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.: The Zion DVD Project :. (Released) — Page 4

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My pleasure... your project has the absolute potential to become a great LD-transfer, so I am glad to be of help.

Originally posted by: zion
Even if it ups the brightness a bit, it's not that big of a deal since I can always adjust that when I color correct in Premiere.


No, this wouldn't work... take a look at my first sample frame, the middle image. As you can see, the brighten up version of the frame simply blows out the white of the Stormtrooper helmet. The top of it becomes pure white, and kills the distinction between the helmet and the light on the ceiling. If you would take this image and darken it in Premiere, the helmet and the light would become darker in an equal manner, just producing a tone of grey. You wouldn't be able to get the slightly darker upper edge of the helmet back.

It's very important to watch your brightness levels. It can easily happen that some very light colors or greys become too bright, and just turn white. The same could happen with very dark colors, or greys, becoming too dark, and turning black. You can't get these colors or tones back.

So I really suggest that you apply the filters as I showed. After all the filters for removing the halos are all VirtualDub-filters, so they integrate perfectly into your workflow. I would say do it like this:

    1. Capture your footage

    2. Create an AviSynth-script (which contains the IVTC, the cropping and maybe the GuavaComb-filter to remove possible dot-crawl, and maybe some noise-reduction)

    3. Frameserve this script into VirtualDub, and add the following VirtualDub-video-filters (in the order shown):

      - Brightness/Contrast UI-enhanced (settings as shown above)
      - VHS toys (settings as shown above)
      - Exorcist (settings as shown above)
      - LanczosResize to 2000x1000 (*)
      - Add the Xsharpen-filter (play with the settings when all the filters are set up) (*)
      - LanczosResize to 720x400 (or whatever the desired anamorphic(!!!) height is)... don't add the black bars.


    (*) These two filters should only be added, when sharpening is really necessary... they might make the image look worse (just try it).

    4. -> Output to a new AVI

    5. Color correct the thing in Premiere

    6. Encode with TMPEG (you can add the black bars here, so that your image gets the final size of 720x480. Don't resize in TMPEG... AviSynth and VirtualDub are better).


This spares you some inbetween steps, and you only need two AVIs (the captured one, and an intermediate one).

By the way, could you provide a 20 seconds (or more) long clip of your raw capture? I guess the IVTC causes the stairstep-effect... I would like to do some tests regarding this.

Sorry, if I sound too bossy here
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Originally posted by: zion
Laserschwert, thank you for dissecting my screencaps today and suggesting all of these filters. Seriously, it's great to have someone like you come along and tell me what I could be doing better, I appreciate it.


This sounds downright condescending.

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Originally posted by: Faid
Originally posted by: zion
Laserschwert, thank you for dissecting my screencaps today and suggesting all of these filters. Seriously, it's great to have someone like you come along and tell me what I could be doing better, I appreciate it.


This sounds downright condescending.


Yeah, when I first read it, I thought that too...

It might read like this:
"Thanks for dissing all my work and wise-assing around... seriously, it's great to have some total stranger come along and tell me what to do... I appreciate it... YOU PRICK!!"

I hope I am wrong, regarding my new, looong post above
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lol! Well I'm really glad that someone is taking the time to make suggestions. It bugs me when the only thing people say is "awesome" or "this rulez". Sorry if that sounded a bit sarcastic, it was meant as a genuine compliment. I like it when people point out the flaws in my work and tell me what I need to improve.


Laserschwert, I see what you're saying now with the brightness thing. I'm going to start tinkering around with it right now.

My Projects:
[Holiday Special Hybrid DVD v2]
[X0 Project]
[Backstroke of the West DVD]
[ROTS Theatrical DVD]

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By the way, I've edited my post above several times now... maybe you should read it again

Especially the last two paragraphs (regarding the IVTC).
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Yeah, I think the IVTC may be causing the stairstep. I'm IVTCing with virtualdub, so I don't know if that makes a difference. I'll try the AVIsynth method though. Got any suggestions before I head over to videohelp?

Just read your edited post. That's a great workflow, and very similar to what I'm doing currently. Let's see now if I can make those filters work...


My Projects:
[Holiday Special Hybrid DVD v2]
[X0 Project]
[Backstroke of the West DVD]
[ROTS Theatrical DVD]

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Off the top of my head I don't know a good way to IVTC, but AviSynth offers many great looking ways to do this. If you could post or mail a sample-AVI of your raw capture I could test some methods from the Doom9-forum.
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Great, thanks.

Oh, one thing: Have you tried encoding the final MPEG2 with Premiere Pro instead of TMPEG? (another step spared)

(by the way, here it's 5 AM now, so I am heading for my bed now)
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The Decomb filter for AVISynth works very well for me for IVTC. I don't know if it'll help the jaggies or not, but you might want to give it a try.
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Zion - Ever thought about taking the soundtrack (the complete PCM track, not only music) and Normalising it?
I think it was Isomix's dvd's that had the OST on a different track and it was alot louder, could it be that the LD sountrack isn't Normalised?.

