Brooks

As some of you have seen in my intro thread I’m experimenting with capturing my 1995 thx widescreen VHS box set.  I captured to DV using a Sony VCR through an ADS Pyro DV converter. I’ve only captured SW so far.  Predictably it doesn’t look fantastic but I was surprised to see that it looks better than I though it would.  Here’s a link to a sample of the raw capture.  (Vimeo smoothes it out a bit when streaming, at least on my computer/connection, so you can’t really see the interlacing which is quite prevalent)

https://vimeo.com/44873938 (the raw dv capture - streaming on VIMEO)

(here it is on Mediafire if you feel like downloading it and seeing it properly)

http://www.mediafire.com/?dz10ilehutidlt0 (raw sample, H264 31mb)

After thousands of man hours and millions of dollars spent, the scientists at Brooks laboratories have tweaked the footage in Premiere to downplay the interlacing, tone down the reddish tone and sharpen things a bit.  They also used neat video to remove some of the noise.

What do you think of the color/ contrast/ saturation/ etc?  I’m doing this on my laptop and I don’t really trust the screen.

https://vimeo.com/44875509 (tweaked sample streaming on VIMEO)

(here it is on Mediafire if you want to see it in better quality)

http://www.mediafire.com/?rsnp9757q181dre (tweaked sample, H264 31mb)

Let me know what you think!  😃

Any suggestions for fixes (color, contrast, etc) before I export it all out?  And what kind of file do most of you export to?

Thanks!  It's from the 95 thx widescreen box set, and capturing it is the first time that tape has ever been played.  My empire and jedi are still in the box, they've never been played.  I also did a few things to it in premiere, I used the unsharp mask and neat video to clean  up the noise etc.  

Do you think it's worth keeping?  Would anyone else have any use for it?  If so I can clean up the audio a good bit too, I haven't touched that yet.  What format do you guys use for archiving these things, just dvd or is there a better computer format (like h264 or the like?)

vimeo works, we'll see how long until they take it down.

Anyways, here's some clips from my vhs capture, let me know what you think :)  

https://vimeo.com/44704021

negative1 said:

here's our version of the blue dot,

and the windshield tear:

======================

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Tantives-Orange-Items-Thread/post/582994/#TopicPost582994

 

later

-1

is it weird that I'm salivating?? :)

Maybe deep down Lucas wants us to preserve the originals... there's still good in him, I can feel it!

well youtube won't let me post my sample, it somehow recognized it as SW right away, any idea where else I can post a video sample?

He's just expressing his concern and anxiety over this project,  it seems reasonable enough, no need to pick on him :)

it's neat that you were able to  put up that same shot, did you have the pal  vhs copies on your computer already?

I'll upload the little test I did to youtube tonight to see what you guys think, I'm wondering if it's worth keeping or not.

I captured my old widescreen vhs, and while it predictably doesn't look very good it looks better than I thought it would.  I captured it to DV and so I have this strange aspect ratio where the letterbox is contained inside the DV frame.  I could resize it but the ratio isn't the same so it would still have bars on the top and bottom, and also I worry that resizing might make the video look even worse, what do you guys think?  These are some random shots from a 2 minute export I did to test it.

lucasdroid said:

http://www.nerdsraging.com/2011/12/20/man-sentenced-to-1-year-in-jail-for-leaking-wolverine-movie-online/

This is hardly the same thing.  There are a bunch of restorations already on this site and god know how many others, this is not a movie that hasn't been released yet in theaters.  Let's not get paranoid :)

Yeah the difference seems pretty obvious to me too, all of the color is gone from r2, he looks grayscale in the 2nd shot where the first you can clearly see the blue in his front panels.  I'm not urging you to change it if you don't want to though  :)

I concur, much as Luke was hidden from Vader and the Emperor, so must this, the last of the jedi, be protected as well.

I dunno about 1080, but the quality looks pretty good to me, at least compared to my old copy.  I'm downloading the zion hybrid now, how does it compare?

I've got friends from my old days working in television editing that still work at stations that might have a prograde vcr available, I can ask it you want.

I'm new here and don't know all the politics of what's going on behind the scenes but I'm sure cooler heads will prevail and we can all focus our anger where it belongs:  on the destruction of the legacy of our childhood memories.

frank678 said:

There was a dust up in the "my attempt at color correcting the gout thread" i'm hoping this isnt going to put an end to this project here. You_Too had been working on squeezing every last drop of colour out of the GOUT, I'm hoping all that accrued anaylsis isnt going to go down the toliet.  

I sincerely hope they continue and share their work.  I just got the v3 dark jedi's last week and they're fantastic.  Whatever the disagreement was about it surely won't overshadow the importance of the restoration work being done by everyone here?

Whoa, did I miss something??  Is everything ok?  :/

For a name you could maybe consider the name of the store where it was purchased back in the day, if you know it (and if it isn't offensive).

foam said:

These are at the actual size I captured it without going to full screen (taken with screencapture in VLC player), there's the odd tracking line and sound going slightly wobbly but I think better equipment will sort that before it gets out of the player

 

these look fantastic!  I want a copy!! :)  I've been meaning to dig up my old vhs and see what version it is (I got it at a convention in the early 90's, it's sure to be worse looking than this one)

I'd like to hear it too, can anyone PM me a link? :) :)

negative1 said:

...

and the mos eisley scene:

===================

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Best-source-for-the-Mos-Eisley-speeder-pass-by-shot/topic/13924/

 

later

-1

 

 

those shots are fantastic!  I can't tell you how psyched I am.  It turns out -1 is the one prophesied to bring balance back to the force, who knew??

I've got the dark jedi v3 versions, they're great.  I'm holding out for Harmy's new ones (and looking forward to the new dark jedi ones as well).  I'm going to get the puggo grande and check it out as well.

I captured my vhs widescreen sw tape for fun and compared it too the dark jedi version.  Predictably the vhs looks like poop.  I wonder if I should keep the capture or just toss it.

I was wondering:  do any of you remember the slides that came with the sw action figures in the late 90's?  I wonder what source they came from.  I'll scan a few when I get my scanner going.  I also remember that some stores like suncoast sold little strips of the 35mm film (like 4 or 5 frames) in a little collector case.  So the 35mm was available in a way, sort of, back in the mid-late 90's (it was probably special edition prints).

Also -1, you probably don't need it but if there's anything I can do to help I'd be thrilled to contribute.  I have 10+ years of audio editing experience and also I've worked with photoshop professionally.  I have a decent amount of premiere experience and a tad of after effects too.  

Is there a new member's guide??  Did I miss something : /

Jetrell - I got an epson 4490 display model last week from microcenter for $20 (can you believe that)?  I haven't had a chance to dig up my negatives and try it out yet.  I'll let you know how they look.  I wonder if it wouldn't be better to scan the individual frames of the various films everyone is restoring vs using a telecine.  Granted, I'm sure it would take much much MUCH longer but I imagine the quality would be better (right?).

As for my tapes, I got an ads pyro firewire dv converter years ago to capture the raw vhs footage of a show my friends and I did in college, it works pretty well, I may drag it out and try my widescreen star wars tapes.