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MeBeJedi

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Join date
10-Mar-2003
Last activity
10-Feb-2025
Posts
4,879

Post History

Post
#68455
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68455/action/topic#68455
Time
"and as far as your excuses for fucking your transfers up constantly goes, maybe if you spent less time measuring your dick all day with your constant fishing for ego hits via screencap showoffs, and more time studying up and working on the set itself, you'd have the set correctly done by now. Yunno, kinda like how Zion is already farther along with a better quality capture."

Ah, so that's what it finally comes down to - simple personal attacks. Now, I'm a glory hog, eh? Anyone else here get that impression?

"the fact that there is documented AND anecdotal proof that pre-dvd transfers were routinely overbright as a standard practice should make you stop and think."

Too bad it proves nothing in this particular case. You know what would prove something? A simple side-by-side comparison of the R1 transfer and another region. You've yet to deliver, and I wonder why.

"But instead, you're busy trying to place yourself on some sort of pedestal because you're sticking it to Lucas"

LOL. Who came into this thread "on a pedestal"?

"and playing know-it-all about the color scheme of a set of movies you probably don't even really remember seeing theatrically."

Ironic. I seem to recall simply comparing the color scheme between the DVDs and the LDs. And as for not remembering the theatrical release, where did that come from? More baseless personal attacks. Pitty.

"Meaning your point of reference were a series of overbright laserdisc transfers on TV sets you didn't even think to calibrate correctly until just recently."

Once again, a lack of knowledge about me makes your statement look ridiculous. My TV is calibrated with the AVIA DVD. My laserdisc is hooked up to my computer, not my home theater system. Like I said, I've only recently acquired the VE LD.

"And you're trying to tell the rest of the people on this site that YOUR opinion on what the colors are supposed to look like is to be trusted?"

See above.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT HALF THE TIME, man. You have a working ignorance of how DVD's are made, and you can't even correctly figure out how to make your own."

Interesting. Apparently you believe I've shown myself to be a paragon of ignorance and stupidity regarding DVDs. Anyone else here get that impression? I was under the impression that many people were looking forward to my version, but I could be wrong.

BTW, I fail to see where you've established your credentials as someone fit to comment on these DVDs.

"Get back to work."

You too. Still waiting for those comparison pics that you apparently based your opinion on. Are they ready yet?

Meanwhile, I'll happily continue making the best LD-to-DVD versions I can, and you go on trashing people who have deliberately come to these boards because they don't like what Lucas has been doing lately. Good luck changing minds around here.. ROTFLMAO!
Post
#68402
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68402/action/topic#68402
Time
"You don't know 2/3rds of what you're talking about over half the time."

Great. More contrived facts.

"You really don't. Which is fine, because you're learning as you go, and that's typically the best way to learn--but most of your "rebuttal points" are best guesses and at worst rationalizations for your faulty memories."

You know, it's really funny when some asshole comes around, pretending to know what they are talking about, and the one fact they DO bother to produce turns out to be wrong. Everything else was simply your baseless assumption with nothing to back it up.

"It's hard to hear you speak authoritatively on any subject about image quality when you can't even capture and burn your DVD correctly the first four times you try. FOR INSTANCE:"

Oh, for Christ sake, if you'd bother reading, you'd see I didn't even have the right calibration software. I only recently received Video Essentials a few days ago. It's funny the things one can learn with a little research. Not to mention the fact I've always been brutally honest about my transfers and their limitations. My "superiority" over Lucas is due to the fact that I'm willing to put in the effort for an O-OT release that he is not. In that respect, any transfer I make will be better than any that he refuses to make.

In addition to that, what's wrong with continually making improvements and refinements in my process? I suppose you nailed it your first time, if ever?

"PAL vs NTSC isn't going to introduce the kind of color differences you're arguing about if the discs are being played on the proper monitors."

I never said ONCE that it would produce color differences, simply that this "everything from the master is the same" crap was flat-out wrong. Not only are they different framerates, but PAL is progressive. Didya forget that one?

"the SOUND SWAP on the dvd's has nothing to do with the color differences you think you're seeing."

Again, I never said it did. It simply poked a huge whole in your pretense that Lucas wouldn't allow any kind of mistakes on these DVD's.

"You're trying to bring up everything BUT the fact that comparing a restored, remastered, retransferred DVD to an old, out of date, washed out Laserdisc transfer--and then saying the LASERDISC is closer to true is pretty ridiculous."

No, what's ridiculous is you contriving this argument and attributing it to me. Show me where I said this, please...oh, I forgot, such research isn't your thing.

