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Moth3r

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Join date
26-Oct-2004
Last activity
16-Jul-2017
Posts
4,892

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Post
#269357
Topic
Info Wanted: Panasonic LD player for doing my preservation project?
Time
From everything I've read, sometimes a particular manufacturer dominates a particular market. For laserdisc players, it was Pioneer.

Similarly, if you're looking for a VHS deck (pro or consumer) then you shouldn't consider anything other than Panasonic or JVC.

Then there's the Technics SL1210 - the industry standard DJ turntable, and the Shure SM58 is the most popular vocal microphone. But I digress...
Post
#269348
Topic
23.976 FPS to 25 FPS pulldown
Time
In answer to your actual question - can you encode something at 720x576 progressive 23.976fps, insert pulldown flags to make it 25fps on playback, and expect it to play on a DVD player - I've no idea.

However, I just wanted to add that the 1991(?) PAL VHS releases of Star Wars had something like this hard-coded into the video. Russ noticed the longer running time on the cover, and I had a look at a sample of his capture. Yes the pitch was correct - but the video was mess of interlaced frames and blended fields.
Post
#269345
Topic
Notes on converting Building Empire from PAL to NTSC
Time
I can't be sure about Building Empire because I don't know exactly what Jambe did with the audio sources.

However, the subject of pitch correction was discussed at length around the time my DVDs were released. Citizen first pointed it out to me, and I noticed it when I compared the recording of the ANH mono mix - taken from a PAL TV broadcast and had not been pitch corrected - with the VHS source I used in the laserdisc transfer.
See:
http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=1545&STARTPAGE=12
http://www.originaltrilogy.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=9&threadid=2900&STARTPAGE=2

So the parts of Building Empire that are taken from my laserdisc transfer have the correct pitch.

The most reliable way to confirm if the pitch increase is there or not - for those of us who don't have "perfect pitch" - is to carry out a listening test on two samples (I find it's more noticable in music than dialogue).
Post
#269176
Topic
Notes on converting Building Empire from PAL to NTSC
Time
As I recall, the main parts of Building Empire were created using a combination of the 2004 PAL DVD and my laserdisc transfer.

Now I know that the audio used on my laserdisc transfer was already pitch-corrected to account for the PAL speedup. That is, even though the audio played at PAL speed, it played at the original - correct - pitch. (I don't know for certain if this is also the case with the 2004 DVD, but I should carry out a quick side-by-side listen to find out).

Anyway, if this audio is resampled down to play at NTSC speed, it will need to be pitch shifted up in order to retain the correct pitch (time stretching).

Alternatively, you could use DGPulldown's 25fps to 29.97fps conversion and leave the audio untouched (which I believe was the method boon used for RtJ).
Post
#268652
Topic
Burning in subtitles - quick HOWTO?
Time
Originally posted by: Goose
Will this work with the AVISynth scripting function in DVDRebuilder Pro (I have been using this programme to resize the letterbox GOUT movies to 16:9), ie. without any extra plugins over and above a standard AVISynth installation? Yes, the subtitle filter is internal to AVISynth (http://avisynth.org/index.php?page=Subtitle).

Originally posted by: Goose
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but the line "It's too late" is missing from Greedo's subs on the PAL retail GOUT discs- yet another disappointment from this release. hadn't noticed that - I'll add it to the thread on the 2006 DVD problems.

Originally posted by: Goose
I have tried adding player-generated subs to correct this, but as Squirrel points out above, they generally look poor. Did you find the AVISynth craeted subs to be good quality?
You can adjust the font, size, colour and halo colour to your preference. Also, the text is anti-aliased to reduce the jaggy/blocky appearance.

Originally posted by: Goose
Finally, what is the correct format for entering the frame numbers in this script?
The subtitle is displayed on all frames between the first number and the second number. For example, the first subtitle appears on frames 71018 to 71056 inclusive. Open your AVS file into VirtualDubMod or AvsP to adjust the values.
Post
#268495
Topic
Burning in subtitles - quick HOWTO?
Time
If it's for just a few lines, you can use the subtitle function in AVISynth and type the text in manually.

Example for ANH (this was from my laserdisc transfer, you will need to change the frame numbers to sync with the DVD):

subtitle ("Going somewhere, Solo?",-1,470,71018,71056,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("It's too late.",-1,470,71184,71223,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("You should have paid him when you had the chance.",-1,470,71231,71289,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("Jabba's put a price on your head so large...",-1,470,71299,71370,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("...every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you.",-1,470,71376,71443,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("I'm lucky I found you first.",-1,470,71457,71495,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("If you give it to me, I might forget I found you.",-1,470,71561,71640,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("Jabba's through with you.",-1,470,71724,71764,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("He has no time for smugglers who drop their shipments...",-1,470,71795,71882,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("...at the first sign of an Imperial cruiser.",-1,470,71887,71926,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("You can tell that to Jabba. He may only take your ship.",-1,470,72015,72106,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("That's the idea.",-1,470,72163,72189,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)
subtitle ("I've been looking forward to this for a long time.",-1,470,72203,72287,"FranklinGotTDemCon",32,$ffffff)

You may adjust the font, size, colour and positioning to your taste (and replace ' with ’ where appropriate).

For subtitles in a separate file, get VSFilter and use the plugin for AVISynth or VirtualDub.
Post
#268489
Topic
Sky HD Broadcasts in the UK
Time
The fact that these HD captures appear on Usenet demonstrates that it is possible to capture them.

