.: The X9 Project :. (Released)

Author: Arnie.d
Date: 8-Aug-2009, 8:07 AM

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 8-Aug-2009 8:07 AM (Edited)
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Since the X0 project never got a release I kept searching for better equipment to do my own transfer. I think this is were it ends since I probably won’t get access to a better player. Grinder arranged the capture of the Japanese Special Collection on a Pioneer HLD-X9. The JSC is far from perfect but it’s my favorite set (for different reasons). G-Force wrote a script to clean up the captures.

I hope to finish Star Wars in the next few weeks. The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi Will follow after that.

With Dark Jedi working on the JSC and Laserdisc Revived coming up I’m not sure how “necessary” this tranferis really is…

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 8-Aug-2009 8:08 AM (Edited)
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Some screenshots:

___

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: Troyig88
Time: 8-Aug-2009 10:07 AM
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Wow. I was so blown away by the V8. I didn't think it could get any better. Nice job.

Troy

looking for HDTV of the Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Also HDTV of The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Author: corellian77
Time: 8-Aug-2009 10:14 AM
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I applaud your efforts Arnie.d, but don't you think the GOUT, with g-force's script applied, yields better results?

“It’s a lot of fun… it’s a lot of fun to watch Star Wars.” – Bill Moyers

Author: CompMovieGuy
Time: 8-Aug-2009 10:30 AM
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In before...

Different master sources
Talks of DVNR smear
X9 vs X0
LD vs GOUT DVD

lol, still seems like a great project just as long as you are willing to put alot of post processing into it to make the end product very good looking

Good luck man, hope everything goes well for you and Ill be following the thread

Moth3r said: No, there is no video embedding option in this forum software (thank god!)

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 8-Aug-2009 10:49 AM
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corellian77 said:
I applaud your efforts Arnie.d, but don't you think the GOUT, with g-force's script applied, yields better results?

Maybe... Probably. But I think the JSC has enough features the GOUT is missing that makes it worth transferring.

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: Mielr
Time: 8-Aug-2009 2:05 PM (Edited)
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Are those screen caps vertically squeezed? They look like it, in comparison to dark_jedi's SC caps:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Japanese-Special-Collection-Star-Wars-Trilogy-Take-2/post/372404/#post372404

Looks great though, Arnie.d. Good luck with the project. ;-)

Author: Darth Richard
Time: 8-Aug-2009 6:05 PM
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Awesome!

I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

Author: Aleksbmw
Time: 8-Aug-2009 6:20 PM
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Looking good, its very much like my player before mods, depends on the X-9 noise reduction settings for luma and chroma. I dont know what setting you had those in when capturing. I assume you use s-video because of the 3D comb filter in the X-9 ?

Laserdisc for life, Denon LA3500, Sony C2ex/+\Mdp999 “Hercules”
if you want to contribute: http://paypal.me/LDRevive

Author: edwardar
Time: 8-Aug-2009 6:31 PM
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Looks great, really great - looks like you're squeezing the very best out of these discs!

Author: dark_jedi
Time: 8-Aug-2009 8:30 PM
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Arnie.d said:
Since the X0 project never got a release I kept searching for better equipment to do my own transfer. I think this is were it ends since I probably won't get access to a better player. Grinder arranged the capture of the Japanese Special Collection on a Pioneer HLD-X9. The JSC is far from perfect but it's my favorite set (for different reasons). G-Force wrote a script to clean up the captures.

I hope to finish Star Wars in the next few weeks. The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi Will follow after that.

With Dark Jedi working on the JSC and Laserdisc Revived coming up I'm not sure how "necessary" this tranferis really is...

Well if g-force is working on this with you,and working on my set with me,it seems kind of silly,so by all means you guys go for it then,I will officially bow down to your guys' expertise.

looking forward to your finished deal.

Author: Sumguy21
Time: 9-Aug-2009 1:56 AM
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Yay, I do love a good laserdisc restoration and this is looking fantastic already!

Author: EyeShotFirst
Time: 9-Aug-2009 4:11 AM
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With the proper tools this project shall be a gem. Can't wait to see the future of this project.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 9-Aug-2009 6:06 AM (Edited)
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Mielr said:
Are those screen caps vertically squeezed? They look like it, in comparison to dark_jedi's SC caps:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Japanese-Special-Collection-Star-Wars-Trilogy-Take-2/post/372404/#post372404

Looks great though, Arnie.d. Good luck with the project. ;-)

Yes, it's the anamorphic 4:3 picture (so it's vertically stretched).

Aleksbmw said:
Looking good, its very much like my player before mods, depends on the X-9 noise reduction settings for luma and chroma. I dont know what setting you had those in when capturing. I assume you use s-video because of the 3D comb filter in the X-9 ?

Everything was off. I used composite output. I don't think the comb filter in the X9 is that good. The noise filtering is all done post capture with Gforce's script.

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: Moth3r
Time: 11-Aug-2009 5:56 AM
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Are you still using the PDI Deluxe capture card? Did you do any tests to compare the result from composite (using the card's comb filter) to s-video (using the X9's comb filter)?

