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Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released) — Page 190

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Harmy, is V2 going to be split into chapters or are you doing that on blu-ray only?

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Cobra Kai said:

Although after testing the program, I'm currently getting an error message when I try to import an mkv file.  I did some research on this and its a common problem.

Whenever tsmuxer can't handle demuxing an MKV, YAMB usually will do the trick for me.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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My editing and postproduc skills have waned considerably over the years, so i'll offer this: i have a number of friends who have never seen Star Wars (unacceptable i know) and I will be showing them the OT starting with v2 of Star Wars so i applaud Harmy's projects and everyone else who has been blowing up my inbox with new post notifications with tips and assistance tfor Harmy!! Let's pass on the magic!! 

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Are parts 9 11 13 15 16 down for anyone else? Should I even bother to download the workprint or just wait for the final release Harmy?

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 (Edited)

It's up to you. The final MKV is at least a week away, because the rendering will take days. The AVCHD will probably follow about a week later.

Also, yes, in order to use MKV in TS Muxer, you need to demux the separate video and audio streams from it. MKVExtract (part of the MKVToolnix) is a good tool. Or as CatBus said, Yamb would probably also do the trick, although it's a little slow.

As to the chapters, I suppose I'll add the chapter files someone sent me (sorry don't remember who) to all the releases.

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johnlocke2342 said:

If it can help Mac users out there, I own both a 13 inch MacBook Pro running the latest build of Lion and a Hackintosh PC with a BD burner. Never tried burning a Blu Ray, all I know is they play fine in Mac Blu Ray player. While my MBP fails at burning all kinds of discs, my PC's burning all kinds of DVDs just fine on OS X. Why? I have no idea.

@Harmy: I wanted to extract the GOUT French audio tracks to add them to your mkvs but running times don't match by almost 5 minutes. Is that normal? I'll wait for the SW 2.0 mkv to try again.

For Harmy's version 1.0 of SW, ESB and ROTJ I used MeGui to slow the speed of the audio down.

I demuxed the desired audio stream from my PAL GOUT DVD, loaded it in MeGui and there is a option to change the sample rate. I used 'slow down from 25 fps to 23,976 fps'. Then I remuxed the video stream and the new audio stream and the result was good, both streams were in sync. That might work on his version 2.0 also.

But sadly I do not know if there is a MeGUI version for a Mac out there.

 

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A  little late on this post but for the DVD9's i found it quite easy to burn in disk utility on my mac. Just pop in a DL DVD open disk utility click on the blank DVD on the left, hit burn and direct it toward the .iso file.

as far as blurays go, that's uncharted territory for me...hopefully I'll spring for an external soonish...

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FWIW Harmy, these are the x264 encoding parameters I used to create a good BD-compatible file:

--preset=veryslow --tune=grain --bluray-compat --fps=23.976 --force-cfr --vbv-maxrate=25000 --vbv-bufsize=30000 --crf=1 --level=4.1 --open-gop --slices=4

The vbv-maxrate parameter can be adjusted up or down to change the bitrate.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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You mixed up quite a bit there. Crf=1 means that you're doing a lossless one-pass-encode. However, you limit the MAXIMUM bitrate to 25MBit/s via --vbv-maxrate. Remember, this is the maximum bitrate, NOT the average. I think what you'll get in the end is a video stream with a constant bitrate of 25MBit/s. Better use 2-pass and adjust the AVERAGE bitrate (--bitrate xx). This way scenes with a different complexity are encoded with different bitrates, which helps quality a lot. Vbv-maxrate and vbv-bufsize are only there to limit bitrate peaks so you don't get stuttering during playback. For Bluray use maxrate 40000 and bufsize 30000.

Here are good basic settings for Bluray: www.x264bluray.com 

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Yeah, the combo essentially got me single-pass constant bitrate, which is what I was aiming for.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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 (Edited)

Thanks for the answers on how to sync the GOUT audio with Harmy's editions. Will search for a Mac version.

"Let's face it, the Ewoks sucked, dude" -Hurley, Lost 5x13-Some like it Hoth.

Please bear with me if I tend to get too excited about anything or say too much, I have issues.