I don't know how it's done, and the people who do know how it's done are unlikely to tell you (decryption methods for digital satellite are not generally discussed in open forums). I believe it used to be possible to capture Sky Digital using certain DVB-S cards to which you could attach a conditional access module (CAM) emulator.

What I'm basically saying is that if you do want to go ahead with this, be prepared to spend a lot of time carrying out difficult research, and a lot of money on specialist hardware. Good luck!

Post
#267766
Topic
***The "Darth Editous" Episode IV DVD Info and Feedback Thread*** - a partially "de-specialed" DVD
Time
Happy to report that the Xvid played on my standalone player with no problems - I was wondering because the file had a non-mod16 height, and was also encoded with a packed bitstream. (Gotta love Xvids, took 10 minutes to download, 5 minutes to burn on DVD+RW and I was ready to go! Going to get a 2GB SD card for next time, then I don't need to mess about burning discs.)

DRF-analyzer reports an average DRF of just over 4, which is ever-so-slightly on the high side. For a 1-CD rip, using a lower resolution such as 608 x 256 might have reduced the appearance of compression artefacts (at the expense of a reduction in fine detail, of course). However, it looks nicer when viewed on a CRT TV, which is more forgiving than an LCD display.

I love the little fixes - the receding view of the Star Destroyer through the escape pod porthole, the Death Star graphic during the rebel briefing. These are the things GL should have concentrated on, instead of adding puerile CGI slapstick. The Han-shooting-Greedo shot was a bit clumsy in version 1, this time it's much improved and flows really well.

Congratulations DE for making a watchable Special Edition!

Post
#267584
Topic
Concerning Fan Edits
Time
I'd like to add that negative feedback is just as valuable as positive.

If you found something a disappointment, or thought it just didn't work, then let the creator know by posting a - constructive - comment in the relevant thread. Such comments should provide a motivation for editors to improve on things with the next edit they attempt.

Unfortunately, too many people are reluctant to post negative comments for fear that the creator will "take it personally" (and yes, there are a couple of members I can think of who may take this attitude). Perhaps the facility to post anonymous comments would be useful in the new software.
Post
#267248
Topic
Good capture card?
Time
Although it's a nice idea, in reality such a comparison wouldn't really be practical. I don't know of any devices that are able to capture in raw, DV and MPEG-2, and if you use different devices for comparison then the result might be influenced by the performance of the hardware itself rather than the compression.

A suitable demonstration I suppose would be to capture uncompressed using a PCI capture card, and then encode the same uncompressed source to various different formats.

I might have a go at this in the futurer. The MPEG-2 encodes would obviously have to be CBR.

PNG (lossless) would be the best format for screenshots.
Post
#267201
Topic
Good-Bye
Time
Originally posted by: StarTrooper3000
WHAT?! Why in the world are you saying yay?? This person left because they were feeling insulted! Probably from people like you! WTH. And you're a forum moderator? Or is that some name you made up?
This Ingo Sucks/Zigfried kid has been a constant thorn in our sides since he first registered.
Post
#266622
Topic
Updated forum rules regarding fan edits and preservation efforts: a must-read for everyone.
Time
We don't "police" files/data that may be found elsewhere on the internet, nor do we monitor private message or email correspondence between members. The obligation to own the retail release rests entirely with you.

That said, anyone clearly and publicly flouting this rule will be subject to action from the forum moderators.
Post
#266406
Topic
New Computer
Time
A few ideas spring to mind:
Have you connected the power (molex plug from the PS) to the drives as well as the IDE cable?
How many drives, how many IDE channels and have you got the master/slave configuration correct?
Isolate the drive causing the problem; start by connecting one hard drive first, if the computer boots, turn off and add another drive until it fails to boot up.
Post
#266080
Topic
//RETURNING TO JEDI\\: NTSC & PAL DVD
Time
Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar<brThanks for the advice Moth3r, I will see what I can do. Any help would be appreciated.
I suppose it depends on where the majority of the footage is sourced from. If it's mostly from the DVD, my preference would be to deinterlace any field-based footage (from TV broadcasts, video camera, etc.) and encode the whole thing as progressive.
Post
#266064
Topic
//RETURNING TO JEDI\\: NTSC &amp; PAL DVD
Time
Jambe, there was one very, very minor issue with Building Empire that, if applicable, I would suggest you do differently in RtJ. At points where you put "scrolling" subtitles under footage from the DVD, the subtitles suffered from interlacing artefacts, because they were done as field based, rather than frame based to match the DVD footage.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9171/subsub7.th.jpg
CLICK FOR FULL SIZE

Not a big issue at all, but I'm just thinking of possible complications for those who may want to do an NTSC conversion in the future.
Post
#266043
Topic
Colour matching for fan edits
Time
I don't know what you fixed, it wasn't the error I spotted!
Originally posted by: Laserman
20 LET q$=8 <--- The number 8 is not a string. (It would be correct to put q$="8", however based on the next line it's obvious it should be qf=8)
30 FOR n=1 TO qf/2 1 <--- Should this be qf/2-1?
This program originally appeared in the orange manual that was shipped with the first rubber-keyed Spectrums. I've still got mine somewhere - don't make me break it out!

Anyway, wonder if GW-BASIC would work on a Windows-based PC?