Croweyes1121

I’m not acting like every shot has subtitles at all. I’m simply saying that you will have to re-encode the blu. And you will have to upscale the HBO footage. That in and of itself WILL lesson quality, however slightly. For the third time, I’ll be THRILLED to be proven wrong about this. And I’m not the one doing all the work, so more power to you, my friend. 😃

As I said, I could be wrong. I’m not saying it won’t look better. I’m just questioning how much better it will look after you re-encode it to hardcode subs and upscale the HBO footage. If a 1080i straight rip of the HBO version surfaced, I’d happily replace the 720p copy I have. But that would be a direct rip from the source. Again, yours may look incredible and prove me wrong…and I’ll be happy to be wrong if that’s the case. 😃

Hey, I’m not telling you how to spend your time, lol, if you want to replace the HBO theatrical footage with the blu-ray footage, hardcode that to match the extra scenes, and upscale the HBO shots to 1080p, be my guest. I was just pointing out that, in the end, I’m not quite sure what it is that’s going to be gained through doing all that. Maybe it’ll look tons better and I’ll eat my words. :: shrug ::

Yes. If you’re re-encoding, you’re reducing quality, period. It’s like up sampling an audio file to a higher bitrate. You don’t gain anything. You actually LOSE a slight bit by altering it in the first place. I can make a 192kbps MP3 into a 320kbps MP3, but I’m still creating a copy of a copy, and the upsampled file will actually lose quality compared to the original. Make sense?

He’ll have to. The HBO footage is already hard-coded. The only option would be to paint them out frame-by-frame in favor of separate subs. Which, again, would diminish quality and be more trouble than it was worth.

You’d also have to re-encode the blu footage to hardcode subs…which I’d assume is exactly what HBO did to begin with…

So what, would you upscale the HBO footage to 1080p? Wouldn’t that marginally reduce quality?

I don’t know, the 720p looks so strong that I feel like recreating every transition and doing all of the editing over again just to use the blu-rays for the non-extra scenes would be pretty pointless. IMO. If a 1080i version doesn’t surface, I’m more than pleased with the 14.5GB 720p version. It is an unofficial version of the films, after all. If I had a choice of watching the 720p as-is or a version spliced together between the blu-rays (which look better than the 720p) and your 1080i rip (which looks worse than the 720p), then it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. Add to that re-worked transitions that may or may not be as perfect and smooth as HBO’s, and I really don’t see the reason for doing all that. I’d probably wind up watching the 720p in the end anyway. At least the quality is consistent throughout.

Nick66 said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

Since this one has a 5.1 track (restored!!), does anyone have the original PCM track from the laserdisc? I’d be interested in syncing it for the release.

The original mono synched to this would be amazing. Your AMC HD rip is in stereo, right?

digitalfreaknyc said:

There are some significant differences between the AMC version and this one so I’d like to go through and edit those together for the “bonus” part of the disc. Kay no longer lights candles at the end either.

Just curious, what major changes have you noticed? As far as I know the AMC & HBO edits are basically the same, save for some minor edits/changes. And I’m assuming both versions are taken from the same print.

In any event, any update on a 1080i version of the HBO broadcast? I’m a big fan of your AMC HD 1080i cap (it’s my go to Godfather), and thought that would be the best we’d have for a long while (and for a while it was), so this is a welcome surprise. Given that apparently Coppola is still resisting releasing this version on BD, the HBO broadcast is likely to the best we’re going to get for the foreseeable future, so it would be a a nice to see an upgrade from the 720p encodes floating around.

There are MANY differences between this and the AMC version. Too many to list quickly.

Haven’t seen one surface just yet. For now, the 14.5GB 720p version looks very good (see my last post).

Despite my last post, I caved and grabbed the 14.5GB version. It’s definitely worth seeking out over the 9.5GB version. Not only is detail a lot better, but the colors are more natural as well.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/158701

I grabbed the 9.5GB 720p version and that’ll do me just fine until the 1080 version hits. I’ll be all over that, I don’t care how huge the file is. I definitely want this thing saved in the best possible quality. If the 1080 is being worked on, that’s good enough for me! Thanks so much for capturing this and for making it available to us fans. Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

Yes, please DO NOT get rid of the 5.1 audio whatever you do. Having the mono there as an option is great, but I also love the 5.1 track. And I’ve already offered to send the 1901-1980 laserdisc box for postage only.

The Aluminum Falcon said:
For clarification, I believe the suggestion was to upload the captured video file now (50 GB or so) and then upload the synced LD PCM (2 GB maybe?) by itself when it’s done. Of course, if you’re planning a full BD with menus for this release, it would make it more difficult for people downloading to later remux with the PCM.

