I used to have this VHS until it was stolen! I’d love to know when your preservation is ready to share.
Does anyone have an HD capture of Andy Barker P.I.?
Seems like this one may not be available in HD… I’ve gone ahead and upscaled the DVDs to 1080p, making it look as good as I can get it. (There appears to be noticeable edge enhancement on the DVDs, which is annoying, but I did my best to work around it.) I’ve also restored the original music to the episodes that were altered.
Still, if anyone sees this later on and had an actual HD version of this series, please let me know.
Does anyone happen to have any episodes of Tru Calling in HD? I have the DVDs for both seasons, but the transfer looks pretty poor, and I’d like to see if I can get them in a higher quality. If not, I’ll try upscaling the DVDs, but I’m not optimistic about the results.
I also know that the music was altered for the season 2 DVDs, but I have some old 624x352 HDTV rips that I can use to restore the music.
Thanks in advance!
For anyone who’s interested: I’ve found what I think are the best settings to minimize the interlacing/telecine problem with Futurama. It’s not perfect, and if I had all the time in the world to go in and manually correct each frame, it would certainly look better, but… here’s what I was able to accomplish with automatic settings: https://ibb.co/z5B0fnb
As you can see in the screenshot, for those frames that are affected by the jaggies, this filter combination seems to really minimize the appearance. And of course, the non-jaggy frames look very good. (See here: https://ibb.co/NYLNLWd)
Once I’m finished upscaling all the episodes, I’ll update this thread. In the meantime, if anyone has better versions of the episodes that I can work with, please let me know.
Update: The NiXON 1080p episodes are not true HD, and appear to have been scaled up without the use of AI. Essentially just enlarged versions of the SD episodes with blurry lines and halos. If I use AI to upscale the DVDs, that ends up looking much better, but I have one issue: occasional jaggy interlacing lines.
The NiXON versions do not have the jaggy interlacing lines, but the overall image quality isn’t as high as the DVD upscales. I even tried downscaling the NiXON file, the using AI to re-upscale, but the upscaled DVD still had crisper lines.
Here are screenshots of the same frame from each attempt…
DVD Upscale (with occasional interlacing issues):
https://ibb.co/s2bp4hZ
1080p (non-AI upscale):
https://ibb.co/7Xypz7B
1080p (Downscale & AI Upscale):
https://ibb.co/tL541Cn
Unless I can get a better source than the DVDs, can anyone direct me to the best tool to use for the deinterlace/detelecine process so that I can avoid the jaggies? I’m using a Mac, and the best results I’ve gotten so far have come from Handbrake, but no matter how I adjust the deinterlace/detelecine settings, I always seem to get artifacts in the same parts of the episode.
I’d love to get a look at them. Would you mind sharing? If they look better than the DVD rips, I can upscale what you have instead.
I’m finding conflicting information as to whether the original FOX seasons of Futurama have been released in HD at any point. (Some people say they were released on the Microsoft store in 720p, but I have no confirmation.) I know the US iTunes Store and Amazon do not have HD versions – in fact the versions both retailers have for those first few seasons look very poor.
Could someone please point me int the right direction to obtain/purchase these episodes in HD? A well-done 1080p upscale is 100% acceptable as well, if someone has already put in the work. If not, I will likely get started on it myself…
For the altered opening credits, are you using the full frame or are you cropping the TV footage and overlaying it on top of the BD footage?
I’m using as much of the blu-ray image as possible, and I’m overlaying the televised credits on top of the blu-ray image.
Just curious: I know Disney+ has recently removed a lot of their content…
For now (Since December 9, 2022), there is a way to watch the full version of Muppet Christmas Carol WITH When Love Is Gone if you go to the “extras” section for that movie, but has anyone been able to get a proper capture of that version for historical purposes? Seeing as no blu-ray or UHD disc has been produced with this version of the film, this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to an official release, and it would be a real shame if it suddenly disappeared.
UPDATE:
While looking over these episodes with @SpacemanDoug, we discovered that there are extended versions of nearly every episode in season 3. There is also an extended version of the series finale. However, the rest of the episodes (all of season 4 and all but the final episode of season 5) appear to have the same episode runtimes as the versions that were released on blu-ray. (I’ve edited my original post to reflect this.)
That being said, every episode I’ve checked from seasons 3, 4, & 5 has altered music on blu-ray (& streaming) compared to what originally aired.
I have started the process of restoring season 3. I’ve completed the first episode, and I have mixed feelings about the end result. I’ve tweaked the upscaling settings to achieve the closest possible look to the 1080p versions on blu-ray, and many of the shots look very good; a few shots definitely do not. (When upscaling low resolution footage, close-up shots tend to look great, medium shots are hit-or-miss and wide shots with people’s faces in them often get weirdly distorted.)
As a proof of concept, I can make the completed version of episode 301 available to whomever is interested.
