ElectricTriangle

TServo2049 said:

 I don't know. I just assumed PCM always sounded better than compressed DD.

 Unless they give it a particular anemic bitrate or screw up the encoding, DD (and other lossy codecs) should sound identical to a lossless track (of the same master). The whole idea of lossy compression is to remove data that the human ear can't hear. Lossless audio is useful for editing as going from one lossy codec to another will produce noticeable decay.

That being said, poor encodes happen as does over filtering audio tracks. (Which is one of the reasons this thread exists.)

hairy_hen said:

You know what?  I wasn't going to do this, but since I have the most recent version of ABC's score restoration, I'm going to assemble a GOUT-synched isolated score from that, starting right now.

The sound quality of his latest effort is better than what's on the existing edited version, so it will be worthwhile.  Assuming I don't run into any unexpected difficulty, it shouldn't take long to complete.

35mm stereo mix is now finished, aside from final quality check.

 Dang. You are dedicated. That's great! Will you edit the cues to the existing ABC isoscore (he tried to keep them similar to how they were composed) or to how they appeared in the final movie?

It is. It's synced to a black and white version of the V3. It's on the 'spleen as "ESB IMPERIAL EDITION" if someone cares to download it and demux the audio.

TServo2049 said:

More suggestions: What about the Rocky series? The original mixes of all five are on the Blu-rays, but they are (of course) lossy.

There are PCM versions of the original mixes (mono for I, Dolby for II-IV) on the 1990 MGM/UA releases of I-IV (black covers with the image in the center). And there's only one LD release of V, which has PCM too.

I don't think that most people can tell the difference between properly compressed audio and lossless audio. Lossless audio is just needed if you want to edit it. Do they sound bad on the Blu-ray?

Harmy said:

I don't think I currently have one but if someone sends me one in the next couple of days, I'll definitely include it.

 ABC did a fantastic one for DJ's "ESB Imperial Edition" that I can send to you (16 bit wav PCM with nfo file for credits). It contains the unused music on Hoth and in other places.

Edit: I got ahead of myself. Someone else will have to do that, as I just remembered I'm currently staying at a location with a terrible upload speed and can't upload a 1 Gig file.

poita said:

I embarrassingly haven't sat through the SE since I saw it at the cinema, have only ever looked at it in parts. That is why I was interested to see what footage people would really want to see from the OT. I was expecting something with spaceships ;) , but I'll be onto this next week, so will go with whatever is the most requested by then.

 That's not embarrassing at all. Not watching the SE's is how you stay sane.

Sunset!

In general, the sound is just carelessly mixed and poor sounding compared to the original mix. It's severely lacking in treble, with a low droning bass noise, and a muffled compressed sound. There is no dynamic range.

To quote Hairy Hen, the mixes problems include,

hairy_hen said:

flattened dynamics, lack of high frequency response, poor balance between background and foreground elements, music cues too low in level or missing altogether, certain effects and dialogue being enormously distorted, incorrect placement of elements within the sound field relative to their position on screen, some effects even being out of synch to the image altogether

Here is a direct comparison of the 2004 mix (it's almost identical to the 2011 mix, outside of some small fixes) with Hairy_Hen's 70mm recreation (use headphones): http://www.mediafire.com/?avv1d8izol8hy3t

(Note that they did sort of "fix" the lack of music during the trench run in the 2011 mix, but the other examples should be the same between mixes.)

Notice how the 70mm has far more punch and dynamic range, while the DVD/Bluray mix has a sort of a droning bass noise. You can even hear clipping and distortion when the Death Star blows up in the DVD/Bluray mix.

Edit: found Hairy_Hen's detailed description of what is wrong on the 2004/2011 mixes: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-1977-70mm-sound-mix-recreation-stereo-and-51-versions-now-available/post/548812/#TopicPost548812

That latest video looks excellent. You pulled great color from a disgusting looking source.

I downloaded the workprint. This is fantastic work. And you did it so fast! This is the best copy of the ESB I have ever seen (unfortunately I never saw it in theaters.)

nafroe said:

Found a used copy of the original Jurassic Park DVD with DTS audio at a local shop, but I'm a little bit apprehensive about the purchase.  There's been a lot of talk around these parts about preserving original Cinema DTS audio mixes for films.  

So, I'm wondering...  Does this Jurassic Park DVD have a theatrical DTS mix or was this simply a new mix done strictly for the DVD release?  Even if it's not original theatrical audio, how does that mix sound?

I have the DVD with the 5.1 Dolby Digital track already, and I am wondering if the DTS track on this disc warrants the high price tag for a used DVD.

 It's not the theatrical track. IIRC, its the same as the remixed Dolby track on the DVD (which lacks bass). The theatrical DTS is been preserved by a forum member and syncs to the bluray.

That is a really incredible comparison. You did a great job getting color out of those pink 35mm shots. Now cloud city looks fully hd.

Jonno said:

As for Memento, there have been two transfers, haven't there? Are they both equally poor?

 Here is a comparison of the Memento disks. They look okay (and look similar to the DVD) except the new US transfer, which has been contrast boosted.

I still haven't had the time to check this out, but that image of the cloud city matte looks pretty nice. As do the uncropping of those cockpit shots, excellent work!

Are those rounded corners present throughout the whole film? I can't say I really agree with that decision, they look distracting to me. They look like the edges of the film, which would never be visible in the theater or on home media.

Turisu said:

In shot 8, the GOUT shows the sabers as being much brighter

 The Gout has a lot of clipped whites.

That looks really sweet. If you want to scan it, I'm sure it could be useful to people on the forum.

Harmy said:

Yeah, it's there, only there it's only a 224Kbps AC3.

 Sweet.

hairy_hen said:

In case anybody is interested, the file dark_jedi got from me a few days ago is a new isolated score, which has been processed with some really great analog gear.  If you'll forgive my boldness in saying so, none of us have ever heard the music of Star Wars sound this good before, and I hope it will be a satisfying addition to this great release of the film.  :)

I'll be glad to give more specific details of what was done if anyone wants to hear about it.

 I always like to hear about how you create your work. Did this isolated score end up in Harmy's 2.5 AVCHD, or is it only available here?

csd79 said:

ElectricTriange: Yes, that is the temporal filtering. I might try to redo the first desert scenes with lower settings. It's not an easy thing though, because those parts are the dirtiest in the whole capture (besides that speeder flyby shot in Mos Eisley).

 Good to know. To be honest, I don't mind dirt and noise all that much, but the noise reduction was tastefully done.

This looks good. I am seeing some smearing whenever R2D2 turns his head; is this the effect of noise reduction?

That's fantastic.

Ah. That makes sense.

Synnöve said:

FF's inbox has been full for a while now : \

For my fanedit I'm using primarily the blu (color corrected of course), HDTV broadcast for some shots, director's DVD for a few other shots, and the SLV scenes from the blu extras.

The main reason I'm looking for a laserdisc transfer is to have a reference for the color grading and the original PCM soundmix to build off of, as I really do not like surround upmixes like the 7.1 track for the blu, nor do I wish to work from lossy sources like the AC3 mixes.

 Isn't the bluray just the HD broadcast with DNR and contrast boosting applied? Or is there other some benefit to using it?

yoda-sama said:

Wow, Jdownloader has a Linux client... who knew...

 It's Java, which is very convenient.

I haven't had time to watch it all, but what I have seen looks very good!