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Grinder

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Join date
29-Jun-2005
Last activity
12-Dec-2012
Posts
223

Post History

Post
#167755
Topic
STAR WARS: the alt.binaries.starwars thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/167755/action/topic#167755
Time
Originally posted by: russs15
I assume that there will be some par2 files for this post.

I hope so as half the files I have got so far are missing blocks and a third of those are missing ALL blocks.

First of all I am checking my premium account to try and get some of the problems sorted before I have to use the par2 files.


Yeah, I'm including the standard 10% PAR2. But I just checked, and everything is complete over here, so it must be your server. It could also be you started your download a bit too early, and haven't given your server the time to catch up. Have you tried downloading the older broken files again?
Post
#167685
Topic
<strong>Grinder's PAL widescreen project</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/167685/action/topic#167685
Time
This is the corrected version (that's what the "video characteristics..." line stands for in the .nfo). I will upload the not corrected ones eventually, but not right away. The corrected ones are the best looking, and main release.
I matched the soundtrack under the film by speeding it up, tried several pitch preservers, results were bad to reasonable. The best one was good overall, but it messed up the surround, so I decided to keep it sped up. I had gotten used to the NTSC speed aswell, but working on my version I got used to the sped up version, and now the NTSC soundtrack sounds slowed down to me. It's just what version you're used to. Nearly all official SW PAL releases are sped up aswell, including the DVD. As far as I know only the '95 releases were pitch corrected (Russ???).
I did not fix the wipe at the end of side 1/still at the beginning of side 2: I don't have it on LD in PAL widescreen, and I'm not planning on purchasing another LD just for those couple of seconds. I could have used the DC, but that would still give you some half-decent result. Or I could have stolen it from Citizen
You can make some screens Moth3r, but don't judge it by those. My experience with noise reduction/sharpening filters is that they make it look better on a screenshot, but worse during playback.

And as a sidenote to everyone, please watch it on your TV, NOT on your computer.
Post
#166289
Topic
<strong>Grinder's PAL widescreen project</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/166289/action/topic#166289
Time
Sure I'm doing this for myself primarily, but it's of course nice to know your efforts are appreciated by more than only yourself. Thanks for the messages guys!
I'm synching the Dutch subs at the moment, have ran the encode for the corrected version, will run the encode for the straight version during the night, and will be capping TESB tomorrow. If all goes well I'll upload ANH tomorrow night, and I expect TESB to be done within a week. I'll keep you informed...
Post
#165496
Topic
<strong>Grinder's PAL widescreen project</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165496/action/topic#165496
Time
I knew I forgot something... they will be single layer with two channel AC3 sound. I tried using LPCM on a single layer aswell, but that meant going from a video bitrate of appox. 5200 kbps with AC3, to approx. 3800 kbps with LPCM. I did 3 pass CCE encodes for both of them, and the video's quality degradation was just too much. On top of that, my AC3 encoder gives such a good result, it's hardly worth any sacrifice.
Post
#165495
Topic
<strong>Grinder's PAL widescreen project</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165495/action/topic#165495
Time

What the hell is this?

I started working on my own PAL widescreen project some time ago, and it’s turning out so well I thought I might just as well share it with you guys. I’m using the video from the French THX discs, and the audio from the US Definitive Collection. I’m having some problems with the (Pioneer CLD-)2950, so I’m using the (Pioneer DVL-)909 instead. I will get the 2950 fixed, but at the moment I’m not feeling like spending time and money on that. I’ve uploaded a clip here to compare the output from both players. These are just the straight DV captures encoded to MPEG, this is not how the final product will look. There is a minor difference to be noticed, but as you can see for yourself it’s not much: the 909 is a damn good player aswell. I do recommend you watch it in VirtualDub, not in Windows Media Player, as the latter does not give a crisp and sharp enough image to do a decent comparison. I encoded it to be DVD compliant, so if you want to watch it on your TV you can feed it directly to a DVD building program.
 

What defines my project from the other ones?

