That could be because it's from the 2-channel mix. If he changes to the 5.1 track it might be better.
Um, don't be in a hurry with the sound.
Turns out I AM having problem with the speakers I was listening on.
Get corroboration first. :)
I figured that if Lois was starting an article titled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman", it would just be a draft. Sort of a dear diary.
But once it becomes apparent Supe is missing, she maybe expands on it, and makes it available for publication.
Perhaps adding the line "First Draft of", "Notes For", or heck "Dear Diary, Why the World Doesn't Need Superman".
Just thinking out loud now.
Ok, I don't want to be any more critical about this edit, because I'm starting to be misunderstood. I'm (hopefully) being constructive so the final version will have all problems ironed out.
The important part here is, having now seen this in it's entirety, I LOVE IT.
This is the most watchable I have found these movies in the past 15 years. I already have shelf space reserved for the final release. So take any further comments as merely my attempts to help make this the most perfect fan edit ever.
I have seen so many cuts of these two films (fan edits, restorations, official, etc.) that, for the most part, I can't keep track of what changes Taolar has actually made. BUT, since they are so seamless, it's disturbing knowing they are there and not being able to spot them.
What I do know is the experience was tightly paced, and a pleasure to watch.
The few things I noticed in part 2 (part 1 comments are spread out in my posts above):
When the bus hits Supe @ 54:27 between frames #783641 & 783642 it looks like a few frames are missing. It skips slightly.
Following that when the back window of the bus is broken out: the audio is slightly out of sync making it feel artificial.
I like Superman being thrown into the Statue of Liberty's torch from an action stand point. Mind you, I was not aware that it was moved from New York to Metropolis? ;-) I don't know if it should be changed or not. It seems wrong.
I know it probably wouldn't work, but is there anyway to make it so Lex watches the holo of the 3 Kryptonian villians AFTER they arrive and make news? It would improve the story. Otherwise it's him randomly stumbling across the information just BEFORE they show up. That's a serious coincidence.
Taolar: I really liked what you did with the new ending. Everyone is getting on with their lives while the story continues to unfold. Superman leaving has the double explanation of a relationship that didn't work out and a home to revisit.
While your delivery occasionally had the flavor of Michael Palin in a Flying Circus sketch (when you mugged the camera). I probably wouldn't change it.
It would be nice however to see you make a few MORE cameos earlier in the movie in order to established your newscaster character. Then when you deliver the prologue at the end, the audience is more comfortable with your appearance.
Finally: Lois just got dumped by Superman! For cryin' out loud, no man you date after that will ever measure up. I absolutely expected when we saw her typing at the end, to see the title "Why The World Doesn't Need Superman".
It would have shown that she had some real emotional attachment and was upset by the way things ended. Sort of her working through her emotions in the way she know best.
Also, it would have been frickin' awesome! xD
Cheers on a really really really great edit.
(Can I get an amen to Lois' story title?)
What's is bloody hilarious, is I never thought about it before. Mind you I've been hearing him say that line since I was 5 years old.
I stopped thinking about what makes sense in Star Wars 200 viewings ago.
I started work on a VHS preservation and tripped across a funky interlaced pattern and figured I'd give srestore a try. It's just as useless as mrestore.
It is intelligent in picking the correct input and output framerates without setting the arguments (unlike restore24). Unfortunately, it crap at finding the blended field. Ok, not crap. In some scenes it's on par with r24, in others is worse.
AFA comparison clips, yeah I really should get around to that. :)
Taolar said:...I still hate the matting of the earth and moon though. I'm going to completely composite that scene. :)
Did you watch the last half?
Only because you are so crazy is this so good.
And no, I have yet to watch part two. I've spent most of today finishing two PAL2NTSC projects, tweaking a 3rd and I'm currently starting a VHSRip/Preservation (using a new capture method (for me anyway)).
I will be watching it tonight though.
Sorry, didn't even notice that there WAS a to do list.
The Phantom Zone comment wasn't a complaint, I saw the post where you were talking about fixing it.
I was just curious if you liked my lo-tech idea for a fix.
What's the changes between Purist and Standard? Here's what one of the torrents says:
Changes from the full version:
- Changed 3PO's line back to "There'll be no escape for the princess this time"
- Re-edited Obi-Wan's Hut scene back to its original version
- Removed the extended Death Star reveal
- Removed the extended TIE Fighter reveal
- Removed all music not originally found in the film
What was 3PO's line changed TO? I don't see it mentioned in the edit list on the first post. (It is a bit classic).
Really, all this info would be good on the first post.
I did notice the torrent of the DVD5 version was deleted from the 'noid, even though the DVD9 is still there.
