James76

The colorized version of King Kong (1933 has been released on LaserDisc and VHS in the US and on DVD elsewhere in the world, such as on a British (or Australian, can’t remember which) DVD by Universal, but not in the US.
The colorized version of Casablanca (1943) is only available on an “Anniversary Edition” LaserDisc by MGM/UA Home Video that was a Japan-only release.
I was wondering if anyone preserved those colorized versions. There is, however, a DVD preservation of the colorized version of King Kong being sold on eBay, but I’d rather not buy that, seeing how it’s illegal to sell fan edits and fan preservations online.
I’ve heard that the colorized version of King Kong is unwatchable and of a poor quality standard, but I don’t think that I’ve heard anything negative about the quality of the colorized version of Casablanca.
I don’t own a LaserDisc player or any LaserDiscs, but I will have to wait until I’m living on my own in order to purchase a LaserDisc player and some LaserDiscs, so I can preserve films and features not on current American home video releases (such as the 1.33:1 open matte/pan-and-scan combo version of Titanic and the English version of the 1982 Japanese animated Wizard of Oz (seeing how every version of that on YouTube is in poor quality)).

CamSMurph said:

A comparison between the theatrical cut and TRGB.

I like that the colors on the right are actually in the spirit of Burton’s Batman and how it looked in theaters back in 1989 (even though I wasn’t born in that year). Cool!

Hi,
I own the late-1990’s black and white VHS of It’s a Wonderful Life by Republic Pictures. There used to be a 1980’s colorized version of this movie (and yes, I’m well aware of the current colorized version).

Has anyone preserved it in a rip from the VHS (the version without the ringing bell at the beginning being plastered over) or the 3M LaserDisc? I prefer either one, but I’d like the LaserDisc rip the best.

NOTE: This project is currently on hiatus. Sorry about that.

You can upscale the ripped LaserDisc video to a higher resolution such as 576p (PAL resolution) all the way to 4320p (8K UHD) with an AI upscale program such as Topaz Labs’ Topaz Video Enhance AI, which you can now upscale interlaced video with.

Hi,
I’m wondering if anyone has the “Music Minus Vocals” track ripped from the 25th Anniversary LaserDisc of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (or a rip of the LaserDisc with that track as an alternate audio track), or if it’s uploaded on that organ site (even though I don’t have an account there). I’d like to mux the audio track to a rip of the Blu-ray version.

BestArchivist15 said:

James76 said:

BestArchivist15 said:

James76 said:

Um… the Fox DVD versions upscaled to 1080p with AI software, maybe?

That doesn’t seem right… When did Fox distribute The Muppet Show on DVD?

I don’t remember exactly who released The Muppet Show on DVD. It may have been Jim Henson Video or Disney. IDK.

It was Time-Life Video and Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment for the “Best of The Muppet Show” series, and Buena Vista Home Entertainment for the season sets. Disney/Buena Vista never released the last two seasons on DVD.

Hmm. I never knew that. Well, I guess those episodes probably don’t exist online, either, unless someone has uploaded pre-Disney+ episode reruns in HD to that organ site…

BestArchivist15 said:

James76 said:

Um… the Fox DVD versions upscaled to 1080p with AI software, maybe?

That doesn’t seem right… When did Fox distribute The Muppet Show on DVD?

I don’t remember exactly who released The Muppet Show on DVD. It may have been Jim Henson Video or Disney. IDK.
Also, they were DVDs of the original unedited episodes.

Um… the Fox DVD versions upscaled to 1080p with AI software, maybe?

That’s so cool! I didn’t know that Thunderbean sold BD-R discs of scanned Disney movie prints. I’ll have to purchase their BD-R of Cinderella sometime. After all, it was the very first Disney princess movie I saw as a kid, especially on that 1995 VHS (which I sadly replaced with the 2-disc Platinum Edition DVD. Yes, kid me didn’t mind Disney’s over-restored versions of their animated and partially-animated movies, and I regret liking Disney’s over-restorations).

