The Lost World: Jurassic Park [ruLes] - BD RELEASED

_,,,^..^,,,_ presents the  JP2 [ruLes] project

The Lost World: Jurassic Park restored using Laserdisc editions

Project mission: restore The Lost World: Jurassic Park using audio and video from various Laserdisc editions.

Video sources: analog video captured directly from Laserdiscs.

Audio sources: uncompressed PCM, AC3 and DTS soundtracks captured directly from Laserdiscs.

Subtitles sources: Based on Blu-Ray commercial release.

Project prohibition: to use DVD, BD, DVB, HDTV or any other audio or video from any digital sources.

Supplemental material: maybe will be released in a future version.

JP2 [ruLes]

Source Material

Video: laserdiscs

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park - NTSC THX U.S. DTS CLV

Audio: laserdiscs

• Il Mondo Perduto: Jurassic Park - PAL Italian CLV
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park - NTSC THX U.S. AC3 CLV
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park - NTSC THX U.S. DTS CLV

• Le Monde Perdu: Jurassic Park- PAL French CLV

Subtitles: english (full), italian and french (full and forced).

Capture setup & processing info

Hardware:

• Pioneer DVL-909 PAL/NTSC laserdisc/DVD player
• Pioneer RFD-1 AC3 demodulator

• Sony Vaio VGX-XL202 PC CPU Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz, 3GB RAM, 250GB+320GB HDDs
  
• AverMedia BDA A16C internal video capture card (with Philips SAA713x chipset)
• Western Digital Elements 1TB external USB HD
  

• Monster Cable S-Video 5pin cable (very high quality)
• SONY optical S/PDIF cable (very high quality)
• no-brand coaxial cable (very high quality)
  

Software:

• VirtualDub as capture software
• VirtualDub and AviSynth for video editing
• AviSynth + SoundOut and Foobar2000 for audio conversions
• Audacity to sync french laserdisc soundtrack
• tsMuxeR and GDSMux for muxing/demuxing

Settings:

• video captured at card native resolution 720x480 @29.97fps (NTSC), YUV Lagarith lossless compression
• PCM digital audio from Laserdisc to PC via S/PDIF bit-perfect 16bit 44.1KHz stereo
• DTS digital audio from Laserdisc to PC via S/PDIF bit-perfect 16bit 44.1KHz 5.1
• AC3 digital audio from Laserdisc to PC via S/PDIF bit-perfect 16bit 48KHz 5.1 (via AC3 demodulator)

Project status: RELEASED - you could find it on myspleen

Captures:

I finally decided to use the DTS NTSC laserdisc for video, as it seems that PAL laserdisc is only a NTSC-to-PAL conversion and has some issues. For audio, I captured the italian soundtrack from the PAL laserdisc, the english DTS soundtrack from the DTS NTSC laserdisc, and the AC3 soundtrack from the AC3 NTSC laserdisc via the RF demodulator.

Video treatment:

whole video is from the DTS NTSC laserdisc; derainbowing, little noise reduction (new script used, less aggressive) and sharpen; no color correction, only levels are adjusted minimally - saturation, brightness and contrast; upconversion from NTSC 720x480 4:3 to 1280x720 16:9.

Video tracks:

• the original NTSC video format is 720x480@29.97fps 1.85:1 letterbox, telecined, with a video resolution of visible image around 700x346; video is upconverted to 1280x692 1.85:1, inside a 1280x720pixel 16:9 frame, using x264 code, double pass, bitrate used for BD is 16,5MBPS; IVTC applied to obtain the (near) theatrical frame rate of 23.976fps.

Audio treatment:

the original soundtracks are: U.S. laserdisc DTS THX 16bit 44.1KHz 1441kbps 5.1 discrete surround in english; U.S. laserdisc AC3 THX 16bit 48KHz 384kbps 5.1 discrete surround in english; PAL laserdiscs for italian and french, PCM 16bit 44.1KHz 1441kbps stereo, Dolby Surround encoded.

All the soundtracks will be converted only when necessary; from PAL 25fps to 23.976fps (pitch corrected); from 44.1KHz to 48KHz.

