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The Cowclops Transfers (a.k.a. the PCM audio DVD's, Row47 set) Info and Feedback Thread (Released) — Page 27

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I meant where on Myspleen.

<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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Originally posted by: MoveAlong
Just read on myspleen that Rik had a private viewing of cowclops2 ESB and the demo disc with other OT fans. They rated 7 transfers and cowclops2 came in #6, as in next to last, ahead of only the quality broth set. This seems hard to believe after months of reading this thread and looking forward to this set. I don't have the discs yet. Any comments, concerns?
Not watched this all the way through, but first impression is that Cowclops V2 is the best anamorphic NTSC version yet.

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I also posted a comment on spleen also. I agree with Rikters review. I was expecting this DVD to be totally awesome also. I have only watched EP4 but I'm probably going to cancel the rest since I don't see any reason to waste dvd's. Great effort but I agree the original Cowclops(TR47) is far more superior. The chapter selection menu is pretty sweet though
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Some of you say it's a great transfer while others bitch about it... I think the problem lies in that you need to lower your brightness so that you can just barely tell a difference between the 2 black borders. Once you do this the black levels will look correct. If I recall, Cowclops stated this was a necessity because he had to compromise between black depth and image detail, and if it is too dark you lose shadow detail and the stars' luminence.
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could someone just link the review on myspleen, please.

I can never find anything on those forums.

Thanks.
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Originally posted by: weapon
could someone just link the review on myspleen, please.

I can never find anything on those forums.

Thanks.


Here you go
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Thanks. I forgot that you could post comment under the releases. No wonder I could not find it.

***Edit****

Now that I have seen the review I have some questions:

I have the v1 but my main complaint is the black pause during the LD flip.

Didn't someone fix that and re-release it?

If the blacks are so bad in V2 but the menu is so good. Could someone take the video (fixed) from v1 and put it together with the cool motion menus from v2, thus making the best set until X0 is finished?
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"Didn't someone fix that and re-release it?"

I was under the impression that the ROW47 version fixed this.

<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 thought so but I could not remember who did it.

Now if we can get someone to take the best of v1 and v2 and put them together. We could have a disk that most would agree was is good if not great.

Rowman, are you listening?

I would also like to get my hands on those row47 discs! How would I go about getting those?
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I do recognize and appreciate Cowclops's desire to capture the LD as close to the original image as possible and seeing as how I have a cheap TV and quite a bit of time on my hands I have no problem adjusting the picture level for this particular disc. Actually a solution some of you might want to try to give this DVD a fair shake is write down all of the numbers for your picture settings, re-calibrate it for these DVD's and then when you want to watch normal DVDs just put 'em back in. Yeah, kinda obvious advice ("remember to breath when you need oxygen!") but I'm crap with remembering numbers so it helped me out and now I know I can easily go back to my calibrated settings for movies not captured from a laserdisc.

Now here's a question that I don't believe has been asked about these sets: Yes I recognize that laserdisc black is not DVD black and I understand why you would capture it "as is" so as not to lose detail, but are laserdisc COLOR levels any different? What I mean is aside from adjusting the brightness and contrast to get the two black bars to match should I also be fiddling around with the color settings? And can ANYONE give me an opinion on sharpness? I read a home theater guide that said you should turn sharpness all the way down because any setting above 0 is artificial sharpening (i.e. "edge enhancement") but I've never read said advice anywhere else and I'm wondering if that guy was just wrong.

Also something I noticed that I think might be an inherent problem with the laserdisc itself is that the very first scene (title/crawl/pan down to Star Destroyer) has a different black level than the rest of the movie, and I can't remember which but there were a couple other scenes where my very carefully blackened bars would suddenly appear grey again. Oh, and I did notice color noise in some blacks (particularly star fields), is that a result of capturing from LD as well? Lastly I noticed in areas that were comprised of one solid color that there would be some "guessing", I wish I knew the right term for this but basically it wouldn't look like a solid color but in stead a kind of sun bloom of different shades of that color very quickly moving around.

Sorry for the LOOONG post but I just wanted to say in a nutshell that I really dig this transfer. I don't have a 16x9 television so I can't appreciate the anamorphic aspect but once I played around with the picture settings I had it looking very nice on my 35", definitely the Star Wars I love. Also my little brother watched it on his 19" and I noticed that the smaller the TV you put it on and the further away you get from it the better it looks, I know that's true of ANY image but with this DVD in particular I was really hit by it, from a good distance where I couldn't notice all the noise and other ugly little bits of laserdisc problems it looked just like a professionally made DVD.
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Originally posted by: weapon
I thought so but I could not remember who did it.

Now if we can get someone to take the best of v1 and v2 and put them together. We could have a disk that most would agree was is good if not great.

Rowman, are you listening?

I would also like to get my hands on those row47 discs! How would I go about getting those?

I'd love to take on a project like that, but my computer and software limitations won't allow it. Feel free to email me directly at rwafford1 at yahoo dot com for the "Row47" trilogy. I can only snail-mail discs, though. Aren't they available for download anywhere?

I will agree that this new TR47/ Cowclops trilogy is a great anamorphic transfer (better than the Dr. Gonzo IMHO), but I just don't like having to adjust my TV first. Still, this was a fantastic effort and I for one am most appreciative.

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are laserdisc COLOR levels any different?

My first inclination is to say no, though the brighter black level of the LD's and these DVDs leaves color saturation lower than we're used to on official DVDs. I increased the color level slightly for the old TR47's, I'd reccomend you do it conservatively because all you are really doing is adding red to the picture.

