I could build a HTPC out of my head, but I haven't been able to find a guide to what recent parts are recommended.
I have a few stuff laying around to offset the cost. Can you recommend a guide lordjedi?
One of my 2 VCR's is now a lost cause and I can't see replacing it with another one.
TiVo is the first thought, but I am morally opposed to their invasive data collecting, and monthly fee. There use to be good DVR alternatives out there but that has all but dried up.
Comcast's DVRs are $14/mo which is ridiculous and I hear their interface is obnoxious. The ability to dump the raw data streams to a PC is possible, desirable, but not necessarily guaranteed.
I had always considered that on my next PC upgrade, I would build my old one into a media center... but I currently don't have the funds to go that far.
The best answer I've found so far is Philips DVDR3576H/37 (which is slowly disappearing in availability). On the plus side it's a DVR/DVDr without a monthly fee. It can record to either DVD or HDD and you can watch something else while that's going on.
It also has a high quality mpeg encoder that can encode at multiple quality settings up to 9500kbps vbr (which provides better quality than a DVD recorder which has to record at preset cbr settings). It can also rapidly burn HDD recorded programs right to DVD without re-encoding.
It isn't HD, but has 1080p upscaling, and can record HDTV shows downscaled to 480p. So all ATSC and QAM channels are pretty much fair game. Shows can be saved in their original anamorphic aspect ratios. It's also suppose to make some really nice captures from VHS input.
My real misgivings are that even though it can dump HDD programs unrecoded to DVD it IS re-encoding the broadcast when it first records: HDTV or SDTV. It does not save the raw streams.
The other serious drawback is that it downmixes/reencodes recordings to DD2.0 (it won't save a 5.1 stream). It also loses closed captioning from any digital broadcast (which is everything come February).
Anyone have a suggestion or is this one of those "it's the best of what there is, live with it" deals.
Is the Elgato a PC capture device or a standalone?
Does anyone know of an off the shelf DVR that also has the firewire out?
I hate to give Comcast the money for a rental.
Also, has anyone else gotten this to work? Are the firewire ports still available and functional?
Have you give thought to a 'making of' featurette?
I'd love to see some before and afters strung together so we can marvel at your genius.
So I'm not completely clear, is this going to be a group of editors working on an uber-cut or is everyone doing their own digital work and coming up with different edits?
What you need to do is decode it to 6 wave channels, slow it down (of course), and then re-encode back to DTS.
Mind you, there are those that say 640kbps DD is pretty much sonically equivalent to 768kbps DTS, so if the source isn't full 1536kbps, it's a good alternative.
For DTS to AC3, here is a nice guide: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=91239
If you really want to keep with DTS, here's all the info you need on working with it: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68300#post424069
I'm guessing that's different than the officially published script. Interesting.
Thanks for posting.
A couple good ideas, but another list of reasons why I never care for Spence's edits.
Can someone post details of Spence's edit?
I don't have a functioning account at FE, and don't want one.
Could be worse, you could be running Vista.
The extended pause wasn't too much. You just got banged around pretty hard, there was also little indication that the speed had been played with.
I say the expanded wait was fine.
I figured it was something like that. It seems a bit strange when you look at it closely, but if you aren't looking at it frame by frame, it's fine. Really, I do love it (and it makes more sense than this scary guy running from a gun being cocked.)
I don't think the sound needs to be later, that's fine. Just louder.
EXCELLENT cemetery scene.
A few stupid nitpicks... the gun seems to shoot a little early (while he's still raising it, but I think you did that to give the impression of a recoil(?)), the flash should probably be at least 1 or 2 frames after the muzzle flash (for dramatic effect, even though in reality it probably wouldn't be that late.)
Finally: better gunshot sound. This one might be a bit weak considering the POV looks like it's being fired right beside your ear.
But on the whole: beautifully seamless, and a huge improvement. Indy has a gun and isn't afraid to use it on South American monkey ninjas or whatever those things were.
Edit:
As for the fridge scene, like I was saying before, if you cut all of the bounces, it lands and seems to roll/slide to a stop. It's more convincing that the occupant might live.
I did a quick re-edit of your clip (removing the audio since it was already out of sync): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KBQ0WMJG
Mind you if I wasn't just tossing this together, I'd make one other change: The shot of the fridge as it falls from the sky and just touches the ground should be flipped left/right. It would provide continuity with the final shot which makes the fridge seem to come from the other direction (and the fridge would be standing on the same corner between those two shots).
Hmm. Still too many bounces.
I think I'd just go from flying to the last cut where Indy actually gets out.
My gut says this is the plain release, and the double dip will come a few years from now as the re-restore them one film at a time. It's what they did for the DVDs.
I can't believe they opted to save money and do the new fx for TMP in 480p. They had do know sooner or later they were going to need a high def transfer of it.
So what now, they re-redo the effects? Nitwits.
