Baobab Archiver

Perhaps you could do 2 versions?

Personally, I’d prefer a complete version even if the drop in quality is noticeable.

Not to say that the project isn’t great as it is, but for me a broadcast restoration should put back in any scenes that were missing from the DVDs.

I can understand the omission of the “last time” and “next time” parts but actual scenes should be put back in

I would like a link too if possible. Thank you

I have skipped through the first few episodes at random.
I think the close up shots work well but it seems to struggle on anything further away.
I agree with a previous post in that adding a bit of fake film grain might help a lot.

Thank you for your efforts and for sharing the work. Enjoy your vacation!

I’d appreciate a link as well if possible. Thanks

Only just found this article and now looking forward to the new release. It’s another one of those occasions where I kick myself for not keeping my recordings after I got the DVDs.

There is a slight chance I have them somewhere but looking through my stuff it doesn’t seem likely.

They were recorded from digital TV sent to my PC via composite cables. It’s doubtful the picture would be better than your current source but the audio was recorded as 48khz stereo/pro-logic. A small chance that may be better. If I do find it I’ll get in touch so you can check my source if you would like to.

I don’t have anything I can contribute to this other than my admiration and encouragement. It’s not often I can see the difference in quality on my phone screen but it’s like night and day.

Great find and best of luck with the project!

Class316 said:

Why would anyone want to preserve a censored version? If anything these should be flushed away into oblivion.

Ignore post. Misread original post

I have the UK Complete DVD set of The Dukes of Hazzard.
EVERY SINGLE DUAL LAYER DOUBLE SIDED DISC NO LONGER WORKS PROPERLY.
If I try to rip them I can get 2 or 3 episodes from each one at best.

Does anyone know if there is any way to get this replaced in the UK? Given it’s a complete failure it’s clearly a defective design or pressing.

Thatkliqkid said:

Does anyone know if the UK Blu-ray release has the scene with Face and Hannibal on the film set as the aquamaniac where Face is impersonating the dialogue included in Season 3’s “Bend in the river”? It was missing from the original Season 3 DVD release and is still missing from the DVD collector’s edition release. I had to purchase the American series 3 dvd release to see it.

I can’t remember specifically but the UK Blu-ray is the movie length version (provided you get the later release). There have been no cuts reported for that episode (apart from the pre-credits teaser being missing) so you should be OK 👍🏻

I’ve recently started using this tool and have to say I’m really impressed with it. I created a collage of 8 individual images for the comparison and the results it created were nothing short of amazing.
Certainly far better than I would have ever been able to achieve with manual filters.

Thank you for producing such a useful and powerful tool 👍🏻

Just wanted to commend DJPitaB on this release.
Excellent work!

Yes I have a good VHS capture of the scene from the UK VHS release. The only way it will be improved on is with a digital recording

That’s really good to know, thanks.

I’ll hold fire on doing any more work on teaser reconstructions until we know what this is going to look like.

I wonder if they will be able to find the Jumpin Jack Flash scene in HD. If they can’t it would be nice if they could include the missing scene as an extra from the VHS.

puzosep said:

What exactly would this 0.5 second missing, different sound effect be?? Is there a video of it?

It’s not a missing sound effect it’s about half a second of the video. It’s been replaced with similar footage but the original had a shot of KITTs dash with a fixed speed (69 or 70 from memory but I could be wrong).

What I found odd at the time that I did my reconstructed version was that the sound was actually perfect. When the visuals were corrected the audio fitted without needing to be changed so it seems that when they replaced the opening to put the standard season 3 opening on they only replaced the visuals and not the audio.

Certainly made the reconstruction a lot easier 😄

MLAM168 said:

I think in motion the Turbine may show more of it’s strengths over the Fabulous Films release by virtue of being a newer encoding/compression of the masters as software gets more and more optimised, Turbine probably done these late 2021/early 2022 vs 2016 for the Fabulous Films transfer.

Though from what I’ve seen colour space issue aside, the Fabulous Films release trounces over the Mill Creek release which seems to be the worst and it comes with lossy Dolby Digital audio vs DTS for the others.

Turbine supposedly got several masters from Universal and picked the best ones to work with so I’m curious to know how much restoration/remastering work Turbine put in or asked Universal to do.

Agreed. I obviously haven’t seen motion so I can’t compare. I will just say though that after correcting the Colorspace on mine I’m happy enough with it to not spend another £200 😄

Fullmetaled said:

The turbine releases video is even a huge upgrade its sharper brighter and black levels and the colors are better.

