Doctor M

I really don't want to be involved in this conversion, but for those that don't understand, the small black overscan borders (of about 9 pixels per side) are intentional and part of the ITU-R BT.601 standard.

While there is nothing wrong with making the final video non-ITU, it does provide better backward compatibility.

Proper conversion would typically be done by cropping the vertical borders and encoding at 704x480... but then again that's negligible since we're already upscaling the snot out of this.

Dude, not cool.  I see a post on this thread and I'm like a dog hearing a can opener.

Stop getting my hopes up!

I don't know about grain being desirable, but as I said before, if the subs are added before the anti-alias algorithm, you'd soften the edges and probably kill the flicker with it.

Beyond that, you could probably create a clip of the subtitles and use it as a mask to addgrain... but once you are talking masks, I'm not going to be a helpful source of information.

http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/External_filters#Transitions

DissolveAGG might be best since it provides a wipe with a soft edge.

Set one side as the default color balance, and the other clip with the altered colored balance and try to match the wipe speed.

Fiddly to pull off, but do-able.

zee944 said:

Moth3r said:

I also thought the subs looked unnaturally "clean". My idea, as I explained a while ago in another thread, was to overlay a layer of grain over the text.

Agreed, but that's really just the cherry on the cake.

Just a thought, but if the subtitles were added BEFORE the clean up (such as the denoising and anti-aliasing), wouldn't that distress the subs enough to give you what you are looking for?

timdiggerm said:

Just wanted to take this moment to say that on the 1977-1981 technicolor dye print that I saw in Baltimore this year, Greedo's subs were yellow.

Can anyone back that up with a screenshot?

Most BD rips of lossless tracks favor very high bitrate conversions to DD.  Usually the max of 640kbps, but it's really probably overkill.  640kbps DD is considered comparable sonically to 768kbps DTS.

IIRC, you don't need any plugins or anything special to extract a DTS core.  Just the main eac3to program and:

[code]eac3to input.dtshd output.dts -core[/code]

See if this makes sense:  DTS HD MA is really just the old DTS audio with some extra stuff tacked on that makes it lossless instead of lossy.

But, the thing is, within all DTS HD MA tracks there is a plain old DTS track embedded.

You can toss out the lossless component and be left with the DTS track.  It's not re-encoding to get to standard DTS, it's untouched.

Um, to put it another way, it's the old Voyager 6 sitting inside the massive AI ship that is V'ger.  You can pull out the old Voyager probe and use it, but of course it's not nearly as impressive... and doesn't kidnap bald women.

Since you're going to have a DD2.0 track, I'm surprised you didn't favor the idea of extracting the DTS core... because that's just awesome stuff (and one of the least difficult things to do with eac3to).

I don't know if you saw the Wiki for eac3to: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Eac3to/How_to_Use

Anyway, if BD-RB didn't turn out satisfactory results, let me know, I could probably do the conversion for you.

msycamore said:

It depends what subs you all are talking about, the opening crawl has yellow subs but the so called huttese alien language in all films were always white in the cinema, and I'm no sub expert d_j, just an observer. ;)

Wait, really?  My memory must be going.  Was that true for the laserdiscs as well?

While it's nice to argue that the subs were originally in the image area in theaters, the truth is, putting them below the picture wasn't exactly an option for them.

Until there is such thing as a 2.35:1 television, I personally prefer subs in the black borders than overlaying (and obscuring) the picture.

Heck, forced soft subs is even more preferable since it saves bitrate for compression and you don't have to worry about artifacts from the text's edges.

That's just my preference, but everyone is different.  It's just one of those things that I don't feel strongly about preserving from the theater.  It's just subtitles FCOL.

IIRC, the subs have always been yellow.  That isn't new to the SE.

none said:

dark_jedi wrote:

How do you slightly blur a subtitle?

Some programs will allow you to modify the opacity.  90-95% will make the white a little less severe.

Is there evidence the original text had an opacity?

Don't forget that screenshot may very well be from the script, not the encoding.  Mpeg encoding will soften things slightly.

Even using a GUI for it?  There are several which should make it easier.

I never really had problems with the CLI version though.

Edit: I suppose an alternative would be to use something like Tranzcode to extract mono wave files and then use your favorite audio encoder to convert to DD from there.

I don't know how much development it's been under since eac3to is everyone's go-to program, but it looks to be a bit easier to use.

Edit 2: What is important is that eac3to can be set up with the DTS decoder of your choice.  Sonic's decoder is reference (and some say Nero's might be as well).  That would give eac3to the edge on accuracy over other methods.

