Doctor M

Say I wanted to take an HDMI signal and feed it to something like the Hauppauge gaming PVR, the best option looks to be the 4 port 1x4 splitter you linked... but they don't ship to the U.S.

Are there any other options you can suggest?

Supposedly the original DVD release of The Little Mermaid (before the Disney Enhanced Home Theater debacle), had a limited run in DTS.

I'd love to see that surface (pardon the pun).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Aften supports DD+ yet.

Somewhere I have an HD version of True Lies that was muxed to the D-Theater DTS track.

I don't know if that would fit what you're looking for or not.  IIRC there was also a Japan DVD release with the DTS track and it might still be available if you're willing to brave Amazon.co.jp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-VHS#D-Theater

There used to be several other of the D-Theater DTS tracks floating around at HDBits.org if that is of interest.

Edit: Apologies, I'm assuming there is a particular reason you're looking for laserdisc rips in particular since I'm having no trouble finding several of the ones on your list available on DVD or BD releases.

Doctor M's Guide to HD Editing with Womble MPEG Video Wizard

version 1

So yeah, I was pretty surprised to find out this old work horse for the lazy editor is perfectly capable of being useful in the 21st Century.

It's probably better if you already know a bit about working with audio/video streams and the basics of Womble first.

A DigitalMan's Guide to MPEG2/AC3 Editing will also answer a lot of questions.  Be sure to check that out if you haven't already: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/ADigitalMans-Guide-to-MPEG2-AC3-Editing/topic/3444/

1) Prepare your source.

Womble is capable of working with just about any source type your PC can play. You may have to demux a format for optimal results though.

Typically it's better to work with raw streams, but that's not always the case.  I was able to get an .H264 file to load, but there was no preview and I've never seen XviD/DivX as a raw stream.

So HD formats in .MKV containers are fair game as are AVI files, etc.  You may want to experiment and see what works and what doesn't.  MP4 didn't work for me but that may change with an update.

MPEG2 can be found in .MKV container too, but you will not be able to losslessly edit it that way.  Demux it first (with MKVExtractGUI) and you can treat it like a plain old DVD mpg video clip.  .TS and .M2TS may or may not need the same treatment. 

If you are editing mpeg video, it wouldn't hurt to run Womble's MPEG GOP Fixer on it first (using the option (Fix GOP time code and PTS errors (Read + Write)).

NOTE: Womble CANNOT handle DTS audio (at least in the version I tried).  You'll want to re-encode that to AC3, WAV or FLAC before continuing (see Appendix 1).

2) Edit in Womble.
Plenty of guides for this.  You don't need me.

Remember though, if you are working with HD mpeg2 video and don't add effects, mix resolutions or format types, you can output losslessly just like when editing DVD video.

3) Output.

If you've been editing HD mpeg video, you really didn't need this guide.  Export the streams just like you would with standard definition.

So here's the real trick.  For everything else, save your project file and remember the name and close Mpeg Video Wizard.

Create a new AviSynth file:

LoadvfapiPlugin("(location of MVW installation)\MPEG Video Wizard DVD\WbpVFAPI.vfp","womble")
womble("(location of project file)\MyProject.wbp")

flipvertical #Video is always inverted to start with.
converttoyv12() #Output is RGB from MVW.

Most programs you'll go to to encode the video will want YV12 color.  If for some reason you're going mpeg2, CCE for the longest time required YUY2, color I don't know if that's still the case from SP3 and newer.

If you are going to convert this to standard definition after all this, you'll also want to add: ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601").

I have found that the vfapipugin will assume a single resolution for the source.  It probably chooses what the first clip is.  In my tests I used 1080p with a bit of DVD video mixed in.  The DVD content was automatically upscaled to match.

If you are going to resize your video, the endlessly useful Aspect Ratio Calculator Tool from Citizen is your next stop: http://www.haku.co.uk/ARCT.html

I do recommend using Spline36Resize() over Lanczos4 for it's neutral sharp resizing.

MeGUI is probably your best answer for an x264 encoder.  It has BD5/9 (listed as AVCHD), Blu-Ray and numerous other presets.  You can plug your script right in, use a default (or make some tweaks) and encode.

Once your video is encoded, export the audio track in Womble, then mux it however you wish.  MKV is pretty much net standard or author a shiny Blu-ray and feel superior.

