STAR WARS - Special Widescreen Edition (Technidisc) (Released) — Page 3

cboy007 said:

So, this was done with a standalone DVD recorder? Can newer models convert letterbox to anamorphic?

Yes, it was captured on a standalone DVD recorder.

cboy007 said:

Can newer models convert letterbox to anamorphic?

I am really enjoying this transfer msycamore. Thanks for making it available.

Not sure what you mean, but I resized this transfer to 16:9 in Avisynth.

I'm glad you like it and you're welcome. :)

Here's a test sample I did before I finished this DVD with anti-aliasing applied: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GKO0OGP0

I just wanted to show you the trouble I was faced with regarding the aliasing and why I ultimately decided to go unfiltered.

Finished DVD on top, filtered at bottom:

^notice the almost eliminated starfield compared to the unfiltered.

^the ugly jaggies are gone but so are some of the fine detail with a softer image.

Hopefully there's a way to overcome these problems if I ever do a second one. The aliasing was a problem on every widescreen Laserdisc of SW until the Special Editions were released and as we know it only gets more apparent when resizing these old letterbox transfers to 16:9.

Thanks for making this available.

Even if its quite true this is the worst of the pressings on LD for the pre THX widescreen version, at least its a nice rarity and it looks like its from a different film source than the other ones.

There is more detail but as with laserdisc sometimes the softer transfers on an old crt looked better because they hid the problems in the video.

Analog Video Noise is something that always is anoying on laserdiscs.

An X0 player would help in this regard were the LD not plagued with problems.

But no Laserdisc of star wars is not free of problems.  The definitive collection had its own problems, and so did the JSC.

I don't think they were ever meant to be used as reconstructions of the oot, because in a sane world that would come from Lucas himself and 35mm film sources.

skyjedi2005 said:

Thanks for making this available.

Even if its quite true this is the worst of the pressings on LD for the pre THX widescreen version

You're welcome.

I would say it's only a choice between the JSC and this one, if you're not including the shrinking ratio one in various pressings. Have not seen the actual JSC LD to make a fair comparison.

skyjedi2005 said:

at least its a nice rarity and it looks like its from a different film source than the other ones. 

Most likely the same source the THX transfers are from.

skyjedi2005 said:

Analog Video Noise is something that always is anoying on laserdiscs.

An X0 player would help in this regard were the LD not plagued with problems.

I agree, most of what you're seeing on this transfer is unfortunately in the source. :( I got rid of most of the analog video noise by doing a 5-cap median in avisynth, as I understand it that is basically what the XO player does internally by averaging the result from 5 separate decoders. No other Laserdisc I have captured show this amount of chroma noise and rainbowing like this one do. Not that I doubt a better player and capturing method would get me better results.

Maybe I just play too many PC games, but the aliasing has never bothered me. Especially this transfer, seems much better than others.

I'm wondering if there might be some way to blend the VHS into the picture a little bit and see if that takes care of some of the rainbowing, but it's probably too far "out there". I'm looking at the caps I took, and it seems like there might be less of it (or at least it's in different spots maybe), but it's hard to tell as it was never that bad in any of those shots.

msycamore said:

I would say it's only a choice between the JSC and this one... Have not seen the actual JSC LD to make a fair comparison.

Well, the JSC has all of the colors smearing to the right, and in this one, the colors seem much more similar to the Technicolor print, so I'm really favoring it. I do notice some sharpening artifacts (they're much more noticable in Aluminum Falcon's captures), but it's not as bad looking as it is in the JSC.

Asaki said:

Maybe I just play too many PC games, but the aliasing has never bothered me. Especially this transfer, seems much better than others.

I'm wondering if there might be some way to blend the VHS into the picture a little bit and see if that takes care of some of the rainbowing, but it's probably too far "out there". I'm looking at the caps I took, and it seems like there might be less of it (or at least it's in different spots maybe), but it's hard to tell as it was never that bad in any of those shots.

I thought the JSC had less aliasing going by the few preservations I have seen but it has been some time since I watched them so I may be wrong. I have no idea how you would do such a thing as blend in VHS footage, but I really hate those chroma artifacts, Threepio looks like a damn christmas tree in some shots.

Asaki said:

I do notice some sharpening artifacts (they're much more noticable in Aluminum Falcon's captures), but it's not as bad looking as it is in the JSC.

The edge enhancement/haloing you're seeing is present in the source unfortunately, no sharpening was applied. What captures done by AF do you refer to?

Anyway, I'm glad that you like this one Asaki, hopefully you can now stop wear out your tape of this transfer. ;)

The Aluminum Falcon said:

Do you mean the ESB SWE disc I posted samples of?

Yeah.

Screen shots don't do this restoration justice.  Watching this side by side with a GOUT transfer, this is way more watchable. 

Of course, I've not been able to find a JSC transfer to compare it to :(

UPDATE:  Burned and tested on my HDTV.  This is now officially my go-to theatrical Star Wars.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

I think that some issues with the JSC were what was seen as incorrect color timing and a need to manually IVTC it.

Manual IVTC is always preferred if you want quality but yes, I have heard that those should be a real bitch to work on due to the often change in pulldown pattern, both d_j and arnie.d did a great job on those.

Darth Bizarro said:

Screen shots don't do this restoration justice.  Watching this side by side with a GOUT transfer, this is way more watchable. 