Out of curiosity I took a look at Kaminski's Imdb listing. I think the list includes at least 5 of the most disappointing movies of the past several years (that should have been MUCH better).
Spielberg definitely is in love with this guy though.
I didn't see Spalko shoot her own men when I watch the film either. It was talked about and the clip shown in an extra on Disc 2 of the Special Edition.
It's a shame: I was happy to see Marion back, but she was definitely on some sort of mood stabilizers.
I've been trying to figure out why this movie doesn't work.
There are action scenes that should be good, but aren't very intense. The plot is mostly ok, with a few flubs, but I could live with that. Even Mutt is quite tolerable (I expected Anakin II).
I want to blame Lucas for a lame alien plot, but you know, it does sort of work in the time period it takes place.
I want to blame Spielberg for failing to articulate the story in the white-knuckle manner we are accustomed, but the action seems to move along well.
I want to blame Harrison Ford for agreeing to Lucas & Spielberg's crap, and looking generally jowly, but I was never afraid he was going to break a hip.
I've decided the blame rests squarely with Janusz Kaminski. His shot composition is terrible. He frequently fails to emphasize the action on the screen, almost like he didn't know where his camera was pointing. For example: the tree cutting blades, the door being blown at Area 51, Mutt jumping vehicles, etc.
It's obvious whoever was responsible could not compose action shot to save their life.
Also, who else is there to blame for the high dynamic range/light blooming? I'd SAY the cinematographer is responsible, but I suppose with so much green screening it could have been Spielberg.
Spielberg MAY have been responsible for the problems in this film, but I don't believe that after all these years Spielberg forgot how to direct. I'm thinking if we see an Indy 5 it'll have a different DP... or it will suck too.
That being said, in the example scenes I mentioned (and several other), an edit would benefit from strategic cropping/resizing to shift the focus to the action.
Going from an HD source would make this possible, and could fix a lot of the dull action beats.
Love the blooming fixes.
I've been avoiding this thread because I didn't get to see this until a few days ago.
I also like all the ideas in the first post.
My suggestions:
In the jungle chase the tree cutting machine: When it blows up, it's almost unclear what happened. Unfortunately this is one case where MORE footage is needed. I was actually asked by one person what happened and where that spinning blade came from.
In the jungle car chase, Spalko shoots at Indy but shoots her own men: It's very fast, and difficult to see happen. Enhanced gun fire, hits, yells, and muzzle flashes might make the scene work better.
Again the jungle chase, at one point Mutt jumps from his original vehicle to the one with Spalko. It's done in a long shot with lots of CG vegetation in front of it obscuring the shot. (I had to back up while watching to figure out how Mutt changed vehicles.)
Ants hill: Cut the ants forming a tower trying to reach Spalko. It looks REALLY bad.
CG work: Marion has a stupid smirk on her face for 90% of the movie. What the HECK was that about? Was she just happy to be acting again?
Area51: When Indy breaks through the wall of boxes, it's all box material. It LOOKS like he drove through a single thin wall of empty crates. More debris, packing material, and odd artifacts need to be added.
Definitely cut 'Trust me'. It was a good line, but she didn't deliver it well.
Why is that unfortunate? I would have thought you'd be happy that there was a better source available. Or is it unfortunate that you only found out about it after your VHS preservation was complete? :)
Yup, the latter.
Using the VCR's digital stabilization I played back the break-up portions on slow and captured it.
The digital slow motion frames are less sensitive and only resulted in 1-2 actual unusable frames.
I then decimated it from a variable 150-ish fps back to 23.976... so I suppose fdecimate was used to filter.
I then cut the repaired clips back in using Womble.
Didn't do any filtering. I didn't feel it was necessary (I use a vcr with TBC as recommended by http://www.digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/capture/playback.htm ).
Unfortunately, I've been informed this movie got a widescreen transfer in France under the name Evasion sur commande.
I'm looking into turning this into a PAL2NTSC project now.
@MeBeJedi - It sounds like you should add a new member or two to the team to help you out.
<span style=“text-decoration: underline;”>The Secret War of Harry Frigg: A Doctor M Preservation</span>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063573/
A preservation of the long out of print Paul Newman comedy/romance/war movie. It is a VHSRip because it has never been released in any other format.
When 5 allied generals are captured in Italy in WW II, it is a propaganda nightmare for the Allies. The generals are all 1 star and refuse to take orders from each other in order to plan an escape. Harry Frigg is a private who has escaped from the guard house dozens of times. He is promoted to Major General (2 stars) and ordered to get the generals out once he is captured. Harry is willing to escape, but then he meets the countess…
Tech Info: The video has been inverse telecined, VHS breakup flaws digitally repaired, and the audio lightly cleaned.
Note: While I have had problems with my cap card and am only 85% pleased with the quality, it’s still quite watchable. There will eventually be a v2, but that’s a long long way off.
As with all preservations here at OT Forums, you would need to PM me for further info.
OMG, I completely forgot about this edit.