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Laserman

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Join date
11-May-2004
Last activity
6-Sep-2007
Posts
903

Post History

Post
#129586
Topic
Info Wanted: has anyone tried a Star Wars Super 8mm to DVD preservation project?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/129586/action/topic#129586
Time
There are super8 and 16mm prints of the complete movies for all three.
They were made for Army bases and the like to show the films. Quite a few prints were done at the time, unfortunately many on eastman stock which has since gone pink, or on other stocks that have since gone green, but there are probably a few out there that were done onto decent stock that has survived. T
he trick is to find them.
Post
#129510
Topic
Info Wanted: has anyone tried a Star Wars Super 8mm to DVD preservation project?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/129510/action/topic#129510
Time
A few things to keep in mind if considering doing it at home (which seeing that no commercial transfer lab will touch it, is your only option really).

1) The standard mirror and screen system gives you a grainy picture with a very low ANSI CR, and a low ON/OFF CR as well. The grain of the screen adds to the film grain and looks pretty awful.

2) The flatbed scanner method. Better CR and colour reproduction, but is brutally unforgiving on dust and scrathes due to the collimated light source. A scanner using "digital ice" is the only way to go if considering this path.

3) The above option also means scanning effectively a frame at a time, or a few frames at a time. A two hour movie consists of more than 172,000 frames. So if you scanned and saved a frame every minute it would take 2,880 hours, or 360 days if you did it 8hours a day.

4) The best way would be to purchase a true telecine rig. You need something that doesn't go through condensors or screens or any other shennannigans. The DV8 sniper pro is what you would need to get anything better than what is on the laserdiscs - it can be purchased here. http://www.moviestuff.tv/dv8_sniper_pro.html. There are DIY alternatives, but at the end of the day you need quality glass lenses and a quality CCD broadcast camera ,and a modifiable Super8 projector - so it doesn't come cheaply.

You also then have to balance the exposure, do the endless scratch and dirt removal and go through and colour grade the result and do a separate sound pass - it isn't easy and is extremely time consuming, but can be done.
Post
#128662
Topic
.: The X0 Project Discussion Thread :. (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/128662/action/topic#128662
Time
Oh, and BTW artguy, the difference between DVD scaled well and HD-DVD isn't the jump that VHS to DVD was, you can see the comparison right now if you want - go grab a D-Theater player (DVHS) which is actually higher quality than either of the proposed HD DVD standards (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray).
The D-Theater titles are noticable better, especially a title like I-Robot. The difference between it on DVD on a standard TV and the D-Theater title on a HDTV is very pronounced, but the difference between the DVD through a terranex on a HDTV and the D-Theater title through a HDTV is more subtle than stunning.
Post
#128661
Topic
.: The X0 Project Discussion Thread :. (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/128661/action/topic#128661
Time
I already posted this, but at first it didn't stick - I dunno why. So here I go again, but it will be a short form of the original post.

1) If DVDs look awful on your HDTV then you had better invest in a decent scaler. DVD can look very very good on a decent HD set, but it needs to be scaled properly. If you are relying on the scaler that is built into your HDTV set, chances are it is pretty awful. If you see blocking and EE and other artefacts, then I will lay money on it being an average DVD player coupled with the very ordinary scaler built into your HDTV.

Go to a *decent* AV store and check out a terranex scaler running DVD on a hidef set, and I think your concerns about DVD looking bad on HD sets will disappear. Through a terranex scaler DVD on HDTV looks absolutely stunning.
If you can't afford a terranex, check out the DVDO ISCAN HD, it does an amazing job for the money. With on, especially if running SDI from a good DVD player, you will not see any blocking or artefacts.
If you aren't running a decent scaler with your HDTV set, you are really wasting the money you spent on the set.

To answer the other question, a HD version of any OT transfer is a must if you want it to look good on a HDTV and you *don't* have a good scaler.
The people doing the transfer could do a much better job of scaling up the video - even the paltry 277 available lines - than the awful internal scaler inside your HDTV. That way you could feed the TV a 'pre scaled' image that is now in native HDTV resolution.
I personally will need a 720P version for my particular setup to look as good as possible.
Post
#127302
Topic
.: Moth3r's PAL DVD project :.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/127302/action/topic#127302
Time
What do you mean exactly DE?
Do you have an example script that shows the problem?
If you are only getting the problem when running MPEG2 into AVISynth, then it can be fixed with colormatrix.
Just add the line colormatrix() before the ConvertToYUY2() line.
You can get the plugin here.
http://www.geocities.com/wilbertdijkhof/ColorMatrix_v19.zip
edit:
BTW, if coming from an interlaced source then you would have to unfold the fields, then colormatrix the results then fold them back again.
-L
Post
#127269
Topic
Dr. M's Reinventing The Wheel Edition (PAL to NTSC+) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/127269/action/topic#127269
Time
Just make sure you calibrate your screen before messing with the colour (hue and saturation) - if your screen is off then the version will only look right on *your* screen and no one elses.
The halos on Moth3rs capture are caused because of the analogue bandwidth limitation, there is not enough bandwidth for the hard transitions from black to white, so you get the 'halos' - it is an analogue issue and can be solved either by filtering, or better still by remapping.
Post
#125950
Topic
<strong>The Cowclops Transfers (a.k.a. the PCM audio DVD's, Row47 set) Info and Feedback Thread</strong> (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/125950/action/topic#125950
Time
Yeah, I have an R210 and it prints directly onto the white DVDs or CDs suraface and comes out looking better than an original.

It saves all that horrid messing with labels... blechh

On the IRE thing a few pages back, there is a fun discussion of it on videohelp.

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259098&start=0
Post
#125926
Topic
STAR WARS: the alt.binaries.starwars thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/125926/action/topic#125926
Time
Yeah, I gotta say, when I saw the original footage that Zion was playing with, and then saw what he ended up with , I nearly wet my pants. (I really should get that seen to).
One of the best examples I have seen of taking really poor quality video and what can be done with it - my Mum was wrong, it appears that sometimes you can polish a turd - Well Zion can anyway.
IMHO, there is no point getting any other version until the official release - period.
Post
#125920
Topic
.: Moth3r's PAL DVD project :.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/125920/action/topic#125920
Time
Hifi VHS is remarkably good, a lot of Bands used it as a recording medium before DAT came to the masses.

Re PAL vs NTSC, for anamorphic DVDs the resolution difference isn't staggering, but for letterbox it is huge.
The reason is that the amount of lines left for a scope letterbox transfer in NTSC is only around 277 lines, which is bugger all. (from memory it is around those numbers, I don't have anything handy to check).
So starting from such a low base, any increase in available lines = a massive jump in image quality.
So a PAL letterbox transfer, with its higher linecount should be a hell of a lot better quality resolution wise.

To answer another question, the PAL laserdiscs are more tightly framed, this means that when you put the NTSC version and the PAL version side by side, that some of the picture is missing on the PAL version - you could think of it as the PAL version is a bit more 'zoomed in' so some of the picture has fallen off the bottom of the screen so to speak.
Post
#125341
Topic
***The &quot;official&quot; Screenshots feedback thread ***
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/125341/action/topic#125341
Time
Well, for the Tatooine shot, Moth3r yours is much closer to the correct colour than the cowclops versions, as for the yellow on the destroyer in the CC V2 cap, it looks like induced noise to me, crank the saturation on that image and it has all the hallmarks of interference - but it might be on the original disc, (I don't have that scene with me) I'll take a look later when I get home.