SS4DarthPayne

I am more than stoked for both of these. You guys are awesome

How do you like PFClean? Is it effective?

Count me extremely interested in the blog as well. Great work guys!

I'm sold.

How is this coming STENDEC?

vbangle said:

This thread was heading for page 3, sorry but I couldn't let that happen.

I have no questions for you_too or DJ.

HAHA! I almost did the exact same thing last night. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how far down this thread had gone. And I'm glad to hear it U2! I look forward to said updates.

Just want to chime in and say I'm very interested in this project. I'll briefly say what I said in the other 97 thread - I have no real technical know-how, but to me Flunk does look the best (only for ANH though). Again, that's with my untrained eye. Additionally, I think the TB Return of the Jedi looks sub-par, but again that's just me.

Best of luck with the project and keep us updated! 

Finally a topic I know something about! What I know:

Don't ask me from a technical standpoint why, but most people point to the digital broadcast recordings as the best sources to look towards for the 1997 set. And I trust them. To my knowledge there is the TB set, the G'Kar set, REIVAX and Flunk. However, REIVAX and Flunk only have A New Hope. This is a damper. I personally believe that the Flunk version looks far and away the best. I think this is because it was released as a dual-layer DVD. REIVAX I believe had a French audio track that was the default selection so I always had to change it. I want to say that it was second in quality.

(Sorry for the uncertainty, I am away from my desktop computer for an extended period of time so much of this is from memory).

Then there are the TB and G'Kar sets; the only digital recordings to my knowledge that have all three of the movies. As has been well-documented, the G'Kar set is in German (e.g. the crawls and subtitles and such). Given this, I have always gravitated towards the TB set. Now again, this is from memory, but I believe the consensus was that the G'Kar set picture quality was better, but the whole being in German thing was a problem.

So as is only logical, people decided to try to mix the TB and G'Kar sets for the best possible solution (this is what STENDEC has said he is trying to do). I am inclined to say that there was another attempt at this even before Max_Rebo's 'superset,' but as it stands, the only attempt I remember definitively is the aforementioned 'superset' by Max_Rebo. It's project thread is here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Max-Rebos-97-SE-superset-preservation/topic/9031/     That project was, while it was going, my most anticipated project on these forums, but sadly it looks like it has died. There is, however, a lot of useful information in that thread if people want to poke around it. 

The last thing I will mention is that, at least to my untrained eye, the TB set's Return of the Jedi looks awful. I could be completely wrong; I am in no way a picture quality expert, but it just looks incredibly blurry to me. I have no idea why this would be. I don't think I was ever able to get a copy of the G'Kar Return of the Jedi for comparison, but the TB Return of the Jedi definitely left me disappointed. Oddly, I do not think I have heard many people mention this, so it could just be me. Also, the TB sets have a white '+' sign and a blue rectangle in the upper right-hand corners of the widescreen bars. That's neither here nor there, but just something to note. 

When it's all said and done, while it may seem blasphemous around these parts, I am very much invested in someone making a nice 1997 set. (As I've said before, I tried myself and failed miserably). Those are the versions I first saw, and the ones I grew up with. Despite everyone's griping, did the fact that I saw the Special Editions instead of the originals turn me away from Star Wars? Not a chance! Star Wars is Star Wars, and awesome in any iteration to me. 

If nothing where to ever happen on a 1997 preservation front, this would be my lineup: Flunk ANH, TB ESB, and TB RoJ. I could definitely live with those, but I know better quality is possible. And to be honest, the Flunk ANH looks pretty damn good anyways, so I am more concerned about ESB and RoJ, especially RoJ. 

Erikstormtrooper said:

STENDEC, you might want to create a thread for your '97 SE preservation. I'm sure lots of people will be interested in it, including me.

I second this. For better or worse, the 97 versions are what I grew up with, and I would love to see a semi-decent copy of them. I tried to undertake some similar attempts myself, but did not have the know-how or the time to do so :(

You_Too said:

There seems to be some slight smearing in the LD version as well, but not nearly as much.

I still think I can live with the smearing of the GOUT just for the sake of preserving the detail.

Tell me what you guys think.

I think just sticking with the GOUT looks far better, and that the smearing is far, far less noticeable than people make it out to be. I also think, though, that you have the best handle on this project, so you should go with what you think is best.

Hello all. I have:

1) Willpower

2) Some M2TS Scenes that I want to trim parts from (e.g. the beginnings and ends).

What is the best way to do this? Can I do it without loss? I have tried a few different programs and so far they have all been less than stellar. In a related question, M2TS files seem to be a pain to use. Would I be better served converting them to a more common, usable file format? If that is the case, could I do that without losing quality?

Just overall I am trying to figure out the best way with which to deal with M2TS files. Thanks in advance.

Hey -1, how is this coming? I'm really curious. Thanks!

althor1138 said:

Sounds like N1 is using this coupled with some other software that should produce some good results. 

Avisynth has a learning curve and it's sometimes hard to find the right plugin for the job but other than that it's quite fun.  I have to say it is probably the best freeware I've ever downloaded.

  If you have any knowledge of scripting it will maybe come naturally to you.  I started learning it at avisynth.org using just the base package of plugins that comes with it and after i had figured out how to make some easy scripts I started looking through all of the available external plugins.  Definitely download the latest avsp mod so you can have a gui with video preview.  Otherwise you'll be using virtualdub to open the scripts for a preview.