Appendix 1. DTS Audio source

If you're starting with DTS and you are doing anything to change the number of frames in the video source, you have to re-encode.

You can convert to a good bitrate AC3 before starting or you can go to a lossless format if you want to re-encode back to DTS or a Dolby Plus format later.

It is important to know that Womble can only output at best AC3 5.1 and PCM 2 channel.  If you require anything higher you're pretty much out of luck.

I recommend Eac3to for all audio encoding.  It's pretty straight forward to use.

eac3to inputfile.ext outputfile.ext -options

So if you are starting with DTSHD and going to AC3:

eac3to audio.dtshd audioout.ac3 -640

Gives 640kbps Dolby Digital and pretty much your best option.

eac3to audio.dtshd output.wav -downDpl

Will give you a Dolby ProLogic II stereo downmix (or skip the -downDpl if your source is 1 or 2 channels).

More details and options about Eac3tocan be found here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Eac3to/How_to_Use


This is just a first draft, but I was impressed that Womble MVW-DVD could be used for more modern editing purposes.  I welcome suggestions for changes and corrections.

I'm kind of curious about:

Also, there appears to be a small delay on shipments of some copies of the Blu-ray release of Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: 25th Anniversary Edition.  Amazon currently lists a shipping time of “9 to 12 days” and claims it’s “due to a manufacturing issue”.  In any case, just know that there may be slight delays in finding copies depending on the retailer you purchased the title from.

Does that mean they found something else to cut?

The only down side to doing a torrent is disc 2 has a lot of audio with still images.  If you use something like winrar it's compressible to something like 2gb.

Anyway, I may just post it and worry about it later if they have an issue with it.

Assuming I need permission for a redundant post, I've started an offer thread at the MySpleen forum for the Br'er Preservation v1.1 discs.

Hop over there to support it if you are interested.

monks19 said:

Hi, does anybody here how to convert a DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio file into 8 WAVS (channels) files ? I tryed with eac3to and HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Stream Extractor as a GUI, but withtout success. All it does is only output 6 audio files instead of 8 (which is to total amount contained in a DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio file, if I'm not wrong).

Anyone can help me with this, please ?

Thanks to answer

Eac3to is probably the ideal decoder/encoder at this point.

Nero7 and Libav / ffmpeg are limited to 5.1 channel decoding.

Sonic may or may not output 6.1 channels depending on the source track. ArcSoft doesn't have any limitation, therefore it is the default decoder used.

So if you really need 7.1 you'll need a piece of commercial software called ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater.

Command line:  eac3to Input.dtshd Output.wavs

I'm not sure what your ultimate destination is, converting DTS-HD MA is probably best achieved by extracting the 'core' which is a DVD compatible DTS track (but 5.1).

Mind you if you are looking to turn this into Dolby Digital, you will need a Dolby Digital Plus encoder.  I'm sure they exist, but I haven't actually seen one yet.

So I finally sorted out my ISP problems and was all ready to deliver on some of my promises.  Checking my PMs I can't find who was interested in The Little Mermaid.

Is there some interested parties or did I mis-remember?

Either way, I think SotS is probably next.  Anyone know if MySpleen was cool with yet-another-SotS version?

The question I'm afraid to ask... does any of this matter?

I mean grabbing some high quality stills of the cut frames would be more meaningful than cutting them into the movie.

I'm usually pretty good at catching fast action, but we are talking single frames here.  Do they even register when you watch it?  It's the whole reason they were able to slip by responsible parties and into theaters unnoticed.

Even a hummingbird couldn't catch Tyler at work.

Space Kiajuu - So is it definite the laserdisc has even more stuff that the French HDTV version doesn't have?

Any update on this?

Seems pretty simple to roll out anything and change later if needed.

Edit: Moth3r's icon looks great.  I'd also like to suggest something like:

So are you all saying the original R1 DVD release has the colors monkeyed with?

I saw the Matrix in theaters 3 times, I never noticed a difference on the DVD (but definitely in the sequels).

I see no reason why an accurate source can't be used as a guide to build an avisynth script anyone can plug in to convert their Blu-Ray.

Agreed, Chewtobacca.  DVD Rebuilder is the, um, stuff.

