Spaced Ranger

Be certain to obtain any files from DVDStyler's own website (with download links to Source Forge). Complaints may be the result of using unauthorized sites for downloads that have been compromised. Also, browse around on Source Forge - DVDStyler itself. I validated the latest download (2.9.6 win32 and it’s “portable”) at VirusTotal, which was referred to in a user’s comment. Only one questionable item was identified as probably okay, in both versions.

Latest versions are generally a must. DVDStyler tends to complete non/partially operational place holders for new or altered features. And, with new code, there are fixes to deal with after a release.

Definitely make use of both site’s documentation and discussions. Someone else may have identified/solved your problem(s) there.

SilverWook said:

… the bill is folded into the shape of a dendrite, which is the small object characters in the film labor to earn credits to buy …

When viewing that dendrite, it seemed to be a missed Monty Python opportunity. Well, almost missed . .

. . for a sideways Grant. 😃

solkap said:
I had planned to use a DVD-DL so I could use a larger file for better image quality, but the idea of a pause at a layer break really bugs me.

Imgburn allows you to select where the layer-break occurs – best set between low-action shots. Or you can split the file itself exactly where you want it to layer-break (obviously, each part must fit to each layer) and select the 1st file for side A and the 2nd file for side B.

It has all the chapter stops, but DVDstyler doesn’t recognize them, instead assigning a break every 10 minutes.

In DVDStyler, you’ll see the default chapters of every 10 minutes. You must change that to your actual chapter stops – starting with “0” as the first chapter.

But, in theory, no problem. Because I can just change those points to match the ones posted by “oojason” here, right?:
http://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/906589

Right, enter those numbers (in the format as shown with the default values).

But DVDStyler does offer an option to assign a frame # for a picture instead of the image it defaults to. BUT … I can’t seem to find a simple media player that will give frame #s for MKVs instead of using HH:MM:SS format.

Just do the math of 24 frames per second for your time . .
24 x ( [HH x 60 x 60] + [MM x 60] + [SS] ) = frame number
. . and fine tune several frames at a time.

BTW, what version of DVDStyler are you using?

poita said:
… the kid being walked up the corridor, it looks like it is full colour in this print …

Wow! That is excellent! And . . . I’m absolutely crushed.

If original color comes out there, the rest of this film is going to be a kaleidoscope! Bring it on!!

.
And yes, feel free to post example pictures. 😃

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@ SilverWook

Dendrites! I knew those hexagonal cubes must have a name, but I always thought “dendrites” were those red or blue capsules everyone takes.

With this thread being very color-accuracy intensive, perhaps attaching a strip of colorbar to the bottom of each picture or once per post, would help resolve viewer-calibration misreads like too dark/light or too [fill in the color]. (At least, it’s hard for me when examining from this old laptop’s LCD screen.)

DrDre said:
I haven’t really moved on. …

(Oh, good. Saw the thread slipping down the list and …			)

Another thing that may require extra work is those burned-in subtitles. Here is a quick example of JP with “place-holder” subtitles covered by an area cutout from UK (keep in mind the UK pan&scan shots often could be off-center, as in this demo):

As (not) shown, the UK overlay on JP must have a spot-on color match to cleanly erase the subtitles. Any missed characters would need other approaches, like a de-logo filter (on moving backgrounds) and temporal-frame-overlays from clean frames (on static backgrounds).

Spaced Ranger said:
Slipstream (1989) laserdiscs … the widescreen’s blue channel has been mangled … here are the fullsized Slipstream JP & Slipstream UK laserdisc snapshots.

BTW, as it looks like DrDre has moved on to another project, anyone please feel free to test this and post your results of the color regrade on this problem. Thanks!

Thanks for the trailer clips! So those are “raw”? They look pretty good as is. Is that the consistent image across the entire trailer (I would expect)?

Of course, I couldn’t resist trying a “standard” color correction – whites are white, blacks are black, contrast for the situation (in sunlight here), very little DNR, and Technicolor accenting. How does it look (it’s hard for me to tell on this laptop’s LCD screen – I used an eyedropper for the main color settings)?

poita said:
… just a heads up for anyone who might want to purchase a print, as some of these titles rarely come up.

Thanks poita! You’re a real trooper!

Of course, if you ever see a homeless beggar, dragging cans of 35mm film while wondering through the wilderness of (middle) earth, call out, “Hey! Ranger!” If he turns, astonished, and drops his pipe, you’ll know what you’ve done to me … (and loving it!).

dvdmike said:
Enjoy
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/167010

LOL And awesome, too! Thanks!
.