I read a home theater guide that said you should turn sharpness all the way down


I'd say that advice is not always correct. While you should always do what you can to turn off edge enhancement circuits or "VM" as it's sometimes called, turning the sharpness control all the way down on most CRT TV sets will yield too soft of a picture- you will actually lose resolution. Most sets I've worked with have a neutral sharpness position, and it's commonly smack in the middle of the scale. Pop in an official DVD that has the THX test package (Star Wars prequels) to bring up a test pattern for sharpness, and you'll be able to tell pretty quickly if lowering sharpness to zero harms the resolution of your set.

The color noise in the blacks on Cowclops is often the result of a special effects matte, and it's most apparent when the star destroyer first appears onscreen during ANH. I'd say your brightness level could be lowered a bit more. Hope this helps.
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I just finished watching a tiny bit of the new version and my opinion:

Eh.

Once you calibrate your television, you notice that the colors are better than the first version. It's in anamorphic so anyone with a 16x9 television will rejoice. The commentary track is nice and the menus are excellent as well.

But when when you come down to it, there really isn't anything revolutionary about this transfer. It's not any sharper or cleaner than the first version, so don't expect a miracle.

If you want an anamorphic transfer of the TR-47 bootleg, this is the one to get. Otherwise, for those with 4x3 televisions, I recommend sticking with the first versions.

Just my two cents.

Not to diss the makers: there will definitely be people who will enjoy this version a lot better than me. But seeing as I only own a 4x3 television, I'm perfectly satisfied with the first one.

What’s the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke warm.

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I kinda thought the original CC was better as well when I first saw the demo clip. I mean some technical problems were fixed and all, but still...
(Not to be an ass but: ) if you are looking for less technically accurate, but more pleasing visually, you might want to check clips of the discs I'm working on.

Dr. M

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Well, after much trouble, I finally got Empire seeding...

Sorry about that...
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Just downloaded Rikters NTSC Laserdisc Transfers Demo DVD from MySpleen (I definitely suggest ppl get it if unsure which transfer to get hold of), and thought, since CowClops v2 is the hot topic at the moment, to post my views of its relation to the other transfers here. Oh, and rememeber this is just my review of the Demo DVD clips, so if there are glaring flaws in other parts of the films, I aint seen em.

OK, to cut it short, here's my choices in order, best at the top.

Cowclops v2.0
Cowclops v1.0
EditDroid
Dr Gonzo
ISOMIX
Farsight
Quality Broth

I watched them really up close on my 19' CRT monitor, so people watching them on massive projected walls or TVs may disagree, but thats a fair enough. Its also the first time I got to watch the EditDroid version as well, which is a beautiful transfer, and is actually better than CowClops' version IF ONLY it weren't for the lower quality audio (which is quite noticable) and especially the nasty Dot Crawl I kept catching. Gah, if it werent for that dot crawl (which unfortunately bugs me far too much) I reckon it would be the best video transfer to date. Dr Gonzo is very pretty with nice audio, but it has been softened too much for my liking and you lose so much subtle detail. To be fair, the last three are old, but the top 4 are far superior, but good efforts anyway (well, ISOMIX is WAY too bright losing loads of detail and the Quality Broth version is rather nasty and noisy, but I'm not wanting to be harsh).

So well done CowClops, I think you have managed to produce the best NTSC transfer so far, but I was a little surprised so many people have been raving about how v2 is supposedly "INFINITELELY" better than v1.0? To be honest, I can see very little difference, slightly stronger colours, but there is very little between the two. I think it only really improves due to correcting errors evident in v1, like the Leia welding side change and no more chroma compression blockiness due to the DV capturing. Audio in v2 is slightly better though since it isnt overdriven like in v1. But basically, if you're happy with CowClops v1 (esp if you have the RowMan version) and you arent obsessed with collecting all of the different available versions, stick with it as there is very little difference between them.

Just my opinion of course and don't shout at me for writing all this in this thread, its also my way of saying congrats to CowClops

.... right, all eyes on the XO boys!

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Just so you know, the EditDroid audio was taken from the 1989 LD set (1985 mix), which is why it doesn't sound as strong as audio taken from the DC or Faces sets (same audio track). It is, however, closer to the original mix which is the whole point of the EditDroid-an attempt to recreate the films as they were seen theatrically. The 89 LD mix does not include the added sound effects or 4 channel surround effects, I believe.
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I did not know that about the EditDroid set, TR47. Thanks for the info.

/already has the EditDroid set
//downloading the CC² set currently
///slashity slash
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"///slashity slash"

LOL

<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've added screenshots from Cowclops' latest transfer here.

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Hi everybody, I'm new here.

I just wanted to say thanks to cowclops. I own a copy of the ANH transfer and I love it. Although there is a greenish tint at times, it's so great just to see the original, unaltertered films the way I remember them! I wish Lucas would rerelease all the theatrical cuts, but remastered by Lowry digital for added clearness.
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From the NTSC versions I've seen (Dr Gonzo, Editdroid, Cowclops v2) they aren't I feel are clear enough to be displayed on a projected screen and look good, the NTSC testing I did of my own definitive LDs looked ok (a little clearer than the 3 aforementioned sets I have) but none of the NTSC source versions stand up to the PAL transfers for image clarity. The detail just isn't there on the NTSC LDs, especially the jagged edges on horizontal/near horizontal lines of the definitive set.
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I am having some problems playing the movies on my stand-alone player. All 3 movies skip and stutter 3 times each. I'm guessing that it happens when changing to the next VOB-file, but I don't know for sure. I'm wondering if my dvd-player is acting up or if there's anything I can do to fix it (like re-authoring the discs).