PJ

Hello everyone.

I figured since it’s been a hot minute that I should update you all. I want to stress that I have not forgotten about this project or any other ones you may be following of mine. I’ve recently revisited them and continued work on them. I’ve been finding new techniques to not only color grade better, but improve color accuracy when it comes to matching the blu ray footage to the laserdisc Master. I’ve also been revisiting Dre’s Color Match Tool and it’s been a lot more helpful than my first attempts. That, and it finally is compatible with my laptop’s version of Mac OS X

With that said, I have been thinking about a potential upgrade to my regrade projects. Primarily the ones using the 4k Disney releases. I wanted to know if there’s anyone who would be interested in making a 4K HDR version of my regrade. I understand that isn’t the easiest thing to do, but there’s some people on this site that do it like it’s nothing. I would do it myself, but I don’t have the equipment or money to feasibly do that.

Until then, I’ll catch you all later and update the project with samples.

Hello everyone.

I figured since it’s been a hot minute that I should update you all. I want to stress that I have not forgotten about this project or any other ones you may be following of mine. I’ve recently revisited them and continued work on them. I’ve been finding new techniques to not only color grade better, but improve color accuracy when it comes to matching the blu ray footage to sanjuro’s 4K77 grade. I’ve also been revisiting Dre’s Color Match Tool and it’s been a lot more helpful than my first attempts. That, and it finally is compatible with my laptop’s version of Mac OS X

With that said, I have been thinking about a potential upgrade to my regrade projects. Primarily the ones using the 4k Disney releases. I wanted to know if there’s anyone who would be interested in making a 4K HDR version of my regrade. I understand that isn’t the easiest thing to do, but there’s some people on this site that do it like it’s nothing. I would do it myself, but I don’t have the equipment or money to feasibly do that.

Until then, I’ll catch you all later and update the project with samples.

Hey everybody!

I am so so so so sorry for not saying this earlier, but I have a more recent version of the project available for download. It’s sitting at version 2.6. PM me for a link.

Here’s some scene samples!

https://youtu.be/Z0iuCNp-yZo

https://youtu.be/QwkGYYpaMsU

Venny said:

Hey uhhh those movies already have higher quality 1080p Web-DLs. All the movies got new HD remasters from Toei in 2018
https://mei.animebytes.tv/urIYVRgsei0.png
https://mei.animebytes.tv/QVLwnvFdQrL.png
https://mei.animebytes.tv/1d83c38eff7be4312a224a0a47426b4ec29b7e32ad6eb0e5272d0020eb72683b.png

Interesting. I didn’t even know Toei did newer remasters. Given what little I’ve been able to read online, others seem to be in the same boat. Typical of Funimation not releasing proper releases done by them.

Comparing the Dragon Box masters to the ones you’re talking about, the remasters definitley look higher quality…except for Coolers Revenge. Colors are odd and the picture looks weirdly sharpened. Perhaps this is another master from them that is different from the screenshot you linked, but frankly finding information on newer Toei remasters is surprisingly scarce. Any other info such as direct links you have would be nice.

Regardless, this is also just a means for people to experience what the Dragon Box masters have to offer but in HD. In regards to colors, grain or detail, really can’t tell how similar the newer remasters are to say whether you get the same experience but in better quality with those newer blurays if that’s what you’re getting at.

I recently completed upscale projects with three of my favorite DBZ movies, that being Cooler’s Revenge, Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan, and Fusion Reborn. The source footage comes from the highly sought after Dragon Box releases that are the most true to form video masters of the show and the films. They are each presented in 1080p in there original theatrical aspect ratios.

I accomplished the upscaling by using several avisynth filters, such as NNEDI3 and aWarpSharp2. I also made sure to use color matrix adjustments to make sure color shifting didn’t occur. The image quality is noticeably sharper while still looking natural. I didn’t want to go too overboard with sharpening. People who are more familiar with Funimation’s remastering attempts may say this is as softer, but much like the original Dragon Box treatments, this isn’t meant to a complete digital overhaul. Comparing the upscaled footage to the original SD source, the grain structure is preserved as well.

