Doctor M

User Group: Members
Join date: 1-Feb-2005
Last activity: 27-Jun-2025
Posts: 2,544

Post History

Post: #138793
Topic: .: The X0 Project Discussion Thread :. (* unfinished project *)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/138793/action/topic#138793
Time: 15-Sep-2005 7:25 PM

Actually that would be Prawn on the Barbie. Shrimp is an American term...

Post: #138655
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/138655/action/topic#138655
Time: 15-Sep-2005 12:45 AM

The black bars are only 54 for NTSC on your capture? How come the difference, is that because of the PAL source being cropped funny?

Now you've got me wondering if I should have resized my edition differently.

Btw, why would anyone bother to try to convert the Divx to DVD if you're already doing that yourself?

Post: #137805
Topic: .: The X0 Project Discussion Thread :. (* unfinished project *)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137805/action/topic#137805
Time: 9-Sep-2005 11:40 PM

You should use Sound Forge or Cool Edit to measure what the proper dialog normalization is for your audio.

This is a great Doom9 guide for properly encoding AC. Check out the 'Referencing Volume to a Known Level' section, it tells you all you need to know: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56020

Post: #137593
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137593/action/topic#137593
Time: 9-Sep-2005 1:47 AM

Dark Gruson is exactly right. There is only one version of ESB and ANH was replaced with v1.1. Though technically there is no 1.0 since I didn't plan to screw up. :-)

Post: #137376
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137376/action/topic#137376
Time: 7-Sep-2005 9:40 PM

LA Story EE: I'm scraping this project. The quality of the deleted Harry Zell scene (EP VHS tape) isn't that great, and a quick preview of it inserted at the appropriate place actually screws up the flow of the movie. Sad to see the scene out, but it was a good cut by Steve Martin. The other clip "a walk in L.A." has trailer music over it so it can't be reinserted.

RtW Star Wars: I did little brightness/contrast adjustment. In fact all I did was shift the white point about 4% or less. Just enough to make the whitest white truly white. There is little or no crushing, and a comparison of white levels in the X0 project screenshots shows them to be a pretty close match. Some detail may be lost (though I had trouble finding any real before/after evidence of it), but the white levels are more accurate. I felt this was a reasonable trade off.

Post: #137227
Topic: Idea: an actual 12-hour Star Wars movie... on HD-DVD
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137227/action/topic#137227
Time: 7-Sep-2005 3:25 AM

Saving Private Ryan with rubber chickens: hell yes I'd buy that. I'd probably enjoy it more than the original.

It's funny reading through the thread I came to the same conclusion as Bongloads. I just want to outlive George Lucass so his estate can release the OT as a historical preservation edition or something.

Everytime I watch some interview with GL when he explains what he really wanted in the OT and how his changes improve things, I'm almost convinced that they're warranted.

And then I see how out of place some of it look in actual context, how CGI still looks CGI and just as fake as a muppet (maybe more fake), and I think about all the artists and SFX people that worked on the original whose work is lost and I start yelling at the TV.

I have tried many times to try to embrace the New Vision of Star Wars OT (even sat through the SE in theaters) and I just can't enjoy them.

Post: #137226
Topic: Info & Offer: dark_jedi DVD gift packs
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137226/action/topic#137226
Time: 7-Sep-2005 3:12 AM

ErikStormtrooper was going to work on covers for my set, but some bad weather came his way so he has worse problems to deal with at the moment.
No other plans at the moment for art.

DJ, I appreciate your offer, but I'm fairly happy with my edition at the moment. I was just curious to see how yours looked for comparison (in truth I'd prefer a really good DC transfer to a so-so PAL source only because the PAL, even with higher rez, has more flaws.)

So again, would a sample clip be possible? I'm not terribly attached to my own work, the first set that beats mine will become my new favorite. I'd like to see if that will be yours.

Post: #137124
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137124/action/topic#137124
Time: 6-Sep-2005 11:36 PM

I think we all do. Seeing and working with Moth3r's gave a great taste as to how good a PAL capture can be.