Hi, I’m planning on working on a preservation of Oz movies, but I’m also planning on working on a custom 50GB BD-R ISO file set of 4 Oz family movies in 1080p. The movies will include: The Wizard of Oz (1939), Return to Oz (1985), Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (2013), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). The last 2 (or 3) movies will be in 1.78:1.
I was wondering if anyone has 1.78:1 HDTV rips of Return to Oz (1985) (if a 1.78:1 version exists) and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), preferably delogoed. Also, is the fullscreen (except for the credits) version of Return to Oz (1985) on the out-of-print 1999 Anchor Bay DVD an open matte/pan & scan combo, or is it entirely pan & scan? Because if it’s entirely pan & scan and no 1.78:1 version exists, then I’ll go with the 1.85:1 version then.
Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’ve decided to make another Oz preservation. This one is of 50GB and 25GB BD-R ISO files of Oz movies from a bootleg 7-disc set I bought on eBay several years back called “The Weird and Wonderful Cinema of Oz,” which not only features theatrical films, but TV films (and the 2007 TV miniseries Tin Man) as well.

I will upscale the 480p films to 1080p HD with Topaz Labs’ Topaz Video Enhance AI. The 2005 TV film The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz is included on a 4.7GB DVD-R in SD, but it’s in 4:3 pan-and-scan. If anyone has a foreign DVD of the TV film in its proper 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and is willing to rip the movie, slow it down to its proper speed, deinterlace it (if it’s interlaced), resize it to 16:9 480p, and send it to me so I can upscale it to 1080p HD and replace the 4:3 480p version for my preservation, that would be nice.

I will create custom menus for the ISO files based on the menus for the discs, including custom menus for the ISO files of films that didn’t have menus on their discs (including The Wiz [1978] and The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz [2005]). I will also create custom chapter stops for some movies, but most of the movies will have the official chapter stops. Pop-up menus will be included for chapter, bonus feature, subtitle, and audio selection (even though bonus features, subtitles, and other audio tracks were not included on the discs and most of the films had chapter stops at every 5 minutes).

NOTE: Because of the poor audio quality of The Wizard of Oz (1939), I will use the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and the original 2.0 mono track (from the out-of-print 1998 MGM DVD) for my preservation. I also plan on using the HD tracks in place of those tracks converted to Dolby Digital.

OK, apparently the Japanese version Blu-ray by Discotek was taking too long to be shipped, so I had to cancel that order several days ago. I’ll order it in March after I pay for a 2-year membership at HiRes Covers (since I’m only allowed to pay up to a maximum of $50 or more a month with my mom’s permission - and yes, I still live with my family).

NOTE: This project is on hiatus for now. I’ve decided to make another Oz preservation.

SpacemanDoug said:

The last home video release to have the original mono track was the 1998 DVD btw

I’m aware of that, but I think that older home video “tempo timings” (as I call the instance of analog and digital home video versions of movies and TV having different tempos at different parts) are different than on newer home video tempo timings. An example being of the tempo timings of 1984-1994 home video versions of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory vs. those of the 1996-present home video versions of that movie.

I’d like to use the mono track and music recording tracks from the 1993 Wizard of Oz laserdisc to make stereo sound clips for an Oz fan site.

Hi,

I’m wondering if there are any rips of laserdiscs of The Wizard of Oz (1939) that anyone did. The ones I am looking for are rips from the 1988 Criterion 2-disc laserdisc, all 3 Ultimate Oz laserdiscs, and the 1989 50th Anniversary laserdisc, with their audio tracks synced to them (the main soundtrack and Ronald Haver audio commentary synced to the rip of the 1988 laserdisc; the movie soundtrack, John Fricke audio commentary, and music track synced to the rips of the Ultimate Oz feature discs; etc.).

Thanks!

3Maters said:

I love this series! Thanks for doing this!

No problem!

BTW, I recently received the English dub version Blu-ray in the mail today. I’ll wait until the Japanese version Blu-ray arrives to rip and upscale the episodes.

