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As of May 2024, my restoration efforts for the six episodes of Nightmare Café have stagnated.
I have access to these versions of the episodes:
- KGET VERSIONS (480i)
All six episodes with commercials bumpers and end credits. I call these the KGET versions because the pilot episode bears station identification from that NBC affiliate. The quality on these is about 5 out of 10. As far as I can tell, the KGET versions were uploaded to YouTube when files were only 10 minutes maximum, combined into full hour long files, then put onto DVD. They have ok detail, washed out color, and a fair amount of “tiling” and/or “digital artifacts”. Lighter scenes look better with ok detail, while darker scenes lose much of their detail with lots of noticable artifacts. - WDAF VERSIONS (480i)
All six episodes with commercials sloppily edited out. I call these the WDAF versions because the pilot episode bears WDAF station identification from that NBC affiliate. The A/V quality of these is around a 4 or 5 out of 10. Again, lighter scenes have more details than darker ones. The colors and the black areas on these are very washed out, with black mostly appearing as charcoal grey. As far as I can tell, the WDAF versions were recorded from a VHS to a standalone DVD recorder, then that disc was duped by the same or another standalone DVD recorder. (In episode 5 “Sanctuary for a Child”, the original disc skipped during the process and the message “Disc error minor-- Clean me” appears. (This message is present, even on digital rips, so a dirty disc cannot be the culprit.) - WKEF Broadcasts (480i)
I have 2 and a half episodes (Half of episode 4, episodes 5 and 6 mostly complete… only missing their end credits.) These are recorded in SLP mode but have only been run through a VCR around half a dozen times each. They’re also around a 5 out of 10. Okay picture and sound, but the details are muddy and the colors are a bit washed out. - SciFi Channel Versions (480i)
I have an SLP mode tape which is missing the pilot episode of the series. These versions are trimmed down from 45 minutes to 42 and have a scifi channel logo present in the lower left corner. The picture quality is again, around a 5. Details are muddy, but the colors are richer. These versions have not only had scenes excised, but it also seems they’ve had frames lifted out from time to time, much like modern reruns do, as scenes from these versions (when placed side by side with KGET and WDAF versions in an editing timeline) run just a bit shorter than the NBC broadcast, even though no dialogue is missing. - Dark Network Versions MKVs (PAL standard?)
These were gifted to me by a member of the preservation community. These also recently showed up on the Internet Archive. I’d rate them around a 5 in quality also. They have amazing color and detail, but the screen has been cropped on all four sides. They are the full versions of the episodes, in a sense that no scenes were excised to fit a shorter runtime… But the conversion from NTSC to PAL has turned all the voices to “helium mode” and made the motion choppy. I’ve tried using a video editor to “inflate” the video back to around 30 fps. But the audio still isn’t quite right and when I tried going through the pilot and editing it at each and every camera angle change, inflating each cut to the same length as the NBC version then synchronizing the NBC audio up to it… All the lip sync and foley was “off.” Also, when I tried to convert them to 480p, the detail was all lost amongst the intensity of the vivid color information.
The only other version out there (that I know of) is from digital cable channel “Chiller” these are likely identical to the SciFi Channel Versions, just with clearer picture and sound. I’ve encountered one very tetchy bootlegger who has these but he is paranoid that if he shares them he won’t be able to profit off of his own upcoming bootleg Blu-rays of the series. If anyone else has access to these versions, I haven’t been able to find them.
I’ve made (and edited) this post because I’m looking for help with a reconstruction/restoration project for this series. I’ve had limited success pulling the files into Shotcut and layering the video from the WDAF versions over the KGET versions and playing with transparency and color timing.
I’m going to be very candid and honest when I say: I wasted most of the 30 years between the broadcast of this show and current day on drinking, drugs, and overworking myself. And I say that because I would like you to understand that I’ve “missed” a lot of the last 20 years of computer innovation and haven’t integrated them into my life the way most adults under 40 or so have. I don’t understand how a lot of things work and what is (or isn’t) realistically possible when using them.
I have tried feeding clips of the video into free online trials of some programs which claimed to be AI upscalers. The results were disappointing with the programs seemingly not understanding what was what and just kinda smearing color all over the place.
I fear that I’m not even computer literate enough to ask search engines and other Internet users the right questions about this project.
I’ve seen a process that looks very promising, in which video files are “exploded” into individual frames, and those frames are then taken into AI software that works with low resolution photos, then once a few frames have been run through the program and the computer knows what results you’re trying to achieve… Then it can reconstruct a few seconds of video at a time, smoothing the digital artifacts and recovering muddied details.
However, my pathetic laptop is nowhere near powerful enough to run such sophisticated software. And even if it could… Are the results I’m looking for (SP mode VHS quality picture or better) even possible?
If anyone is willing to patiently talk me through any of this. Please send me a DM. I’m eager to learn… Preserving Nightmare Café in better quality has been one of the only constants throughout my life… It kinda even pulled me out of addiction. I’m prepared to spend whatever time is necessary and as much cash as I can scrape together to make a version of these episodes that would be suitable enough to engage a modern audience’s expectations for picture/sound quality. Please, help if you can. I’m willing to share the episodes I have with anyone interested in messing around with them also.
Thanks for your time and consideration of my project!
