Do you still need help with this? I’ve been doing a similar thing with Knight Rider, as there were a few edits to those Blurays. Our workflows will no doubt differ but I can help you out with getting the DVD soundtracks to the correct speed.
Cheers
Nick
Was Coby commercially released anywhere? Is that the reason you are huntimg down the Mexican tape3?
I was planning a Droids restoration myself but after getting onto ms and downloading the mp4 files you did I was blown away by the quality. I’ve moved onto to other bits and bobs now (for example just shared my VHS recording of a 1997 SW documentary).
What are your plans for The Great Heep? Will you be doing an updated share? And do your other acquisitions mean improvements for other episodes?
I wish I’d kept my off air recording of Coby and the Starhunters. Ironically it was the only episode I retained for a few years after the broadcast run. I have a vague memory of the tape breaking and having to be thrown out but in case I’m wrong I’m keeping my eyes on all the VHS I’m going through!
Hi everyone
I recently captured my home recording of the 1992 Documentary “Resistance Is Useless”. The quality is pretty reasonable given its age, but it struck me that (even if it were to be broadcast now) many of the clips used are of a much lower quality than the restored episodes now on DVD.
Does anyone know if there’s ever been an attempt to overlay the clips with the cleaned up versions? It would be quite a task, and some of them involve transitions or filters which would make them difficult or even impossible (for me at least).
Is there any interest out there for this? I have every episode released on DVD so possess all the clips. If there is a better quality copy of the transmitted version out there, it would be good to use that as my “base”.
Input welcome!
For anyone interested, I have now made this available from the body part site 😉
I’ve noticed the 25th Anniversary doc seems to be available on VHS from Amazon US. What I don’t know is whether that (or the UK transmitted version for that matter) were edited in any way for rights issues.
Yes the 25th anniversary doc was broadcast on BBC2 in 1992. It was more than likely to tie in with the broadcast of The Cage although I can’t confirm that 100%. It was US produced unlike the Treknology bits which appeared UK produced (albeit featuring clips from a number of US shows)
Unfortunately I think (from looking at the link) that what I have is cut down versions of “Funk me up Scotty” and “Spoof Trek” that were transmitted in 1997. I remember a Star Trek night but don’t think I recorded it either unfortunately. Watching it back, the sound is pretty reasonable although it would definitely benefit from a Hi-Fi/NICAM source.
Whilst I’m discussing Trek, I also found a recording of a 25th anniversary special recorded in 1992. The picture is pretty decent on that too but the sound is very muffled as it was recorded at LP on a mono VCR. Is that likely to be of value to the community? (I obviously don’t mean in monetary terms!)
Looks like this is it…
It was broadcast on BBC2 (I know as it has the “2” logo at the start!). I’ll google to see what I can find but it was split into episodes. So far I have come across 1 called “Funk me up Scotty” about how ST stars have gone on to have music careers (with varying success!). I think the second was about spoofs.
Will try and find out more!
Not sure if this will work, but I’ve uploaded a sample image to my google drive. This is a “raw” image from the capture. Unfortunately the best I can get is from my Panasonic DVD recorder connected to the VCR, but I recorded in SP mode (i.e. 1hr per 4.7gb disc) to get the best quality I could.
Some clean up to be completed in virtualdub, and (hopefully!) a better audio source 😃
Hi all
I have been backing up some VHS tapes and come across some episodes of “Treknology”, that I believe aired in the UK around 20 years ago (possibly as part of the 30th Anniversary?)
A few questions for anyone who may know:
Happy to share my results with anyone who is interested!
I have a screen capture of the video, but not sure if/how I can post it here?
I already did a UK VHS preservation set a few years back, which should still be up on the <internal organ> site.
That looks good! Unfortunately I have no access to the “internal organ” site so can’t see the actual results! 😦
I notice that the price of the VHS seem to have increased substantially since I acquired them last time (due to the increased rarity no doubt). However I may shortly be in a position to stump up the cash to buy them again. A quick look around the worldwide eBay sites suggests getting NTSC versions to work with would be difficult to say the least, and I’d still be left with having to get equipment to get the NTSC successfully digitised. I think that would be a bridge too far!
I will therefore set myself the task of tackling the 8 episodes that are represented on DVD, and attempt to restore them as best as possible to the original broadcast versions.
Nick
Yes very true.
Unfortunately the only “acceptable” source I have is the US NTSC DVD.
I have all episodes on CVD (a hybrid of SVCD which uses a resolution of 352x576). These were created by myself around 10-15 years ago using the UK PAL Commercial VHS releases. Overall the picture is pretty good on these, but the frame blending/interlacing is a major issue. Regrettably I no longer have the VHS’s so I’m stuck with the CDs! This is every episode other than “Coby and the Starhunters”.
The only other sources I have are the usual versions that appear on YouTube etc.
This is why I ask about the quality of Retartedted’s versions. As his come from the NTSC VHS for the most part, I am wondering if it is worth me going to the effort of tracking down the NTSC VHS (if I can even find them!), and then a way of getting it onto the PC.
How do his versions stack up against the US DVD? My ideal would be using the DVD where the footage exists, and then splicing in the missing bits from VHS.
Hope that all makes sense!
I’ve recently come across this forum and I’m really interested in viewing these restored versions of Droids. Are they still accessible anywhere?
I did a somewhat rushed attempt at recreating the original episode “Tail of the Roon Comets” a while back and have just uploaded a clip to YouTube click here
I am curious to see if the versions talked about here are good enough for me to not want to invest my time in my own attempts. I have other bits and bobs underway which I’ll no doubt be discussing elsewhere on this site!
Many thanks
Nick
Hi everyone
I recently stumbled across this forum whilst searching for some information on the 80s series Star Wars Droids.
I thought some members may be interested in something I created recently, linked below. I had a VHS recording of the original season 2 opening for Dungeons and Dragons from UK TV in 1991.
It starts slightly earlier than the version in the extras on the UK DVD release and doesn’t have any picture interference. The downside is that the sound is very poor.
As part of my restoration I have married my VHS up with the audio from the DVD extra (kicks in after about 10 seconds) and also slowed it down to the correct original speed. Interestingly the VHS featured no interlacing artifacts whatsoever - very unusual for a US animated series in PAL. I’m assuming it was converted from the original film stock and not the NTSC master.
I hope you enjoy it, and if anyone knows of a better quality copy (even if it’s just the audio) please let me know!
Nick