logo Sign In

The Phantom Menace: Japanese Laserdisc Preservation - MKV Available now (Released)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

This is a capture of The Phantom Menace Japanese Laserdisc.  It is the theatrical version and contains Japanese subtitles below the picture.  I have encoded this to an MKV file container. There is a 2 channel stereo track(PCM) as well as a 5.1 surround track(AC3). The chapter breaks represent the laserdisc sides. The video track(x264) has been restored to a progressive framerate. There have been no other adjustments or tweaks.
 

This was captured using a CLD-HF9G laserdisc player and a Diamond Theater750HD PCI-E capture card.

It is now available in the usual place.
 

CREDITS:

Audio-- schorman13 (taken from star wars laserdisc audio archive)

Luke threw twice…maybe.

Author
Time

Many thanks for doing this timdiggerm.  I'm not much of a presentation guy unfortunately so this will definitely help people see what the capture looks like!

Luke threw twice…maybe.

Author
Time

Do you know how the frame count matches to the Theatrical? With the Theatrical DTS soundtrack floating around, syncing it to this would be amazing. Only screens, but this looks visibly improved on the Theatrical Bootlegs.

Author
Time

Is this laserdisc a representation of the theatrical or DVD version?

Author
Time

I've never watched this aside from the opening night in '99. This LD seems to be what I remember from the theater and I've heard it mentioned in multiple places that the LD version is the theatrical version so I've stated this in the first post.  If it's incorrect somebody should let me know :).

Luke threw twice…maybe.

Author
Time

Thanks for this one. Unfortunately the alien subtitles are not in picture, so it's still not an 100% accurate representation of the theatrical version :-(

BTW there was a shot where they added a CGI bridge for the DVD/BD. Does anybody remember in which scene it was so that I can check it ?

Author
Time

Sorry, I read in a hurry and missed that it was the theatrical in the OP.  Very cool.  I'll be getting this one.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Thank you kindly for this.  I'm excited to watch it as I also own this LD.

 

Teeceezy said:

    Do you know how the frame count matches to the Theatrical? With the Theatrical DTS soundtrack floating around, syncing it to this would be amazing. Only screens, but this looks visibly improved on the Theatrical Bootlegs.

As for the DTS floating around ... it is available but the reels have to be put together and synched properly.  I was the one who supplied it.  :)

pittrek said:

    Thanks for this one. Unfortunately the alien subtitles are not in picture, so it's still not an 100% accurate representation of the theatrical version :-(

    BTW there was a shot where they added a CGI bridge for the DVD/BD. Does anybody remember in which scene it was so that I can check it ?

It's a night time shot of Naboo, it was spoken about in another thread already.  I'll check it and get back.

 

Any chance you did a dual layered version?  That would be nice.

Cheers again, it looks nice.

 

 

Author
Time
 (Edited)

pittrek wrote: BTW there was a shot where they added a CGI bridge for the DVD/BD. Does anybody remember in which scene it was so that I can check it ?

It's the establishing shot of GTF occupied Naboo after the heroes begin their return from Coruscant.  ~1:35:00.  It's a few shots after Jar-Jar says: "Weesa going home!"  The shot after the CGI modified bridge is Sidious (hologram) talking to Gunray. 

pics of the shot in this post:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Prequel-Bootlegs/post/611716/#TopicPost611716

Author
Time

Thanks guys, I wasn't able to find the pic, you're great :-)

Author
Time

Jetrell Fo said:

Any chance you did a dual layered version?  That would be nice.

Cheers again, it looks nice.

Well this is an MKV so it's not even really a single layer :). I have no plans really of doing any dvd releases though. I believe the quality of this encode should allow for a very nice dual layer if someone were to choose that route, however, I'm no expert as evidenced in my multiple ridiculous postings in other threads lol.

Luke threw twice…maybe.

Author
Time

Yeppers, that's the shot.  Thanks none and Tim.  If I remember correctly, the TPM Widescreen VHS is the same in regards to this.

I also have to say, at least from the screenshots, your LD machine gets a cleaner picture than my Pioneer Elite DVL-90 does.  I've always wondered if it was possible to mod these players with better comb filters but I wouldn't even know where to start if they did.....LOL.

Author
Time

althor1138 said:

Jetrell Fo said:

Any chance you did a dual layered version?  That would be nice.

Cheers again, it looks nice.

Well this is an MKV so it's not even really a single layer :). I have no plans really of doing any dvd releases though. I believe the quality of this encode should allow for a very nice dual layer if someone were to choose that route, however, I'm no expert as evidenced in my multiple ridiculous postings in other threads lol.

I figured with the smaller size of the .mkv that maybe it was compressed to make it an easier upload, that's all.

I certainly won't bite the hand that feeds, ya know.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I'm almost certain that the HF9G has a nearly pure composite output.  I mean that there is probably a digital conversion in the TBC but that it doesn't pass through the comb filter and get recombined on the way out.  This coupled with the capture card are the reason I think it gets such a clean picture.

