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Dunedain

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1-Aug-2006
Last activity
29-Dec-2023
Posts
439

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Post
#756563
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

Yes, the latest version of the Star Wars restoration is the best, details and colors are greatly refined and more accurate. It's hardly to be believed considering the source, it's that good. From a technical standpoint, it looks sort of like a mid-level quality commercial DVD release that's being upscaled by your hdtv, and if you didn't know better, that's what you would think it was; just to give you some idea for a quick example. Which is amazing when you think about what they had to work with, it's *highly* watchable and the sound is just excellent on the restored surround option, thanks to hairy_hen's superb work on the 70mm soundtrack reconstruction. Prepare to be impressed if you've never heard it. :)

I'm certainly looking forward to the new version of The Empire Strikes Back when it's ready. And yeah, it would be great if there were restored unaltered trilogy DVD and Blu-ray sets from Lucasfilm in time for Christmas, but Disney hasn't been involved that long and I wonder if Lucasfilm would have had time for a proper full restoration by now, considering the amount of work required to do it right. But I guess it's worth waiting a few months to find out, and surely they would have to announce any such sets by October at the latest, and if they don't, well, then fans will have the restored full trilogy Blu-ray set from dark_jedi and You_Too at some point. :)

Post
#755917
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Time

Well, they are two different things. On the one hand, for the archival master purposes, yes, you want everything in the scan to be preserved. And as Mike has pointed out, it's all there and recoverable and so on, so that angle is already taken care of.

Then there's the fully restored version that you sit down on your couch and watch on a normal 1920x1080p HDTV and looks just the way it was intended as Lucas sat there going over preview screenings getting the film ready for release (or as close as possible, given the sources available, uncertainty about exact color timing on certain shots and so on). With space being inky black and these mattes and such not visible at all even in a very dark living room viewing environment, etc. That's certainly the version I look forward to seeing in any Star Wars preservation/restoration project when I actually watch it for real in front of my HDTV with some popcorn and an ice cold Coke. :)

Post
#748035
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Time

Mike: A big thanks for the excellent work you're doing on this preservation/restoration project. The quality of the source, combined with this meticulous artisan-level craftsmanship, is going to pay off big in the final result. :) May it one day see the full light of day, and in the mean time serve as an important source/reference.

As for Disney, they've already lost any credibility with Star Wars, but hopefully we'll at least get a good restoration of the original trilogy out of the whole mess. What should be done is a Lawrence of Arabia sort of restoration (the gold standard, and if you haven't seen it on Blu-ray yet, get it, simply fantastic, I wish every movie on Blu-ray looked that great :) ). Whether fans will get that is highly questionable, but we'll see.

Post
#717761
Topic
Team Negative1 - Return of the Jedi 1983 - 35mm Theatrical Version (unfinished project)
Time

Gogogadget said:



Dunedain said:


Gogogadget said:

yeah, 50GB discs aren't exactly cheap, and Harmy's despecialized is only 13GB once you strip out the audio tracks and it's still a pleasing encode, so long as you don't starve the encode too much the quality should be fine

i mean, i'm sure you guys know what you're doing haha




Yeah, but 720p and 1080p are two different things, one needs considerably less total space to get the same relative affect on compression rates for 720p. Even on commercial Blu-ray movies, they benefit from the breathing room that 50GB provides. Yes, not everyone can burn dual-layer Blu-rays right now, and a 25GB version would have that covered, but once a 50GB version has been rendered and made available, then it would be out there safely stored in the hands of Star Wars fans where it can always be obtained by other fans one way or another. And as more people get burners that can handle dual-layer disks, they can upgrade to the best possible quality on Blu-ray. So it would be really nice if a 50GB maximum quality Blu-ray version existed, along with the smaller 25GB version. :)

Those new scans look great, love the deep blues of the Super Star Destroyer in space, such rich lush colors! :)


 The difference between 720p and 1080p didn't even cross my mind once.