"Here--here's a bunch of comparisons. Weird. Blue push in the DVD's? I dunno about you, but I think the blue push is occurring behind your head somewhere, especially compared to the SE's directly above it, and the Originals above THAT. You are, as a matter of fact, the FIRST person online I've read anywhere to try and say the DVD's are leaning towards the blue end of the spectrum."

I'm going to type this really slow for you:

1) The person above my post noted the blue color first, and I responded, so I was the SECOND person you saw mention this.
2) Every R1 DVD screencap I've seen has had blue push compared to the LDs.
3) The site you refer to has screencaps from the French DVD trailers - a decidely NON-R1 DVD, IIRC.

Apples to oranges. When you or someone else gets off their ass and puts an actual R1 DVD screencap next to an LD screencap, then they can be seriously compared. Until then, your evidence is worthless.

"it's probably not enough that I just tell you to look at the screencaps, because then I'd have to trust you to KNOW what you're looking for, and I'm not sold that you KNOW what you're talking about. The fact you still use bullshit like "PPOR" helps me to continue thinking that."

The screencaps are in these threads. Go back and rese.......nevermind.

"Considering you so easily throw away the idea that previous transfers WERE overbright and soft and washed out. This is fact, man."

I threw away nothing. Neither the LDs or DVD's are exactly the same as the original prints. They underwent extreme reconditioning, in case you forgot. Hell, the SW.COM quote talks about the new DVD prints looking like the 30-year-old dailies. I guess you are putting all your faith into this guy's ability to remember such colors 30 years later? LOL!

"Keep in mind this was long before DVD was thought of. The above happened with EVERY MOVIE. they overcranked the brightness and contrast. It's just a matter of fact that earlier transfers for the VHS and LD era WERE OVERBRIGHT."

So, now you are implying that this was never fixed in the Def. Col. or Faces set?

"Gee. You'd think if the guy responsible for film restoration of some DEFINITE CLASSICS had noticed a blue push, had thought the picture was oversaturated--he'd have mentioned it, right?"

Oh, and what a detailed description that is, too. :roll eyes;

"What I said was that the SAME transfer got pressed to the SAME discs in the same plants as EVERY OTHER REGION got pressed at. PAL regions got that IDENTICAL transfer encoded in PAL. It's the SAME TRANSFER. You're not going to notice a color difference between R1 and R4, because it's the EXACT SAME NTSC transfer, simply with different region coding."

Then why not post some screencaps from both, and actually prove me wrong, rather than depending on third-party out-of-context quotes which can used to prove almost any point imaginable.

Surely, you're up to that, RIGHT?!?

Oh, and as to Ratlsnake, he agreed with you in principle , but he did not prove your claims in any sense of the word. Go figure.

"Hell, you can't even spell non-sequitur right."

Wow, one misspelling and I lost you completely? Mind you, it was 2:00 in the morning, but I'm sorry to create so much confusion for you.
Post
#68383
Topic
Info Wanted: The laserdiscs vs. The best bootlegs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68383/action/topic#68383
Time
To a large extent, yes, but the laserdisc masters, themselves, are already less sharp than the DVDs. Masters from the actual footage make all the difference.

In terms of sharpness, I can only hope to get it as close to the LD's as possible. (I've used a tiny bit of digital sharpening, but too much can induce digital artifacts and haloing.) As for the colors, however, I hope to improve on those greatly.
Post
#68378
Topic
Info Wanted: The laserdiscs vs. The best bootlegs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68378/action/topic#68378
Time
"I transfered a few lasers (music titles) audio to my computer via the optical out > optical in, and noticed a my OLD (pre-digital sound) lasers wouldn't transfer via the optical out. So I believe that is ONLY for digital sound laserdiscs."

Nope, it just means it didn't have a digital soundtrack to begin with.

Okay folks, I see my mistake. I reversed the process. Analog and digital signals can be stored on laserdisc, but they must be stored in analog form. The "envelope" is analog, not digital. Here are some examples...

http://home.netcom.com/~eandtc/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/soundtrack.jpg

"Anyway, MeBeJedi. What are the most apparent flaws you see when you´ve downgraded the capture to a DVD standard? What picture flaws do you see that weren´t in the original laserdisc? Does it go softer, is ghosting introduced and so on? Can u shed some light on the difference from source to destination?"

Sharp delineations are lost. Edges become softer, and objects with a range of colors (light brown to dark brown) have "bands" of colors, rather than a gradual change.
Post
#68363
Topic
Info Wanted: The laserdiscs vs. The best bootlegs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68363/action/topic#68363
Time
"Will you be hardcoding the subs onto the picture? If so what font are you going to use?"