I do see some random version, probably rips by other people:
909mb Purist + Soundtrack
1010mb MP4 Ipod version (posted by Negative 1)
1.66gb "Full Avi w/ AC3 5.1"
1.8gb Purist 2 CD AVI AC3
The new audio IS very modern sounding in dynamic range and sharpness. I don't hate it, some is a bit over the top and artificial, but it has a bit more bite. I just figured that Taolar sweetening it.
Also, and maybe it was the speakers I was listening on (which do have their bad days), but I found myself turning the volume up pretty high for some scenes and down for other. Just me?
I'll drop 2 other concerns from Part I while I'm thinking of it:
When Clarke jumps out the Daily Planet window and his clothes fade change into Superman's as he falls... what power is that exactly? I hate to request an effects shot but any chance of adding some fast-motion-like blurring limbs or rapid spinning as he falls so it looks like he might ACTUALLY be changing clothes not just willing them to transform?
What was with Otis' black eye? We lost the explanation for that (cough or I got distracted cough). (I don't remember what it was originally.) Can it be added back (or (heh heh) the removed)? I suppose it can be shrugged off that the guy's an idiot and he just got his in trouble somewhere.
I'm stupidly awake really really late, and I just finished watching Part I.
One of the biggest things that bothered was right at the end: the escape from the Phantom Zone.
Here is a quick and dirty fix for you to consider. Really all I did was bleed the black so Zod and the gang aren't wearing light-up gray clothing.
The scene IS darker, but it's in SPACE so I think it works. It'd work better balanced on a per scene basis (I just raised the black by 10 using the Levels filter for the entire clip). Some segments could use more, some less.
http://www.mediafire.com/?gtymynjynjy
Hmm. I'd like to request a version control list on the first post.
Xvid, H264, 2 CD, DVD5, DVD9, Purist?!
What are the differences in content and have any additional changes been made between them? (Eg. What makes a Purist pure? Does the DVD9 have anything more than higher bitrate over the DVD5?)
I'm curious, but there is no way I'm reading 264 pages to find out.
It wasn't so much a nerve as I just saw Dark Knight for the first time over the past two days (I couldn't sit still and watch it in one sitting). It's fresh in my mind as being so bad. I only saw it through to the end so I would have full rights to bitch about it. ;-) (Did Nolan's gravelly Batman voice get worse?)
As for TDK's and Heather Ledger, I'm sure they'll just recast when they're ready to beat that dead horse (if you'll partdon the expression).
As far as Back to the Future goes, the sequels were made back to back (which is usually a recipe for disaster). It's amazing they managed to make the 3rd film so good (it would be the equivalent of Matrix Revolutions being a brilliant and redeeming film for the franchise.)
I agree, I wouldn't mind seeing a Sup Returns edit. I was eagerly awaiting one by a guy who was meticulously color correcting the whole film. I believe he dropped it once he got hired for a real cg fx job.
I recall reading recently that there is some gossip of the possibility of Frank Miller directing an adaption of The Dark Knight Returns. While we all know how those things go in Hollywood, I'll say it again: my dream casting for 'old' Batman would absolutely be Clint Eastwood.
re: SOJ edit :-) I need to not sit at my computer while watching it because I keep getting distracted.
I'd say so far I can't see 90% of the changes (though as many times as I've seen the Supe films before, I don't have it well memorized). I do notice the pace to be MUCH tighter, and that's a real mercy.
I hear what is likely sweetened sound fx in the destruction of Krypton (and found it pleasing.) I wouldn't mind hearing those large panes of glass break (that fall when Clark's ship crashes through the ceiling). The sound is conspicuous in its absence.
I have seen a bunch of white break ups (some in the letterbox bars some in the picture itself). I hope that's a problem being worked on.
Taolar said:Have you watched it yet
-T
Planned on it tonight, but some of the comments are starting to put me off the idea.
DO NOT get me wrong, I have been waiting a long time to watch this and can't wait, but it sounds like there's some remaining continuity issues to be worked out.
@ChainsawAsh: I find it ironic that you reference Dark Knight as a movie that isn't trying to set up for a sequel.
Batman Begins was designed to be exactly that while still being the better of the two films.
Also, you are assuming Dark Knight didn't originally intend to set up a 3rd film. With the demise of Heath Ledger, there is a good chance they made some last minute tweaks so they don't have to recast the Joker in the next movie.
Yes, I'll say it again and then duck: Dark Knight was the worse of the 2 new Batman films and one of the most overhyped-'Emperor Has No Clothes'-movies of all time.