Yeah, the comment was in regards to Harmy's restoration project video that you referenced, which, iirc, is in 720p (and as RU.08 pointed out, is actually a lot less than 1080p), 25 gig is fine for that resolution. But for a project of this magnitude, with real 35mm film sources no less, it would be great to have a full quality option that maxes out what Blu-ray can do and have it safely archived in the hands of Star Wars fans. :)

Post
#717463
Topic
Team Negative1 - Return of the Jedi 1983 - 35mm Theatrical Version (unfinished project)
Time

Gogogadget said:


yeah, 50GB discs aren't exactly cheap, and Harmy's despecialized is only 13GB once you strip out the audio tracks and it's still a pleasing encode, so long as you don't starve the encode too much the quality should be fine

i mean, i'm sure you guys know what you're doing haha


Yeah, but 720p and 1080p are two different things, one needs considerably less total space to get the same relative affect on compression rates for 720p. Even on commercial Blu-ray movies, they benefit from the breathing room that 50GB provides. Yes, not everyone can burn dual-layer Blu-rays right now, and a 25GB version would have that covered, but once a 50GB version has been rendered and made available, then it would be out there safely stored in the hands of Star Wars fans where it can always be obtained by other fans one way or another. And as more people get burners that can handle dual-layer disks, they can upgrade to the best possible quality on Blu-ray. So it would be really nice if a 50GB maximum quality Blu-ray version existed, along with the smaller 25GB version. :)

Those new scans look great, love the deep blues of the Super Star Destroyer in space, such rich lush colors! :)

Post
#681899
Topic
Info: General Terminator 1 & 2 Discussions.
Time

TServo2049: Exactly, when I say natural in this case, I'm referring to the fact that's it the intended look of the film, it's the original color timing of the film and it's always looked like that and gives it a very distinctive tone and feel. Now it doesn't feel right, it doesn't ruin the movie, but it really has a big affect on the look and feel of it.

You_Too: I've thought the same thing before, the more of this I see, the more I begin hoping that the directors will *not* be involved in the release of movies on Blu-ray, as they increasingly tend to screw them up. I think if the studios handled them, while you might not get the same overall quality you might get with the director being involved (for example, the studio carelessly applying DNR in some cases), at least you wouldn't get these weird alterations that shouldn't be happening in the first place. The studios would just keep it simple and release the theatrical version on Blu-ray and call it a day.

Hmm, maybe one day someone skilled in the techniques of color correction will restore the proper degree of blue to those scenes in Aliens... ;)

Post
#681830
Topic
Info: General Terminator 1 & 2 Discussions.
Time

This whole thing reminds me of Aliens. While the new Blu-ray does indeed look fantastic overall (proper credit to the team who worked on it for this), having superb levels of detail and being clear and sharp, and not messed up with DNR, I noticed a problem. Where is the blue at night and in dark areas? In at least some scenes, if not the whole movie, the quite noticeable blue that's always there at night is gone or at least greatly reduced.

It was quite shocking when I realized it, the blue was suddenly just missing. I'm not talking teal, but the normal real blue color timing that Cameron is known for in night scenes. I'm a fan of this blue-grey night time look that he uses, plus it's part of the atmosphere and feel of the movie, and it's the original timing, so it should be left that way. Without it, the movie loses something, it's too...neat, clean, the night has less depth and texture to it, and that loss definitely affects the feel of the movie.

It's ironic that all these various movies are being messed up with this bizarre inexplicable teal/cyan obsession some directors are showing lately, and in this movie he takes *away* the natural original blue that's supposed to be there. Arggh... just leave it alone! Or release two versions, same quality, but one timed correctly and one experimental color timing, or whatever. It's a shame, too, because the movie looks so great on the new Blu-ray set. The blue color timing just needs to be restored to the appropriate scenes and it would be about perfect in terms of picture quality. Until they do a full-scale restoration, based on new 6k scans of the negative or something like that, I don't think we'll get a better looking one any time soon. But hopefully at least a correctly color timed one at some point.

Post
#672047
Topic
Team Negative1 - The Empire Strikes Back 1980 - 35mm Theatrical Version (Released)
Time

Wow, these pictures look just great, such rich lush color, too. You've got to love real film. :) As far as the color timing, I rather distinctly remember Hoth always having a natural icy blue quality to it (sort of like the blue you see in polar ice), at least in some scenes, so hopefully that can be accurately restored. I guess Poita would know which scenes that applies the most to.