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Harmy said:

Also, yes, in order to use MKV in TS Muxer, you need to demux the separate video and audio streams from it. MKVExtract (part of the MKVToolnix) is a good tool. Or as CatBus said, Yamb would probably also do the trick, although it's a little slow.

As long as the mkv was created with version 4.1.1 or earlier of mkvmerge GUI (MKVToolnix) you shouldn't have any problem loading it into tsmuxer.  It's worked like a charm for me for a loong time.

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Harmy, don't go making any final encodes just yet: I'm making a list of remaining errors I've spotted in the workprint.  Though most of them are relatively minor in the scheme of things, fixing them will go a long way towards a seamless presentation of the movie, and would definitely be worthwhile.

Only a very small number of these would go under the category of 'mistakes' in terms of the work on Despecialization.  The majority are problems with the 2004 transfer that have yet to be corrected.  Some of them may be a bit difficult to get right, but I don't think any of them are impossible to manage.  Given all the amazing work that has been done so far, making these last few fixes would take this project about as close to perfection as it could ever get.

So far I've only listed the first half of the movie, but I'll be going through the second half pretty soon.  I've kept comments on the colour timing to a minimum, since for the most part it looks fantastic and I know you're working from the most reliable reference there is, but occasionally issues with the 2004 source creep in and could use some further work.

(Would have posted screenshots, but unfortunately I'm not able to do so, nor to lock in on the exact frame in every instance.  Still, I hope that reference to the onscreen timecode will be helpful.)

 

00:02:27 — White level too low compared to the two previous shots; inconsistency very noticeable in stars and somewhat in rebel ship.  Brighten image to match, or matte out ship and brighten stars separately if necessary.

00:03:10, 00:03:29 — White level blown out in background for both shots.

00:03:42 — Red, yellow, and blue lights in background extremely oversaturated throughout this shot.  Mike Verta pointed out that they absolutely should not 'pop' out in this way, because it is photographically unrealistic to be so bright through all the obscuring smoke.  However, they must be toned down separately without affecting the laser blasts.

00:03:45 — Red lights in background oversaturated.

00:03:52:05 — Background lights behind stormtroopers again extremely oversaturated and pop unnaturally.  Will again affect laser blasts unless treated separately.

00:03:53:19 — Red lights behind rebels again very oversaturated and photographically unrealistic.  Quite distracting.

00:03:56:11 — Though lasers and flash frames seem appropriately coloured, the explosion on the wall at right of frame still has a very ugly pink appearance.  In the 2004 version it was outright purple, so the removal of magenta throughout most of the movie did not completely succeed in correcting this.

00:04:18:15 — Flash frames throughout this shot are still nasty pink rather than red-orange like they are elsewhere.  (See above comment for explanation.)  Laser blasts also look strange and oversaturated.

00:04:41 — Red reflection on R2 appears strangely 'clipped': flat and without nuance of detail.  Same goes for red light above Leia at 00:04:54.

00:06:47 — Noticeable garbage matte around escape pod.

00:07:07 — Stars disappear around escape pod and are slow to reappear after it has moved on.

00:14:22 — Blue panel on escape pod is missing nearly all of its colour, appearing dull grey instead.

00:24:27 (timing approximate) — Noticeable shift in brightness of the left sun near the beginning of this shot.

This is more of a general comment than specific, but starting around the time Ben finds Luke (around 28 minutes in, and going until the end of the scene), most of the shots still look too desaturated.  I recall the Technicolor image posted by Mike Verta having significantly stronger yellow levels than anything seen here.  Also, Ben's cloak often looks too dark, closer to black than brown.

00:32:02 — I couldn't catch the exact timing, but early in this shot there is a white flash to the right of frame, which looks out of place amid the clean appearance elsewhere.

When Luke ignites the lightsabre, there seems to be a 'halo' around the blade.  Not sure if this is due to compression artefacts or if the GOUT element is interacting strangely with the rest of the image.  I don't recall seeing it before.

00:36:39 — This shot of Vader appears oddly desaturated and dull grey.  In the previous workprint, this shot had a noticeable green cast to it, which is now gone.  Which is correct?