Thanks, drngr.  I was looking at the censorship report stills which are full frame.  The snaps from the French HDTV is indeed nice and wide.

@Moth3r, updated my post with the info about HDBRiSe.

@SilverWook, I can't believe I remembered that Rigid Tools poster when I saw it.  Thanks for the memory refresh.

I've found several other HDTV releases around the net.  Has anyone checked them for edits?

I've now found:

Qui veut la peau de Roger Rabbit (the one we're talking about).  1080p that fits on a DVD5 (eek). Full frame.

NeoLight 1080i - MKV still @ 25fps.  DVD9 sized.  (Widescreen)

DON 720p - Converted from NeoLight release and synced to DTS DVD track @ 23.976.  DVD5 sized. (Widescreen)

Saw something about a DiC release but never found it.  No particulars except the quality and light levels are worse.

Also a couple of Russian HDTV 1080i torrents are around too but don't ask me to figure out what's on them.

Edit: Oh, and a 720p from HDBRiSe  (Censored.  Thanks Moth3r.)

@SilverWook - what was in the short (and which short)?

@drngr - Sometimes the animators brag about the stuff they sneak in.

I'll definitely take a look into building an English DVD from this though.  The quality seems more like an upscaling so I don't see a reason to go nuts with it.

I was leaning towards converting it to widescreen and mixing with the DVD, but if there's a single frame I don't know about, we'd miss out.

Things seem unclear what the full slate of changes are (besides the 2 or 3 we know of), it might make sense to leave the video largely untouched (just fixing opening and closing titles/credits).

Is this version posted as "Qui veut la peau de Roger Rabbit"?

For an HD source the picture is pretty awful.

Still an audio sync and just a replacement of the 3-4 changes would make this a good preservation.  Of course then the whole thing would have to be full frame.

I suppose you could color match and extend the frame if you were talented.

This is probably the final settings I'll use on Deathly Hallows.

It's a tough balance.  There's what would be good, and then there's what is consistent with Half Blood Prince (which is my goal).

While HBP was generally dim, only one scene was unreasonably dark.  It also has much better color saturation than Deathly Hallows (which borders on grey scale at times).

I'm convinced that the color/brightness abuse was done to hide cheaper effects and makeup in DH than for artistic merit.

Anyway, here's some snapshots for DH1 and DH2 showing a variety of scene types.

Source : HDRAGC adjusted

FYI, HBP will probably get released, but ATM I'm having slow ISP issues.

I know it is an over used technique, but I've been pondering if some movies wouldn't be improved by its use.

I can think of several movies that use hyperkinetic rapid fire editing that turns the action scenes into a jumble of shaky cam flashing images.

Soooo... anyone with ideas or software suggestions for DIY speed ramping?

(For those that don't know, speed ramping is when a motion slows or stops for effect and then speeds back up again.)

I'm also curious what films people think would be improved by using this in a fan edit.

I'll post some screens of DH later on.  I'm really aiming to see fixed some scenes that are inexplicably near black when there is cool things that should be seen.

If I don't add any deleted scenes to DH, I won't release it though.

I will however post the avisynth script that can be pasted into DVD Rebuilder for a quick easy self-coversion job anyone can do.

I've been having trouble finding a release outlet I'm comfortable with lately.  A lot of places formerly safe or that welcomed edits no longer do.

Also, I held off because I thought there might have been a last minute tweak coming.  I was looking at doing Deathly Hallows and it made me rethink some things.

I don't know about anyone else, but in the DH films, when my TV is set to it's most accurate movie viewing mode, there are scenes that are almost completely black.

While I will be making dynamically brightened versions of the DH films (mostly because I think the director is a hack to make them so dark), I've determined that although HPB is pretty damn dark at times, it never gets as bad as the two DH flicks.

I was worried that if I brightened Deathly Hallows they'd be brighter than HBP which wouldn't be right either.  I think I've found a good balance.

I'm also pretty convinced extending the DH films is a waste of time.  Most of the deleted scenes have unfinished effects, are lacking context to know what is going on, are really boring, or just don't feel necessary in these already unnecessarily strectched films.

There might be 1 or 2 useful scenes to each movie, and that's just not enough to go to the effort.

I believe he said he did it in HD, but hasn't released it.  I'm not sure though.

My edit is DVD only.  It's been finished, I just haven't found a way to release it yet.