This is another reason I’d much prefer a straight release of the footage. The effort for discs, menus, extras, etc., is definitely appreciated. But honestly, I’m just going to wind up demuxing the whole thing, combining the parts, and throwing it on an external hard drive anyway. It would just save me a ton of headache to have a single file. And it would be available in days rather than weeks (or maybe months…I’m not sure how much effort goes into something like that). But, as digitalfreaknyc said, it is a hefty upload, and it’s his to upload as I can’t capture the broadcast. I’m begging here, so I’m not going to be a chooser.

This is the alternate opening of Godfather Part III. AMC aired that last year. It’s easily searchable on TPB and (I believe) the spleen as well.

That makes sense as that ending was exclusively there for the Novel for Television version, and contained credits. Basically, that scene was there as a bookend, between broadcast evenings. It has never been present in any of the continuous cuts, sans commercials. I wasn’t expecting to see it here. The editing differences are far closer in the HBO version to the 1901-1980 laser version (aside from the different placement of the Vito revenge scenes) than the AMC NFT version, which is FANTASTIC news if you ask me. I’d be happy to part with my laser if you want it, I’d just need to get a quote on shipping (that box set is heavy).

That said, before you go through all of that effort (syncing audio tracks, etc), I’d personally LOVE just a straight rip of what HBO is airing. It doesn’t have to be your official disc-based release with extras, but just a continuous rip is all I’m really looking for. If I hook you up with the laser (happy to do it), would you hook me up with that? 😃

EDIT: I’ve sent you a PM on our “other” site.

I don’t, I’m sorry. I never actually owned the Epic. I have the 1901-1980 laser, but that wouldn’t serve well for this project. BTW, would you have any interest in taking that off my hands? I can’t watch it anymore (don’t have a player anymore), but never had the heart to part with it until now.

BTW, I’m planning a get-together to screen the entire Trilogy with this as a base. No rush, but just out of curiosity, how long is the typical turn-around on your releases? Again, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for doing this, man. You’re a legend!!

Oh. My. God. Freaking everything is here. This is truly the Holy Grail. I’m just skimming through. Violence all intact. The 1917 title card is there. Vito revenge scenes are IN ORDER instead of being moved later during Part II like in the 1901-1980 version. Anthony’s ceremony at the beginning of Part II is there. Just freaking BEAUTIFUL. I can’t believe I’m actually seeing this.

That works, I can’t wait to get my hands on this. I’ll be checking HBO Now at 5PM and spot-checking for censorship and a few edits to see if this is more in line with the AMC version (which lost the ‘Vito Corleone, New York City 1917’ title card) or the 1901-1980 version (which had that card and placed the Vito revenge scenes later in Part II after Michael talks to his mother and says “times are changing”). Really interested in how they handle that.

Put me down as someone who would love for the footage to be released all in one go, as an uninterrupted file. A disc-based release would be cool, too, but personally, I would prefer just being able to turn this on and watch it without stopping.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this is my most anticipated release in years. I really can’t believe they’re doing this. I probably won’t believe it until I see it.

BTW: I did notice some scene placement changes between the AMC version and the 1901-1980 laserdisc set I used to have, and I was wondering if you guys could shed some light on it.

The scene where young Vito is singing, looking out at the Statue of Liberty, fades up to older Vito leaning against the wall with the “1917” title card coming up. The AMC version just went from singing Vito to older Vito carrying fruit out of the store, with the scene where he’s leaning against the wall taking place a few scenes later. I wonder which order those scenes will be in in the HBO version.

Wow, this is just incredible. Commercial-free, in HD, no AMC logo, AND uncensored? Just fantastic news! I’ve been waiting for this since buying the “Trilogy 1901-1980” laserdisc years ago.

digitalfreaknyc said:

HBO is airing the Epic in HD, starting on the 17th. Looks like I’m going to completely re-cap the whole thing 😃

http://migration.hbo.com/#/schedule/detail/The+Godfather+Epic/392254

AWESOME! Any chance you could post your capture of the HBO broadcast on the spleen? I’m SO excited about this. An HD version without the AMC logo and without commercials?! HEAVEN.

Actually, Louis Febre recomposed Williams's material for the Smallville scenes.  Mark Snow was credited as doing the music on the series until Season 5 ended, but Louis actually always did a good portion of it behind the scenes, even as far back as the Pilot, though he went uncredited for the work for years.

I definitely could, but I haven't watched this all the way through yet.  What I'd love to do is add in just the extra footage from this source to the blu-ray copy.