What the hell is this?
I started working on my own PAL widescreen project some time ago, and it’s turning out so well I thought I might just as well share it with you guys. I’m using the video from the French THX discs, and the audio from the US Definitive Collection. I’m having some problems with the (Pioneer CLD-)2950, so I’m using the (Pioneer DVL-)909 instead. I will get the 2950 fixed, but at the moment I’m not feeling like spending time and money on that. I’ve uploaded a clip here to compare the output from both players. These are just the straight DV captures encoded to MPEG, this is not how the final product will look. There is a minor difference to be noticed, but as you can see for yourself it’s not much: the 909 is a damn good player aswell. I do recommend you watch it in VirtualDub, not in Windows Media Player, as the latter does not give a crisp and sharp enough image to do a decent comparison. I encoded it to be DVD compliant, so if you want to watch it on your TV you can feed it directly to a DVD building program.
What defines my project from the other ones?
I started this project with the intention of applying no filters. This because all the filters I’ve tried out, including the ones used in other projects, have (too much) negative side effects, and take away too much of the natural film-look for my liking. But as you can see in the clip the discs themselves have a desaturated and too dark appearance, I think that much can be considered fact. So I will be doing hue/saturation/brightness/contrast correction. This also is the most important part of post-processing if you ask me, since it affects the entire viewing experience. Therefore I have spent a lot of time on this, resulting in the absolute optimal settings, using the Definitive and the '82 UK LD as references. I’m sure every single person will prefer my setting over the image of the original discs, but obviously this correction is a subjective one. So I am thinking of releasing two versions, a corrected one, and a straight-off-of-the-discs one. But the latter will just be worth something for the wicked preservationists/purists among us: I’d first like to have an idea about the interest for such a release.
What are the specs?
I will be scaling to anamorphic (thanks for the help on that Moth3r) because I have a widescreen TV myself, and Lanczos4Resize does such a good job, it’s 100% improvement, even on a 4:3 TV.
I hate intros and menus, so there won’t be any of that annoying crap
It will have fullscale (English and Dutch) subtitles for a change. I am perfectly capable of undersanding English, but subtitles make it a lot easier to watch, especially with creaking crisps and talking friends around. I’m only including those two languages because those are the only ones useful for myself, and every subtitle file had to be synched after ripping it from the official DVD. If you feel your language should be included aswell I’ll be happy to do so: go to doom9.net and find out how to rip subs as .srt files using SubRip, and PM me for the timecodes. I’m releasing ANH within a week however, so hurry up!
If you have any questions, suggestions or comments I’ll be glad to hear them.