I encoded this with a setting of crf=16 and according to some this is more than enough to capture all of the detail.  It is compressed but I think it's at a quality equal to or better than an 8gb DL DVD would be.

EDIT:

Jetrell Fo said:

I figured with the smaller size of the .mkv that maybe it was compressed to make it an easier upload, that's all.

I certainly won't bite the hand that feeds, ya know.

It's no problem and if somebody tells me that it is a bad idea to make a dvd from an x264 file then I'll maybe reconsider doing a DL but my idea is that if the MKV is of high quality then everybody should be able to put this into whatever format they want without much loss even if there has to be a re-encode such as putting it on DVD.

Luke threw twice…maybe.

Author
Time

Can you give me an idea of where you edit the LD sides together?  I have my TPM LD discs spread out over 3 DVD5's .... I recorded each through my standalone Panasonic DMR-EA18 DVD Recorder.

I am going to stitch them together now that you've done this and see how it looks although it will be like a 12GB mpeg2 file ..... LOL.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

If you open the MKV in VLC and pause it then press the forward chapter button it will take you to the first frame of side 2 and then side 3 if you press it again.

EDIT:  seems like side 2 chapter begins 1 frame too early.  It is pretty easy to tell though because the next frame is the next scene and that is the frame that starts side 2 on the laserdisc.

Luke threw twice…maybe.

Author
Time

Hi Althor.

Great work on this LD capture, but I am seeing horrible blocking when playing this in Media Player Classic. I'm not sure which decoder my system uses, but I haven't had any problems before. Is it just a bad decoder on my system or do others experience the same on playback?

I'm including some framegrabs for comparison. Look at the blocking in the sky.

Bear in mind that the extremely grainy image on the Japanese Ep1 LD means the compression needs a much better bit-budget for transparent results compared with the average film.

I for one would line up for a "superbit" version of your capture.

Visit my *NEW* Star Wars on Video Collection site:

http://www.swonvideo.com

Author
Time

Well, looks like it's my system causing the blocking, because I couldn't find it in timdgiggerm's captures.

His:

Mine:

Sorry about that.

I would still like a DVD9 version made from the source though. If you can manage it I'd sure appreciate it.

Visit my *NEW* Star Wars on Video Collection site:

http://www.swonvideo.com

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Video Collector said:

Bear in mind that the extremely grainy image on the Japanese Ep1 LD means the compression needs a much better bit-budget for transparent results compared with the average film.

I for one would line up for a "superbit" version of your capture.

Here is the MediaInfo on one disc of my capture.  Maybe there would be a way to get a 3rd capture and do a median of them?  I am ONLY familiar with VirtualDub.  I am not an AVIsynth user.  I'd love to see a way to clean up the video for a better presentation.

:)

General
Complete name                            : F:\Video Projects\Star Wars Laserdisc Transfers\TPM Japan LD\2.VOB
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 2.72 GiB
Duration                                 : 14s 993ms
Overall bit rate                         : 1 561 Mbps

Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=15
Duration                                 : 14s 979ms
Bit rate                                 : 1 530 Mbps
Maximum bit rate                         : 9 100 Kbps
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 29.970 fps
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 147.703
Time code of first frame                 : 00:00:00;00
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
Stream size                              : 2.67 GiB (98%)

Audio
ID                                       : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension                           : CM (complete main)
Format settings, Endianness              : Big
Muxing mode                              : DVD-Video
Duration                                 : 14s 993ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 Kbps
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel positions                        : Front: L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -67ms
Stream size                              : 469 KiB (0%)

Author
Time
 (Edited)

none said:

pittrek wrote: BTW there was a shot where they added a CGI bridge for the DVD/BD. Does anybody remember in which scene it was so that I can check it ?

It's the establishing shot of GTF occupied Naboo after the heroes begin their return from Coruscant.  ~1:35:00.  It's a few shots after Jar-Jar says: "Weesa going home!"  The shot after the CGI modified bridge is Sidious (hologram) talking to Gunray. 

pics of the shot in this post:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Prequel-Bootlegs/post/611716/#TopicPost611716

Looks like Adywan missed that one in his theatrical reconstruction (the bridge is there). Also, this change is not mentioned in this dvdactive article.

 

Video Collector said:

Hi Althor.

Great work on this LD capture, but I am seeing horrible blocking when playing this in Media Player Classic. I'm not sure which decoder my system uses, but I haven't had any problems before. Is it just a bad decoder on my system or do others experience the same on playback?

Also using MPC, but no problems here. To find out what decoder is being used, go to Play -> Filters, then look for the video decoder. I'm using the MPC Video Decoder, which in turn uses my video card's DXVA for decoding. 

 

Guidelines for post content and general behaviour: read announcement here

Max. allowable image sizes in signatures: reminder here