I did, though I forgot what font I used. It was pretty standard, and I sized them up to the original as much as possible.

"I realize the LD technology is analog, but what about the optical digital-out ports that were on many models, including my old Sony? Would those conceivably help with a higher-quality output?"

Yes. Think of it this way - if you were to record a song onto audio-cassette and onto the computer (as a .wav file), you would have much higher fidelity from the computer. Thye cassette takes the analog waveform and saves it in an analog format. The computer takes the analog waveform and saves it in a digital format, but it is still an analog waveform. This is why PCM soundtracks (on laserdisc or CD) are so large - it's the whole signal with no compression. In fact, PCM stands for "Pulse Code Modulation". Pulses (with their rise and fall) versus digital bits.

[EDIT] Bleh!

" I wonder if it would be possible to introduce a new laserdisc format that would not use those big ass 12" discs but instead the same size as DVD. Would it be possible to fit a similar amount of data onto one of those suckers as can be done with DVD´s?"

The new HD-DVDs hold between 30-50 GBs. An uncompressed capture of ANH is 200 GBs, so no.
Post
#68344
Topic
Info Wanted: The laserdiscs vs. The best bootlegs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68344/action/topic#68344
Time
"MeBeJedi -- So are you making both anamorphic and letterboxed (non-anamorphic widescreen for anyone who is confused) versions"

Correct. I'm just waiting on some software that would assist me in cleaning up the picture for the anamorphic version. There's a lot of shit in frame that needs to be fixed.

"I was also under the impression that even though the 1995 THX "Faces" transfer was better, the 1993 Definitive Collection LD source was still higher quality because it was CAV format."

It only means the individual frames are cleaner. Plus, older LD players were only able to do tricks like visual pause/rewind/fast forward with CAV disks. Later players were better equipped to do these tricks with CLV as well. In terms of overall play, it really didn't make a tremendous difference (except in overall running time per side.)

"I was also wondering HOW LaserDiscs can be analog..."

Just because it uses a laser, doesn't mean it's digital. It's essentially like a record player, in that the signal is stored as the actual wavelengths. This is the one good things about using laserdisc for a master - the audio and video are not compressed, unlike DVD. (However, a laserdisc with AC3 or DTS does have a digitally compressed/stored soundtrack.)
Post
#68306
Topic
Info: OT Bootleg DVDs
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68306/action/topic#68306
Time
"There's no difference in transfer between r1 and r4, because all the transfers on all the regions are coming from the same masters, pressed up at the same plants as the other regions. "

And yet some are PAL, and some are NTSC. Just because the master is the same, doesn't mean something doesn't happen between that point and actually going onto the DVD. Otherwise, the foreign language soundtracks would have the same drop-outs as the English soundtrack - and yet they don't .

Keep in mind that while the Def. Col. and Faces LD sets both come from the same masters, they are not the same transfers - CLV vs. CAV, the Def. Col. has much more "noise reduction" applied. You are discounting many important and rather obvious factors that can have an effect on the visual/audio between mastering and retail.

"I mean, we can rant and rave about Lowry oversaturating the color, but you gotta remember, the point of reference you seem to be using are old, out of date, washed out, overbright home video transfers."

That's rich. Rather than saying the DVD "home video transfer" is capable of being incorrect, your reasoning is that every single "home video transfer" prior to it has been incorrect? Apparently you don't feel that Lucas is capable of messing up the DVD in any extent compared to these other transfers? LOL.

"If they were perfectly fine with cutting anywhere from 15-40 percent of the picture off, why would you think they were completely faithful to the contrast and brightness levels?"

And then have the nerve to call it the "Definitive Collection"? Gee, I dunno. Apparently, it's impossible for LFL to make any mistakes this time... :roll eyes;

Sorry, but this "There's no reason for them not to get it perfect" reasoning discounts a great deal of known information, with no real proof, I might add.

"You're telling me "colors that couldn't exist in the real world" is a BAD thing in a movie consisting of EXPLOSIONS IN SPACE, LASER SWORDS and walking, talking ROBOTS?"

Please. Non-sequitir.

"Maybe the color isn't oversaturated..maybe you're simply too used to a washed out, desaturated picture to recognize brilliant color fidelity when you see it? That seems a lot more plausible."

