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.: The X9 Project :. (Released) — Page 5

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After a false start, a DVD-5 of ROTJ has been uploaded to the newsgroup.  (Look for the collection labelled "Proper".)  As with ESB, apart from conversion to anamorphic widescreen and light sharpening, there has been no filtering. 

Thanks go to CatBus for providing soft subtitles for the alien language parts.  I have had little to no time to work on these, which is why I went with soft subtitles for this release. 

I'm also posting the DVD-5 of ESB to the newsgroup.  Star Wars should go up in about a week, when I have authored the disc.

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Would it be possible for somebody with newsgroups access to upload it either as a torrent or to tehparadox please ? Thanks

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Asaki said:

I think I still prefer the Technidisc.

Well, I have finally come to that conclusion after playing around with the weird color levels, I thought there was a cure. Some scenes look very good though.

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

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Chewtobacca said:

After a false start, a DVD-5 of ROTJ has been uploaded to the newsgroup.  (Look for the collection labelled "Proper".)

Finally got my DVD burning issues settled. Any chance us folks without newsgroup access could get a hold of this?

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 (Edited)

Asaki said:Finally got my DVD burning issues settled. Any chance us folks without newsgroup access could get a hold of this?

From now on, I'm not uploading to anything other than newsgroups.  I haven't had time to finish Star Wars yet, but I'll post when it's done.

msycamore said:

Asaki said:

I think I still prefer the Technidisc.

Well, I have finally come to that conclusion after playing around with the weird color levels, I thought there was a cure. Some scenes look very good though.

Yes; I think that I prefer the Technidisc too.  Combining your v2 of the Technidisc with the scenes that look very good from the JSC would be the best that one could do, I think -- at least until negative1's project is completed.

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Chewtobacca said:

Yes; I think that I prefer the Technidisc too.  Combining your v2 of the Technidisc with the scenes that look very from the JSC would be the best that one could do, I think -- at least until negative1's project is completed.

Here's a quick contrast and saturation tweak on my Technidisc capture.

top: DVD transfer / bottom: Tweaked

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ta5z4d

You can can improve it quite a bit just by tweaking the contrast and saturation etc, but you really have to do it on a shot by shot basis and I'm not sure if it's even worth it with all the great projects that's going on right now.

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

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msycamore said:  Here's a quick contrast and saturation tweak on my Technidisc capture.  You can can improve it quite a bit just by tweaking the contrast and saturation etc, but you really have to do it on a shot by shot basis and I'm not sure if it's even worth it with all the great projects that's going on right now.

That screenshot does look great.  I would love to see a v2 with that sort of improvement, but I can certainly understand if it seems like too much trouble.  Going shot by shot is a pain.

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RotJ now up on MySpleen.

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Asaki said:

RotJ now up on MySpleen.

Thank you so much for this re-upload, Asaki. I downloaded it. It really does look interesting.

The X9 can pull out a lot of the details in the JSC, though it also exposes the JSC's many limitations of analog resolution. Having no grain reduction is nice but it would be better if the resolution was high enough to actually make out the grain. I still like it though. Increased gamma and interesting color timing make it a good watch. Both the JSC X9 DVDs seem surprisingly saturated.

In any case, to all involved, in making the disc for both ESB and ROTJ, thank you! I believe that includes Arnie d., Darth Mallwalker, and Chewtobacca; kindly excuse me if I've forgotten anyone involved in the work-flow.

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"Interesting" is right. The ESB/ROTJ color timing is so strange to me, and especially ESB - the yellow-greenish look of the pre-THX transfers is so different from the examples I've seen of the original theatrical colors.

I cannot correct the colors for Empire to come anywhere near the original timing. They are so different that I'm starting to think that the pre-THX Empire/Jedi transfers were taken from new interpositives off the untimed negative, and timed completely differently, specifically to read better on home video. To me, they look even more unlike the original theatrical timing than the '82/'86 transfers of the first film.

(You know...maybe the statement about the "1985 IPs" refers to Empire and Jedi only? Empire debuted on video in 1985, Jedi in 1986, and the JSC releases were also in '86. AFAIK, these were the only NTSC transfers of the films until '93.)

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TServo2049 said:

(You know...maybe the statement about the "1985 IPs" refers to Empire and Jedi only? Empire debuted on video in 1985, Jedi in 1986, and the JSC releases were also in '86. AFAIK, these were the only NTSC transfers of the films until '93.)

Don't know about Jedi, but the IP for Empire seems to have been the source for all NTSC releases, including the '97SE.

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

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msycamore said:

Don't know about Jedi, but the IP for Empire seems to have been the source for all NTSC releases, including the '97SE.

This brings up a point nobody ever discusses: If the IPs were made in 1985, and especially if the ones for the sequels were used in the 97SE, doesn't it stand to reason that they were on low-fade stock? In other words, the color is intact - another strike against the official "no good sources for the originals" line.

In 1994, when the trilogy was screened in New Jersey, the projectionist said the prints looked excellent. He also rated the theatrical prints of the SEs unfavorably (or at least the first film). He said the droids in the Tantive corridor looked "dull and grainy" compared to the sharp and clear look of original prints. He also said that Leia's face (in her first scene?) had obvious color shifting (Treadwell and mverta observed similar color issues in the theatrical run).

The article is here: http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/83-Star-Wars-at-30-Years-Old-A-Lifes-Journey.html

This all feels to me like more evidence that when Lucas and co. say "It can't be done" what they really mean is "We don't want to do it."

