ImBateman

craigbillet said:

I pledge $10!

Thanks! Noted.

TomArrow said:

If this should go above 300 or so, you may as well just get it from lddb: https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/shop/09271/17665/Matrix-The

Looks like it’s the same according to the cat number.

I’ll definitely keep that in mind, especially since it looks like the auction has over 30 watchers at the moment.

Hi everyone, there is currently an auction on eBay for an extremely rare Laserdisc of The Matrix. This version of the Matrix is essentially the same master as the original VHS release and will have theatrical color timing (as well as an excellent 5.1 track). As of right now there is 14 hours left to bid.

I am looking for financial help to attain this LD and have it properly preserved. I have made arrangement for a member to do the capture and post-processing if we win the auction. I will, of course, pitch in for a majority of the cost. If you are willing to make a donation put in in the comments and I will keep a public list of donors.

Thanks! 😃

Update: I lost the auction at the last second, but not to worry, I’ll be saving towards purchasing the LD from lddb.

Pledges:
Me - $150 (subject to increase if needed)
williarob - $10
craigbillet - $10

Goal: $170/$300

Hi everyone, I am excited to announce that I have completed an extended cut of The Matrix Reloaded using most of the filmed footage from the video game, Enter the Matrix. This adds in the story Niobe, Ghost, and Sparks (which was a somewhat minor part in Reloaded). I think this makes the narrative of Reloaded more complete.

PM me for a link and let me know what you think 😃

V2 OUT NOW! V1 was more of a proof of concept. This is much more refined!

Sources:
v2 uses the 4k remastered version of Reloaded as the primary source.
The scenes from Enter the Matrix have been upscaled, color graded to match the remastered version, and has a layer of film grain added.
v2 is also in 5.1 surround with the audio from Enter the Matrix remixed for surround.

*This edit is still in 720p to let the added scenes fit in better, but a 1080p version could be rendered out in the future as the upscaling did a pretty great job.

Color grading examples (it looks drastic, but matches the new color grading from the remaster quite well): https://imgur.com/a/dM45Jv9

Runtime:
Theatrical: 2hr 18min
This Edit: 2hr 38min

Changes:
*Most of these scenes have been reordered drastically from v1 for improved pacing and minimal confusion. The overall editing, video, and sound quality is a huge step up from v1.
03:51 - Niobe and Ghost Jack in.
07:51 - Last Transmission of the Osiris.
10:35 - Niobe and Ghost join the meeting in the Matrix (edited to remove unnecessary dialogue eluding to a mission from the game).
14:51 - Members of the meeting fleeing.
16:22 - “Is the exit clean?” scene.
16:32 - “72 hours” scene.
17:57 - The Logos returns to Zion.
19:03 - Lock and Niobe.
44:43 - Seraph fighting Ballard.
48:20 - Lock telling Niobe to stay.
01:15:05 - Jack in, find the One, jack out.
01:36:38 - Off to the freeway (replaces the theatrical scene of Niobe talking to Link, music from Mona Lisa Overdrive added in the background for continuity).
01:50:10 - Ghost and Niobe jack out of the Matrix, Sparks says Morpheus needs their help again.
01:51:23 - Scene of Lock in the control room, Ghost and Niobe joining Morpheus, other ships getting in position, and a shot of Bane cutting his hand.
02:00:28 - Ghost and Niobe jack out of the Matrix after blowing up the power plant, see Bane about to set off the EMP.
02:20:59 - Sparks says that the Nebuchadnezzar crew isn’t responding after Neo, Morpheus, and the Keymaker use a back door. Seraph calls and tells Niobe to go to the Oracle.
02:21:59 - Niobe meets with the “new” Oracle.

Enter the Matrix material cut from v1 for pacing/logic:
The full “Niobe and Ghost join the meeting in the Matrix” scene.
Sparks reacting to the incoming agents.
Lessons of the Oracle scene.
Niobe’s line “You ain’t done yet.”
Sparks warns Ghost and Niobe before they get hit.
Sparks says “Oh I can’t watch this” then proceeds to stare at his monitor before the two semi trucks collide.
“Picnicking Sentinels” are coming for the Logos (the way the scenes have been restructured to flow better in this version leaves no room for this scene).
Removed the post-credit scene of Ghost and Niobe discussing if anyone will find them since the “Picnicking Sentinels” scene is scrapped.

Bonus Material:
The complete Enter the Matrix scene collection with AI upscaling and 5.1 surround enhancements (sans color grading).
Full 2003 Charlie Rose interview with the Matrix cast and producers discussing the film (I enjoyed this interview a lot and figured more Matrix fans should check it out).

That $450 is insanely generous! Mark me down for $20. The Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies and this looks like a great project!

Well, I guess I’ll have to buy a 4K TV just to watch these. Fantastic job!

Space Hunter M said:

Could you re-rip .VOB #2 from the Reloaded disc? It’s corrupted in the .ISO. Thanks!

Thanks for notifying me! I did a re-rip and the same .VOB is corrupted. The disc itself plays fine so I think it may be an issue with the DVD ripper that I’m using. I’ll give it another shot within a day or two and see how that goes. In the meantime the MP4 plays fine if you want to watch it that way for now. Sorry for the inconvenience!

TomArrow said:

Cool stuff, didn’t know this existed.

Yeah now it’s my mission to find more Open Matte dvds when I go to Goodwill. I just picked up Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 1 which appears to be open matte as well (hopefully I’ll find Spider-Man 2 in full screen as well)

Hi everyone!

