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Info: 2006 OT DVD/Laserdisc - a comparison...

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For what it’s worth, I had a chance to compare the DVD to the Laserdisc last night. To me, the video looked virtually identical with regards to everything except sharpness and noise. That said, it would seem that it would still benefit greatly from the treatments many have been applying to the Laserdisc sourced material. This admittedly being well out of my realm of knowledge, I’m curious as to whether much of the color/brightness/contrast correction efforts undertaken thus far can be “transposed”, substituting the DVD video as the source? If so, has anyone revamped their ongoing preservation projects with this approach in mind?

And finally, is there anyone out there who still sees the Laserdiscs as being a preferable video source for any reason?

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I'm very happy with the color/brightness/contrast of the OUT. What I'm not happy with is the horizontal resolution. Although the PAL OUT is much much better than my own PAL THX LD capture the horizontal resolution is crappy even compared to my crappy capture. If only I had a better way to capture the LDs.

PAL THX LD (also, look at Luke's arm):
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7836/1yl3.jpg

PAL OUT DVD
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1296/1beg5.jpg

PAL THX LD
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9148/2ze1.jpg

PAL OUT DVD
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9594/2bng2.jpg
Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.
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OMG - do they seriously have those red circles on the new DVD's still?
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those OUT dvd shots are upconverted, would you post the same shots at the native resolution?
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@Arnie.d, don't you mean it's the vertical resolution (# of scan lines) that is better on the PAL LDs.


PAL THX LD 720x324 (704x324)
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/9187/ldpal1ko1.jpg

'PAL' GOUT 720x326
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/8184/goat1ij7.jpg

PAL THX LD 720x324 (704x324)
http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/1420/ldpal2ei7.jpg

'PAL' GOUT 720x326
http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/4882/goat2sg0.jpg

PAL THX LD 720x324 (704x324)
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/8904/ldpal3wy2.jpg

'PAL' GOUT 720x326
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/3848/goat3ae6.jpg

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I must admit, I always get confused by horizontal resolution (i.e. number of discernable vertical columns) and vertical resolution (i.e. number of horizontal scan lines)...

I'm now pretty confident I have no need of a 'PAL' GOUT. I've got dozens of PAL LDs; pretty sure I can do better from that (if I want to go to the trouble).
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Originally posted by: Red5@Arnie.d, don't you mean it's the vertical resolution (# of scan lines) that is better on the PAL LDs.


Yeah, I guess you are right but it's how you look at it. What I meant was, I'm not happy with the number of scan lines.

Red5, it seems you did a pretty good job on your own capture!

Fez: I am so excited about Star Whores.
Hyde: Fezzy, man, it's Star Wars.
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It certainly looks like a vertical blur has been applied to the official DVD; there is a noticeable loss of vertical detail when compared with the laserdiscs (both the DC and the PAL laserdiscs). I don't know why this might be the case, perhaps it was done to reduce the effect of IVTC artefacts (e.g. see here)?

I think the DVD could do with some processing to remove video noise/grain, and because it has superior horizontal detail/sharpness the results should look better than any laserdisc transfer, despite the vertical blurring.

That said, there are some scenes in the PAL laserdiscs that are cleaner than the DC and the official DVD - fewer dirt spots/scratches on the print. (I'm thinking of the "flyover" shot as one example.)

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Can we see a comparison of the NTSC stuff?
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Originally posted by: Moth3r
It certainly looks like a vertical blur has been applied to the official DVD; there is a noticeable loss of vertical detail when compared with the laserdiscs (both the DC and the PAL laserdiscs). I don't know why this might be the case, perhaps it was done to reduce the effect of IVTC artefacts (e.g. see here)?

I think the DVD could do with some processing to remove video noise/grain, and because it has superior horizontal detail/sharpness the results should look better than any laserdisc transfer, despite the vertical blurring.

Yes, the loss of vertical detail could be the effects of a not so successful anti-aliasing filter. My guess is that the GOUT was then also sharpened and that brought some of the aliasing or jaggies back, or rather it emphasized the jaggies the AA filter missed. If it was sharpened it would also explain some of the higher noise level.

Since the D1 master already was DVNR filtered, the remaining noise really is a bitch to filter as it's full of the DVNR artefacts, the same also applies to the LDs of course. But it is usually also best to noise filter *before* any sharpening is applied.

I've not yet seen that much of the NTSC GOUT but I think it's less sharpened than the 'PAL'.

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what software did you use to cap these frames with?

Never mind I just checked the comparison website and the scene with the training remote on there is as bad. What the hell happened there? I noticed a lot of the NTSC LD caps on there have the same blob of colour instead of the grid pattern. It looks like some kind of interlacing fault or something.