And yes, having a shot of that Star Destroyer approaching Hoth at around 1920x1080 (or whatever close to that preserves the proper aspect ratio) in the best quality (bmp?) would be very nice indeed. ;)

Post
#670926
Topic
team negative1 - star wars 1977 - 35mm theatrical version (Released)
Time

team_negative1 said:



poita said:


Joel said:

As a former post-production person, I am picturing a workflow after manually cleaning the film:
1) scanning
2) digital cleanup
3) color correction
4) audio sync
5) make a video master

If I were the project manager, I'd have 12 people each take 10 minutes of one film, do digital cleanup (with predetermined rules from team -1) for a couple of weeks, then send it all back for final color correction. Is this not feasible? Too much chaos introduced?




That is assuming you have 12 people of equal experience, that can all do film restoration work, and that have the hardware capable of handling the job.

It is hard enough to find 2 people that have the time, software, experience and hardware :)



It also assumes that the 'master' person has over 100TB of HDDs to handle the scans, a backup copy of them and the works in progress.

I have no idea how many are on their team or what their skill level is or how much hardware and software they own, but it is a big job however you slice it.



Expectation levels are quite high too, so quality-creep might be playing its part.




A couple of weeks will clean a few seconds of film.

Team Negative1


Well, for those wondering, now you know why it takes a long time to restore just one film of the trilogy. :) The number of people available who have the skill, time, etc. needed to do this kind of work is not large.

Post
#669856
Topic
Info: Something that might interest folks here..."ROTJ" Editdroid Laserdisc Footage
Time

While I'm glad to hear that Lucasfilm, Disney or whoever hasn't interfered as yet, it may not be wise to post something like this on a very public place like facebook, where every idiot imaginable can whine and complain, pester the owner, try to cause trouble, etc.

Plus just the general level of attention it draws. Remember, things on this board are kept low profile for a reason, and with something of this rareness and importance (scenes, alternate takes and angles, etc., that might not exist anywhere else outside of Lucasfilm's archives), it's not a good idea to take chances. Just get it into the hands of those who can be trusted, in both the first pass rough and later high quality capture forms, and the rest will take care of itself...

Post
#669685
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

Oh, I see, it's the 1997 SE that's being talked about with this particular 5.1 soundtrack, thanks for the info. I bet it will sound great if a real theatrical DTS soundtrack can be used as the source. :)

And yes, I think you're right about the sources hairy hen is using. I think it was the 1997 SE laserdisk that was used as a source for the subwoofer channel. But with this theatrical DTS soundtrack, one would think it would be an even higher quality source for anything from the 1997 SE that might be of use in an original theatrical soundtrack re-construction.

Post
#669365
Topic
Harmy's STAR WARS Despecialized Edition HD - V2.7 - MKV (Released)
Time

Hal 9000 said:


Just showed the DEed v2.5 at my house to a group of family and friends. There were five or six adults who aren't Star Wars fanatics, a few young adults (one of which has never seen Star Wars), and my 12 year-old niece who had never seen it either. The DEed was enjoyed by all, and I was totally amazed how utterly seamless everything looked. There was no point when I or anyone questioned anything about what we were seeing. It was indistinguishable from a proper HD release of the OUT. And the best part is that two of the viewers do not know that Darth Vader is Luke's father, and everyone else was prompted ahead of time to play along with Obi-Wan's lies for their benefit.

Empire is next week, so we're all looking forward to it. Thanks to Harmy for making it truly possible to watch the original version without even thinking about it.


That's great to hear, those two are in for a real treat! :)

Post
#669360
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

That's interesting, I thought hairy hen had used primarily the Definitive Collection laserdisk with some of the 1997 SE laserdisk for the latest version (version 2.0, I guess) of his Star Wars 70mm theatrical soundtrack reconstruction/restoration. Has he switched to an even better more accurate source for his restoration?

I assume when you say DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack you are referring to the Star Wars 70mm reconstruction, since I think that's the only such soundtrack on the V1 Star Wars Blu-ray. But maybe there's more than one DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack on the V2 Star Wars Blu-ray.

Post
#667750
Topic
Star Wars OT & 1997 Special Edition - Various Projects Info (Released)
Time

A big thanks to dark_jedi and You_Too and the others who helped (iirc, msycamore has further refined the alien subtitles in this new set, and they are now *really* close to the correct theatrical ones :) ) for all their hard work! =)

deepanddark20: I can understand the sentimental connection, but being these are theatrical preservations/restorations, I'm sure you understand. :)