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Farsight

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Join date
25-Jun-2005
Last activity
22-Dec-2005
Posts
21

Post History

Post
#137241
Topic
.: The X0 Project Discussion Thread :. (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/137241/action/topic#137241
Time
As for removing the 3:2 pulldown (i.e. Inverse telecine or IVTC) it was the first thing that was done to bring it back to the original 24 progressive frames. It was a bitch too, as there are errors on the laserdisc in some scenes where the 3:2 gets out of whack, so has to be manually adjusted.


Ugh, I know exactly what you're talking about. I especially enjoyed the bit in Jedi when the Emperor is shocking Luke and the 3:2 switches back and forth twice in about 5 seconds. I had to re-encode an entire disc because of that one...

Sounds like you guys are doing a heckuvalot of extra work on these. Here's hoping I can dump even my own version in not-too-distant-future...
Post
#131353
Topic
X-Factors - Blade Runner Project (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/131353/action/topic#131353
Time
Was the video noise part of the LD transfer or was it due to compression? I thought it looked alright considering the official release.


It wasn't because of compression. The original image was simply not that great to begin with (the final DVD image looks better than the original LD source, actually). The BR release was a single 2-sided LD release, compared to each Star Wars (Definitive) film getting (as I recall) -three- 2-sided discs. So Blade Runner had about the same length of film, on 1/3rd the data. So the claim that the DVD media was at fault is w/o basis in fact.

Unless you have a DVD or better source (or lots of extras), Dual-layer won't gain you much, if anything, in terms of video quality. There simply not enough data to begin with - you can't preserve what doesn't exist.
Post
#120117
Topic
Am I the only one who thinks that puppets look fake
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/120117/action/topic#120117
Time
Yoda's best line was something like:

- Good relations with the Wookies I have.

Sounds like he's bragging about his sexual compatibility with Chewbacca. I laughed out loud at that one.

Also great was Anakin's line after cutting off Dooku's hands and killing him:

- I shouldn't have done that. He was an unarmed prisoner.

I wouldn't survive one day as an employee of Lucasfilm. Hearing just one of these lines would result in me being tossed off the lot, still cackling as I roll into the street.

Oh, and on the topic - very smart people have said that you use CG only when you can't use something real, and I'd agree completely with that. The puppets simply looked more real. Far too much of the CG in the prequels pulls me out of the film because of its obvious false nature. Even when I'm not looking for it, it jumps out as being separate from the real actors.
Post
#118773
Topic
***The "official" Screenshots feedback thread ***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118773/action/topic#118773
Time
I would agree that there is a slight issue with the extreme whites, just not to the degree that VirtualDub makes it appear.

The problem is that VirtualDub appears to brighten the image in rendering (and saving screenshots). I can load the same frame into VirtualDub(Mod) and MediaPlayer, and in VirtualDub, the frame has less color, and is brighter, looking similar to the screenshots. In MediaPlayer, the image looks much better.

I'm not that worried about it, just thought I'd mention it for the benefit of those that haven't seen the actual video. I'm still hopeful that a future encode or DVD release will render all of the current encodes obsolete, since each is imperfect in some way.

Although, again, I'd still take the video quality from most of the fan encodes over the shoddy DVD release.
Post
#118572
Topic
Info & Help: looking for... other ld-rips to dvd movies ex. blade runner int cut, songs of the south, frighteners dir cut - and much much more...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118572/action/topic#118572
Time
Originally posted by: Alfredsson
farsight, did you make a supplemental dvd for your blade runner dvd, cuse the four disc set i bought of ebay contained a disc with suplementals that use exactly the same menu design u used on your dvd


The 1-disc Criterion LD had no supplementals.

And my DVD contained no manus of any kind...
Post
#118540
Topic
<strong>The &quot;Farsight&quot; Trilogy DVD Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118540/action/topic#118540
Time
Using AVIsynth's DoubleWeave, followed by Pulldown, worked perfectly for me. You just have to manually figure out which field comes first (since you can't rely on the LD to not have errors), and must also figure out which 2 of every 5 frames are unique (easiest to do in sections with fast motion, since 2 frames will be interlaced, and 2 others will be identical).

Bottom line - it's a pain.
Post
#118492
Topic
Episode 3: Fan Editing Ideas Discussion
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118492/action/topic#118492
Time
Heck, I don't think the Palpatine-given-power-by-JarJar sequence is even needed - its value is outweighed for me by the sour taste that character inflicts on everyone I know just through his appearance in-frame. Plus it weakens the Padme character, since she's the idiot who left him to act in her stead. Trying to edit the films to prevent the Padme character from being reduced to something insipid is one of the biggest challenges an editor would face.

Also, RotS has exposition that covers everything fine for my tastes, with lines like "He's been in office far beyond his term", etc... The political angle was sketchy throughout the films, so IMO reducing them to being background events referenced and not shown, actually strengthens the films.

My goal would be to cut anything that made me cringe, unless the removal makes the story nonsensical. For instance, if I cut every bad line from Padme and Anakin, they might not meet until he chokes her, which could be confusing...
Post
#118491
Topic
<strong>The &quot;Farsight&quot; Trilogy DVD Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118491/action/topic#118491
Time
You really want a non-interlaced image for running through filters and MPEG encoding - it'll produce the best quality, and best compression.

