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Doctor M

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Join date
1-Feb-2005
Last activity
4-Dec-2025
Posts
2,550

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Post
#232818
Topic
***The ADigitalMan non-Star Wars DVD Info and Feedback Thread***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/232818/action/topic#232818
Time
I don't want to bring down any hateful replies, but what would be awesome would be if people would get into the habit of torrenting Xvid versions of fanedits as well as the DVDs.

There are many interesting ones by ADM and the (CBB group) that I would love to graze through, but would hate to have to d/l full DVDs of sight unseen.

That said I'd request to see Pearl Harbor in that format (since the originally film really really blew).


ADM: I watched Mask of Zorro the other day and realized if the cheesiness were taken out (a lot of stuff with his horse) (and the cliche's (although there are a lot)) and the original beginning and ending were restored (new soundtrack would be needed over it), the movie might suck much less.
Just a thought.
Post
#232816
Topic
'13-30 Extraflirty' fan edit (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/232816/action/topic#232816
Time
It depends on the story they are trying to tell.
If they only plan on pulling out of IV the content that relates to Spock as a continuation of the previous 2 movies (leaving out all the Whales and the back in time stuff), it's actually an interesting plan.

I like the originals just fine (even III which I just rewatched recently wasn't as bad as I remembered), but as a concept, I'm fascinated.
Post
#232685
Topic
'So Fine' - Preservation Project (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/232685/action/topic#232685
Time
I'll have to sleep on it. I really wasn't planning a general release of this.
If there was real demand by fans of the film I would have done a PiF system, but...
Again, I'll have to think on it.


Next up?
Who knows, maybe I'll finally work on that L.A. Story extended cut I've talked about now that I've learned more on restoration.
My dad request I add back a particularly funny scene deleted from Keeping the Faith (Edward Norton, Jenna Elfman & Ben Stiller movie).
Of course a GitS2 NTSC conversion taunts me. The U.K.'s english dubbed audio was recorded at PAL speeds (since there was no NTSC release planned with english). A slow down to 24 fps requires a pitch shift, or the video would have to be resized to NTSC with a 25 to 30 pulldown. None of which makes me happy (it seems unnecessary since there's a perfectly nice NTSC video on the U.S. DVD). I want to find a way to use the U.S. video but speed it up to 25 fps and add a 30 frame pulldown without re-encoding. I've not figured a way to do that yet (or if it's even possible).
Other options? I'd love a completely extended and uncut version of Eurotrip (another guilty pleasure film).
And of course there's VR5...

Maybe nothing and I'll be able to sleep at night without editing in my head and have space on my hard drives again.
Post
#230689
Topic
'So Fine' - Preservation Project (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/230689/action/topic#230689
Time
Heh heh, or not.
7 hours 40 minutes to encode 4 passes.
Ok, take the screenies below with a grain of salt. In motion clips always look different than stills.

Some of the shots I chose because the chroma artifacts are reduced, but a few frames earlier artifacts might still exist because the filter is temporal and hasn't turned on yet. By and large this IS representative of the final version.
Of course the final film is anamorphic, but both shots have been resized (and deinterlaced) equivalently for comparison.

Things to look for: rainbows around edges, interference patterns on small textures, black levels, white levels.
I still chose not to use a dot crawl filter to clean up the credits because the rest of the film's detail takes a hit. There's also color bleeding that I've yet to find a method of removing.
Top is the original raw mpg capture just resized, bottom is final re-encoded dvd video.
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf1.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf2.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf3.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf4.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf5.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf6.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf7.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf8.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/sf9.jpg
Makes you wonder if I can improve a movie this old this much, why the heck can't George Lucas?
Post
#230483
Topic
'So Fine' - Preservation Project (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/230483/action/topic#230483
Time
Laserdisc capture performed by Suntech (thanks) and sent to me in high quality (about 8000kbps cbr) mpg with 256kbps mpeg layer 2 audio.

Original 24 frames reconstructed, 80%ish of noise from interference patterens and (edge enhancement?)/chroma artifacts removed.
Cropped and resized to anamorphic.
Black level lowered 7 points so black is black, white level brightened 20 points.

Both avisynth and virtualdubmod are being used to frameserve (I prefer different filters from each one).
Currently encoding at 500min/5130avg/8200max kbps in 4 passes with CCE 2.70 (q level one pass vbr estimate is 14, I can hit 1 if I don't use PCM audio but I will not go mpa -> wav -> DD).

Audio restoration so far is minor.
Since the audio is mono, both channels were combined and then re-split to average out any cable noise in the recording process and to equalize left/right volumes.
I'd like to remove tape hiss, but there are some really nice high frequencies in the movie that are lost in the process.
So far lead in and lead out hiss to the film is muted as well as some abruptness and popping at the side change.
More may come, but I want the video finished first.

Barring any posts on this thread from anyone besides me and Suntech, I'm not going to post any more project updates.
I feel like I'm just talking to myself.
Post
#230363
Topic
Fixing Chroma Artifacts?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/230363/action/topic#230363
Time
In my grand tradition of talking to myself in forums...

Here's the low down: avisynth's cnr2 and guavacomb are moderately successful at removing the color artifacts.
Many of these artifacts may be edge enhancement related.

Anyway, during fast motion some serious posterization occurs. It's rare, but so bad I can't use those filters.

I switched to VirtualDubMod's Chroma Noise Reduction filter and it work beautifully. It removes 80-90% of all the colors crawling along edges, interference in small textures, and overall improves the picture without softening it. The artifacts are few, far between, and absolutely tolerable in comparison.

This is the second time I've found VD's filters to be superior to the "recommended" avisynth equivalent (the other is Vdub's Levels filter vs. ColorYUV(off_y=0, gain_y=0) ). And I'm talking quality of output. Avisynth may have the edge on speed, but I'd rather encode slower and have better output.

So anyone else that needs to clean Chroma artifacts: try VDubMod's Chroma Noise Reduction Filter. I set YUV to wide and moved the U and V percentages to about 40%.

Cheers to anyone else that gets use out of the hours I spent toying with this. Screenies will follow (maybe).
Post
#230081
Topic
Doctor Who: The Ten Doctors (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/230081/action/topic#230081
Time
Check demonoid.
There's lots of great Dr. Who torrents there including DVD format.

David Tennant broadcasts are also there in DVD format if the torrents are still up.
If you can make do with smaller, absolutely go with anything from MadMartha, she(he?) is an absolute stickler for quality (and next season will be releasing full resolution x264 releases instead of Xvid). MM's torrents might be more active at their new home: http://tracker.reprobate.se/

Cheers on the stupid factor on this one.
Post
#229799
Topic
Inverse Telecining: Best method for restoring original frame rates
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/229799/action/topic#229799
Time
Know anything about chroma artifacts? I start a new thread with a question about that.

Edit: Oops, didn't merge the full project. Still the telecine seems consistent across the whole film (I trimmed a few black frames between the side changes so the telecines match up for both sides).

Still, thanks for the input guys, completely bang on advice.
Post
#229733
Topic
Fixing Chroma Artifacts?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/229733/action/topic#229733
Time
Continuing a laserdisc preservation, I have a capture with color artifacts.
Below are screen shots.
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/1764raw.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/4192raw.jpg
http://adventureclub.postrock.net/temp/5018raw.jpg

I've tried:
Cnr2("xxx",4,5,255)
GuavaComb(Mode = "NTSC", Recall = 75, MaxVariation = 25, Activation = 40)

But it mostly seems to wash colors out, with some slight improvement in later frames with interference artifacts (such as the pearls).

I tried color shifting but that doesn't seem to be the problem.

Any suggestions on this?