In fact it pretty much blew. I would rather sit through Batman and Robin again than Dark Knight cos I was alternately bored then insulted the whole length of the film.
Mind you if you're going to rip into THOSE films, Batman Begins departed from the Batman mythology just enough to completely steal it's plot from Alec Baldwin's The Shadow (which I really would rather have seen a sequel to.)
Edit: My standalone player is robust enough to handle packet bitstreams, but won't accept mp4modifier's AR patch. Also, I don't know what I have set different from everyone else, but MY MPC plays back at 1:1 AR (when set for default). WMP is the only player it worked on for me (though I didn't try Zoom...)
I'll just set MPC to 16x9 for playback, but I was hoping to watch it on my standalone... I won't be deterred.
The MP4Modifier isn't a good answer. AVI isn't suppose to carry AR information so many players (MPC, standalone, etc.) tend to ignore whatever you patch it as.
MKV natively supports pixel and display aspect ratios and makes a good alternative, but it will of course be unplayable on standalone units.
Btw, conventional wisdom would have had you also crop the black bars on the top and bottom to save bitrate. (Would have also preferred the original DD5.1 track to mp3.)
...but no one EVER gets their first DivX/XviD encode attempts right. :-)
Really try AutoMKV, it supports XviD as well as X264 and is a tweaker's dream.
Edit: The real problem is you exported to a lossless codec, which unlike an authored DVD contains no information about the display aspect ratio. You have to specifically set the resize and cropping.
In avisynth it would be: crop(2,58,-2,-64).Spline36Resize(844,356).
(Note: This overcrops by one line on the bottom, and slightly shrinks the video (about 2 lines vertically). The reason is that black borders are a sharp edge that Xvid codecs must spend lots of bitrate keeping intact. The resize brings the resolution to mod4 which improves the codec efficiency as well (without introducing aspect ratio error).)
A good way to go would be to create an avisynth script with those settings, use AutoMKV and select the AVS for the video, and the original file (or the .ac3 file if you have it, or mp3 if you want to use one you've already encoded) for the audio track.
Hmm. Never heard of Srestore.
I used the old/no longer developed Restore24. While slower and more painful to use than Mrestore, I find its ability to find and remove blended fields to be superior.
I might have to try Srestore, but the truth is, there's never enough truly clean fields to reconstruct 24fps in situations like this. A few will always be blended.
I would have probably tried AutoMKV, it's still being developed and is more flexible than AGK.
Is there a reason you didn't output to DVD format instead of lossless before making the XviD? Not that I'm complaining.
True, but when I rebuild, my primary system will be cable of higher speed conversions like that. And since I have a home network, I can then send the completed files to the HTPC.
I see your point though.
Next time I'll hopefully have a bigger budget. For now this will do the job.
What's hilarious is people have been building HTPC for the last 5 years, starting with single core 3ghz cpus, but everyone keeps recommending faster and faster chips for them.
The cap cards do the encoding, the vid cards do the decoding, and the hard drives don't really use the cpu either. It's just everyone wants a muscle-system.
I'll just build mine out of whatever old parts I have left over next time I upgrade my computer. Stuffed in a HTPC case and with a cap card or two will do just fine.
Well, yes and no.
Both discs are finished and have been released, but I'm (supposed to be) in the process of making some tweaks.
Disc 1's English subtitles need lots of work (and I'm down to the last 20 minutes), and disc 2 needs an aspect ratio fix (which is already done).
If I stop putting it off, v2 will be released before the year is out (maybe).
Sony does build mp3 players under the brand name Walkman... so it's not completely wrong.
Taolar said:I incorrectly use Divx as a generic term, kind of like some people use the words Coke and Bandaid.
While you might use them as generic terms, I wouldn't try to use them interchangeably. :)
Just bought the Philips recorder. For all it's drawbacks, I can't complain when I buy it (new in sealed box) on clearance at Sam's Club for $84.01 (minus an additional $20 from a gift card they gave me for sending me to another branch 30 minutes away for no reason (but that's a long story).)
I noticed Haupage makes a weird TiVo like device... it's HD, but recodes everything into H.264... and is tunerless.
I can't believe TiVo owns the market. Heck more than half of all VCR/DVD recorders are tunerless now.
It's like everyone said VHS is dead, TiVo wins, let's go home, and build BluRay players. You'd think no one else wanted a piece of the market that lets people record a program to watch later.
I'll probably pick up one of those Philips units, fast, since they look to be discontinued with no replacement model on the way.
Shame they're not HD, or lossless, or, well, better.
TiVos recode all programs as well, don't they?
Will it be a high bitrate encoding at full resolution XviD/DivX since you aren't releasing a DVD version right away?