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Doctor M

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Join date
1-Feb-2005
Last activity
6-Jul-2025
Posts
2,544

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Post
#483411
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

Big Boppa said:

dark_jedi,

As someone who just discovered this forum, let me echo the sentiments of all those who appreciate the incredible efforts you and other like you have made to preserve the original trilogy as they were first seen.

I was 19 when I first saw Star Wars in 1977.  I went to a midnight showing.  I had to walk three miles because the headlights on my car blew out.  I can still remember how much I enjoyed the opening crawl and the way the Star Destroyer fly over blew me away.

To be honest, although I am an old school fan, I have enjoyed many of the changes that Lucas made.  But it's the original versions that really get me pumped.  To me they represent Lucas' original vision as it was, not the bleached and sanitized version he now wants everyone to believe it was.

I also believe an artist's (directors included) skill is manifested through the constraints placed on him/her.  In the original trilogy as filmed, we see the Lucas team at it's best.  The attack on the Death Star only gets better when you know they got the effect by sliding cameras on guide wires.

Imho (and a long windy one at that), Lucas needs to wise up; and not just for the fans.  His own legacy is at risk.  If he is succesful, in 50 or 100 years when no one remembers the original versions and they review his work, what they might say is "Nice  But anyone with decent computer skills can do that"

Anyway, I really appreciate what all of you are doing.  You are giving me back a piece of my youth.  Please don't let the comments of a few idiots make you forget that.

Thanks again.  I look forward to the completion of v3 and project blu.

You really nailed it there.  Heck, in a few years you'd be able to reproduce the Special Editions on a home computer.

I remember thinking a little while back that it's a good thing that some jacka-- didn't think about cleaning up the special effects in Ray Harryhausen's films.  A little computer work and you could smooth out the motion, or heck, it wouldn't be too much trouble to recreate CGI versions of the creatures and just rematte them into the film.

Just because we CAN improve effects in classic films, doesn't me we should.

Too off topic? Um, let's see, something about V3 project, um.. Thanks D_J!

Post
#483102
Topic
GOUT, Automated Theatrical Colouring, and a Reference Guide
Time

By default Levels clamps input luma to [16,235], converts it to [0,255] for making changes, and then scales the output back to [16,235].

As such, Levels(0,1,255,0,255), does nothing on a [16,235] clip, but it clamps (or rounds) a [0,255] clip to [16,235].

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Levels

Don't let the numbers confuse you ChainsawAsh, the filter works like it should.

Post
#483054
Topic
GOUT, Automated Theatrical Colouring, and a Reference Guide
Time

You could probably reconstruct the frame using the previous frame and just brightening the snot out of it (assuming there isn't too much movement).

Btw, has anyone tried lowering the overall brightness with levels?

The last integer is the input level.  While you can't recover detail lost (like in the frame posted above), you can bring down the range.  So to lower it 5 points would be: Levels(0, 1, 255, 0, 250).

Post
#482725
Topic
HARD TARGET - Ultimate Edition (* unfinished project *)
Time

justicefrog said:

Sweet, I will definitely try that, thanks!  As far as the "Redux" version I had no idea there was one, is that a variant of the screener where somebody just tweaked the color saturation like you mentioned?  Does that ability come standard with most video-editing programs?

I've only seen Redux with no information details and all links seem dead.  The only thing I know is it might be a better transfer, slightly desaturated and converted to DVD.

Anyone know more than this?

As far as desaturating, most editors have some sort of ability to do it.  If you are using Womble Mpeg Video Wizard, I would say DON'T use any of their video filters.  Womble would then have to re-encode the video and its mpeg encoder is possibly the worst one ever made.

Post
#480754
Topic
HARD TARGET - Ultimate Edition (* unfinished project *)
Time

A couple thoughts.

If you don't have the "Redux" version of the screener, I recommend you try reducing the color saturation by about half.  The versions floating around are way overblown.

Also, as far as isolating dialog from the trailer, assuming the trailer is stereo (mono there is no help for), you can try doing an upmix to 5.1 with a dolby prologic decoder (my guide is somewhere on this site).  The output should have the dialog in the center channel.

Post
#478785
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

Does the forum set fixed width to images?  No matter how wide I open the browser, I can't see the right half of those HD shots.


Btw, they don't look bad at all.  The edges are good, and there aren't any obvious upscaling artifacts.  Looks over scrubbed, but that probably isn't g-force's script.  You can't create detail that isn't there.

Post
#478657
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

A couple thoughts.

The first may sound obvious, but: cell times are based on 29.97 frames/sec.  regardless of if the film is progressive or not.

If you've found the chapter locations yourself using just about anything (VirtualDub, etc.), your numbers are probably based on 23.976.  Multiplying by 1.25 will fix that.

Also, if your cells are ripped using DVD Decrypter, they may also be wrong.  The program doesn't handle NTSC cell times well (only PAL).  Grab PGCDemux and try reripping just the celltimes.

Post
#478648
Topic
Trancers: Enhanced Edition (Mastered and Upscaled from the Vestron LD) (Released)
Time

Templar said:

Doctor M, the original Trancers isn't a Full Moon Production, it is one of the last Empire Pictures productions, which, like Re-Animator, were actually thetrically released, although in a very limited run.

All the Trancers sequels that followed though were Full Moon productions.

 

I did not know that.  Thank you.  Do we know for a fact the laserdisc is open matte and not pan and scan?

Edit: Just noticed that you went with 1.77:1-ish not 1.85:1.  Okay, probably the best way to go.

Post
#478567
Topic
Trancers: Enhanced Edition (Mastered and Upscaled from the Vestron LD) (Released)
Time

Many thanks, I'll have to check it out.  Love this movie.

I've seen the official DVD and was mad that it looked like monkey-ass.  The colors are crap compared to the laserdisc (not to mention the horrible new compression artifacts.)

Edit: I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the artificial anamorphicizing.

Full Moon Video was always direct to VHS (sort of like Asylum is now).  I'm not sure I believe IMDB's 1.85:1 AR in the tech specs since this probably was never intended to see the inside of a theater.

Post
#478562
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

I've never been a fan of DVD Lab Pro for rebuilding discs (I do use it for custom ground up discs though).  For one thing it only accepts text subtitles (does the original GOUT have subs?).

The other issue is the chapters points.  They are moved to the nearest I-frame.

When I rebuild discs I use Muxman.  You set the celltime for the chapters, and that's where they end up.  (It also takes subtitles in untouched .SUP format.).  (Oh yeah and the basic version does everything I need and is free.)

You can then use the output with VOBBlanker to rebuild the disc with the new movie.

...Just my method FWIW.

Post
#477150
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

You should give Tritical's EDIUpsizer a go.  It's built off of NEDI.  He also has a FastEDIUpsizer, but I don't know if you are sacrificing speed for quality: http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kes25c/

Moth3r's linked script seems newer, but may be very similar.  NNEDI (instead of standard filter flavors) is needed when upscaling by large factors.

 

Post
#475796
Topic
24fps video on retail Blu-ray question.
Time

You could probably try decoding the audio with BeLight (BeSweet) just like you would do slowing PAL audio to NTSC speeds.  Then just re-encode to Dolby with your method of choice.

"C:\..\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "c:\work folder\Audio - AC3 - 2ch - 48kHz - DRC - DELAY 0ms.AC3" -output "c:\work folder\Audio - AC3 - 2ch - 48kHz - DRC - DELAY 0ms.wav"  -2ch -azid( -c none ) -ota( -r 24000 23976 )

There'll be a tiny shift in pitch, but I doubt any one would could hear it.