Harmy, this extraordinary....wow. These notices about what you've done are glowing. Can't imagine how it makes you feel.
Glad you're getting the credit you deserve on this. Very, very well done. No matter what Disney does in the future, man you're part of Star Wars history now. Congrats.
Harmy is a genius. ;)
hairy_hen, actually, while "reverberating" is not the word I'd use, I thought I did pick up (on the 5.1 track) some clipping and distortion during parts of the Hoth battle and in particular during the Luke/Vader duel. I hadn't mentioned it before now, mainly out of laziness b/c I thought someone else would.
In any event, I could be be wrong, but I have a pretty decent 5.1 system, and I'm pretty sure there was something going on there at the higher end during some laster blasts/explosions and lightsaber clashes I hadn't heard before (it was only on a few occassions). Then again, it may be nothing. I'll try to check it out tonight and get back to you with some exact timestamps.
Thanks for your amazing work on these tracks, BTW. To me these audio restorations are at least as valuable as the video, and I've been blown away by how good they sound.
Harmy, just an FYI, the "1980's voiceover" and "2004 voiceover" are not flagged as Russian/Ukrainian (tracks 17 & 18 respectively). Not a big deal, they are named correctly, but the language flag isn't there.
Harmy said:
@Nick66: The '93 track isn't missing, it's just not named - all you need to do, is open the MKV in MKV Merge and put "2.0 Dolby Digital (1993 LD mix)" in the description of track 5 and set its language to English.
Beautiful, thanks...I was planning on running it through MKV Merge to remove some of the language tracks I wasn't interested in anyway. I'll also rename the DTS track.
Harmy, for doing this....well, you know.
Well damn, I've already downloaded the MKV.
So I can just edit the info w/MKV merge?
Harmy said:
The v2.0 MKV is now available from tehparadox! Info added to the first post.
At long last! This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of the bastardised ESB, it will soon see the end of the butchered ROTJ.
Now, if someone can only upload this beauty to Myspleen...
Harmy that .nfo makes me want to cry.
Harmy said:
See, that's why I need a few more sets of eyes on it! Thanks!
Thank you Harmy!
Harmy, am I missing something? Your NFO above references the 7.9 GB AVCHD .iso.
This is supposed to be for the MKV, right?
digitalfreaknyc said:
davextreme said:
Do we/should we have an official nominee to submit the .mkv to MySpleen? My home upload speed isn't the greatest so I'm probably not the best candidate, but I wanted to bring up the subject.
I'm happy to do it. I have an account there.
Thank you! I've been waiting for the MKV to be finished and up on MySpleen...hard not to give in and grab the .iso, but I think the crazy bit rate will be worth the wait.
TV's Frink said: What a person does with their own end should always be their choice.
What kind of sick comment is that?
This is a family site. :)
Harmy, you are a national treasure for this. And this isn't hyperboyl on my part. As far as I'm concerned, you're a film preservationist (well, a digital preservationist anyway). I can't imagine the amount of time and money you've put into this project for zero financial reward...just to preserve part of our cinematic heritage. Honestly, even if Disney does eventually release the OT in its original form on BD (which I suspect they will), I'm doubtful they'd go through the meticulous colour correction, etc. with the love and attention to detail that you have. Seriously, if anyone (meaning, a fan)has ever done anything like you've done done with these films in the history of cinema, I haven't heard about it.
When can we expect it? And will be on MySpleen, ala your other releases?
Where can I download the CapableMetal/Doombot/JetrellFo DTS mix? I'm only interested in the audio file, and would like to synch it to my existing MKV of the BD.
kk650 said:
In terms of colour though, this 4k remaster is a totally different animal to the theatrical blu-ray, most scenes have been regraded very differently by Peter Jackson and Andrew Lesnie.
I have simply removed the blanket green tint and corrected the messed up image dynamics of the official blu-ray, not tried to recreate the colour grading of the theatrical blu-ray. Doing that would require a shot by shot regrade that I simply don't have the time to do.
Thanks, makes sense.
DragoonClawNZ said:
Thanks for that, Nick66. Was wondering if anyone had reuploaded it yet.
Do you have any idea about the origin of the DTS track on this file? I wonder if it's DTS core of the version CapableMetal, Doombot and JetrellFo created (that's also on KK650's version) or if someone has simply created a DTS version of the existing Dolby TrueHD track.
I think this 1080i HDTV version is a good resource for someone looking for the DVD/theatrical colour timing, but it's definitely compromised with the aspect ratio and loss of fine grain and detail.
Add me as another vote for the desaturated version.
A request...any chance that you can include screenshots from the EE DVD and TE BD to compare against the existing EE BD and your regraded version? Since the idea is presumably to bring this fine film in its extended edition as close as possible to the colours in its theatrical, green-tintless counterpart as possible, I'd think that comparisons to the EE DVD and TE BD might be useful. Just a thought.
Hmmm.
There's currently a 16.95gb 1080i HDTV version of the Matrix on rutracker that I haven't seen anyone mention here. The 16:9 presentation is clearly not the BD colour timing, and interestingly has a six channel 1510 kbps DTS English audio track (along with several AC3 Russian tracks), whose source I'm not aware of.