Is there any colour adjustment in the script? (It looks like the greenish tinge has been removed from the blockade runner scenes.) What filters are you using for noise reduction?

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Author: budwhite
Time: 11-Aug-2009 6:43 AM
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Well this should be good. I just watched Dark Jedi's clip again, this time on my TV and it looks surprisingly good. It's almost 25 years old goddamn.

Looking forward to this Arnie!

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 11-Aug-2009 1:36 PM (Edited)
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Moth3r said:
Are you still using the PDI Deluxe capture card? Did you do any tests to compare the result from composite (using the card's comb filter) to s-video (using the X9's comb filter)?

Is there any colour adjustment in the script? (It looks like the greenish tinge has been removed from the blockade runner scenes.) What filters are you using for noise reduction?

Yes, it was captured using the PDI deluxe card. No, I didn't test the comb filters because of limited time and because the X9 owner had a lot of experience and said the composite out was much better for image quality.

No, the color is something I didn't change (as far as I know). For noise reduction I'm not really sure... I hardly understand Gforce's script :S

I was thinking of doing a more or less direct transfer (only rainbowing filtered) and doing a completely filtered version.

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: edwardar
Time: 12-Aug-2009 6:58 PM
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Arnie.d said:
I was thinking of doing a more or less direct transfer (only rainbowing filtered) and doing a completely filtered version.

Does that mean you'll release a version with minimal post-processing?

That'd be really, really great - personally I love a bit of noise on my videos - it always looks worse on snapshots. At 24fps it all averages out and provides a small amount of extra detail too.

There are always tradeoffs with filters, it's just a question of whether the side-effect is worse than the original problem, at worse you can get:

cartoon-like images (caused by excessive noise reduction)

halo effects (caused by edge enhancement/sharpening)

smearing (caused by temporal smoothing)

loss of image area (caused by image stabilization)

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 12-Aug-2009 7:32 PM
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edwardar said:
Does that mean you'll release a version with minimal post-processing?

Yes.

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: Orinoco_Womble
Time: 13-Aug-2009 1:28 AM
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Look at all those pretty stars! Good work Arnie.

If television is chewing gum for the mind, then the prequels are the worlds first visual laxative.

Author: Moth3r
Time: 13-Aug-2009 6:04 AM
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Arnie.d said:
No, the color is something I didn't change (as far as I know). For noise reduction I'm not really sure... I hardly understand Gforce's script :S

Can you post the script? (I'm sure g-force won't mind...)

Orinoco_Womble said:
Look at all those pretty stars! Good work Arnie.

The improvement in the stars from the pod window was the first thing I noticed in DJ's screenshots.

From a quick comparison, it looks to me like Arnie's capture has a slight advantage: slightly more detail and less ringing.

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Author: g-force
Time: 13-Aug-2009 5:18 PM
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Moth3r said:

Can you post the script? (I'm sure g-force won't mind...)

I wouldn't mind if he wants to PM it to you.

-G

Author: dark_jedi
Time: 31-Aug-2009 3:56 PM
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This thread is starting to get buried,is this dead or still happening?

Author: Arnie.d
Time: 1-Sep-2009 3:43 AM
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I'm patiently awaiting an update from G-force concerning improved anti rainbowing. For Star Wars the script is ready except for this possibly improved rainbowing. When I have that I just have to render (which will take about a day I think) and encode (12 hours or so). And ofcourse the dvd will have to be authored. I'm thinking of choosing my own I frames for scene selection (so I can precisely choose where a scene starts). Empire and Jedi still have to be IVTCed.

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.

Author: RidgeShark
Time: 1-Sep-2009 10:17 PM (Edited)
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Have you tried using MVDegrain to filter only the chroma? I find that at extremely high settings (thSAD=10000) while using plane=3, it can remove or reduce rainbowing that the other filters can't even touch. It also does a great job of removing other chromatic artifacts. Of course, at such high settings, you might only want to filter specific trouble spots. Side Effects are few - I've seen some desaturation on or around fast moving objects, and also desaturation on the first frame of a scene change. But for the most part it retains all of the natural color saturation. Not too bad considering the effect it has on the most troublesome of rainbowing.

EDIT: Here is my script, which is an altered version of the function MVDegrain2i2 that deals specifically with interlaced video. I simply call it MVDegrain2i2chroma.avsi

function MDegrain2i2chroma(clip source, int "overlap", int "dct")
{
overlap=default(overlap,0) # overlap value (0 to 4 for blksize=8)
dct=default(dct,0) # use dct=1 for clip with light flicker
fields=source.SeparateFields() # separate by fields
super = fields.MSuper()
backward_vec2 = super.MAnalyse(isb = true, delta = 2, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
forward_vec2 = super.MAnalyse(isb = false, delta = 2, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
backward_vec4 = super.MAnalyse(isb = true, delta = 4, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
forward_vec4 = super.MAnalyse(isb = false, delta = 4, overlap=overlap, dct=dct)
fields.MDegrain2(super, backward_vec2,forward_vec2,backward_vec4,forward_vec4,thSAD=10000,plane=3)
Weave()
}

I hope this info may help in some way. I wish you guys the best of luck! It already looks wonderful