NeverarGreat

Thanks! Yeah, the shadows are trouble. I experimented with pulling up the black level, but that caused more problems than it solved, and the convolution kernel idea simply increased blurriness. Despecialized 2.1 (the version I have for reference) seems to have gotten a bit more detail in the shadows than I've been able to do, how did you manage that? When I view the superblacks in speedgrade I see a bunch of information down there just like in the superwhites, but I'm at a loss as to how to bring this back up.

Thoughts?

Brooks said:

I just saw this thread today, I haven't had a chance to read the previous 30 pages yet.  Is this something that can be applied to still photos in photoshop?  I looked at your samples and I'm intrigued.  I have a ton of old negatives that I've scanned and I'm curious if this technique will work.  Keep up the great work!  -Brooks

As I understand it, this technique works by combining detail from surrounding frames, so no, not really.

Hello again after...(checks calendar)...7 months!

There's been progress, unfortunately not too much. I'm halfway through the film, but I'm continually learning and making improvements to my technique along the way. On that note, I have taken advantage of the 30 day trial of Adobe Speedgrade and made a LUT! It has about a dozen secondary color adjustments within it, fixing most of the global problems with the blu-ray in a single convenient package. I use the Luther.LUT with a curves adjustment before and after it in Premiere Pro. The first curves adjustment brings the highlights in the Superwhites down to legal levels, then the LUT is applied and then the final adjustment brings the highlights back up to proper levels. The good news is that there's more highlight information than I originally thought, and it's easily accessible with the curves adjustment. Here's the LUT file for those of you who want to experiment:

https://mega.nz/#!ndMg1Q4S!ro5BIbfxhJMyrjcMTGzHrD0ZYT8PmhvBlTPPJf-3XvQ

And some comparisons showing it in action with the curves adjustment:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/130898/picture:0

One of the issues in the Blu-ray is that some of the mid-highlights are shifted green, whereas other areas in this region are shifted red. I've done my best to normalize these shifts which are clearly visible in the Tantive corridors. The oversaturated magentas are now within manageable levels, and the red lights in the last comparison which were blown out have been brought down a bit throughout the film.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/130901/picture:0

Here you can see the color shifts in the highlights, specifically in the stormtrooper helmet vs body and in the lights beside the door, which have been normalized and brought back down to legal limits. In the next comparison, the blues which had been boosted in the Blu-ray have been brought back down, and finally the oversaturation in the greens of the final shot has been dealt with somewhat.

I'm definitely using this LUT going forward, and perhaps even going backward to apply it to some of the first reel.

So again, sorry about the apparent lack of progress, but there's a whole lot going on right now behind the scenes, mostly work correcting the HUNDREDS of places in the Blu-ray where colors are simply gone and I need to pull color information from other sources entirely.

The work continues!

Based on what I've seen, the Blu-ray is at least free from warping and has good aspect ratio. Compared to Team Blu's '97 edition, the blu-ray, and other 35mm frames (which pretty much agree with each other), the GOUT is the odd man out in terms of image warping, although it is a pretty good match in terms of cropping. It has a very unusual warping pattern that very tricky to reconcile with the blu-ray (believe me, I've tried), so you would need some advanced distortion controls to fix it. If that could be fixed however, that would make it the go-to version for me at least ;)

I wonder if it would be more productive to list the essential styles, techniques, genres, eras, and directors in film and then provide a list of films for each category that are considered the standouts in that category. That would allow people more freedom in choosing what they're interested in seeing.

Those latest images are really excellent. One thing I noticed though, particularly in the final two images, is that objects in motion tend to lose their detail, such as Luke's hair as it is moved by the wind, and some detail on the speeder in the last comparison.

DominicCobb said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) -- C

12 Years a Slave (2013) -- B

Superman (1978) -- C-

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) -- C

 You asshole.

 That's a fair rating for Close Encounters IMO. But Superman is better than a C-

Yeah, what was that about?

It looks just marvelous!

Tobar said:

Uh, Frink?

 That was wonderful.

Any chance we could get some screenshot comparisons with a simple 1080 upscale of the original? The download is taking quite a while for me at least.

I'm in the camp of thinking that anyone in the Star Wars universe can have power in the Force, but there are different way in which it can be gained. The Jedi can gain power in the force through their Yogic practices and the Sith can gain it quickly through these same practices plus an aggressive mindset. In my personal view, nobody is born with ability in the Force. Aside from being a pretty good pilot, Luke had no special Force abilities until Ben began training him, and Leia didn't have them until Luke suggested the possibility. Genetics may predispose someone to being more suggestive to the Jedi's training regimen, but that is about where genetics ends for me in being the basis for Force sensitivity.

I believe that some people in the Star Wars universe (Rebels) see the Force as a sort of sentience, a Godlike power if you will, that people can gain by fighting for a just cause, which is why the rebel commanders will say 'may the Force be with you'. Whether or not that aspect of the Force actually exists in this universe is up for interpretation.

Post Praetorian said:

So here is a philosophical consideration to be shared...if one were to determine that one's existence in the world were actually a detriment to one's own entourage, while equally considering that one's absence might pose a different problem of similar magnitude is it more noble to stay the course or abandon ship...?

For example, if one were to discover that one was an insatiable gambler whose persistent existence could only ruin normal familial stability, while at the same time recognize that one's absence would allow for one's newborn child to grow up without a close paternal figure is it preferable to cede to the demands of the present or to linger still further to accomplish the goals of a future tense?