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Of course it can be done, we all know it. It's just Lucas acting like a big asshole.

That's a nice article.

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

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 (Edited)

Besides the chroma shift, I noticed that there seems to be something that looks like a chroma sampling error on these captures and color smear causing DVNR-like trails, this is most noticable on the color red. This is a little unfortunate as they're otherwise superb captures. Arnie.d, if you're still around, any theory what could've caused this? I know that some combfilters can cause smearing...

I'm unable to post examples of this as I don't have a computer at the moment.

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

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TServo2049 said:

(You know...maybe the statement about the "1985 IPs" refers to Empire and Jedi only? Empire debuted on video in 1985, Jedi in 1986, and the JSC releases were also in '86. AFAIK, these were the only NTSC transfers of the films until '93.)

Can you please tell me where the 1985 IP's info come from? I keep seeing it mentioned but never the source, is it mentioned in any article out there? I'm curious.

Also, I believe Empire debuted on VHS, Betamax and Laserdisc in 1984.

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

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Just wondering if the ANH of this has been completed and made available anywhere???

4 - 5 - 3 - 1 - 6 - 2

Discuss…

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All of Dark Jedi's are GOUT based, right?

Are there any X9 captures of JSC available?  

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russs15 said:

Just wondering if the ANH of this has been completed and made available anywhere???

 I don't think so, but the previously done V8 was released.

He might've released the raw files, but I personally like the Technidisc better.

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Mallwalker was kind and uploaded Arnie.d's X9 captures of the JSC LD's to the newsgroup, he even uploaded IVTC scripts for all three.

Chewtobacca made DVD's out of Empire and Jedi but not Star Wars. The captures are out there for everyone and for anybody willing to work with them.

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

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msycamore said:

Besides the chroma shift, I noticed that there seems to be something that looks like a chroma sampling error on these captures and color smear causing DVNR-like trails, this is most noticable on the color red. This is a little unfortunate as they're otherwise superb captures. Arnie.d, if you're still around, any theory what could've caused this? I know that some combfilters can cause smearing...

I'm unable to post examples of this as I don't have a computer at the moment.

Sorry, I never saw your question before. I don't know what caused the smearing. I never noticed the smearing. Are you able to post some examples?

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

Sorry, I never saw your question before. I don't know what caused the smearing. I never noticed the smearing. Are you able to post some examples?

It's cool, it's me who are sorry as I feel like an asshole pointing out something that is wrong when all the things you guys have done is being nice to the community. Your V8 DVD is still the king of LD transfers IMO. At first I fell in love with the clean picture until I saw what was wrong. Examples are coming...

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

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 (Edited)

X9:

V8 DVD:

The chroma smear seen in this example of the X9 cap is mostly seen on fast moving scenes and objects such as laser blasts or other saturated objects, this being when Solo running past the camera, and actually reminds me very much of the artifacts seen in GOUT. It is noticeable throughout the transfers of SW & ESB at least, how this appeared must be down to some form of temporal filtering of some sort in the capture process, maybe a bad 3D comb filter? Sometimes it actually makes some of the static shots less detailed than your old DVD.

This isn't just about me pointing out the flaw in the capture as I am genuinely interested in how these kind of artifacts appear, as I would like to avoid them myself if I ever get the chance of using better capture equipment. There's also other issues with the chroma, such as bleeding and a chroma shift that is not seen in either my LD or D_J's DVD's. (can post examples of this if you are curious) Something must've gone wrong in the capture process.

Hope I don't come off as an a-hole bashing your 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

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 (Edited)

msycamore said:

X9:

V8 DVD:

The chroma smear seen in this example of the X9 cap is mostly seen on fast moving scenes and objects such as laser blasts or other saturated objects, this being when Solo running past the camera, and actually reminds me very much of the artifacts seen in GOUT. It is noticeable throughout the transfers of SW & ESB at least, how this appeared must be down to some form of temporal filtering of some sort in the capture process, maybe a bad 3D comb filter? Sometimes it actually makes some of the static shots less detailed than your old DVD.

This isn't just about me pointing out the flaw in the capture as I am genuinely interested in how these kind of artifacts appear, as I would like to avoid them myself if I ever get the chance of using better capture equipment. There's also other issues with the chroma, such as bleeding and a chroma shift that is not seen in either my LD or D_J's DVD's. (can post examples of this if you are curious) Something must've gone wrong in the capture process.

Hope I don't come off as an a-hole bashing your work.

Don't worry about coming off as an a-hole. You're just pointing out some errors. The smearing looks indeed terrible. I don't know why I haven't seen it before. The V800 capture was done using a capture card with a Philips SAA713x (can't remeber the x, 2 or 4?) chipset. The X9 capture was done with the Sweetspot capture card which has on older chipset iirc. Maybe the newer chipset gives better results although the sweetspot should be a better quality card overall. 

There was also another strange thing with the sweetspot (which has probably nothing to do with the smearing), if I captured the same clip twice the first field of the same frame could be either a top field in the first capture and a bottom field in the second capture whereas with my other capture card the first field of the same frame was always a top field or bottom field in all captures.

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

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

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I remember seeing a similar chroma lag before; it was caused by a colourspace conversion (YV12 to YUY2) before IVTC. However, in that case the chroma was combed and not like in those screenshots.

It does look like the result of a noise reduction filter.

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