Included with these upscales are multiple audio track options that include each major dub and remastered soundmix, such as:

-Original 2.0 Japanese
-Original Funimation Dolby Digital 5.1 English tracks from the standalone DVD sets
-Remastered Funimation 5.1 English tracks with US soundtrack from the Blu Ray releases (using the Dolby Digtal core audio)
-Remastered Funimation 5.1 English tracks with Japanese soundtrack from the Blu Ray releases (using the Dolby Digtal core audio)
-Big Green Dub tracks (with the exception of Fusion Reborn)
-Speedy dub tracks

PM me if interested in checking these out.

Source used: Pendekar’s lossless Dragon Box Movie rips

Hello everyone.

Figured I’d give an update to the project. I’m currently color matching more of the blu ray to sanjuro’s 4k77 grade, but still have a ways to go. It’s going to be closer than previously due to having an improved color workflow. Dre’s color matcher was helpful, but it could only help so much. I was also limited at the time due to using Adobe Premiere rather than what I use now, Davinci Resolve. That and for as embarrassed as I am to admit it, the LUTS I generated for color matching are gone due to the drive I was working on crap out on me and not backing anything up. I’ve since taken better precautions to prevent that from happening in the future, but I’m still disappointed in myself for allowing that to happen.

On the brightside, using resolve has helped in getting the color matching to be even closer to Sanjuro’s grade and frankly takes WAY less time than exporting snapshots, cropping them to match perfectly, exporting the cropped shots, running them through Dre’s color matcher, and then bring the exported LUT into premiere (if the LUT even looks right to begin with). Resolve offers the kind of precision I need for this project. I’m planning on putting out a version 2.7 where a majority of the film is color matched and the remaining footage is “sort of close” color matched. Version 3 will eventually happen, but considering my commitments outside of fan edits as well as wanting to put some more focus on 1997 regrades of ESB and ROTJ, that will come later. Version 2.7 will also have the Authentic and Semi-Authentic options I hap previously mentioned. It will also include the Dolby TrueHD mixdown I was working awhile back.

I’ll have some sample clips up rather soon, so stay tuned.

jadenkorr41 said:

I’m surprised I haven’t found this thread earlier. I can help with the upscaling of the extra Rotj extended duel footage. I’m too inexperienced and unable to clean old footage, but can run topaz though.

Can u pm me a clip and I’ll be more than happy to give it a shot

Sure! I’ll try uploading a clip to my cloud server and send it when I have the time. I’ve been real busy with work lately as well as focusing on other projects, but I’d like to return to this one and get it finished.

Here’s another clip! I’ve been a little absent from working on the project, but I’m back at it.
https://youtu.be/9Zj_pclqc-w

Ladies and gentlemen, version 1 is released.

Check the original post for an update on what I’ll need to tweak for version 2.

For those of you interested, I have rendered a rough preview of the regrade. I figured because of how long it’s been, I should share at least something. PM me if you would like to download it. It’s roughly 16gb, so it’s not that huge.

Keep in mind that this is going to be rough. While most shots are colormatched, there may be a few that don’t match up when returning to a previous camera angle. I plan on doing another pass through the timeline once I finished colormatching to Sanjuro’s color grade. There are going to be a few missing 97 exclusive shots that are missing due to the reference footage being offline when I exported. The cgi rocks are in front of R2 and Greedo shooting Han is missing entirely. I would have linked the footage backup, but since this is a rough preview, it doesn’t really matter.

CourtlyHades296 said:

Have you tried using 35mm theatrical cut prints to undo changes made in 2004 or later, such as the Emperor scene? This would result in higher PQ than SDTV version of the 97SE.

Not theatrical cuts, but I did use Adywan’s 1997 Reconstruction. Looking at laserdisc and tv captures, the coloring is pretty close to achieve the same look. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt to look for a good 35mm source. I really wanted to maintain the clean picture quality that the 2020 blu ray has since I’ve always felt these versions, alongside the the theatrical cuts, are deserving of such a visual treatment.

G&G-Fan said:

How is this going?

Slowly but surely. Fan edits have taken a back seat on my priority list.