Post: #136926
Topic: Info & Offer: dark_jedi DVD gift packs
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/136926/action/topic#136926
Time: 6-Sep-2005 3:02 PM

I see the Ep 4 is up in both Pan/Scan and Lbx on MySpleen.
Is there a chance we could see a preview clip?

Post: #136664
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/136664/action/topic#136664
Time: 5-Sep-2005 8:49 PM

Seems to be the case. Something (software or user) screwed up when making one change to ANH's audio after I had sat through the whole disc. I just assumed that what I fixed as all that changed, but that wasn't the case.

Empire needed no changes from the burn test that I previewed so that should be just fine.

Anyone out there find any other problems? (Say no please)

Post: #136147
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/136147/action/topic#136147
Time: 4-Sep-2005 3:16 AM

DVD chapters are an ass pain.

Like I mentioned before, for my set I used ChapterXtractor, ripped the chapter stops from Farsight's disc (with a correction factor for the start of the first chapter), imported the chapters into my authoring software and then just manually twiddled each chapter to get them closer to correct.

I did 81 stops for ANH and it took MUCH less time then it normally would.

Post: #134813
Topic: ***The ADigitalMan non-Star Wars DVD Info and Feedback Thread***
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134813/action/topic#134813
Time: 1-Sep-2005 1:50 PM

Chris Columbus - $10M + Percentage of Gross (yikes)
Mike Newell - $1M + squat

Heh, would you direct 2 movies for that price?
If I were MN I'd say screw it, crank the movie out fast and move on to the next project that will pay more just for having being attached to a HP film.

I predict crap. Sorry guys. I mean check out the guy's resume on IMDB. The whole budget went to actors and sfx with nothing left for a good director.
I'm not saying I'm going to skip it even if it gets bad reviews (heck I felt Prisoner of Azkaban was overrated and not as good as Chamber of Secrets), but I am keeping my expectations proportionally lowered.

Post: #134739
Topic: ~~~Segaflip's Newsgroup Posting List~~~
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134739/action/topic#134739
Time: 1-Sep-2005 1:23 AM

For those not following my thread on Reinventing the Wheel edition, there is a bad audio flaw in A New Hope.
It has been fixed and replacement discs ship tomorrow.
Hopefully Segaflip can find some time to repost.

Post: #134714
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134714/action/topic#134714
Time: 31-Aug-2005 11:10 PM

New discs go out tomorrow (thursday). They are identified as v1.1 (the readme and SFV files on the disc are updated to reflect this).
Stoopid weird problem. I'm blaming the editing software

Also it would be too hard to actually have made that mistake intentionally.

So for those that didn't notice, the last 3/4 of ANH were dual channel mono. Bleech.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

New SFV files have been generated and can be found on the discs, in the post above, and in the first post of this thread.

Darth Mallwalker, please update your post above for the new SFV if you would...

Post: #134713
Topic: ***The ADigitalMan non-Star Wars DVD Info and Feedback Thread***
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134713/action/topic#134713
Time: 31-Aug-2005 10:56 PM

I'm more angry that the cut rate director they hired for HP4 figured he could do it in 1 film although everyone else involved (TPTB) told him to do 2 films.
I wish they'd stop cutting their director's budget on these things and hire people who know how to make movies. I fear the last few HP's are going to be terrible unless that's fixed.

Post: #134508
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134508/action/topic#134508
Time: 31-Aug-2005 1:00 AM

Ok, I remember now. I also shifted one edit point before I re-authored.

The time mentioned above is the location of the OLD edit. For some reason every clip that followed was set to "Duplicate Left Channel".
I have no idea how you could accidently do that for like a dozen audio clips, but that is the case.
The "click/pop" at that point has also been repaired.

Generating a test disc now. New discs will probably go out Thursday.

I will definitely send replacements to all who received the first ones.
If I need to send additional discs to help fix this and speed up re-distribution, PM me.

Post: #134502
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134502/action/topic#134502
Time: 31-Aug-2005 12:45 AM

Unfortunately I can confirm the problem.

