma errors, they are indeed ugly and very 'unfilmlike' and really need to be fixed.

 

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Okay, final straw.

We should be talking improving upon msycamore's already awesome SWE transfer instead of the GOUT. Just look at that last pic comparison! Post-processing, X0 transfer, how can we make it even better?

I'm so over the GOUT.

-G

Author
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 (Edited)

Red5 said:

^ Yeah it's true you can't fix that with the chromashift filter

You can, if you do it something like this:

ConvertToRGB32()
ChromaShift(B=1)
ConvertToYV12()
ChromaShift(V=2)

And by the way, in case anyone wants to implement msycamore's fix into their GOUT projects, here's the code you need:

chroma=last

a=trim(chroma,0,90887)
b=trim(chroma,90888,96324).ChromaShift(C=2)
c=trim(chroma,96325,96446)
d=trim(chroma,96447,96650).ChromaShift(C=2)
e=trim(chroma,96651,96945)
f=trim(chroma,96946,97040).ChromaShift(C=2)
g=trim(chroma,97041,97529)
h=trim(chroma,97530,106132).ChromaShift(C=2)
i=trim(chroma,106133,129145)
j=trim(chroma,129146,129574).ChromaShift(C=2)
k=trim(chroma,129575,150203)
l=trim(chroma,150204,155767).ChromaShift(C=2)
m=trim(chroma,155768,155837)
n=trim(chroma,155838,159587).ChromaShift(C=2)
o=trim(chroma,159588,159652)
p=trim(chroma,159653,163075).ChromaShift(C=2)
q=trim(chroma,163076,163145)
r=trim(chroma,163146,165306).ChromaShift(C=2)
s=trim(chroma,165307,165516)
t=trim(chroma,165517,166149).ChromaShift(C=2)
u=trim(chroma,166150,166213)
v=trim(chroma,166214,168066).ChromaShift(C=2)
w=trim(chroma,168067,168236)
x=trim(chroma,168237,168761).ChromaShift(C=2)
y=trim(chroma,168762,168849)
z=trim(chroma,168850,169402).ChromaShift(C=2)
z2=trim(chroma,169403,169484)
z3=trim(chroma,169485,169928).ChromaShift(C=2)
z4=trim(chroma,169929,170763)
z5=trim(chroma,170764,170858).ChromaShift(C=2)
z6=trim(chroma,170859,170978)
z7=trim(chroma,170979,172852).ChromaShift(C=2)
z8=trim(chroma,172853,0)

a+b+c+d+e+f+g+h+i+j+k+l+m+n+o+p+q+r+s+t+u+v+w+x+y+z+z2+z3+z4+z5+z6+z7+z8

 

Author
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 (Edited)

Thanks for the suggestion Red5, am unable to test it at the moment but will check it out when I get my new PC. Maybe you could post a screenshot with your avisynth fix applied?

g-force said:

Okay, final straw.

We should be talking improving upon msycamore's already awesome SWE transfer instead of the GOUT. Just look at that last pic comparison! Post-processing, X0 transfer, how can we make it even better?

I'm so over the GOUT.

-G

Yeah, I feel your pain. It's just that the major problems with the SC/SWE transfers of Empire is the huge amount of chroma noise, rainbowing and color timing, you really need to make an extensive color correction on it to get it to look like it should, and there is also some very weird and nasty hues present in those transfers. That screencap is from arnie.d's superb X9-capture btw, my primitive SWE capture does have somewhat better colors, less chroma noise and zero motion smearing but is nowhere near as detailed, my SWE-cap:

 

EDIT: Nice, great job You_Too! Thanks. Also, can we get a screenshot of your fix?

We want you to be aware that we have no plans—now or in the future—to restore the earlier versions. 

Sincerely, Lynne Hale publicity@lucasfilm.com

Author
Time

msycamore said:

Nice, great job You_Too! Thanks. Also, can we get a screenshot of your fix?

Thanks. Actually, when looking at it again, it seems shifting blue by 1 was better than 2. When shifting by 2 it fixed the upper right part better, but in the rest of the picture it looks like the blues are too far to the right. Updated it in my post.

And here's a pic:

On the other hand, since that scene begins with a spinning fade from another scene without the blue shift, I guess it would need some additional scripting to make sure only this shot gets changed. Something I don't know how to do.