To clarify, in the above scenario there can be no realistic thought of a cure for the disease in question and no real doubt as to the eventual discord with which the child might grow to view the one who lingered on seemingly for his/her sole benefit...thus given that both paths end in pain is it best to cut it to the quick so that it might be swiftly done, but be long in duration; or is it preferable to allow this given harm to fester, however allowing that any eventual parting might be considered more of a final blessing than a curse...?

Having known an insatiable gambler who left his children behind with a premeditated exit from this world, I'd say that it would be better to linger, for the other option is an admission to the world that the sufferer felt completely trapped , worthless, and powerless to change his situation. Whether or not the world truly is deterministic, or whether or not he could better himself in time, seems to be beside the point. It's belief in oneself that is important, the belief that one is essentially good and has the humility to recognize that they can't know the outcome of every situation, no matter how hopeless it seems. Acting to cut life short, or to artificially prolong it beyond the will of the flesh itself, tends towards selfishness and hubris.

I don't know that it would be entirely fruitless. Any remake of the prequels would soundly knock them off the pedestal of being the 'definitive' prequel story.

I wandered for a long time through many outlines for my prequel rewrites, from Flash Gordon-y serial shlock to dark psychological thriller, and even explored the idea of creating an entirely new cast of characters for the prequels and having the OT characters sidelined or eliminated. I think I was searching for the 'best' prequel story possible, but it's impossible to know if you have the 'best' story out of endless possibilities. For some people, the best prequel story would focus on Anakin as the protagonist, for others, Obi-wan would be the natural choice, and for still others, neither should make substantial appearance.

I think that the ability for the OT to unleash such power of imagination is its greatest strength, and any definitive prequel story would only diminish this ability by replacing wonder with definition and dogma, much as the EU and the Lucas Prequels have done to the story. In this way the OT is a work of art in that it is highly interpretive, with a single statement or turn of phrase in the films creating enormous realms of possibility.

So in answer to your question, I don't think people will ever come together to decide upon a single best prequel story, at least not while the story is still centered around characters from the OT, for the simple reason that everyone has a different interpretation of those characters. Same with the Star Wars galaxy itself. Everyone has some idea of what happened in the Clone Wars, and it's all somewhat different to each person. Perhaps having the PT take place much further in the past, and creating a story that is essentially a new take on Star Wars, not relying on anything in the OT, would allow it to stand alone and generate its own universe of interpretations and possibilities. When someone does that, with a cast of characters that is as interesting and timeless as the ones in the OT, then I'll be on board.

towne32 said:

NeverarGreat said:

Eh, at that point in AOTC I simply didn't care what was onscreen as my eyes were already bleeding from seeing Yoda bounce around as a cartoon.

 KFTFY

 Haha thanks!

Yeah, I didn't get the chariot angle of the podracers until recently, and it lessens them. Why not just have the engines connected by something less dangerous than an energy beam that will immediately fail when the power is cut and cause them to rocket off in all directions?

Looking at the Naboo starfighter, it ALMOST makes sense to have the astromech installed sideways, so that the legs don't add bulk to the ship. But for that to work without the telescoping head weirdness it would need to sit somewhat lower in the socket.

Agreed that the Droidekas were an excellent design, as well as most of the Phantom Menace machines, simply because they didn't look horribly CGed.

One of the weirdest ships from a design standpoint was Dooku's solar sailer. How exactly is that supposed to work? It seems to use conventional methods to exit a planet's atmosphere, but then it deploys a solar sail and....what? Goes to Hyperspace? Accelerates by the use of solar energy to FASTER than the speed of light? To make the trip from the outer rim to the core of the galaxy, I'd expect that it would need to make use of hyperspace, so the sails are rather useless in that regard. Eh, at that point in AOTC I simply didn't care what was onscreen as my eyes were already bleeding from seeing Yoda bounce around like a cartoon.

DrDre said:

Hey funny, I was just looking at that screenshot for my project:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128709

It looks like the laserdiscs have far less of a problem with haloing artifacts than the GOUT, albeit with a significant drop in detail. I really think there could be a best of both worlds project in here somewhere.

TV's Frink said:

Also, that was a 15 second video stretched out to almost two minutes because who knows why.

Because it's inexplicably hilarious.

Besides, I'm sure that you have NEVER in ANY of your projects padded a joke so far that it collapsed under its own bloated weight.

It looks like the opening of the film is particularly bad with aliasing problems, compared to the rest of it. Would it be beneficial to double down on just the tantive sequences and leave the rest as it is?

Very excellent results by the way.

SilverWook said:

Thanks to a time warp, I actually saw Episode 11 that day. ;)

I was lucky enough to see the original Star Wars on that day ;)

I tried to get the hallway as close to neutral as possible, but perhaps it needs to go a bit warmer in the shadows: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/128125

In any case, -1 will have much more control with the full quality scans, I just wanted to get a rough idea of what was possible. It looks like the reds are boosted around the edges of the frame somewhat, but other than that, it's in pretty good shape, all things considered.

I love how you placed it in the 'animals' category on dailymotion ;)

Also, here's a quick curves adjustment to a screengrab of the video to see what colors can be pulled out: http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127994

MrPib said:

poita said:

Woah, what happened here?

Apparently some vandals drew big red circles on the frames.

But seriously, that's strange. Is it the cleaning software that's at fault?

DrDre said:

Oke, super resolution v9 will have reduced aliasing. I have found an antialiasing filter that reduces the aliasing compared to the raw GOUT and leaves the detail intact. The differences will be subtle, but noticeable.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/127758

Well done indeed! It seems to be just strong enough to deal with the problem areas without compromising detail. Now if only there was a way to get rid of those pesky ringing artifacts, this would be just about perfect!