Just a thought.
  • do or do not, there is no try -
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What, exactly, do you mean by "normalizing"?

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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I think that the halo cleanup that Laserschwert has done looks phenominal in the bottom pics.
I was a little dissapointed when I saw the screencaps by Zion, but now I am much more hopeful!

-G
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Normalizing is a process which "standardizes" the volume level of a given audio file using peak levels. In other words, the loudest part of the track will be amplified to the highest level and the rest of the soundtrack will be adjusted accordingly. Personally I prefer a soundtrack normalized to something like 95%, which means I won't have to crank my TV set up to the point where I can hear it buzz to get the full dynamic range of the audio. How much normalization is actually applied depends on the volume levels at which the audio was originally captured - and it is important to find the right setting for this. If the analog-in is set too high, you will get breakup in the signal (normalizing can't help you then). Open up the soundtrack from any of the TR47 dvd to see some (albeit slight) examples of this.

If your audio recording levels aren't too loud to begin with, normalizing the .wav file will make the track as loud as possible without introducing any breakup. I'd recommend using 2-pass mode of Shibatch SSRC with BeSweet or a good wave editor to do this.
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Originally posted by: drjimmy526
Normalizing is a process which "standardizes" the volume level of a given audio file using peak levels...


This is a bit off-topic, but related somewhat. I've often wondered if there's an easy way to compress the dynamic range of sound files. What I want to do is make a copy of the OT soundtracks for listening to in the car, on the plane, etc. so that I'm not constantly twiddling with the volume to hear the soft bits over the ambient noise while not blasting out my ears or getting distortion on the louder parts. Does anybody know of an easy way to do this? Or does someone have a better solution?

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Zion are you capturing analog audio or "ripping" it in the digital domain ?

TR47 did an analog capture apparently, with the recording level set too hot, and the signal got clipped. But I thought [some] LD players had digital audio interface (optical cable) allowing one to rip the digital signal without the extra D>A A>D step. Clipping would be a non-issue in that case, wouldn't it ?
Maybe I'm dreaming ... I don't own an LD player, but I thought the PCM came straight from the LD via optical cable ?

However, in practice you must take into account the “fuckwit factor”. Just talk to Darth Mallwalker…
-Moth3r

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"If your audio recording levels aren't too loud to begin with, normalizing the .wav file will make the track as loud as possible without introducing any breakup."

Gotcha. I actually know what normalizing is, I just didn't know why you were asking if the LD soundtrack was already normalized.

"I'm thinking right now that I'll normalize my PCM track to the same reference level as the DD track (-31dbFS)."

I chose to keep the digital PCM unmodified, and raised the volume of the DD track instead.

"There is no digital audio out on my LD player, however I have been told that it is output digitally through one of the analog audio jacks. I haven't experimented with this yet, so I don't know for sure. I hope to capture it digitally if at all possible though."

I'm afraid that isn't the case. PM me and perhaps I can send you my digital capture for your DVD.

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: Sadly, I believe the prequels are beyond repair.
<span class=“Bold”>JediRandy: They’re certainly beyond any repair you’re capable of making.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>MeBeJedi: You aren’t one of us.
<span class=“Bold”>Go-Mer-Tonic: I can’t say I find that very disappointing.</span></span>

<span class=“Italics”>JediRandy: I won’t suck as much as a fan edit.</span>

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Zion, what software are you using for the Audio.... Adobe Audition, Audacity, etc ?

I have used Adobe Audition in the past and liked that pretty well but I have been hearing a lot about this Open Source (Freeware) software called "Audacity". Has anyone here tried that?

http://audacity.sourceforge.net
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I've used it, it's not bad, but I keep gravitating back to Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition).

Moll.

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Here are the screenshots I promised. What I've done is taken shots of the different stages of processing to show you guys how much better the finished product looks.

On the top is the raw capture, the middle is the filtered video, and the bottom is the color corrected video:

http://aptirrelevance.com/videoprojects/images/sample.01.jpg http://aptirrelevance.com/videoprojects/images/sample.05.jpg

As you can see, the filters Laserschwert suggested make a world of difference, as the ghosting is now gone. Thanks again man.

My Projects:
[Holiday Special Hybrid DVD v2]
[X0 Project]
[Backstroke of the West DVD]
[ROTS Theatrical DVD]

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S-W-E-E-T

That looks really good.

Hey Zion, PM coming your way about the Sima CC
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@BadAsh:

Oh, suddenly it does?

@Zion:

Thanks for the file, man (you can throw it off your server now). I played around with it for a while... I'll upload the resulting MPEG later. Need some sleep now. By the by, I think neither sharpening nor noise-reduction filters are necessary after applying these filters, don't you think?