If there is enough interest in the complete season and/or seasons 4 & 5 with the original music, I will continue to work on this project. (It will certainly take a lot of time, as the process is quite tedious.) If not, I’ll probably put it on the back burner or abandon it. The additional footage and extended scenes are interesting to have access to, but they’re clearly not necessary for the enjoyment of the show. In my opinion, having just done the one episode so far, most of the DirecTV exclusive content adds very little.
For those interested in what was changed for episode 301, I’ve included the list of changes below. (Note: In order to preserve the original music, I used the stereo TV audio for the entire episode, except where noted.)
List of changes:
00:00:30-00:00:35 - Extended shot
00:03:37-00:03:40 - Extended shot
00:03:46-00:04:58 - Extended shots, additional footage
00:08:36-00:10:39 - Extended scenes, credits adjustments (the beginning of this section is perhaps the best example of how bad certain shots look when upscaled)
00:13:03-00:13:08 - Extended shot
00:14:26-00:14:29 - Additional footage
00:17:37-00:17:41 - Extended shot
00:18:37-00:18:41 - Additional footage, extended shot
00:19:54-00:20:27 - Extended scene
00:25:52-00:26:02 - Used ADR audio from blu-ray, which was recorded to correct a continuity error in the original dialogue
00:28:04-00:28:44 - Additional scene
00:41:17-00:41:36 - Extended shot, re-ordered scene
00:41:36-00:43:29 - Extended scenes
00:44:19-00:46:21 - Extended scene
Considering the era in which these aired, it’s possible that these are the highest quality you’d get
But can I possibly get access to these captures too?
I might be able to help stitch these together
PM incoming…
After season 2 of Friday Night Lights. NBC and DirecTV started splitting the production costs for the show, and DirecTV had the rights to run all the episodes on their own channel before NBC. In addition the DirecTV episodes were extended, featuring additional dialogue and extended/deleted scenes.
This was the case for nearly every episode of seasons 3, and at least one episode of season 5.
I would like to start restoring the extended episodes. I have the blu-rays, which contain the shorter NBC-broadcast versions of the episodes, but I only have low quality (624x352) AVI downloads of all of the extended episodes.
Does anyone have higher quality versions of the DirecTV extended episodes I could use for this project?
Just wanted to commend DJPitaB on this release.
Excellent work!
Thanks! For anyone waiting for the less grainy version, here’s a quick preview of the reconfigured upscaling as it processes:
https://yourimageshare.com/ib/isEh9bPJDr
https://yourimageshare.com/ib/OoZI5psxyk
https://yourimageshare.com/ib/mCysypHhvh
After speaking with the director Kevin Lima about the sound mix it was confirmed that Goofy Movie was indeed originally mixed and presented theatrically in select theaters in Dolby 5.1. An anonymous source - who shall remain anonymous - was able to provide me with the discrete 5.1 music and effects only track (used for dubbing other languages) in late January. That 5.1 mix is very clearly NOT an upmix with plenty of discrete activity in all channels. The rear channels are mostly mono but do have some stereo activity. Specifically I noticed stereo separation during the vacation montage sequence when bats come out of a cave and during the roller coaster shot plus when Powerline makes his stage entrance.
Even though I had completed the new mix, armed with this new source I preserved my work and then scrapped my original mix.
The primary issue with using the new source was that the vocals are obviously missing. I went through the original lossless laserdisc track and used the upmixed Center channel which removes all directional activity and then added it back into the 5.1 mix as the new center whenever dialog was occurring. When no dialog was active I was able to default/switch back to the 5.1 music and effects track. There are a few select times that vocals come solely from Left and right (during the musical numbers On the Open Road and After Today) plus there were some scenes with directional left/right pans (secretary in chair offscreen, goofy being bumped offscreen by Pete in department store, scene where Bigfoot chases max and goofy into the side/rear channels.)
I was careful to swap in my previous remix into those specific instances to blend it back and of course I had to Time align the entire master and eq. My discrete overhead and rear surround effects were redone with the stronger separated elements.
The musical numbers did contain the original Center vocals for the Powerline numbers so whenever Powerline sings I didn’t have to change out the center unless someone was speaking over his singing.
It was mixed with 4 overhead channels plus 7.1 base for the final output and rendered in lossless 12 channel and then encoded into DTS X with compatible 7.1 and 5.1 downmixes.
Due to the nature of overlaying a center channel at times, for playback on a stereo 2.0 system with no discrete center the original theatrical 2.0 lossless mix will offers the better experience, but for those with a discrete 5.1 or higher system the new mix rocks.It will be sent to Kevin for notes within the next few weeks.
Does that mean we might finally be able to see the full thing for ourselves soon?
Updated version of the documentary with the finalized before and after clips uploaded. 5.1 AAC sound option is available on some youtube player devices. Link here: https://youtu.be/tjjDozZuQQ8
I’m so excited by the work that’s been done on this, and that video tells the story so well! Thanks for sharing!
Update: With many thanks to @deadakaalive, I was able to get SD widescreen versions of the season 2 episodes.
I spent a lot of time blending the different sources and color matching them to ensure the best possible end result, and I’m quite pleased with the outcome.