It looks pretty good, though some detail has been lost vs. the BD.
kk650 said:
A new fellowship of the ring regrade where i've taken a completely different approach to my previous release, very closely matching the image dynamics of the theatrical blu-ray and hdtv transport stream, will be coming out tomorrow. It has a lot more visible shadow detail than the previous release like the theatrical blu-ray and makes the daylight shots in Hobbiton brighter like they were on the theatrical blu-ray. Should be interesting to see what everybody thinks.
Oh, this is great to hear...I actually just posted my thoughts on your existing (25gb) attempt at tackling the FOTR green tint issue here.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with this time, and glad to read it should be closer to the theatrical. Will it be another 25gb version? (hopefully).
Thanks for doing these!
As it is one of my favourite films, I've been looking for a re-graded FOTR EE for quite some time, and recently have been able to watch KK650's attempts to remove the awful green tint.
Let me say that I think it's a fantastic effort, and I appreciate anyone who undertakes this project. And to my eyes, it is a definite improvement, and more pleasing viewing experience, over the existing BD image.
That said, speaking personally, this version doesn't quite get to what I'm looking for, which is something that matches the theatrical grading, or at least the grading in the theatrical BD. With KK650's version we've lost the green tint (mostly), but seem to have traded it for blue. The result to my eyes is a colder image, especially in the snow scenes (which is fine and appropriate), but not really any closer to the the theatrical grading. We've essentially just switched one (supposedly) artistic preference for how this film should look with another. But perhaps that was his intention, rather than actually trying to recreate the theatrical/BD grading, so these comments should be regarded as an observation, not a criticism of the work.
Again, I do believe what KK650 has done is a very definite improvement (and thanks for taking the time and effort), but that's just a personal preference on my part. For a definitive version of this amazing film that brings us closer to to the theatrical experience, I'll just have to continue to look.
Harmy said:
Well, if all goes well, I should be able to get through the worst school stuff by March or April, so that's when I could start doing some more work on ESB and ROTJ and if I stick to my original plan v2.0s could be done in a matter of a month or two. Those would be far superior to the v1.0s in that they'd be sourced from the BDs and have better encoding, color correction and a bit more despecialization and then I could take my sweet time working on v2.5s, knowing that that there are already the v2.0 versions out there, which are at least on the same level of picture quality as the latest version of Star Wars. But I can't really make any promises.
What are the current 1.0's of ESB and ROTJ sourced from?
GOUT + HDTV?
CatBus said:
Verrry doubtful. Every few weeks on AVS somebody claims to have somehow gotten a Blu-ray without the green tint. The difference is not in the video, it's in the viewer's ability to discern the problem. I'm nearly positive it's the same "difference" with the iTunes version.
Perhaps you are correct. I'm travelling, and won't have a chance to download and watch the iTunes version until next week. But as I'm very familiar with FOTR, and the green tint problem (which is very apparent to me), and rest assured if it's there I'll recognise it, I know what I'm looking for. And if it's not there, well so much the better. Anyway, I'll post caps here once I've downloaded it...though if someone else has the iTunes version, or first hand info on the colour timing, I'd love to hear about it before I buy.
I know there are HDTV caps of FOTR floating around w/o the awful green tint, and while the colours are warmer and seem to match the theatrical presentation, unfortunately the video quality looks to be nothing more than an upscale of the DVD. It's my favourite of the LOTR films, and I'd really love to see a corrected version of this, because I don't believe for a second this is intentional. I have no doubt Jackson wanted to change the colour timing, and even make it look more green, but someone along the production lines just f**ked this up and no one wants to admit it.
Harmy said:
Maybe some flaw in the transferring process then? Because I will not believe for a second that the original color timing could have been this pink.
I'm not so sure.
Caveat: I'm usually pretty skeptical when people say they can remember the colours on a film they saw decades ago. Having said that, I did see Empire more than once in the theatre on its original release, and my sense is that there was more pink than what you see in most modern presentations of this film. I'm not saying it was to the extent it it is in these images (and they look pretty damn pink), but I suspect these aren't that far off. Though I almost want them to be off, because I don't like Empire looking this way, even if it is closer to the theatric presentation. But sad to say, these shots do ring true with me to what I saw.
Again, you're free to greet this with skepticism, I know I would. Im not saying my memory is dispositive, or presenting it as evidence, just that this fits what I remember (albeit in a non-specific way) seeing in the theatre more than contemporary Empire releases do.
CatBus said:
IIRC all 1.0 editions were primarily sourced on a 720p HDTV SE capture. 2.0 switches that to BD. Both are 720p HD.
That's what I suspected. Thanks much!
guiser said:
Nick66 said:
chyron8472 said:
1978.
Believe it or not, my earliest memories of Star Wars are listening to the Return of the Jedi Read-Along Book and Tape. :)
Actually, I used to love the "Story of Star Wars" LP myself. :)
And the black bars you recall during the throne room scene could have still been a P&S version. Unless I'm mistaken (and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am), some of the old P&S videocassettes switched to "widescreen" in the final moments of the film, just before the credits. I once knew the technical reason for this, but I've forgotten it. Though I do remember something like that happening in many old VHS films, not just SW.
I always thought it was so they could show the credits at full width without having to stretch them vertically (or re-create them in the narrow P&S format)?
I believe you are correct.