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The Ewok Adventure (a.k.a. Caravan of Courage) & Ewoks: The Battle For Endor television preservation

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 (Edited)

Going through all of the Star Wars movies with my oldest son leading up to the release of the new movie, I recalled these forgotten telemovies from 1984 and 1985. First, unlike the Holiday Special, I AM aware they’ve been released commercially – on VHS, laserdisc and on DVD (I have the DVD sitting on my shelf at home). I recalled I had first generation VHS recordings at my parents’ house. So this is a “preservation” in the loose sense. I’m preserving them as they originally aired on television on my local channel with most or all of the commercials intact and the first movie, The Ewok Adventure, has since been renamed for official release as “Caravan of Courage.”

I did my first transfer from VCR to Hauppauge USB Live 2 video capture last night. Unfortunately, my Panasonic AG-1960 S-VHS isn’t working properly and I need to get it repaired or replaced, so I used a lesser VCR.

I’d like to do a version 2.0, second transfer. Does anyone else happen to have a VHS recording of these movies which includes the end credits? My movies are complete with all (or most) of the commercials, but they are missing the end credits. I’d also love to grab the movie of the week intro leading in to The Ewok Adventure too. If anyone has these, I’d love to borrow them. Please send me a PM. Obviously what I’d like to transfer is very little footage and can be done in no time flat. I’d also like to transfer using an S-VHS deck. If I can get mine repaired or borrow one (anyone?) or replace it.

This is kind of a fun little time capsule to preserve these movies as I first saw them.
Until the Force Awakens, may the Force be with you.

 

Mod Edit:

tbird’s superseded this project with his 2017 released… The Ewok movies; ‘The Ewok Adventure’ and ‘The Battle for Endor’ - TV Preservation (Released)

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 (Edited)

I’m still struggling with my tv broadcast captures of The Ewok Adventure and Ewoks The Battle for Endor.

I got a nice little capture in mpeg2 format using the ArcSoft Showbiz software that came with my Hauppauge USB-Live2 capture card.

I’m really impressed with the WHIO capture of the Star Wars Holiday Special that Tasjo did and trying to duplicate that effort, with little success.
Trying to capture an AVI in VirtualDub (v1.10.4), I can capture (and with no dropped frames), using that Hauppauge USB Live-2 card, but my audio and video are not synced.

I have the Huffuv codec installed.

My settings are this:

From the main menu:
Video:
Filters – none
Frame Rate – I’ve tried the options “No change” and also “Change so video and audio durations match”
Frame Rate conversion = process all frames

Color Depth:
Decompression Format = Autoselect
Output format to Compressor/display = 24 bit RGB (888) – should this be 4:2:2 YCbCr (YUY2)?

Compression: Huffyuv v2.1.1
Under Configure:
YUY2 compression mode = predict median
RGB compression method = convert to YUY2
Nothing else is checked

Video:
I capture in Direct Stream Copy

Audio:
Interleaving = checked the box “Enable audio/video interleaving”
Audio block placement = 500 ms of audio before video starts
Interleave audio every = 1 frame
Audio skew correction = Delay audio track by 0 ms

I’ve tried capturing in both Direct Stream copy and also Full Processing mode
When using Full processing mode, under the audio options:
Compression = No compression (PCM)

Conversion:
Sampling Rate = no change
High quality = unchecked
Precision = no change
Channels = no change

Under Options:
Sync to Audio

Now I go to the CAPTURE AVI AVI mode and my settings are this:

Device: Hauppauge CX23100 Video Capture (Direct Show)
Under VIDEO:
I capture blind using No Display

Video Source = currently Video Composite (for my first capture). My Panasonic AG-1980 is in the shop, once I get a first composite capture down, and this thing is working correctly, I’ll do an S-Video capture

Capture Pin:
Video Standard = NTSC_M
Frame Rate = 29.970
Color Space compression = YUY2
Output size = 720 x 480

Crossbar:
Input = 0: Video Composite in (again, I’ll do another later on in S-video when the Panasonic VCR is working correctly)
Output = 0: Video decoder out
Link Related Streams = unchecked (I believe I’ve tried checking it as well)

Compression:
Compression: Huffyuv v2.1.1
Under Configure:
YUY2 compression mode = predict median
RGB compression method = convert to YUY2
Nothing else is checked

Set Custom Format:
Frame Size = 720x480
Data format = YUY2 YUV 4:2:2 interleaved

Still in Capture, under the Audio options:
Enable Audio Capture
Enable Audio Playback is unchecked during my blind captures

Raw Capture Format:
PCM 48000Hz, stereo, 16-bit

Compression: No compression (PCM)
Audio Source = audio line
0 Capture Device

Under Capture:
Timing = drop frames when captured frames are too close together = unchecked
Insert null frames when captured frames are too far apart = unchecked

Resync mode= sync audio to video by resampling audio to a faster or slower rate
(I have also tried sync video to audio by adjusting video timing)

Audio latency determination: Automatic
Number of Audio blocks to use at start = 30

Direct Show options:
The only one checked is “Force audio clock when audio playback is enabled”

My computer stats are:

Processor: Intel Core ™ i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 8.00 GB

When I capture, I’m not dropping any frame rates. The video looks good. Audio seems to sound okay, it’s just not synced and I’m not sure how to get it synced. I feel like I’m close, but at my wits end trying to solve this problem and haven’t gotten any closer.
The first movie runs about 1 hour, 43 minutes (some commercials were cut, not all)
The Battle For Endor runs just shy of 2 hours long.

The Ewok Adventure, captured with both video and audio in direct stream, is 44.6 GB
The same movie, captured with both in full processing mode is 43 GB
Ewoks The Battle for Endor, also captured with both video and audio in direct stream is 63.8GB

I’d really like to do a nice preservation/capture as these appeared on tv on my local channel. My videos are complete except for a couple of commercials and missing the end credits of both movies. If someone has another over air copy, I’d love to splice those in to complete them.

Any assistance is appreciated. May the Force with with you.

 

Mod Edit: an later / updated thread can be found here:-

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Ewoks-television-movies-available-The-Ewok-Adventure-and-Ewoks-The-Battle-for-Endor-TV-preservation/id/57987/page/1