The SWOLT ANHV8 Preservation Project (* unfinished project *)

Hello everyone! This is my first post to the OT forum, but I doubt it’ll be my last.

I’m working on a project to: (1) improve the quality of V8 as much as possible and (2) bring it as close to the original theatrical release (hereafter TR) as possible.

I’m using a herein unnamed commercial/proprietary intra-frame noise reduction filter and the results are nothing less than amazing; e.g., my spouse literally gasped at some of the side-by-sides I presented. It’s my understanding that intra-frame noise reduction (without temporal smoothing, of course) will not cause the DVNR smearing that we all loathe. Since V8 is free of any smearing, it seems to be the best source for this project.

I have some important questions to answer before moving on with the project.

Film Questions

1. Which rip of ANH should be used for color-correction?
2. Does the crawl in GOUT differ from the TR?
3. Do the credits in GOUT differ from the TR?
4. Do Greedo’s subtitles in V8 differ from the TR?
5. Does the “rating card” go before or after the film?

Tech Questions

1. What’s the best AviSynth filter (or script) to correct dust/dirt/pops/spots?
2. Should I expect any issues in aligning my V8 edit to GOUT? (That is, I want frameX in GOUT = frameY in my V8 edit.)
3. Does the following sound like a good idea? {color-match GOUT}→{add GOUT’s crawl and credits to the beginning and end, respectively}→{color-correct to another (better) source}.

I'm going to do my best to answer these, but keep in mind that I have less knowledge about this than many other here, so if you get conflicting answers, defer to them.

Film Questions

1. I'd actually use Harmy's workprints for his Despecialized V2 project, and eventually his final V2 product.  AFAICT all home video versions of Star Wars have their color pretty badly mucked with.  Harmy's actually using high-quality film scans as a reference, but since he cannot share those references, you can still benefit from them by using Harmy's project as a color reference.

2. Some contention here.  I believe it's a recreation, but a really really painstakingly good one.  Not significantly different.

3. I don't think so, aside from the weird John Williams spacing issues that weren't even present in all TR prints.

4. I believe so.  Again for TR correctness, I'd go with Harmy's V2 workprints or his final product.  Or you could contact You_Too, who created them.

5. I believe after.

I can't even try to answer the tech questions.  I am a complete AviSynth novice.

Welcome here!

You're starting with V8 DVD?
Instead of MPEG-2, why not start with lossless X9 capture?
I'ts available on Usenet.

To one of your questions, V8 (and X9 and JSC in general) are missing quite a few frames compared to GOUT.
Surrounding reel changeovers, and also mid-reel.
The missing frame numbers are documented in my IVTC script for X9 cap, which is also on usenet.

Darth Mallwalker said:

Welcome here!

You're starting with V8 DVD?
Instead of MPEG-2, why not start with lossless X9 capture?
I'ts available on Usenet.

To one of your questions, V8 (and X9 and JSC in general) are missing quite a few frames compared to GOUT.
Surrounding reel changeovers, and also mid-reel.
The missing frame numbers are documented in my IVTC script for X9 cap, which is also on usenet.

I just lost my Usenet access yesterday, actually. I have X0's original captures (35GB of lossless Huffyuv AVIs). Will those work OK?

X0 project team used HLD-X0 player to capture Definitive Collection laserdisc.
Like GOUT, DC LD have DNVR smearing.

Arnie.d and friends captured Japanese Special Collection using HLD-X9 player.
JSC don't have DVNR. V8 project began with capture of JSC discs, using LD-V800 player.

CatBus said:

2. Some contention here.  I believe it's a recreation, but a really really painstakingly good one.  Not significantly different.

Would you care to elaborate on why you believe the crawl was a recreation? And when you say so do you mean only just the crawl or the entire opening shot?

Darth Mallwalker said:

X0 project team used HLD-X0 player to capture Definitive Collection laserdisc.
Like GOUT, DC LD have DNVR smearing.

Arnie.d and friends captured Japanese Special Collection using HLD-X9 player.
JSC don't have DVNR. V8 project began with capture of JSC discs, using LD-V800 player.