Edit (cough) 3: I would be remiss if I didn't also suggest NicAudio.  It let's you decode via avisynth. http://nicaudio.codeplex.com/

There is a DVD on the torrent site Cinemageddon:

Somewhat over a year ago i received a fan edited dvd of "Return of The Living Dead" It contained the fullscreen cut of the film as well as 5 different versions of the soundtrack,

The un altered Theatrical version missing from the 2002 DVD,
A unofficial mix,
1991 2.0 Stereo HBO version,
The Butchered 2002 version
Directors Commentary

I myself re cut this fan edit got rid of the full screen version and replaced it with the Widescreen transfer as well as throwing in the Spanish soundtrack . Everything is synced up perfectly

I previously uploaded the entire official DVD release collection of the Return of The Living Dead series. Minus the fan edits of course

The description 'fan edit' is misleading.  As far as I can tell, it is just a reauthoring with 5 audio tracks.

From the comments there, it looks like you may already know this.  Is there a reason this source would be unacceptable for the audio?

Eac3to: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=125966

If you prefer, the software allows you to extract the DTS core from it (meaning it is no longer lossless, but becomes regular lossy DTS without re-encoding).

If that's confusing, as I understand it DTS-HD is an extension of DTS.  It's really DTS + extra stuff to make it lossless.  The extras stuff can be stripped and an untouched DTS track is left behind.

If you prefer though, Eac3to will also allow you to re-encode to DD.

ray_afraid said:

A B C said:

ray_afraid said:

A B C said:

^ I'm almost sure it's a fake ! Look how it looks unnatural when he puts back the bottle...

...you've GOT to be joking...

Just look attentively, I tell you it's a fake.

Of course it's fake!

No, dude, it's REAL.  I met that cat.

And remember, dark jedi's definitive v3 is supposed to look like it was shown on its original release in 77. So this Techicolor dye print is THE reference.

I missed the bit that said DJ is doing color correction, I thought he was just cleaning up artifacts.  Or are you just suggesting that he SHOULD.

Wait, now I'm confused, you need to use double plus signs?  I've always used a single one.  Is there a difference in what that does?

More and more this is sounding like the last Star Wars I will ever need... until the estate of JL decides to cash in and release the untouched films on 4000p holography discs or whatever.

Appreciate your hard work DJ.

I recall a lot of discussion awhile back about some interlace artifacts remaining in the GOUT transfer.  A lot of filters were tossed around as being useful, but what is available has improved.

I don't see a specific filter being used for cleaning that, and they are probably removed as a by-product of something else (probably the anti-aliasing), but I'd like to suggest one more thing:

TFM(pp=2,clip2=TempGaussMC_beta2(edimode="nnedi2").SelectEven)

TempGaussMC with nnedi2 will bring most computers to their knees (I think I can render 1 frame every 30 seconds with it), but TempGaussMC turns on ONLY when TFM decides a frame has interlace artifacts.  The rest of the time it does nothing.

Image quality is pretty much a perfect extrapolation for these frames.

Hey, just a quick OT thank you.

I was working on another project today and the source had some unpleasant aliasing.  I remembered a line in this script about it:

########## anti-alias
NNEDI2(dh=true, field=0)
NNEDI2(dh=false,field=1)

I've never seen that done before, I'm not sure HOW it works, but it does a beautiful job.  Thanks.

I suppose someone could just rip the GOUT discs, use vobdnorm and do a listening test.

Not completely true.  Dialog normalization sets the level that is assumed to be normal listening level for the dialog.

Now maybe I misunderstand how it works, but I believe by assigning a dialnorm value you crush the softer audio.

You might turn it louder, but I don't think the range is the same.

I think it would be correct to say that all films in the franchise are "black sheep".

The first film, in and of it self worked, and it is good.

The second film was garbage, and pretty much everyone pretends it doesn't exist.

You've trashed the third film, while being questionable in its continuity, is quite enjoyable and really doesn't suck too badly.

The fourth film was a horror I've tried to forget.  Combining Connor and Duncan?  Ugh.  The unbreakable move or whatever?  WT?

Highlander 5?  Pleeease.  It was recut so many times, you'd think it was a Matrix fanedit.  It might as well have been made in Canada by The Asylum direct for the SyFy channel.

H3 is the closest thing we have to a watchable movie outside of H1.  Wouldn't it just be a better to keep the movies and TV series separate entities and make #3 continuitous with #1 (or for that matter #1 continuitous with #3?) and just smooth things out a bit.

Is continuitous even a word?

Curious to see your change list though.

Doctor M said:

TheDigitalBits.com reported today that there will be a new take on Pastoral's censoring on BD.  "More seamless" using newer digital tools.

What got me, is they commented that bootleg uncensored cuts are available if you know where to look.

I wasn't aware of this.  If we don't know where to look, who does?