Of course it depends on the -original- source. In this case we're talking about a 24fps original source (film)... we don't care what format the laserdisc is in, except to undo the damage they did when making it.
Post
#118441
Topic
***The MeBeJedi feedback thread ***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118441/action/topic#118441
Time
Looks like a lot of effort (and $$$) is going into this one, so here's hoping it produces a new level of quality.

A couple things I noticed:

PCM audio? That's going to chew up a ton of bandwidth from the video. Other versions w/ PCM have suffered from loss of detail and pixellation...

There's some pretty visible halo-ing around outlines, probably caused by aggressive sharpening to reduce the softness that a LD transfer tends to come with.

Good luck!
Post
#118428
Topic
Star Wars - The Edits and DVDr releases thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118428/action/topic#118428
Time
Originally posted by: Doctor M
I hope you'll all excuse the n00b question, but after much lurking, reading and LOTS of d/l'ding, I have found myself more pleased with the visual quality of the Farsight transfer (which I know makes me a bit of an oddity).


I agree! (but I may be a bit biased)

Actually, there's now quite a few versions that are excellent quality - good enough that I wouldn't have made one had they been available at the time. None are perfect, which is why we keep seeing new ones, I guess. But there a number of them to choose from now that should be completely satisfying.

BTW, those *.DVD files can be opened in DVD Maestro. I'm not sure how useful they are, but there ya go.
Post
#118424
Topic
***The &quot;official&quot; Screenshots feedback thread ***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118424/action/topic#118424
Time
What's interesting is how poor the SE DVDs video quality is. They did an incredible job of cleaning up the image, but in re-coloring it, they made the whole film WAY too dark, and screwed up the colors on laser flashes (often lavender instead of red) and light sabers (Luke's is often green instead of blue).

I'll still take the video from the majority of the LD transfers over the new DVDs (before even considering the SE changes). Those DVDs were rushed - hopefully the HD-DVDs we all know are coming will be given more time.
Post
#118402
Topic
3:2 on laserdisc question
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118402/action/topic#118402
Time
What it comes down to is that the pulldown can change anytime they needed a reel change when encoding the laserdisc. When making the disc, they had no concern if half a frame was interlaced incorrectly, since you won't notice it while watching. So no attempt was made to sync up the frames when reels were changed.

It's quite common for laserdiscs to alter the pulldown frames many times per disc. You can usually find the spot where it changes by scanning through cuts. Just be careful, sometimes it'll change back to the original settings by the end of the disc, making it easy to miss the change.
Post
#118400
Topic
<strong>The &quot;Farsight&quot; Trilogy DVD Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118400/action/topic#118400
Time
Originally posted by: Doctor M
Arnie: Laserdiscs are an interlaced source. You do NOT de-interlace when encoding to DVD afterwards. Therefore the answer is "nothing", Farsight would no doubt have not de-interlaced the movies (unless he didn't know what he was doing).


This is incorrect. You want your final DVD to be a 24fps progressive source. This is what the actual film is, and what a retail DVD would be. It's also fairly simple to achieve with AVIsynth. The Laserdisc is 30fps interlace, which means 1/5th of the data is duplicates of other fields, and an interlace source will not compress well anyway.

Using AVIsynth, you deinterlace to give you 60fps, with 2/5ths of these being unique images. These are the real movie. Taking them, you have your 24fps film. If done carefully and properly, it will produce images practically identical (no blending or sync issues at all) to the original film before it was altered to make the laserdisc. You end up with a better image that will also compress better (preserving more image quality), and doesn't rely on hardware to deinterlace it (which can vary in quality).
Post
#118379
Topic
Episode 3: Fan Editing Ideas Discussion
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/118379/action/topic#118379
Time
I've toyed with the idea of re-cutting all 3 films as well, in an attempt to make one watchable story that doesn't brutalize the OT. I came to a similar realization as others in this thread - the prequels work better if you cut them down severely. My plan was:

Drop Phantom Menace entirely. It's pointless, has painfully bad ideas like Vader as a precocious tyke, the grand romance starting out as a weird thing between a near-toddler and a teenager (who are somehow the same age in the next film), and and of course, JarJar. The only good things in the film are dead-ends, like Qui-Gon and Maul, who end up not meaning much to the overall story.

My thought was to merge AotC and Sith into one film, since IMO each has good scenes, but require editing with a hacksaw to make them watchable. Perhaps it would just be better to have Sith alone, at about 90 minutes, since I can easily see how people would find Sith alone much more satisfying than watching the entire PT. Neither AotC or TPM contain anything vital to the understanding of Sith, and instead create plotholes and redherrings that distract from (what should have been) the focus.

In toying with the idea, I cut Grievous entirely. He's a weak character created solely to sell toys. The early sequence on the ship works better w/o him (it places the emphasis on Dooku and Palpatine, where it should be, IMO). The difficulty it creates is that ObiWan disappears for the middle of the film if his (fairly dull) pursuit of Grievous is cut. I have some ideas to remedy that, which I may explore if I decide to revisit this idea. Currently, 3 weak prequels have sapped my interest in Star Wars for now. :/

I will say though, that a great deal of the problems in Sith can be easily fixed by simply cutting the fat: the bad lines, the pointless exposition, and the scenes that actually hurt the movie by existing ("she's lost the will to live - beep boop beep"). If Lucas had had a bit more patience in the editing room, he might have turned out a film that would have satisfied us all...