Doctor M

To be fair, although they are usually similar, Aladdin has not had a U.S. release on BD yet.  We can only hope it comes out better.

I always have mixed emotions about HDTV/webdl versions.

It's fine if the movie doesn't exist with that transfer or in a digital format, but on the whole it rarely looks much better than a good DVD.  The over-compression needed for broadcast tends to scrub the detail you SHOULD be gaining from HD.

Most of the time they use the same bitrate, and in the case of HDTV the same mpeg2 codec.  That'll never look much better than a properly encoded DVD.

I liked the SitS old HDTV version, but at didn't find it to have a LOT of detail above the DVD.  It does have the edge though.

Was 20k Leagues damaged by restoration?  I hadn't heard that.

Is the Aladdin HDTV prior to the Imax/Lowry changes?

I assume Black Cauldron is likely to be pretty similar to the DVD because there hasn't been a restoration IIRC.

Never seen an Aristocats HDTV version.  There have been a lot of bad versions of that film.

AntcuFaalb said:

Has anyone taken a look at the Japanese Peter Pan LD from 1985?

 That would be pre-Lowry.  It SHOULD be close to the 1991 Laserdisc/1990 VHS releases, but you never know.

I'm not familiar with Audacity.  I do most of my audio editing in Sound Forge.

Dealer's choice.  If you ripped it from an analog source you might want to try merging the channels at 50% volume.  It can do some nice noise removal.

Thanks.  Apparently I missed a couple weeks worth of posts on this thread.

Anyone got the password for the the usenet version?

Was 'Always' in need of preservation?  Is there a thread for that project here? I cannot find details.

DanishDVDfreak said:

Doctor M said:

So is this on the usenets as well, or just 'spleen?

 Its on usenet too:

http://www.binsearch.info/browse.php?bg=alt.binaries.starwars

Look for the post from april 30th, and may 3rd by "Someone"

 Thanks.  I thought I saw something about it being there, but could not find it.

So is this on the usenets as well, or just 'spleen?

AKA banding.  I've never heard it call false contouring before.

Um, is that really on the BD?

Megatron said:

long time follower and a bit confused as to who I ask to get an invite to Myspleen or the other place to download this.

??

 Wait, did I miss a post?  When did this get released and is it torrent only?

I think both Elmo Oxygen and OmegaMattman were talking about being willing.

OM's color matched hybrid version sounds like just what we want.  You up for that?

That said, EO has some nicely authored discs.  Wouldn't mind seeing that.

With regard to the aspect ratio differences, it appears that both versions may have been 2.20:1.  So that really shouldn't be much of an issue.  I was concerned there would need to be cropping of the DVD source.  Of course the LD will need to be upscaled to anamorphic wide.

I'd like to be able to do more with this than cheer on from the sidelines, but once you are getting into color matching, I'm just not really equipped to do that so it looks professional.

Eek.  Almost missed this update on TDB:

According to Robert, all versions of The Alamo are currently endangered. The film’s original 65mm elements are essentially gone, both for the 202-minute roadshow version and the 167-minute cut down version. The roadshow version could possibly still be salvaged in a half-decent home video version, but it's no longer possible to restore it to anything remotely like original quality. Sadly, the same is also true of the 167-minute version created by UA, because the original negatives can no longer be printed to anything viewable. According to Robert: “All that remains [of The Alamo] are old 35mm dupes, which do not represent the film as a large format epic, and even those elements are less than stellar.”

Never noticed that.  So when you say composite you mean to use the DVD footage when available and laserdisc footage for the extra scenes?

I'm okay with that.  You might want to contact Dark_Jedi and see if he can give some pointers on getting the most out of upscaling the laserdisc.

OmegaMattman said:

I have the roadshow LD and am hoping to make a capture in the next month or so.  Unfortunately, I've been stuck in an extended stay motel for the past few weeks, so life is on hold.  I'm hoping to color match it to the DVD and make a composite.  Same with "Hawaii" once I get the chance.

 Wouldn't the aspect ratios be completely different between the roadshow and theatrical cuts?

Thanks.  I'll take a look.

EO, I wanted to look for your posts on MySpleen, but can't find them.  You apparently can't search by user name, only ID.  What is your id# there?

In light of a recent article on The Digital Bits: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/052814_1330 it appears that MGM is willing to let the roadshow version of ‘The Alamo’ degrade to nothing.

That said, there WAS a laserdisc release of this cut of the film and it absolutely should be preserved by fans if the studio won’t.

Does anyone have this laserdisc and want to take on the project?  We unfortunately sold off our copy long ago.

If nothing else, but a bee in MGM’s bonnet as suggested at the end of the linked article.

We are getting off topic, but even with Fox holding the rights, a release of the whole Trilogy requires a deal between them AND Disney.  It's in both of their interests to play nice.

Considering there are upcoming sequels, I can't imagine either company would pass up the cross promotional bucks involved.

Sorry about the thread derailing.

Um, just rumor, but... http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05/15/new-star-wars-rumors-include-original-trilogy-re-release-on-blu-rayvod-and-more/

Even if true, there is no way the audio mixes will be as diverse.

Why isn't the BD release a trilogy?  Are they embarrassed by the third film?

I missed something, are we talking SE or non-SE being on the way?

drngr said:

Doctor M said:

Why must they do this?

Taking a completed 2K file and creating a 1080p file, they can:

1. Crop only horizontally.
Maintains: 1:1 pixels, vertical image info.
Alters: aspect ratio by 6%, 128 pixel columns lost.

2. Crop horizontally and vertically.
Maintains: 1:1 pixels, aspect ratio.
Alters: 128 pixel columns and 54 rows lost.

3. Downsize by 15/16, generating artifacts that are especially visible for something with pin-point pixels (ex: ringing) The entire image is negatively altered.
Maintains: aspect ratio, horizontal & vertical image info.
Alters: all pixels malformed.

As nickdiba noted, #2 is common practice for Blu-ray releases, though I think "always" is overstating things. And overcropping for the sake of maintaining AR goes back to the LaserDisc days.

 That's a pretty solid argument.  I can see where they wouldn't want to resize the image since they can do a direct 1:1 pixel copy from their computers to BD... except is it really likely that their master is 2k?

I would THINK at this point it would be 4k, which would mean there is resizing no matter what.

Behodar said:

Doctor M said:

Behodar: Have you seen screenshot comparisons that can prove the edges are cropped and not that the matte was opened at the top/bottom?

I have. I found this screenshot when trying to determine the original aspect (be sure to right-click and open in new window to stop the forum from cropping the right-hand edge off):

And here's the same frame from the Blu-ray:

The back of the box also has a thumbnail in 2.39 (sorry about the quality):

And the Blu-ray:

I'm gonna call that pretty definitive.  Why must they do this?

I'm now betting that the Special Edition coming this holiday will miraculously have the correct AR.