After doing that, I went ahead and did my best to upscale the results to 1080p. I did the entire season, only checking the results on my computer screen, and it looked pretty good. After viewing the episodes on my TV screen, however, I felt I had overdone the grain, so I’m doing another pass now. I expect to be finished later this week.
If anyone is interested in a link, please send me a PM.
If anyone besides me actually remembers this show, I’ll be a little surprised. Four of the six produced episodes aired on FOX, and the other two were released online.
I bought all six episodes on iTunes back in 2007, but they didn’t offer HD back then. Did anyone happen to obtain the HD broadcasts of at least the aired episodes? If so, I’d love to get ahold of those.
Thanks in advance!
early demo samples from some of the trailers:
I’d love to see the finished Spider-Man trailer. I have an SD version downloaded from way back when it was first put online, but I think that’s the only version I’ve ever seen.
After speaking with the director Kevin Lima about the sound mix it was confirmed that Goofy Movie was indeed originally mixed and presented theatrically in select theaters in Dolby 5.1. An anonymous source - who shall remain anonymous - was able to provide me with the discrete 5.1 music and effects only track (used for dubbing other languages) in late January. That 5.1 mix is very clearly NOT an upmix with plenty of discrete activity in all channels. The rear channels are mostly mono but do have some stereo activity. Specifically I noticed stereo separation during the vacation montage sequence when bats come out of a cave and during the roller coaster shot plus when Powerline makes his stage entrance.
Even though I had completed the new mix, armed with this new source I preserved my work and then scrapped my original mix.
The primary issue with using the new source was that the vocals are obviously missing. I went through the original lossless laserdisc track and used the upmixed Center channel which removes all directional activity and then added it back into the 5.1 mix as the new center whenever dialog was occurring. When no dialog was active I was able to default/switch back to the 5.1 music and effects track. There are a few select times that vocals come solely from Left and right (during the musical numbers On the Open Road and After Today) plus there were some scenes with directional left/right pans (secretary in chair offscreen, goofy being bumped offscreen by Pete in department store, scene where Bigfoot chases max and goofy into the side/rear channels.)
I was careful to swap in my previous remix into those specific instances to blend it back and of course I had to Time align the entire master and eq. My discrete overhead and rear surround effects were redone with the stronger separated elements.
The musical numbers did contain the original Center vocals for the Powerline numbers so whenever Powerline sings I didn’t have to change out the center unless someone was speaking over his singing.
It was mixed with 4 overhead channels plus 7.1 base for the final output and rendered in lossless 12 channel and then encoded into DTS X with compatible 7.1 and 5.1 downmixes.
Due to the nature of overlaying a center channel at times, for playback on a stereo 2.0 system with no discrete center the original theatrical 2.0 lossless mix will offers the better experience, but for those with a discrete 5.1 or higher system the new mix rocks.It will be sent to Kevin for notes within the next few weeks.
Consider me excited!
Thanks to a super helpful assist from @TVArchive, I have been able to obtain and upscale the 720p HD episodes to 1080p HD, and I can make them available to those who request a link.
Two of the 720p episodes I received were encoded at a frame rate of 29.97, so I corrected those to the proper 23.98 fps. I also fixed several glitches (missing frames, broadcast interruptions, etc.) that were likely a problem with the original HDNet broadcasts… and, for good measure, I added subtitles.
PM me if interested.
I’ve been creeping on this forever, but haven’t posted, since I have nothing to contribute. All I can say is that my wife absolutely LOVES this movie, and the DVD we have just isn’t a good way to watch the film. I’m very excited for the public release, whenever it’s ready.
I’d love to get my hands on any/all of the episodes of Andy Richter Controls the Universe in HD. I have digital recordings of the SD episodes as they originally aired on FOX (with the original music) as well as the US DVD release (with altered music and a zoomed and cropped image for every episode produced during the first season), but I know that the series aired in HD on FOX, and it also aired on HDnet (including the unaired episodes) at some point.
Does anyone have access to the HD episodes that aired on FOX and/or HDnet?
Update: While I would still love to get access to this series in true 1080p HD, I was able to upscale the entire series, and it looks phenomenal. I put a lot of care into every episode, using the 720p HD source when possible, and using the DVD source to obscure network logos.
There were several instances where I had to go frame-by-frame to correct little things, but I’m very pleased with the result. If I didn’t know it was upscaled, I’d honestly have no idea it wasn’t true 1080p.
If anyone would like access, PM me. I forgot how amazing this show really was until I just re-watched it. (I can’t believe it’s not available to stream anywhere.)
I did a pass on the first episode, using the DVD as a source. Slowed it from 25fps to 23.98. I might need to fiddle with the settings a bit, but it looks better than anticipated. I can provide a link, if requested.
I’ll dig around and see what my episodes look like. Do you remember the source (station ID or bug) yours are from?
Episode 1 appears to be from a pre-release screener; it looks the best.
Episodes 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, & 12 are from an unknown NBC HD station.
Episodes 3, 4, 6, & 13 are from NBC 4 HD.
Episodes 7 & 9 are from Global HD (Canada).