Color matched Jabba Conversation!
https://youtu.be/a4dJL7it0MI

Making decent progress, but there is still the occasional difficult shot that refuses to look even remotely like the source images i have. I’m gonna try experimenting with similar shots from schorman’s 2004 HDTV rips to see if I can get a little closer to a perfect match. Unlike the 2011 Blu ray, it looks pretty clean in regards to grain, so it might blend in with the 2020 footage.

Making decent progress, but there is still the occasional difficult shot that refuses to look even remotely like the source images i have. I’m gonna try experimenting with similar shots from schorman’s 2004 HDTV rips to see if I can get a little closer to a perfect match. Unlike the 2011 Blu ray, it looks pretty clean in regards to grain, so it might blend in with the 2020 footage.

Not sure if this thread applies to preservation too, but I can’t find the rips of the 2000 Japanese Special Edition Laserdisc captures anywhere. If anyone has ANH and ROTJ, could you PM me.

I’m trying to use the color match tool v1.2 on mac to color match an image sequence, but when I import them, the program says “Wrong file type.” I’m using .tif images, which seems to be supported judging by the tutorial.

Kinda late, but are these rips located anywhere else besides Myspleen?

I recently synced and encoded the 1997 DTS Audio Reels for A New Hope into a Dolby TrueHD mixdown using ffmpeg. I’ve been able to playback the audio in VLC through my 5.1 setup, but I think it’s being decoded as 5.1 PCM rather than TrueHD since VLC and my setup doesn’t decode TrueHD.
Due to not owning a home theater receiver that decodes TrueHD, would someone be kind enough to test it themselves for quality assurance? Preferably someone who has a good ear for this kind of stuff. I just wanna know whether or not somethings wrong with it.

As a little update to where I’m at, I’ve color matched everything up until the beginning of the first cantina scene. Making some decent progress while staying accurate to the technicolor print. When I’m too burnt out on color matching, I’m fine tuning the Dolby TrueHD audio to make sure it’s perfectly synced.
While on the topic of audio, I’m going to including a lot more options this time around. Listed below are all the audio tracks I plan on including:

-My new 1997 Dolby TrueHD Track
-Shorman’s 1997 DTSHD MA track
-1997 5.1 AC3 Laserdisc Track
-1997 Matrixed Stereo PCM Track

Here’s another glimpse at some more Technicolor/97 goodness.
https://youtu.be/KnOhJHBC2jI

Hey everybody. Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been busy lately. Long story short, aside from making fan edits, I also make my own short films, host a podcast and do all sorts of things involved with the industry. Since things are beginning to look up in terms of job opportunities in my profession, I’ve been putting most of my time into getting prepared for the summer. Naturally, working on this project has been booted to the very bottom of my priority list. Not because I don’t enjoy working on it, but simply because I have more important things to worry about. Thankfully, because I don’t wanna leave things unfinished, I’ve put together a schedule during the week to improve progress. Things may be subject to change, but I plan on getting it out within the year. For those who have followed the project, thank you for the patience and stay tuned.

Hey everybody. Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been busy lately. Long story short, aside from making fan edits, I also make my own short films, host a podcast and do all sorts of things involved with the industry. Since things are beginning to look up in terms of job opportunities in my profession, I’ve been putting most of my time into getting prepared for the summer. Naturally, working on this project has been booted to the very bottom of my priority list. Not because I don’t enjoy working on it, but simply because I have more important things to worry about. Thankfully, because I don’t wanna leave things unfinished, I’ve put together a schedule during the week to improve progress. Things may be subject to change, but I plan on getting it out within the year. For those who have followed the project, thank you for the patience and stay tuned.

Hey everybody. Sorry for the radio silence. I’ve been busy lately. Long story short, aside from making fan edits, I also make my own short films, host a podcast and do all sorts of things involved with the industry. Since things are beginning to look up in terms of job opportunities in my profession, I’ve been putting most of my time into getting prepared for the summer. Naturally, working on this project has been booted to the very bottom of my priority list. Not because I don’t enjoy working on it, but simply because I have more important things to worry about. Thankfully, because I don’t wanna leave things unfinished, I’ve put together a schedule during the week to improve progress. Things may be subject to change, but I plan on getting it out within the year. For those who have followed the project, thank you for the patience and stay tuned.