So the DVD is fine, and these problems are all in our heads? Every DVD screencap I've seen on every forum shows blue push, and now you are telling me that this is because every person who has made a capture has had the blue push on their computer, rather than on the DVD itself? That's rather odd reasoning, considering that the more prevalent scenario of misadjusted tvs/monitors would be being too bright, and an overbright monitor would more likely show a red push...

If you have issues with the statements being made about the DVDs, you might want to post a little more corraborative evidence besides "you aren't really seeing what you are seeing." This is especially ironic considering the fact that the audio is screwed up on the DVDs. Missed that, didya?

"I thought the majority of the color correction was handled by Lowry, turns out a smaller portion of it was."

See what a difference a little research can do?

"trying to judge a DVD image by laserdisc standards is pretty ridiculous. No one stands around looking at Indy Jones and going "There's no way this movie looks like that. Look how COLORFUL it is. Look how GREEN those trees are. Why isn't everything more pale and washed out like my laserdiscs are?"

Perhaps they didn't make the same mistakes on Raiders as they did on ANH? Keep in mind that the lion's share of these comments are being made about ANH - the oldest of the films. The extent of damage and multiple restorations of this film over the years is quite well known. Hell, the SE's were a tremendous visual advantage over the Def. Col. and Faces set, and they don't show this blue push. I suppose you are going to say Lucas always wanted blue push in ANH, but never had the technology to create that until now?

BTW, if you really want to compare the process between ANH and Raiders, then the proof is in the pudding...
Over the years, Lowry Digital's computer algorithms have evolved from automating the removal of hundreds of pieces of dirt in a scene, to handling the 100,000 pieces of dirt in the Indiana Jones trilogy, to taking on the Star Wars trilogy which required automated and manual removal of up to a million pieces of dirt in scenes like R2-D2 and C-3PO's arrival on Tatooine in A New Hope.


Thousands versus millions. Hmmmmm. Mind you, this simply refers to the dirt clean-up. Shall we also get onto the subject of color fading as well? You don't think Paramount gave Lucas far better film to use on Raiders than he was originally given for Star Wars?

"You've got people in here pissing all over a phenomenal restoration because it doesn't look like a early 90's laserdisc transfer, and that's silly as hell. You've got people trying to convince others that a washed out, desaturated image of Chewie looking more GRAY than anything is closer to correct because "There's no way that shade of brown exists on earth.." Which is in and of itself a ludicrous statement."

Ah, so now the kernel of your own reasoning shows itself. Heaven forbid the LDs ultimately have a more faithful color rendition than the DVDs. It's not like LFL can make mistakes, right? Not like all the mistakes you claim they've apparently been making on all these transfers up until now, right?

"You are right, there are instances where different regions get different masters to press off of (DVDbeaver is a great site for showing this off) but in this case, all the discs WERE pressed up off of the exact same masters. Only the region coding and the menus changed."

PPOR, and again, there are many steps between masters and final product. Saying we can't be right because Lucas could never get it wrong is flat-out ridiculous. Back it up.
Post
#68339
Topic
A German thread / Krieg der Sterne auf deutsch
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68339/action/topic#68339
Time
"pls contact me,if there is any thing I can provide you with"

Check your PM's, soundtrackmaster.

"Don't slow down with Vegas... use BeSweet or GoldWave... I've done some PAL/NTSC-conversions with WaveLab, and those are pretty good too."

But in Vegas, I need to slow down and align the soundtrack with my existing video track. I'd rather do everything at once in Vegas.

"By the way, have you checked the IIP-plugin for AviSynth? Might be of help in creating a good looking anamorphic image from the letterbox source,"

I've never used AVISynth, and Vegas does it very simply.

"(Don't freak, it's Star Trek)."

I like the originals.
Post
#68269
Topic
Using the '04 SE DVD version to restore the Original (with lots of info)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68269/action/topic#68269
Time
"I did the Greedo scene. It so happened on my source, that I could take and delete from the first keyframe after "I'll bet you have" to the screen full of smoke, and it doesn't seem all that bad."

If I'm reading this correctly, you've eliminated the scene altogether?

Unacceptable! Wait 'til Rikter sends me the .VOB files. I'll put that scene right again.

"On our calibrated displays (and consumer displays, for that matter) the Tantive interior, for example, is extremely blue-shifted."

I've been noticing that as well. What the hell happened to THX standards? Is this another "Highlander"? LOL

"Today we created the new title crawl by seamlessly combining the title card from an alternate language with the English language crawl. Fortunately, the background elements were identical, pixel for pixel, so creating a composite was no problem."

I intend to recreate the original pre-ANH crawl with elements from the crawl in "Empire of Dreams".