Robocop - Director's Cut 1080p restoration (Released)

I’ve been working on a 1080p restoration of the original Robocop director’s cut using the video from the unreleased Sony blu-ray, and the 1080p HDTV rip synced to the retail blu-ray disc audio.  I have the movie rendering to lossless video right now and, originally, I was considering just turning it into an m2ts file that could used to replace the one on the retail blu-ray disc.

After talking with Dark Jedi, he said that Team Blu had been considering this as a project and that I might be able to work with them to turn it into a full-fledged blu-ray disc, instead.

So, I’m going through the assets I have at my disposal to see what could be included.  I have the material off of the Criterion DVD, including the audio commentary and original stereo mix.  A bit accurate LPCM version of the stereo mix off of the Criterion LD would be nice if someone has it available.

I would also like to create an isolated score audio track since I have the soundtrack as well as the extra song by PTP that wasn’t included on the soundtrack CD.

The theatrical cut and maybe some HD trailers could also be included as bonus features, disc space permitting.

Is this project worth pursuing?

i can provide the cc-ld audio.

i had a similar project in mind. but i wanted to drop the bd audio in favor for the cc-ld audio.  for main part of "restoring" the movie i wanted to use the sony bd and just use the mgm dc bd for the extra footage. maybe andrea can also jump in to re-create the look of the criterion edition.

getting the pcm for theatrical cut would be sweet as well, so it can be used for the sony bd.

as for hd trailers, good luck. there is only the one trailer available in hd. i don't know which one it was, but i know for sure it was only one hd trailer available. i have it somewhere. if not, you may want to ask bendermac. he certainly has it.

I have the video done.  The HDTV rip matches the Sony blu-ray, color-wise, but has the additional footage, so I used that with some minor enhancements.

As far as the HD trailers, I was considering remastering the trailers in HD myself, if I decide to go that route.

Oh sweet now this i want to see badly! 

Please do the hd trailer, you do a fantastic job on reconstructing them.

if i remember correctly bendermac wanted to do a hd trailer re-edit a long time ago. he dropped it because of the gas station blowing up scene was longer in the trailer and had the movie title & credits overlay. you might wanna check the trailer again. just in case i mixed up something ;)

I vote an emphatic YES!!! This is another movie I have been hoping would get a new release for along time now.

It stands to reason that the 2 elements that your planning to use have to be better that the mpeg2 release we are currently saddled with.

The project specs that you're proposing sound pretty good to me.  Its too bad that I don't have the LD or required equipment or I would gladly provide the audio track for this.  A collaborative effort between yourself and Team Blu should yield excellent results.  Best of luck.

-VT

Is there really a reason to include the Theatrical? just asking lol so please tell me why if so.

We need the Criterion LD, if we can get that I will do the rip myself then, hell I just finished a bit accurate rip of the Halloween Criterion just today.

Also we do not need any Rules or sporv or whatever else those things are called for his project, we got color if needed well under control ourselves.

zeropc said:

if i remember correctly bendermac wanted to do a hd trailer re-edit a long time ago. he dropped it because of the gas station blowing up scene was longer in the trailer and had the movie title & credits overlay. you might wanna check the trailer again. just in case i mixed up something ;)

I already reviewed the trailer for potential problem scenes and I did note the logo on the gas station clip but I have what I need to recreate the logo animation, so that part won't be an issue.  If that segment contains extra frames that weren't in the movie, that might present a bit of an issue, though.

dark_jedi said:

Is there really a reason to include the Theatrical? just asking lol so please tell me why if so.

Some of the footage in the director's cut was actually replaced with alternate reduced-violence footage in the theatrical edition, so I figured it would be a worthy addition.

dark_jedi said:

We need the Criterion LD, if we can get that I will do the rip myself then, hell I just finished a bit accurate rip of the Halloween Criterion just today.

i have the cav ld. so that is covered :)

i now have a m-audio firewire 410 for audio capture.

zeropc said:

dark_jedi said:

We need the Criterion LD, if we can get that I will do the rip myself then, hell I just finished a bit accurate rip of the Halloween Criterion just today.

i have the cav ld. so that is covered :)

i now have a m-audio firewire 410 for audio capture.

And you are sure you are bit accurate? the last time we talked about this you were not or were not sure if you were, well with our projects we want to know for sure, so I will probably just pick this up from someone in the near future and do it myself.

last time i've talked about bit-perfect was direct capture with my mac.

but for the "are you sure" part regarding the m-audio fw 410: that's why i asked how to capture dts from a ld/cd. if that works, then it's bit-perfect. but there was no final answer to that question.

zeropc said:

last time i've talked about bit-perfect was direct capture with my mac.

but for the "are you sure" part regarding the m-audio fw 410: that's why i asked how to capture dts from a ld/cd. if that works, then it's bit-perfect. but there was no final answer to that question.

 

So you are not sure then, I will get the LD and do it on our end but thank you for the offer it is much appreciated.

i case i can verify it earlier, i'll let you guys know :)

Is the project in any way at all going through a colour correction process? I must say that none of the releases on DVD/blu-ray/HDTV have looked particularly great so far. Criterion is the most balanced, but still has its problems. 

There is a good comparison of the DVDs here:

http://sd.caps-a-holic.com/vergleich.php?vergleichID=52

And the blu-ray/hdtv/criterion here:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1266651/robocop-1987-unreleased-sony-vs-fox-blu-ray-comparison-pix

I've yet to find a definitive source for the original theatrical color, but I've been told that the Sony transfer is closer than the mgm release.I feel that the Sony transfer looks a lot better overall inspite of the contrast issues.

I don't think any of the HD versions are any good. This needs a proper 2k or 4k scan, without DNR and with the participation of Verhoeven. Until that happens any fan restoration will simply be subpar when it comes to the picture.

The hybrid cut was what inspired me to do this. I liked the look but the frame stuttering at the beginning and the lower resolution bothered me.  Sony did something really weird with their bluray. They used progressive video with nonstandard pulldown flags. The hybrid cut used frame dropping instead of removing the pulldown flags, which caused the stuttering. What's worse is that there are a handful of spots that used extra junk frames and left out the pulldown flags, causing the audio to end up a half second out of sync if you just remove the flags without adjusting for the messed up frames.

I don't want added grain. *sigh* That's just added noise because it isn't real.

We need a proper Blu-Ray. If they screw that one up, well then we have to do what we can. 

bigrob, I hope that's true and that next year we will see just such a release.

The Sony does not have the correct colour timing