With my excitement for the Matrix 4 starting to film right now, I thought it would be a good time to put this preservation together. A lot of people (including myself) were disappointed with how the Matrix sequels were matted. I read that the two Matrix sequels were shot on Super 35mm, and wondered if the full screen DVD was open matte, or simply pan and scan. Luckily it is open matte, and in a lot of scenes shows more information than the open matte HDTV preservations (top is widescreen blu-ray/dvd, middle is open matte HDTV, bottom is open matte 4:3):

However, like pretty much every open matte release, there will be some shots that are cropped on the sides to varying degrees. This is usually done to hide things like boom mics, or on sfx shots:

I have both 1:1 backups of the DVD iso’s as well as MP4 versions. I also have access to a scanner so if anyone wants the artwork preserved I can do that as well. PM me if you want a link!

UPDATE: Currently taking a break from the forum. Sorry to those who have asked for links and didn’t get them.

I have a similar thing that I am looking to do. Is it possible to take multiple dvd iso’s and mux them into a larger blu-ray iso, or is that too complicated to pull off?

arnautovic said:

Does anyone still have the 35mm sourced PAL DVD of Revenge of the Sith with the cue marks? I mean the full 576i “TUN” DVD.

I have not heard of this before. I’m definitely interested in it as well 😃

This looks fantastic! Do you have plans on giving other movies Criterion menus and features?

The first one that comes to mind for me is Se7en CCEHD which is an HD version of the movie color matched to the Criterion LaserDisc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX1jPOC5K2A

I’m not sure if anyone saw this (it was uploaded to the spleen a little bit ago), but this project titled “Se7en CCEHD” is finished and it looks amazing!

PM’d

tomalakis said:

Finally got my hands on 1997 ESB in HD. Thanks to trillary dump for the movie reconstruction!

So that I’ve made my cover based on 1997 VHS. Gold and Silver version…

https://i.imgur.com/Qk7d9Pe.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sQaRyx0.jpg

That cover looks amazing dude! You planning on making them for ANH and ROTJ?

Harmy said:

That it definitely will. My point was simply that there’s little point to 4K when even the 1080p Blu-Ray has more fine detail.

I think the reason that 35mm film is scanned in 4k so it captures the most amount of film grain not so much for its detail since it’s expected to have a softer image than the original negative.

UncutIsSuperior said:

Well, have you at least finished it yet? I already have HD Special Editions of the first two movies and I am really wanting a copy of your preservation of the Special Edition of ROTJ to complete the trilogy. Thank you.

V2 has been done for some time now. Pm me if you want a link.

ellennify said:

Hi all! Just looking for a link to Return of the Jedi 1997 Special Edition HD Reconstruction - would be the perfect Christmas gift!! Thanks in advance

PM’d

alexp120 said:

Will this version be released on the 'spleen?

I didn’t have any plans on uploading to the 'spleen myself but if anyone wanted to do that themselves I don’t have a problem with it!

I’m only going include the “Skywalker Saga” films. My list changes every time I marathon the films but this is my ranking as of now. Just for some context I was -1 years old when TPM came out so the Prequels were always a part of Star Wars when I got into it, which is why they are probably ranked too high.

1. The Empire Strikes Back 10/10
2. A New Hope 10/10
3. Revenge of the Sith 9/10
4. Return of the Jedi 8/10
5. The Rise of Skywalker 7/10
6. The Phantom Menace 7/10
7. The Force Awakens 6/10
8. The Last Jedi 4/10
9. Attack of the Clones 3/10
   (“Relative to its budget, Attack of the Clones is the worst movie ever put to film.” -Rich Evans)

I just got out of the theater about an hour ago. I did go into the film with some spoilers from the leaks, not all (i.e. force healing, Rey Palpatine, Rey’s yellow lightsaber).

On paper I thought a lot of the plot details sounded pretty bad and seeing the RT score made me think that this would be a terrible film. But after seeing film, I found most of the plot points that I already knew about was fulfilling and entertaining. So the moral of the story is go see this movie and form your own opinion about it 😃

I think that this movie would benefit from being longer since it is trying to do so much within its runtime, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. My ranking for the Sequel Trilogy as of right now is TROS, TFA, TLJ.

No need to apologize! All good things take time and patience 😉

Do you know if the final version will be BD compliant?

ChainsawAsh said:

If it’s the theatrical version I seriously doubt it would be a different master than has been used in the past, so the edge enhancement will likely still be an issue.

Is it possible it could be a 35mm telecine?

ChainsawAsh said:

You probably already know and took care of this since you were very thorough when talking about your last version before using Hal’s work as a source, but just a quick reminder since you didn’t mention it in your post - the Wampa scene and the Emperor scene also require a different source than Hal’s custom SE.

Yeah I should’ve mentioned it. I used the 2004 version for the Wampa and KK5SO’s version had the original Emperor

Just finished using Hal’s Custom SE and KK5SO’s version (for unaltered cloud city scenes) and I must say, DrDre did a great job on the color grade! I’ll have a link available for it tomorrow.

dgraham414 said:

Any thought of authoring your 97 reconstructions to blu-ray?

Yeah I have thought about it but I wouldn’t know where to start if I were to make menus for them. I usually just put the mkv into tsMuxer (I think) to create a Blu day iso without any menus just the film.