BD Audio tracks:

• english soundtrack from U.S. NTSC DTS THX laserdisc, DTS 5.1 Digital Surround converted to 1536kbps 48KHz
• english soundtrack from U.S. NTSC AC3 THX laserdisc, original untouched AC3 5.1 384kbps 48KHz
• english soundtrack from U.S. NTSC AC3 THX laserdisc, PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround Encoded converted to 1536kbps 48KHz (maybe later)
  
• italian soundtrack from italian PAL laserdisc, PCM 2.0 Dolby Surround Encoded converted to 1536kbps 48KHz
• french soundtrack from french PAL laserdisc, PCM 2.0  Dolby Surround Encoded converted to 1536kbps 48KHz

Subtitles: based on the commercial Blu-Ray; SRT format, english full, italian (literal, transcripted from dialogs) and french full and forced.

Final formats:

• BD folder, 720p/23.976fps with four audio tracks (including DTS) and english subtitles. -> RELEASED!
  
• AVCHD folder, 720p/23.976fps with three audio tracks and english subtitles.

Jobs to do for the next version:

• finishing the italian subtitles
• transcribe the french dialogs to do french literal subtitles
• adding the eventual german laserdisc soundtracks, if someone will provide them
• adding the corrisponding subtitles (possibly literal) for the eventual german soundtrack

To do later (maybe):

• author AVCHD and Blu-Ray discs properly (menus, audio and sub tracks etc.)

Credits:

• ilovewaterslides for the french laserdisc PCM soundtrack!

Self comments: This is the companion project of Jurassic Park [ruLes]; altough I have not JP2 captures from BD to make comparisons, I'm pretty sure JP2 is like JP1, so probably its picture is cropped more than the laserdisc, and the colors are different too.

Test clip (50MB, 40 secs., 1280x720 1.85:1 23.976fps, X264 @8mbps, DTS & AC3): sendspace

First capture done! PAL italian laserdisc, three sides, 0 dropped frames, 0 inserted frames! Tomorrow I'll do the next captures.

I am still a bit in the fog on this and his other Jurassic park project. Are the released blurays screwed up? Other than the sound I am not following the point of all the various video sources being used

Captures are going on... I finished the three PAL captures and the DTS one; I'll do today the AC3 and the english PCM ones...

Papai2013 said:

The PAL disks fade out at the end of a disk, and fade in on the other end. The NTSC discs don't, hence the NTSC ones are used in those particular scenes. 

Papai was right, as he was referring to what I've written in the first post, in the project info: this is true for JP1, but not for JP2... infact, during the JP2 captures, I noted that the PAL laserdisc this time has not fades in/out, but just a cut, so there is no need for NTSC video - I updated the first post to reflect this.

Its all explained by the undertaker...

Didn't know I was a funeral director... or am I a WWE fighter? (^^,)

Papai2013 said:

In JP2 PAL disc, by "cut" I assume you are talking about a stop without fade rather than the end of the scene cut out, right?

Yes, a straight cut.

damn double post- read the next one

Papai2013 said:

tranzor said:

I am still a bit in the fog on this and his other Jurassic park project. Are the released blurays screwed up? Other than the sound I am not following the point of all the various video sources being used

The Bluray release features a cropped video and altered soundmix (sounds were added that weren't there originally).

The aspect ratio is still 1.85:1, but the framing has been changed and zoomed-into, cutting off picture information from all four sides. Though only certain scenes are not too heavily cropped and display different framing than the laserdiscs.

The JP[rules] project was undertaken to restore the wider and taller (in most cases) laserdisc framing and the original 5.1 DTS track (also used theatrically). As for using different video sources- The PAL disks fade out at the end of a disk, and fade in on the other end. The NTSC discs don't, hence the NTSC ones are used in those particular scenes. 

Its all explained by the undertaker, in the project introduction at the top of the first page, so have a look.

Ahhh. Thanks for the info. Curious is the Japanese LD release for the Lost world needed for this project at all? For what I can recall thought it had a better looking picture than the US LD version

I finished to capture everything; aligned the three italian captures perfectly for the median process; still working on audio parts.

tranzor said:

Ahhh. Thanks for the info. Curious is the Japanese LD release for the Lost world needed for this project at all? For what I can recall thought it had a better looking picture than the US LD version

I don't know if the japanese NTSC version of JP2 is better than the US NTSC... as I have not it, I couldn't use it into my project; but, as PAL has better resolution, I decided to use the italian laserdisc for the video part.

What about the MUSE version? Anyone have it? I can capture MUSE discs in hidef if someone has the discs.

poita, I'm sorry there is no MUSE version of "The Lost World"; here you are a list of all MUSE laserdiscs released; anyway, if someone will borrow you the MUSE disc of "Jurassic Park", I'm interested to obtain the capture...