00:39:47 — White levels appear a bit blown out in this shot, particularly in the reflections on the landspeeder.

00:41:51 — There is a lot of frozen grain and/or compression artefacts in the sky in this shot.  The stillness of it is distracting.

00:50:51:01 — Though brief, the pink/purple colouring to this explosion is noticeable.  The rest of the frame isn't so bad, though.  This happens a couple times earlier in the shootout, also, but I couldn't catch the exact timings.

00:54:19 — Death Star's laser blast seems to lean too much towards blue-green in this shot, rather than just being green.  Death Star itself has a slight pink tint, which looks . . . odd.

00:54:25 — Creatures on game board seem oversaturated with pink and purple; inconsistent with other shots.  Would require separate adjustment to avoid affecting lightsabre.

 

Anything I haven't commented on here, of course, looks absolutely wonderful and impressive.  ;)

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What audio options will be available on the Blu-ray? That's what I'll be downloading.

Thanks, Harmy! :)

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I don't know yet, it'll depend on what I can get - I'd like to have hairy_hen's new mix in DTS-HD 5.1 and the other mixes in PCM if I can get them. Then of course the three original mixes in AC3 and then all the foreign dubs I can get in AC3. And maybe the scofield version but I'm not able to sync it myself, so I'll only include it if I can get a GOUT synced version.

@hairy_hen: I'll fix some of these thing (some of them I'd already fixed as they were on my list) but not all of them.

Oh, and if you were going to point out the green lasers in the final battle again, I'll save you the touble ;-) Those were on my list too and I did the best I could to make them better (after the release of the last WP).

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Thanks for the info Harmy!

Just downloaded v1.0 and I'm already looking forward to your v2.0 :)

Children in the backseat of a car can cause accidents, but accidents in the backseat of a car can cause children.

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Harmy, I have the german 2.0 AC3 audiotrack from the GOUT DVD synced with your version 1.0. If you like to have the track for version 2.0 I can upload it somewhere.

I could also upload the audio tracks from Moth3r's The Lucasfilm Pwnage Edition with Moth3r's ok.

All tracks match 23.976 fps but I'm not sure if these are in sync with your new release.

 

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The rule is that if they're in sync with v1.0, they I'll be in sync with v2.0. I don't need the German soundtrack, I have the fixed one from Laserschwert (whom I also thank for fixing the highlights in the Ronto ass shot as seen in the latest clip btw.). I think I also have Spanish somewhere. What I need is French and Italian I think. And I think I have the soundtracks from moth3r's version.

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I'll provide the Italian one ;-)

Although, as I said, me and Leo are working on a full-Italian version (base on Harmy's V2.0), where titles are replaced with the original Italian ones and so are the subtitles to Greedo.

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I'll later try and provide the subtitleless version of the Greedo scene with the same colourtiming as it I'll appear in the final version for all the foreign versions to use.

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Great :)

Also someone with the US-GOUT should rip the French soundtrack off of it, so that we have one more language down.

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OK, so I decided to take the time and reply to this one by one.

First of all, thanks for the typically thorough analysis, hairy_hen :-) Please try and have the second half as soon as possible, I really want to have this done ASAP.

hairy_hen said:

00:02:27 — White level too low compared to the two previous shots; inconsistency very noticeable in stars and somewhat in rebel ship.  Brighten image to match, or matte out ship and brighten stars separately if necessary.

I'll try.

00:03:10, 00:03:29 — White level blown out in background for both shots.

I can't really do anything about that.

00:03:42 — Red, yellow, and blue lights in background extremely oversaturated throughout this shot.  Mike Verta pointed out that they absolutely should not 'pop' out in this way, because it is photographically unrealistic to be so bright through all the obscuring smoke.  However, they must be toned down separately without affecting the laser blasts.

00:03:45 — Red lights in background oversaturated.

00:03:52:05 — Background lights behind stormtroopers again extremely oversaturated and pop unnaturally.  Will again affect laser blasts unless treated separately.

00:03:53:19 — Red lights behind rebels again very oversaturated and photographically unrealistic.  Quite distracting.