JEDIT: A few days ago, I received the 2-disc DVD set of the 4 movie edits of the anime. I will upscale the movie edits as well.

According to the uploader of the video in their reply to my comment:
Only simple deinterlacing removes half of the frames. QTGMC in AVISYNTH was used because it does an excellent job without throwing away every other half frame. A variety of deinterlacers were auditioned to pick the best. Bobbing interpolates every half frame to create 60fps, and creates jitter in fine detail, so it isn’t artifact free. The laser disc source had a problem with a number of sections where some half frames had sections with lines displaced. This also was in a tape made from a broadcast, so it is probably a problem in the master tape. This required extensive frame by frame editing. The conversion needed weeks of work to remove all of the problems, so it will not be redone. I have gone back and redone a handful of my early restorations, but this was a more recent one done with the best available software. The pros may have a deinterlacer/bobber which can restore the SD TV illusion of smoothness without jitter, but I don’t know if it it exists. The only way to get that may be to watch the laser disk on an old SD TV, but it will still have the displaced lines. Digitization of SD TV broadcasts also rotates fast moving objects because it is converting scanned motion into instantaneous images. Restoration/digitization is always a compromise. Sorry, but maybe someone else will do what you want. You should also know that YouTube further highly compresses the original submitted video which degrades what you see.

Hi,

I am planning on making 1080p HD AI upscalings of both the English and Japanese versions of the 1986 anime series, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The standard-definition Blu-ray sources will be upscaled with Topaz Labs’ Topaz Video Enhance AI. The upscaled versions will be on BD-50 ISO files with custom menus and Oz-related and Dark Side of the Moon audio clips as background music on the menus, and uploaded to my Resilio profile. The upload will include folders with custom artwork I’ll make for the discs and case.
After I make enough money on my future job (if I ever get one after the pandemic is over), I will buy my own house and the things I need for it and move out of my family’s house and into my house. After that, I will get a 4K UHD TV, a 4K UHD gaming laptop, a “UHD-friendly” BD-RW drive, some 4K Blu-rays, and a pack of 100GB BD-R discs, so I can make a 4K UHD AI upscaled version.

NOTE: I recently ordered both Blu-ray sets of the series from Amazon for a very cheap price (since I used my Amazon Rewards card to get a discount). Amazon currently says the Japanese version should be arriving on February 23rd and the English version on February 24th, but that’s because the orders haven’t shipped yet.

8/1/2021 UPDATE: This project, again, is on hiatus.

10/19/2021 UPDATE: This project is cancelled. Sorry about that.

I would love to see a fanfix of Oz the Great and Powerful, even though I’m planning on making one myself. I don’t have the Blu-ray (I only have the DVD), but I will order it sometime soon.
If I get to make my fanfix, I will be using Adobe Premiere Pro for the video edits and Audacity for the audio edits. One of the changes I will make is dubbing Mila Kunis’s Wicked Witch Theodora dialogue to make her not full of Narm. This will make the ADR’d cackle fit with the voice more and make it seem like her voice changed after the transformation, like Anakin/Darth Vader. I will also cut out all the dialogue referencing the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, because with the references intact, it basically reminds us of a much better movie we could be watching instead. Although I can give a pass to a lot of the crap OtGaP does, I can’t stand the fact that Theodora is the Wicked Witch of the West because she’s Woman Scorned, which is a trope I hate.

OK. Just received the Munchkins documentary VHS videotape today. I’m still waiting for someone to purchase and send me an ADVC-110.

Hello everyone,
I am planning on preserving 2 Wizard of Oz documentaries only available on VHS videotape and remastering them for a Blu-ray disc (25GB BD-R) with bonus features.
One of the documentaries is Oz: The American Fairyland, is from 1997, and is by the defunct Sirocco Productions (which I have the VHS of). The other documentary is We’re Off to See the Munchkins, is from 1993, and is by the also-defunct Cinema Video Productions (which I purchased the VHS of and will receive it sometime later this month).