I strongly reccomend to start a MUSE thread, because you are one of the few with MUSE player, decoder, and a high-def capture card! What luck!

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

I finished to capture everything; aligned the three italian captures perfectly for the median process; still working on audio parts.

tranzor said:

Ahhh. Thanks for the info. Curious is the Japanese LD release for the Lost world needed for this project at all? For what I can recall thought it had a better looking picture than the US LD version

I don't know if the japanese NTSC version of JP2 is better than the US NTSC... as I have not it, I couldn't use it into my project; but, as PAL has better resolution, I decided to use the italian laserdisc for the video part.

understood, but if you ever find (for whatever reason) a need in your project for the Japanese disc, let me know because I have it

Audio processing is (almost) over; italian PCM and english DTS and AC3 are ready; only english PCM is missing - don't know if/or preserve analog soundtrack, though...

tranzor said:

understood, but if you ever find (for whatever reason) a need in your project for the Japanese disc, let me know because I have it

Which version (reference nr.) have you?

_,,,^..^,,,_ said:

Audio processing is (almost) over; italian PCM and english DTS and AC3 are ready; only english PCM is missing - don't know if/or preserve analog soundtrack, though...

tranzor said:

understood, but if you ever find (for whatever reason) a need in your project for the Japanese disc, let me know because I have it

Which version (reference nr.) have you?

disc has 2- the upper has CIC video: UD104566

and along the bottom we have PILF-2560

back in the day there was a rumor that the theatrical Japanese version of the film was a bit bloodier than the standard theatrical in the US. The  Japanese LD was also supposed to have had this cut of the film but it was all false rumors. Still the picture looks very nice

DTS and AC3 soundtracks are ready; video is processing.

Meanwhile, I've added a test clip at the end of the first post: check it out!

tranzor said:

...PILF-2560

back in the day there was a rumor that the theatrical Japanese version of the film was a bit bloodier than the standard theatrical in the US. The  Japanese LD was also supposed to have had this cut of the film but it was all false rumors. Still the picture looks very nice

I'm sure the picture quality is good, but I've made comparison between the PAL italian and NTSC US DTS and AC3, and the PAL is better, as it has 20% more vertical resolution; the japanese LD picture, even if it could have a better quality than US, have the same vertical resolution.

Thanks for the offer, if you have any other laserdisc that you like to use for a preservation project, send me a P.M.

I posted a second test clip at the end of the first post; this time I added also DTS and AC3 sounds; I wrongly calculated the lenght of the PAL video, so audio is shorter, but this is only a test clip, after all...

I used the same settings of JP [ruLes] for video; feedbacks about both video and audio quality are welcome!

Thanks to ilovewaterslides; he sent me the french laserdisc soundtrack, and I've just finished to sync it!

This is the same footage of clip #1, but this time it's the untouched PAL italian capture, taken with DVL-909 via S-Video; take a look at it and let me know what do you think: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ht3ehk (39MB)

Papai2013 said:

Yes, try to reduce the noise reduction to the level of JP[rules] version!

...

So don't worry, we will wait. Just take your time and try to do a less aggressive "video noise reduction" next time.

Actually, I used the very same script used to upscale and denoise JP1...

Also, see if you can find a better video source (preferably PAL) from a friend or someone around. But if PAL is like this, look at NTSC as the next best option. An NTSC CAV disc perhaps. Is the AC3 LD a CAV one or CLV? The DTS is surely CLV. And you can use Tranzor's Japanese LD video as well if it has better quality.

The THX certified Laserdiscs have better quality, even if they are NTSC, try to make some captures of the Video fro the NTSC THX discs (both DTS and AC3) and see which looks better compared to the PAL one. And do as little noise reduction as possible, without sacrificing much detail, unlike what happened with the PAL video.

I'll try, but my IVTC skill is below zero...

Also, I noticed in the second video, the aspect ratio is much shorter in height than what 1.85:1 should be on a 16:9 screen.

???

1280/1.85=681.89... clip #2 has an height of 682 pixels... as clip #1...

Jetrell Fo said:

I checked out the first clip.  The video looks a little hazy in the earth-tones and to be dnr'd a bit .... 

What about the second one? What do you think about the DTS and AC3 soundtracks? It will be interesting to make a comparison of JP1 and JP2 DTS soundtracks, laserdisc Vs theatrical...