Joel

Asaki said:

Happy Life Day, all!

Happy Life Day, Asaki and all!

The link is broken. Was the Rifftrax version sync’d to the WMAR broadcast? Anyway, a google search suggests that Zion Hybrid v2 is what you want.

Good luck!

Hi everyone -

I’m sorry for the wait - there was a long period of obsessing and revisions, then a longer period of being burnt out and not looking at it for awhile. I eventually wondered if this is more “reconstruction” than preservation, and I encountered a lot of “hey, that’s REALLY blown out…”

The more I learn, the more I don’t know.

So here’s the thing as it stands. It looks pretty good, but I’d still like a better source and for the software to only uprez but not increase the dynamic range/contrast.

In any case, I present my finished-for-now, mostly complete but partially abandoned AI-Uprezzed, footage-and-some-graphics replaced version of The Star Wars Holiday Special.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o5W294fKY4D0e7mJsQULwLNwdIsunM2p?usp=sharing

Darth telly said:

If you want you can use my reconstruction of that scene when it is done.

Thanks!

For a little while I actually attempted a manual de- and re-telecine and then gave up after 100 frames or so.

Darth telly said:

The main source I will use for my version of the special will be The Editdroid DVD. Then I will use 4K77 for the sections taken from A New Hope, and the official Blu-ray for the Vader widens the search scene.

I can save you a little time: the Blu-Ray “Vader widens the search” scene isn’t the same take as the one used in the Holiday Special.

Is your question about how to edit audio within Resolve? If that’s the case, I could only suggest youtube, but otherwise:

I recommend exporting an aaf (OMF was the old equivalent: saves the session with all of your audio in the right place on multiple tracks but open-able by other software), creating a low-ish res reference video, and importing both of those into pro tools or Logic, and tackling the audio there.

First trial export of the whole thing happening now. Fingers crossed…

Have you used the “Artemis Low Quality” setting with Topaz for the upscale? It looks like that’s what was used in the original pic, and the stills from that almost without fail will look alarmingly waxy and weird…however, in motion it can still look OK.

Sending a PM.

Here’s a first look! Things are moving along now.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dl1etvrompca7ib/SWHS_Intro.mp4?dl=0

nobodybutjarjar42 said:

the JSC has the original SFX

That’s good info too, thank you!

I’m now mostly using the '85 LDs as a reference for reconstruction and only matting in tiny elements of that stuff into footage from 4K77 and D+1977. So far, the '85 LD footage is OK for now. Fullscreen JSC might be a better copy than the US '85 and thusly more usable as-is. This might merit a return visit at some point.

13las said:

I’m not one hundred percent sure on this but re: the first image… that is actually one of the 3 FX shots that was tweaked between May 1977 and June 1977 while the film was still in theaters. Among other improvements, ILM re-timed the flash frames, so that frame could potentially come from the earlier version.

Most fan preservations are based on the June cut (as are all modern home video releases) but the original version of the shot did make it to a couple of early releases, including some laserdiscs. Sadly, I don’t think it exists in HD anywhere. But laserdisc could be marginally better than what you’ve got now?

Again, not sure that’s what’s going on here but it’s worth checking out.

Ooh thank you for this! I didn’t know about the different 1977 versions. This would explains the discrepancies I found. I’ll go digging to see if I have the shots from LD somewhere.

Later that same day…

Thank you again! The pan&scan 1985 laserdisc had the older (May?) flash frame timings, so that crisis has been averted.

And the other frames were in an earlier shot, I just hadn’t noticed before.

Moving slowly forward…

Hot stuff! This is my kind of project.

More stuff unique to the Holiday Special.
Here are some frames from original Star Wars footage used in SWHS that aren’t present in 4K77 or D+77:

Around 19s in is a frame that was replaced with “flash”/white frame in Star Wars:

EDIT

Thanks to 13las’s suggestion, the frame above (and plenty like it) was found in the 1985 Pan & Scan laserdisc.

The three other frames were also located: there was a repeated shot TIE shot from approximately 1 second before where I was looking.

Yes, editdroid’s SWHS will be the main source - I forgot to mention it in the first post! I’ll go fix that now.

Aw man, did my unsolicited feedback sound too critical?

The Death Star Demise clip is really beautiful! But FYI, the download doesn’t look too GOUT-like yet:

I attempted to play the GOUT DVD and capture that, but the Mac won’t let me screencap a commercial DVD. The 720P Gout shown here looks fairly identical though - There’s more pink and yellow in the GOUT, yours looks whiter and bluer - on my monitor anyway.

