Info: The WhiteMagic Strikes Back (warning: BIG screenshots!)

More than one year ago my HD went bust, with all Star Wars related contents (LD captures and AviSynth scripts)… but few days ago I discovered a copy of my WhiteMagic script in a USB memory, and decided to give it one last try.

I used a spanish HDTV version of the 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars EP4; loaded the WhiteMagic AviSynth script into VirtualDub; and then take some totally random pictures of the results - I initially put the left half of the same frame side by side, but then decided to set them vertically to display better on this forum.

The script tries to improve the colors and the definition… maybe the colors are totally wrong, but as far as I can remember, I compared the results with many screenshots taken from the original movie frames and other reliable sources, and they match better than GOUT… maybe the resulting image is too sharp, I know, but few details are discovered…

Anyway, I’d like to know your impressions.

Here you are three screenshots - if anyone will be interested I’ll post few more:

EDIT: links to the images:

http://postimage.org/image/tjif92167/

http://postimage.org/image/fr40dfaen/

http://postimage.org/image/kr1gldg1b/

I have the Blu-Ray of the entire SW saga, sitting on the shelf still intact, because… NOOOOOO (and other little annoying things). And, apart the fact that it’s still shrinkwrapped, I have not a BD-ROM on my computer, so it is impossible for me to grab BD captures…

Anyone who has the BD would/could make a comparison between the WhiteMagic and the BD? Obviously if the BD image is way better than WhiteMagic results, I’ll quit immediately - I must confess I tried to render the whole movie, but after 2 days and 200GB of hard disk space, VirtualDub gave up!!! I don’t want to waste 4 days and near 400GB for nothing - my PC is tired enough! 😉

I'm not the right person to comment but I think you might be oversharpening these images. What exactly is the WhiteMagic plugin supposed to do? I'm not sure what the improvements would be.

^He just incorrectly scaled the images. I found them by quoting his post, then copy/pasting the image urls.

To see images, go to

http://postimage.org/image/tjif92167/

http://postimage.org/image/fr40dfaen/

http://postimage.org/image/kr1gldg1b/

Frankly, it doesn't seem to be an improvement.

What sharpener are you using?

yeah,

use thumbnails for the pictures.

can't see them in the post. 

had to look at the other links.

later

-1

YouToo, you are right, this is the 2004 version, forgive me... I found it many months ago and forgot what version was... the script auto-adjust the image, so in some scenes is really good, in others is not... a good compromise if someone don't want to adjust a video frame by frame, or scene by scene.

OK, maybe the last (and only) try of WhiteMagic with HDTV failed, and maybe is better I give up and make no more experiment with HDTV... 

I'm afraid the script doesn't improve so much an HDTV video, but it was intended to be used with a laserdisc capture, and tailored to it...

Look at this GIF; raw capture of the worst letterbox laserdisc edition, the so-called "pyramid" french non-THX, and four early stages of the script:

a link to HD image: http://s16.postimage.org/6gcexwbms/SW_Pyramid_WM0_4.jpg

The colors are still not right, and the resolution is not comparable to real HD, but after all, it is not bad, if you think the original video is captured from a low quality laserdisc...

And look what WhiteMagic did with GOUT:

taken from DVD stream plus simple VDUB resize to 1920 width

http://s16.postimage.org/adzonayg3/SW_GOUT.jpg

taken from DVD stream plus WhiteMagic 0.6 & dedicated resize

http://s16.postimage.org/eoeciw3j7/SW_GOUT_WM0_6.jpg

Maybe WhiteMagic will be quite good cleaning the 1997 laserdisc special edition, if someone is still interested in this project nowadays...

Well, here you are the other HDTV screenshot links (totally random):

http://s11.postimage.org/j0ifjvyi9/WM7_4.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/rk1thn6up/WM7_5.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/p4003sos1/WM7_6.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/gn0hsvk35/WM7_7.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/4zb1c2kc1/WM7_8.jpg

http://s11.postimage.org/yh0l7wsj5/WM7_9.jpg

Time to sleep now,,,

Which GOUT is that?

Is that DJV3? If so, the original GOUT looks very different...

these upscaled shots look like watercolors to me.

later

-1

negative1 said:

these upscaled shots look like watercolors to me.

 

later

-1

Me, too. They definitely don't look like an upscaled (raw) GOUT.

Already been stated that Mr Emote-for-Name is using a 2004SE HDTV rip for these. Could help to do some reading.

bkev said:

Already been stated that Mr Emote-for-Name is using a 2004SE HDTV rip for these. Could help to do some reading.

You mean me?

I was referring to "And look what WhiteMagic did with GOUT"...

I did read. What gives?

What gives is that I misunderstood you. No harm done, except making me look like a little prick I guess. I, err, missed that he'd actually done GOUT shots.

bkev said:

What gives is that I misunderstood you. No harm done, except making me look like a little prick I guess. I, err, missed that he'd actually done GOUT shots.

I don't think you're a prick... I just thought you were angry with me.

I think you're one of the cooler people around here, so I didn't (and don't) want there to be conflict between us. Plus, I'm a pretty sensitive kind of guy.

The DVD GOUT upscaled image is taken directly from my own PAL Star Wars GOUT DVD... to be sure, now I played the DVD onto Media Player Classic, searched for the frame, freeze and save the image as BMP; opened it into Paint and saved as JPG - here you are this picture:

link to the image: http://s11.postimage.org/duz4aa0v5/snapshot20121011135238.jpg

This IS actually a frame from the GOUT PAL DVD... and is (to me) frankly orrible... obviously there are some really good restoration around here, made from various sources, and there is no need for another GOUT restoration.

The point is: this script could help to improve a laserdisc capture (and the PAL DVD GOUT is essentialy the same) and, besides the fact the picture could seem a water paint, when in motion - and not upscaled - the result is quite interesting and watchable.

P.S. sorry for the first post... I tried with Firefox, and there I can't see the images, you are right...

You_Too is right... I must find the way to sharp less the image.

But, apart the over-sharpening, do you like the results?

By the way, DoubleKO, no, my name is not Kilroy... but if you like to call me with that name, I'll call you Eustace - do you like it? ;-)

I don't really like the colors either, no.

What about this old clip?

http://youtu.be/TTOMpB7HFdU

Please view at 1080p

left is the PAL THX spanish laserdisc capture, treated with WM and resized with a related script; right is the PAL GOUT original DVD, with a simple bilinear resize.

Hope the colors are better here - infact it is an old WM version.