I sat through the full disc originally, after I was done I added the chapter cuts and reauthored the disc.
Looks like something went wrong on the way, I'll have to get back to you on this. Looks like a v2 is in the future...

Post: #134322
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134322/action/topic#134322
Time: 30-Aug-2005 3:20 PM

No I see where you are going with it, and that's fine. It just seems pretty random since it's basically optimized for a not so common set-up.

You could of course just hold off a few months and do a true HD version with HD-DVD or BluRay.
Now that's something I could get behind.

Post: #134303
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134303/action/topic#134303
Time: 30-Aug-2005 2:07 PM

I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish then with the Xvid version. It's not more portable (for distribution) than a DVD and it's quality won't be any better (or worse). You basically have just made a second DVD version that's largely standalone player incompatible.

A 2 CD Xvid version would have been a great idea for portability and quality.
I guess I'll just say 'whatever' and get your DVD version when that's out.

Post: #134055
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/134055/action/topic#134055
Time: 29-Aug-2005 8:21 PM

A couple comments on the Xvid clip (and I would completely ignore me if I were you since it's great).

4000+kbps is insane. Xvid is a much more optimized codec than mpeg2 and doesn't need this at all. Anything over about 2000 at that resolution is a complete waste. Heck the resolution is a overblown chewing up more bitrate than necessary too. You have to consider your source's resolution: you gain nothing adding lines that just aren't there. You could use 3/4 of the resolution without losing any original PAL lines and then set the bitrate to half and see no difference in quality with bitrate to spare.

My other concern is that the audio is a bit soft. Probably a result of the -32db normalization that is typically applied to ac3 audio for DVDs.
It's fine for standalone DVD players but too low for a PC. If you have the raw PCM audio and are sticking with 2 channels, the Xvid version would probably benefit from a good VBR mp3 encoding instead. Something like lame's --alt-preset insane. Ac3 is only useful on a PC for anything more than 2 channels.

Post: #133443
Topic: Info: The Frighteners - Signature Collection laserdisc preservation thread
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/133443/action/topic#133443
Time: 26-Aug-2005 12:45 AM

I think it's been said (possibly by me), but a DVD news site is reporting the rumor of the Frighteners DVD being a DVD18.
Though it has also been suggested that it will be a DVD18 in the UK with a Double DVD set in the U.S. Either way they are talking 2 dual layers no matter how they package it.

Sounds like they could do it all if they wanted...

Post: #133303
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/133303/action/topic#133303
Time: 25-Aug-2005 1:37 AM

And I tought I was paranoid DM.
I'll move the SFV links to the first post. As far as how long term those links are, it beats me. I'll try to maintain them, but again the originals will continue to float around on the DVD's. So someone will always have them somewhere.

Way way down the line, I'm sure it won't matter, I fully expect my discs to be obsolete in under a year (if they survive that long). So relax. It's not the be all end all of the OT on the line.

Post: #133086
Topic: .: Citizen's NTSC DVD / PAL DVD / XviD project :. (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/133086/action/topic#133086
Time: 24-Aug-2005 1:22 AM

Citizen sounds like you're really close to a release. I suddenly feel like I've been wasting my time. I can't wait to see these.

Btw, you can always cheat:
If you want to do a SL version, just author the DL and then run it through DVDShrink (or DVD-Recode if you're worried about quality).

That way you can pull audio tracks you don't want, leave the menus intact and it'll take less time. You won't need to reauthor, reset chapter points and all the rest of the hard work.

Post: #133068
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/133068/action/topic#133068
Time: 23-Aug-2005 11:46 PM

I think so.

ANH's SFV v1.1
ESB's SFV

Post: #132980
Topic: Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/132980/action/topic#132980
Time: 23-Aug-2005 5:12 PM

First sets shipped.

To preserve quality I have generated an .SFV file (with Easy SFV Creator) from the original files on my hard drive.
It's burned to the DVD's so the paranoid (like me) can make sure there is no degredation.

Also, there was an offer to design covers from someone, but there's been no follow up. We'll just have to see.