I now have a copy of the X9 capture (it's huge!), but it seems to be heavily interlaced. Did V8 do any de-interlacing prior to release?

What do you mean by heavily interaced? It's either interlaced, or it isn't.

Or it might appear to be interlaced on some frames but is in actual fact telecined with 3:2 pulldown, which is the more likely case.

BTW didn't you used to be JediTray?

Moth3r said:

What do you mean by heavily interaced? It's either interlaced, or it isn't.

Or it might appear to be interlaced on some frames but is in actual fact telecined with 3:2 pulldown, which is the more likely case.

BTW didn't you used to be JediTray?

By "heavily interlaced" I meant that I see many lines when watching the video. I just read doom9's tutorial on interlacing, so I now understand why my previous post is confusing.

I think it may be telecined. I'm going to do the 5-frame-check tonight.

I'm 100% new to this forum. I've never heard of any JediTray...

Moth3r said:

What do you mean by heavily interaced? It's either interlaced, or it isn't.

Or it might appear to be interlaced on some frames but is in actual fact telecined with 3:2 pulldown, which is the more likely case.

BTW didn't you used to be JediTray?

OK, you're definitely correct about the telecining, as Virtualdub's Telecide filter takes care of it nicely. My only issue is that I need to get the frame offset correct for it to work. Does AviSynth have a better plugin available?

I believe Darth Mallwalker has already created an AviSynth script to IVTC the X9 capture.

TV's Frink said:

 

Moth3r said:

BTW didn't you used to be JediTray?

Oooh, now I'm interested in this project!

 

Who is JediTray?!

pittrek said:

I start to think he's YOU :-)

But if you SERIOUSLY don't know it he was a user who got banned.

I see. Well, I assure you that I'm 100% new to this forum.

In what ways are we similar?

(Can anyone think of a clever way for me to prove that I'm not JediTray? I'm willing to do anything...)

Darth Mallwalker said:

Welcome here!

You're starting with V8 DVD?
Instead of MPEG-2, why not start with lossless X9 capture?
I'ts available on Usenet.

To one of your questions, V8 (and X9 and JSC in general) are missing quite a few frames compared to GOUT.
Surrounding reel changeovers, and also mid-reel.
The missing frame numbers are documented in my IVTC script for X9 cap, which is also on usenet.

Darth Mallwalker: I PM'd you, but I'll ask here as well. Can you send me your X9 IVTC AviSynth script? Thanks!

AntcuFaalb said:

pittrek said:

I start to think he's YOU :-)

But if you SERIOUSLY don't know it he was a user who got banned.

I see. Well, I assure you that I'm 100% new to this forum.

In what ways are we similar?

(Can anyone think of a clever way for me to prove that I'm not JediTray? I'm willing to do anything...)

Not a good answer.

vbangle said:

AntcuFaalb said:

pittrek said:

I start to think he's YOU :-)

But if you SERIOUSLY don't know it he was a user who got banned.

I see. Well, I assure you that I'm 100% new to this forum.

In what ways are we similar?

(Can anyone think of a clever way for me to prove that I'm not JediTray? I'm willing to do anything...)

Not a good answer.

I agree. I should have been more conservative with my wording.

TV's Frink said:

I'm curious why Moth3r thinks this is JediTray. If he was sure, dude would have been banned already.

...

Oh please, let this be JediTray. I miss that guy. :p

This is one downside to anonymity on the WWW: I can't think of any way to prove that I'm not JediTray. I really hope this mix-up doesn't tarnish my reputation on this forum.

TV's Frink said:

I'm curious why Moth3r thinks this is JediTray. If he was sure, dude would have been banned already.

...

Oh please, let this be JediTray. I miss that guy. :p

It was just a hunch (or "Moth3r's Intuition").

Looks like I was wrong - sorry for the thread derailment. Please continue.

Moth3r said:

TV's Frink said:

I'm curious why Moth3r thinks this is JediTray. If he was sure, dude would have been banned already.

...

Oh please, let this be JediTray. I miss that guy. :p

It was just a hunch (or "Moth3r's Intuition").

Looks like I was wrong - sorry for the thread derailment. Please continue.

It's no problem! These things happen sometimes.