I haven’t got the US set to compare to but if the evidence is to be believed it is a good upgrade. I was given a couple of stills from the Turbine set for the episode Give Me Liberty… Or Give Me Death. I’ve corrected the Colorspace issue on the UK set and compared the screenshots. They are almost identical. Certainly the colour is indistinguishable from the Turbine set. The Turbine shot had marginally better detail / film grain. It just shows how frustrating it was that the Fabulous Films set had the colorspace issue as they were very good transfers.

That could possibly be the case. No reply from my friend yet. I will of course update here when I know for sure but don’t hold your breath for a quick response! We sometimes don’t exchange msgs for weeks lol

That was correct on the UK release (provided you got the movie length edit). I don’t have the US release to check.
That’s pretty much definitely the original as I very much doubt that Fabulous Films would have spent the time/money on putting it back in.

I think he’s going to check them all but I wouldn’t imagine there’s a problem with the John Cougar Mellencamp tracks as they were fine on the DVD sets.

It’s really Dead of Knight and White Line Warriors that need to be confirmed.

The VHS I have is this one:

https://images.app.goo.gl/zaAtNQSCqumvTxNC8

When I said the volume fluctuates, I mean that it changes more prominently from sounding like it’s playing on the radio as opposed to incidental music.

Like I said, I will wait for my friend to confirm 100%. My restored version comes from a TV recording I made around 2000. It was done “live” from a digital broadcast and captured through an analog connection to my soundcard at 48000hz. It’s (almost) as good as it could be considering it came from a broadcast. It should be very easy to make an accurate comparison.

I have a VHS of KotJ from around that time but it’s mono.

My other concerns are around the original music - Dead of Knight specifically. Blu-ray releases to date have had silence where the Prince track should be, followed by some rather prominent clapping.

From what I’ve been told, the BluRay now has the music, but it doesn’t match volume 100% with the original - it goes up and down at different points. It also still has the prominent clapping. It is possible that they have recreated this one too (probably by overlaying the Prince track on the “silent” track). My friend is going to listen to it again and closely compare to my restored version so I wouldn’t take this one as 100% confirmed yet.

As I said, I actually applaud Turbine for putting the effort into these bits, but I think they should be be clear that they are recreations as they are not 100% true to the originals.

KotD - you could be right but I think it’s unlikely. NBC had a definite style to their changes - they were more of a promotional nature. I don’t think the different credits would have been created by them (but I’m only speculating of course!)

I know I’ve seen that but even so. I have a Burial Ground VHS NICAM recording from the UK Bravo channel around 2000. I recall when I last played it, the sound was only on one channel. I left it and didn’t bother exploring further.
When I next get my VHS deck set up I’m going to capture it and listen to the audio more carefully.
It could possibly be that it was just the 1 channel of the stereo which should be pretty easy to tell when listening to the opening theme.
If that is the case, it introduces the possibility that the original stereo master was damaged or discarded when it was found to be faulty.

Although I don’t own this set, my initial thoughts from reading about it were it is indeed the ultimate set for collectors.

However, I do have some concerns for it’s completeness. I’ve asked a friend to compare episodes to my reconstructed ones.

One that is now confirmed is evidence that the Knight of the Drones intro on the set is probably reconstructed rather than original. That isn’t a problem in itself - in fact, it shows great dedication on the part of Turbine in putting it back together. The result though is that it is missing the short sequence of KITT’s dash that was unique to that opening. They’ve replaced it using a similar shot, just as I did when I recreated it myself.

I’m not convinced that there was never a stereo track for KotJ or Burial Ground. Not one in existence now perhaps, but it would be odd for an episode midway through the season to be mono when the rest are stereo.

I guess we may never know…

Just to update everyone…

I have it on very good authority that the recent German Blu-ray release by Turbine is fully uncut.

That means all the music edits and movie length Knight of the Drones (including the original title sequence) are all included.

I am not yet sure whether they’ve sourced stereo soundtracks for Season 4 but will let you all know when I know.

It’s not a cheap set but worth every penny if you value the episodes being uncut.

Sadly I don’t have any original recordings. I don’t think my Dad does either. I’ll check a couple of other sources and let you know if I find anything.

Regarding your comment about the master tapes, I don’t think it’s very surprising to be honest. Even more recent shows wouldn’t necessarily retain the raw audio. It’s hit and miss with most shows what’s retained. The slightly more concerning thing is whether the edited versions become the new masters.
That would result in the original versions being lost altogether.