I started this project with the intention of applying no filters. This because all the filters I’ve tried out, including the ones used in other projects, have (too much) negative side effects, and take away too much of the natural film-look for my liking. But as you can see in the clip the discs themselves have a desaturated and too dark appearance, I think that much can be considered fact. So I will be doing hue/saturation/brightness/contrast correction. This also is the most important part of post-processing if you ask me, since it affects the entire viewing experience. Therefore I have spent a lot of time on this, resulting in the absolute optimal settings, using the Definitive and the '82 UK LD as references. I’m sure every single person will prefer my setting over the image of the original discs, but obviously this correction is a subjective one. So I am thinking of releasing two versions, a corrected one, and a straight-off-of-the-discs one. But the latter will just be worth something for the wicked preservationists/purists among us: I’d first like to have an idea about the interest for such a release.
 

What are the specs?

I will be scaling to anamorphic (thanks for the help on that Moth3r) because I have a widescreen TV myself, and Lanczos4Resize does such a good job, it’s 100% improvement, even on a 4:3 TV.
I hate intros and menus, so there won’t be any of that annoying crap

It will have fullscale (English and Dutch) subtitles for a change. I am perfectly capable of undersanding English, but subtitles make it a lot easier to watch, especially with creaking crisps and talking friends around. I’m only including those two languages because those are the only ones useful for myself, and every subtitle file had to be synched after ripping it from the official DVD. If you feel your language should be included aswell I’ll be happy to do so: go to doom9.net and find out how to rip subs as .srt files using SubRip, and PM me for the timecodes. I’m releasing ANH within a week however, so hurry up!
 

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments I’ll be glad to hear them.

Post
#161520
Topic
Citizen's Aspect Ratio Calculator Tool for your browser
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/161520/action/topic#161520
Time
This was my train of thought. The original image is 720*576, at a 4:3 aspect ratio. You want to go to a 16:9 aspect ratio of 720*x. If the pixel ratio would match the aspect ratio you would expect it to be as easy as this: 720/16*9=405. But they don't match: 720/4*3 is not 576, but 540. So to go from the aspect ratio to the pixel ratio you'd have to multiply it by 576/540. If you apply that to the 405 you got from the previous calculation you get 432. So there's that. But where did you get your 324 from?
Post
#160228
Topic
<em>SIX</em> fantastic brand new preservation projects..... (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/160228/action/topic#160228
Time
Originally posted by: russs15
This sounds very interesting.............

The 80's UK PAL VHS Pan and Scan is totally different to the later THX Pan and Scan releases.

I suspect that the UK PAL LaserDisc may follow the same pattern.

Would you like these (and any others you might have) adding to the project page??

I am not aware of any UK PAL transfers and never even thought about doing such a thing so they would make a very interesting addition


Sure, add them, that way we'll have a nice overview of what's been accounted for so far. The other sets I have are the DC, the French THX set and the NTSC SE box. Those have all been captured by others. But I am working on my own transfer of the French THX discs (I'll be ditching the original audio of course). Moth3r and Citizen have done excellent jobs, I realize this more and more now that I'm doing my own. But both clearly suffer from side effects of filters they have applied. Initially I didn't want to do any post-processing, just a straight capture. And I am very satisfied of what comes straight out of the 2950, but I found some ways of enhancing the image a bit without any compromises.
Post
#160103
Topic
<em>SIX</em> fantastic brand new preservation projects..... (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/160103/action/topic#160103
Time
I bought a stack of LD's last week, and didn't believe what I saw was in there: the UK P&S trilogy! These are THE earliest releases: the PAL equivalents to the NTSC "first issue collection" listed on russ15's project webpage ('82, '84 and '86 respectively). Battlewars, you are right on the money with your comment of these being the clearest representations of the films (though you're talking about the NTSC versions, but they're probably identical apart from difference in resolution and framerate). They rival the official (widescreen) DVD's in detail, but more noticeably they are much brighter, and a lot of stuff can be seen in area's which are black on the DVD's. Although it's a P&S set, and a slight bit of LD rot is present, I may even prefer these to the French THX discs... having a widescreen TV. They just look right: closer to the way I remember them.
The Episode IV disc also is the disc I caused some fuss about a while back, claiming it to be widescreen: a guy told me that, but it turned out to be a mistake. Although the first 3 minutes actually are in anamorphic widescreen, due to the original panoramic shot being squeezed onto a 4:3 display, without black bars on top and bottom

I'll be capturing and releasing this set, details coming up.

EDIT: If there's any interest I can capture a piece with my DVD recorder and upload it as sort of a teaser (no that's not how I will be doing the final capture).