The Star Wars Purist said:

You could always piece it together from some ANH footage (Falcon approaching Yavin) and use some color replacement/a color change mask on Yavin to make it green. (As that’s what it appears to be.)

The screenshot I originally posted is exactly that, but the footage I’m asking about is the scene with Darth Vader and officer “Moradmin Bast” walking in a Death Star Corridor.

I changed the pic in my original post to one that relates more to the request.

Meanwhile, this picture is indeed from Star Wars, with the planet color replaced to match the Holiday Special.

zman said:

I didn’t do a frame by frame comparison

I did!

And unfortunately, it’s not the same footage… well, until they turn the corner, then it cuts/crossfades to what looks like the same take as they walk away. But all the stuff with the characters facing the camera is not the blu ray footage.

Hello all -

Inspired by YouTube user Nick Acosta’s Star Wars Holiday Special “4K 60FPS Modern Trailer,” I’ve started working on my own 1080P, 60fps version of everyone’s favorite Life Day celebration document. I’m using Topaz Video Enhance AI for the originally-shot-on-video parts (from the 2015 editdroid version), and D+77 for the majority of the originally-on-film stuff.

While working on this, though, I made a discovery: The footage of Darth Vader and “Bast” walking together in the SWHS is not the same take as the one included in the SW Blu Ray box set as “Darth Vader Widens the Search.” To make it more complicated, the scene as it exists in the SWHS was badly telecine’d. There are stretched frames, frames with extra lines, occasional blurs, etc.

Is this footage available from any other source than the Holiday Special?

Meanwhile, the rest is going smoothly! Thanks for your help in advance.

ifjg said:

Not sure about the process, but a conversion to 60fps has already been done. Film shots look fine and it’s the best looking version of the special I’ve found overall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtSX1lg8rE

Sheesh, I’d forgotten that exists. And you’re right, the film-sourced shots don’t suffer at all.

[yotsuya said:]

That is where an edit would be good. Lift the shots from 4K77 and crop them to match the what was used.

It would be good resolution-wise, but there’s still the problem of how to get that footage to 60fps in high def without it looking “smoothed.”

EDIT Well, that was actually much easier than I’d expected.

CatBus said:

I guess telecined 24p film-based material was spliced into native 60i video material. I’m not sure how to make that look vaguely natural throughout except to keep it interlaced (well, deinterlace, process, and reinterlace). 60p messes with the 24p-sourced material, and 24p messes with the 60i-sourced material.

Yeah - maybe the solution is 3:2 pulldown (3 frames from one frame and 2 of the next) but not interpolated? Is there software that does that? I will investigate.

Maybe an upres of SWHS will be my next project. I’ll download a trial of Topaz AI and see.

Update

For those interested, I was able to convert the Editdroid ISO to 60fps with no interpolation via handbrake, then de-interlace/uprez via Topaz AI. The result is the original 3:2 pulldown with no motion smoothing/“soap opera effect,” but playing at 60fps at 2x the original resolution (1244x952). It looks soft, I think, because the original telecine is soft, but I will experiment with the various AI settings.

Preliminary (and encouraging!) trial run for approx 2 seconds of footage is here:
https://vimeo.com/658005579

Now the question is whether to buy Topaz AI, to which the answer is probably ‘yes.’

ifjg said:

I’m no expert, but I remember reading the special was originally broadcast in interlaced 60fps, so deinterlaced 60fps would be the most faithful way to present it at higher resolutions.

Agreed - things originally shot on NTSC video (60 fields per second) look the most faithful motion-wise, to me, in 60fps.

Has everyone seen this?

A 60fps, AI-enhanced 4k Holiday Special appears to be in the works. I’ve been wanting to do a 60fps conversion but didn’t know how to start.

The parts that were shot on NTSC Video are astonishing. Really jaw-dropping! The bits from film, on the other hand, look like someone forgot to turn off the motion smoothing on their new TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=DUwNi8DxdNc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1diK-LDUbePLXchXO59JerZv6AdYKOd1gDFGpr9eo6blpPPWr1X-5SEEs

Both Reels in Fabulous Pan & Scan, 720P are up!

Reel 1:
https://vimeo.com/657518210

Reel 2:
https://vimeo.com/655234472

Revisiting “Missing Radar Dish” scene for 4:3, I noticed that not only is the Dish missing, but Luke and his weather vane are also in a different location for the 8mm (70mm?) shot. This prompted a little After Effects work - in the photo below, the 35mm/home video location for Luke is on the left with the pink outline. New location on the right.

I think this is more or less finished! When 4K80 comes along, assuming I have some more down time, I’ll revisit and maybe we’ll have a 1080P (or higher res?) version, or at the very least, some good replacements for the GOUT shots used.