They say that a picture can say more than a thousand words, so here goes:

I know it's still not perfect but it's the best I could do.

00:03:56:11 — Though lasers and flash frames seem appropriately coloured, the explosion on the wall at right of frame still has a very ugly pink appearance.  In the 2004 version it was outright purple, so the removal of magenta throughout most of the movie did not completely succeed in correcting this.

I'll give it a shot.

00:04:18:15 — Flash frames throughout this shot are still nasty pink rather than red-orange like they are elsewhere.  (See above comment for explanation.)  Laser blasts also look strange and oversaturated.

As you can see in the last video, I fixed the lasers (they were all recomped, so I inserted them from GOUT) but the flashes are that colour in the GOUT and even in the I.B. print reference.

00:04:41 — Red reflection on R2 appears strangely 'clipped': flat and without nuance of detail.  Same goes for red light above Leia at 00:04:54.

This has been discussed before and I don't think I can fix it.

00:06:47 — Noticeable garbage matte around escape pod.

I left that on purpose since it doesn't really have defined edges, so it's more of a glow and it's always been that way.

00:07:07 — Stars disappear around escape pod and are slow to reappear after it has moved on.

This was already on my list. Check out the last video.

00:14:22 — Blue panel on escape pod is missing nearly all of its colour, appearing dull grey instead.

I did put the blue back (it was removed in the BD) but it got this appearance due to the colourtiming. I think I'll leave it as is.

00:24:27 (timing approximate) — Noticeable shift in brightness of the left sun near the beginning of this shot.

I don't see it. And even if I did, this comes directly from the GOUT, so I'd have to assume it's the way it always was.

This is more of a general comment than specific, but starting around the time Ben finds Luke (around 28 minutes in, and going until the end of the scene), most of the shots still look too desaturated.  I recall the Technicolor image posted by Mike Verta having significantly stronger yellow levels than anything seen here.  Also, Ben's cloak often looks too dark, closer to black than brown.

This scene is a bitch to colour correct and I've redone it at least six times to get it to look acceptable. Also, in the scans it does look a bit different than on that screen photo posted by Mike. I think I'll just leave it as is.

00:32:02 — I couldn't catch the exact timing, but early in this shot there is a white flash to the right of frame, which looks out of place amid the clean appearance elsewhere.

As it has the same colour as the lightsabre element and it appears in Puggo Grande as well, I'm pretty sure it is some error made in the making of the lightsabre effect, so that's why I restored it.

When Luke ignites the lightsabre, there seems to be a 'halo' around the blade.  Not sure if this is due to compression artefacts or if the GOUT element is interacting strangely with the rest of the image.  I don't recall seeing it before.

This could be due to the compositing of the GOUT sabre into the SE footage. I can't really do much about it.

00:36:39 — This shot of Vader appears oddly desaturated and dull grey.  In the previous workprint, this shot had a noticeable green cast to it, which is now gone.  Which is correct?

I checked and it's not quite as green cast in the IB reference, so I must have changed it on purpose somewhere along the way.

00:39:47 — White levels appear a bit blown out in this shot, particularly in the reflections on the landspeeder.

Again, not much I can do.

00:41:51 — There is a lot of frozen grain and/or compression artefacts in the sky in this shot.  The stillness of it is distracting.

This bothered me as well. Already fixed it. (It's not in the last video - that's still the old version).

00:50:51:01 — Though brief, the pink/purple colouring to this explosion is noticeable.  The rest of the frame isn't so bad, though.  This happens a couple times earlier in the shootout, also, but I couldn't catch the exact timings.

I'll try.

00:54:19 — Death Star's laser blast seems to lean too much towards blue-green in this shot, rather than just being green.  Death Star itself has a slight pink tint, which looks . . . odd.

This is done acording to the IB reference.

00:54:25 — Creatures on game board seem oversaturated with pink and purple; inconsistent with other shots.  Would require separate adjustment to avoid affecting lightsabre.

I don't think I'll be redoing that, I think it looks ok. I did get rid of the horrible GOUT ones in the 2nd shot from that angle though and recreated the effect to get the positioning of those creatures to the way it was.