Wow I don't know how I missed your reply. Sorry! I blame finals. Thanks for the info. When I have some time, I'll have to try and learn it. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to pick up

Haha ooooooold topic. Sorry for the slow reply. It turns out I had an account over there already which I didn't know about. Anyways, you are trying to turn the first season into a movie, yeah? Essentially more or less following M. Night's version? The problem on my end is I have never seen that movie, nor will I ever (pact to myself), so I would be of little help in that respect. 

My concern is that part of what made TLA so awesome was its TV show format. Off the top of my head, I am unsure how to effectively translate that into more of a feature length film type of format. For what I did, I only used a defined four episodes, so that put me perfectly in the hour and a half range. From my work, I found that each episode untouched is normally 24 minutes long, and then you subtract two for the intro and credits, for an actual 22 minutes running length per episode. I just glanced at the first season episode list again; I would say that without trouble you could cut eight episodes straight up, leaving you with 12 episodes worth of material, or 12*22=264 minutes. For a 2.5 hour movie (150 minutes), you'd be looking at only cutting ~40 percent of the content, which might be more doable. 

Again, this is with no content of M. Night's work at all, so that might skew some things. That is just how I would approach it, if I were forced into trying to make a movie format work. Let me know how it goes!

negative1 said:

i'm done with the first attempt with deleted scenes from star wars

using avisynth.. it needs more work..

also i'm using other software too.. but it's still going to

take awhile..

later

-1

Well I'm glad to hear it's coming along. Keep us posted! I am extremely interested in this project

I legally own the bonus disc, but have no idea how to Avisynth. Is it hard to learn? I am currently engulfed by school, but at some point in the future I would definitely like to take a crack at the deleted scenes restoration myself, if no one else has done it and shared it with others. 

Wow. Just wow Trooperman. That was excellent. I found myself completely invested, and was sad when the 14 minutes ran out. I followed this project with great interest back in the day (even imagining myself doing Anakin's deeper voice haha), but I never really got to see the results. That was impressive. Reading through the last few posts, where does this alleged workprint stand? Would you be willing to release it, just so we can see the closest to Episode II perfection as possible in the highest quality possible? Or was that the plan already? I know I can personally say that I would absolutely love to see this in the highest quality that I could. In fact I would be ecstatic to do so. Anyways, thanks for the update, and once again, congrats on a great job.

althor1138 said:

After playing around with the script for awhile now I'd say it works just as good or even better in HD.  Of course some of the parameters have to be adjusted for higher resolution. The downside really is that it is pretty slow.

 

EDIT:

here's some more scenes.

Beru's blue milk.

Luke and Biggs.

Luke and 3-PO.

Wow. That's incredible althor. I'm very impressed. This is all with avisynth?

negative1 said:

 

it won't match up against professional software.

 

the main thing is this gives you a good start on cleaning,

and i think for standard resolution video it will do..

for anything in HD it takes too long and its underpowered.

 

the software i'm using is near realtime, but you need

lots of ram, dual/quad processors, and a graphics card

that has hardware acceleration..

 

later

-1

What software are you using? Also, how do you tell if your graphics card has 'hardware acceleration?'

And this looks awesome guys. I have been waiting to see someone taking the deleted scenes restoration initiative, and it looks fantastic so far! Very nice 

Just donated as well. Thank you Adywan!

adywan said:

It's such a sad state of affairs when people with a PC at home can do a much better job than the half assed effort of Lucasfilm. Its sad to think that there are so many Star Wars fans that truly think that the 2004 DVD/ Blu-ray versions are how Star Wars should look colourwise. These fans should be forced to watch this version as THIS is how Star Wars should look.

Great job guys.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one Adywan. My thoughts exactly. You_Too and DJ, simply amazing work; you guys are heroes. But really. 

That's fantastic news! Count me excited. I can't wait to see said samples. Once again, thanks for all of the hard work

dark_jedi said:

Well then, in 1 more hour I will have all 3 films rendered, but only Star Wars is encoded, then we will start work on the "bad frames" in Jedi, which should not take long at all, then encode the video, which definitely does not take long anymore on my new PC, then we move on to the worst of the 3, Empire! I don't want to jinx us lol but things are moving along pretty smoothly at the moment, at least the parts You_Too and I can control that is.

So that is where we are at for now.

Awesome news! I'm glad to hear it, and can't wait to see the results

You_Too said:

Actually, if you meant me, I'm 27 so I wasn't even born when they hit the theatres originally.

My introduction was sometime in 1992-93 maybe, when they were broadcasted on TV.

Eh it was just more an in general type of thing. Anyways, a personal thank you for all of the hard work you, and DJ, have been putting in on this. It truly is a service to Star Wars fans everywhere, and I look forward to the results with anticipation 

You_Too said:

You've never seen the originals this full of life since the cinema.

This makes me very, very excited. I never had the privilege of seeing the originals in theaters :( so I'm jealous of you older folks who got to have that experience. In fact, my introduction to Star Wars was the 97 SE's on VHS's.  I can't wait to see what these look like. I may have to try and track down someone with a good home theater to get the true experience. Incredibly exciting