Of course, I've not been able to find a JSC transfer to compare it to :(

UPDATE:  Burned and tested on my HDTV.  This is now officially my go-to theatrical Star Wars.

I wouldn't call it a restoration but that's not a bad bit of praise you gave it. Is it really watchable on a HDTV? I cannot fully enjoy this one myself due to some wonky colors and contrast issues that bothers me but the positive feedback makes me even more willing to do an improved one later. :)

I definitely recommend you to check out arnie.d's "V8", it's still up on the newsgroup, I think there's also a single layer of it on demonoid but I do recommend the original authored one.

msycamore said:

Here's a test sample I did before I finished this DVD with anti-aliasing applied: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GKO0OGP0

I just wanted to show you the trouble I was faced with regarding the aliasing and why I ultimately decided to go unfiltered.

Not sure if I've asked this before, but what filter did you use to remove the aliasing?

I used nnedi2, the same command used in g-force's stabilizing script:

NNEDI2(dh=true, field=0)
NNEDI2(dh=false,field=1)

maybe something else is preferred?

Well, logically I'd suggest NNEDI3()...

Loads more options here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1419815

msycamore said:

Manual IVTC is always preferred if you want quality but yes, I have heard that those should be a real bitch to work on due to the often change in pulldown pattern

msycamore said:

Darth Bizarro said:

Screen shots don't do this restoration justice.  Watching this side by side with a GOUT transfer, this is way more watchable. 

Of course, I've not been able to find a JSC transfer to compare it to :(

UPDATE:  Burned and tested on my HDTV.  This is now officially my go-to theatrical Star Wars.

I wouldn't call it a restoration but that's not a bad bit of praise you gave it. Is it really watchable on a HDTV? I cannot fully enjoy this one myself due to some wonky colors and contrast issues that bothers me but the positive feedback makes me even more willing to do an improved one later. :)

I definitely recommend you to check out arnie.d's "V8", it's still up on the newsgroup, I think there's also a single layer of it on demonoid but I do recommend the original authored one.

Sorry, I ment preservation.  

It is far from perfect I know, but the lack of smearing really stands out and I like that it reminds me of watching my VHS without looking like total crap.  And the specs of dirt and scratches really make it look like film to me even if its an older transfer as oposed to the over processed mess on the GOUT.  

I'm pulling the demonoid version now.  If it looks like something I would watch regularly then I'll look into the newsgroup version.  Thanks.

Moth3r said:

Well, logically I'd suggest NNEDI3()...

Loads more options here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1419815

 That's great, I will check it out. Thanks!

Darth Mallwalker said:

JSC ANH is that way, with the pattern often changing mid-reel.

However in my experience both sequels aren't like that at all. They're quite straightforward.
Pulldown pattern changes only at reel changeovers.
Few months ago I developed .AVS scripts for IVTC'ing both sequels, starting from the hard-encoded Dark-Sega .VOB sources.
I know I know, it sounds like a big waste of time like polishing a turd, but there was a reasoning behind it. Those scripts were meant to be ported for Arnie.d's X9 captures . . .

A true hero working in the shadows, that's awesome! and will be very useful. :) Good to hear the sequels aren't that problematic.

Darth Bizarro said:

It is far from perfect I know, but the lack of smearing really stands out and I like that it reminds me of watching my VHS without looking like total crap.  And the specs of dirt and scratches really make it look like film to me even if its an older transfer as oposed to the over processed mess on the GOUT.  

I fully agree with you. I just tend to overly focusing on what is wrong with it instead of enjoying it for what it is.

Holy crap! I finally got around to looking through this and simply could not turn it off!! This is now my personal favorite SW behind the Puggo.

The colors look brilliant and saturated. The sound mix is clear. AND THERE IS NO SMEARING!!

So to find a LD copy, is the only way to tell on the cover if the disc is the Technidisc pressing is if it says "Made in the USA"?

Also, does this use the 85 Stereo remix?

captainsolo said:

So to find a LD copy, is the only way to tell on the cover if the disc is the Technidisc pressing is if it says "Made in the USA"?

msycamore said:

A true hero working in the shadows, that's awesome! and will be very useful. :) Good to hear the sequels aren't that problematic.

captainsolo said:

Holy crap! I finally got around to looking through this and simply could not turn it off!! This is now my personal favorite SW behind the Puggo.

The colors look brilliant and saturated. The sound mix is clear. AND THERE IS NO SMEARING!!

Also, does this use the 85 Stereo remix?

I'm glad you like it, captainsolo. :) Yes, this LD and this preservation have the '85 Stereo remix, remember that you can remux it with any NTSC GOUT synced track if you prefer to have a different mix on it, that's what I did.

Yeah, I wanted to be that guy. But now reading some recent posting, it seems my offer was (silently) rejected, after having been accepted intially. I'm gonna go sulk for a while

Can you elaborate on this, not sure I get what you mean. Haven't arnie.d said he would be happy to send his X9-captures to anyone who is willing to work on them? Not sure if anyone did take his offer though, would love to see them completed.

Arnie.d was offering Harmy his X9 JSC captures for use with the despecialized edition, so he hasn't completely disappeared.  I'm sure he wouldn't mind handing it off to someone else, too...

One of these days I need to seriously clean out my hard drive. I would totally give it a try if I had the space.