Here is what I need to do for preserving and remastering:

1. Rip both documentaries from their videotapes with an ADVC-110 (which I don’t have) in Adobe Premiere Pro CC and export the rips to uncompressed AVI video files,
2. Deinterlace the uncompressed AVI videos (with the “Replication - Simple” option) and export them to progressive 23.976fps MP4 files with TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 7,
3. Upscale the progressive videos to 1080p high-definition and export them to lossless PNG files with Gigapixel Video Enhance AI,
4. Import the PNG files into TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 7 and use more filters on them (such as Denoise, Sharpness, etc.) and export them to new progressive 23.976fps MP4 video files,
5. Export the audio from both original progressive videos to LPCM format with FFMPEG,
6. Upmix the audio tracks to partially-pseudo-5.1 surround sound (with either the soundtracks of the source film clips made into instrumentals with Spleeter or the orchestral angles and music-and-effects tracks of the source film clips - depending on whether the movie release has orchestral angles and/or music-and-effects tracks or not - and the vintage song clips for parts of the FL, FR, SL, and SR tracks) in Audacity and export the tracks as 6-track audio files,
7. Mux both the 5.1 surround and stereo audio tracks to the new progressive videos,
8. Convert the new progressive videos to interlaced 60fps MKV files with TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 7,
9. Create chapters for the MKV files and add the chapters to them,
10. Create a Blu-ray with TMPGEnc Authoring Works 6,
11. Add the new interlaced MKV files to the Blu-ray,
12. Add bonus features to the Blu-ray,
13. Export the Blu-ray to an ISO file,
14. Create Blu-ray cover and disc artwork with Gimp and export them as PNG files, and
15. Upload the ISO file and artwork folder as one upload onto my Resilio profile.

I can’t purchase an ADVC-110, seeing how they sell for large prices on eBay. If anyone is willing to purchase an ADVC-110 from eBay and mail it to me, please PM me. Thank you.

JEDIT: This project is currently on hiatus.

Dek Rollins said:

I’m not super knowledgeable about interlacing, but I thought deinterlacing involved combining both fields together, as they would originally alternate. How does that ‘lose’ the second field?

That depends on what type of deinterlacing option you choose.

Chewielewis said:

James76 said:

Chewielewis said:

I see projects like this and its a real shame they always deinterlace down to 30fps rather than 60fps.

Huh. I didn’t think of converting it to 60fps. I kept it at 30fps. I’ll make a 60fps version with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

JEDIT: 60fps version created! Now I need to upload it on MEGA.NZ.

Thats no good if you are working from an already deinterlaced source. The original Youtube poster should have done that with the original tape otherwise that second field is lost permanenetly. Doing a false 60fps upscale is possible worse.

Oh. All right then. Never mind.

JEDIT: Just asked the uploader to re-restore the source in 1080p 60fps.

Chewielewis said:

I see projects like this and its a real shame they always deinterlace down to 30fps rather than 60fps.

Huh. I didn’t think of converting it to 60fps. I kept it at 30fps. I’ll make a 60fps version with Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

JEDIT: 60fps version created! Now I need to upload it on MEGA.NZ.

Happy New Year, everyone!

The DVD, VHS, and LaserDisc releases of the 1960 TV movie version of Peter Pan with Mary Martin, released by the bankrupt-since-2005 GoodTimes Home Entertainment and officially licensed by NBC, suffer from errors that also are on the original 1960 master videotape such as color misalignment, tape distortion/noise, jitter, telecine lines, ghosting, and interlacing.

However, all of these have been fixed in a brand-new fan restoration by clementj1, available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VusJd4x3tI8.

Unfortunately, it only exists in a 480p SD version. I have created a 1080p HD-upscaled MP4 version (and I will only have it be upscaled that way, given how my laptop isn’t 4K compatible, and I don’t own a UHD-friendly Blu-ray drive, a 4K TV, or a 4K Blu-ray player) with Topaz Labs’ Topaz Video Enhance AI (in the program’s trial version). The upscale’s not perfect, but it’s as good as I could get, and I’m very pleased with the results. PM me for a link.