… why not use the UK dvd over the UK LD?

I only have the beginning fragment-downloads of the JP & UK laserdiscs. But that was enough for a proof of concept. It exposed the deficiency of JP – blue channel damage. I don’t know how it became a mess (it would help to know, so a contrary approach could be intelligently formulated) and unsuccessfully tried a few ideas to single-step mitigate the damage. I’ll keep musing over it (the brain won’t let me stop … and loving it!). BTW, could you also post a full-sized UK DVD snapshot of that frame I used for my testing? It’s at the beginning of the movie and is the 1st frame of the first inside-the-cockpit shot.

In the meantime, DrDre may come through with something that could simply bypass the whole problem (I hope, I hope).
😃

solkap said:
I have created a project in DVDStyler … But the menus didn’t seem to burn properly. The buttons didn’t look the same or do what they were supposed to and the background image quality changed for the worse as well.

I’ve used DVDStyler (a SourceForge project) but not over version 2.8, which is recommended in the “portable version” only because that has no forced “crap-ware” installations. It’s an excellent shell that organizes several freeware programs (included in the installer) to do the actual work (which also can be run independently, if you learn how to use them, for your own specialty creations).

For proper menu background/image quality, go to the Configuration > Settings menu > Core tab. The default for Menu video bitrate is some low value. Set it to 6000 and your menu backgrounds and everything else on them will look perfect quality. In fact, it’s a good idea just to wander through all the settings just to see what’s there. You might find other settings that may need some tweaking.

So I was hoping to be able to author some very simple menus, with nothing but background images, that would let me navigate chapters and turn subtitles on and off.

No, no! Go the full route! DVDStyler makes it easy! Gander at this motion-menu (with equal length vids from the two movies – you specify where to start each loop of your specified time; 8 seconds in my case). I quickly put it together – nothing special, nothing hard, just good lookin’!

That’s great! Can you post several choice, raw frames? (I just love sprocket holes and frame edges.)

I posted in DrDre's Star Wars Trilogy SE bluray color regrade - page 20 and perhaps he can chime in or even run a sample of his Awesome Algorithms™ on the sample frame to see how works out.

A little far away from Star Wars, but …

Slipstream (1989) laserdiscs (see the Slipstream thread, end of page 3), UK pan/scan & JP widescreen, have problems. To fix them, can your process take the pan/scan picture as a reference and alter the widescreen to matching colors? The caveat is that the widescreen’s blue channel has been mangled beyond my normal corrective measures.

BTW, if you can process just a frame to check the effectiveness with these captures, here are the fullsized Slipstream JP & Slipstream UK laserdisc snapshots. Thanks!
Also, would your technique work on the B&W R-G-B separations for the best(?) color matching result?

JP – orig / Red / Green / Blue . . . . . . UK – orig / Red / Green / Blue

(posted in wrong thread – moved to Star Wars Trilogy SE bluray color regrade - page 20)

Further tests & examination of the JP laserdisc image shows pools of flattened areas in that problem blue channel. Most of the detail is plain missing. With that, I’d say there is no way to fix that blue channel enough to allow JP to color match UK.

One idea that might work is to recreate JP's blue channel with UK's blue channel … using DrDre's statistical color matching algorithm (in the Star Wars Preservations and Other Fan Projects forum) on individual B&W RGB-extracts (if it will work well or at all with damaged picture areas). If it can work, perhaps all the channels, either individually or together, can be processed for a close match of color distribution. But I’m not set up to test something like that.

Any takers?

Rikk Wolf said:
… thanks to ZFARNSWORTH, I was able to digitally capture both the UK and Japanese laserdiscs.
… is public domain so I’m hosting the captures …

I’m stuck in download-hell so I can only get the 1st 8 minutes (JP version) before I must shut down (and there’s no resume to pick-up again later). But that is enough to see there are problems (on and off interlacing of parts of the picture, odd pixels-flicker here and there) as if the capture wasn’t keeping up with the source (and/or problems with the laserdisc player). These should be addressed before considering doing work on them.

I just finished getting almost 8 minutes of the UK version. It looks less rough and has better distributed color. For a quick proof-of-concept in a paint program, I made color corrections on a frame of the two version by eye, just trying to get it looking normal. The JP will need more careful reworking to squeeze out the proper color:

Slipstream UK laserdisc original		Slipstream UK laserdisc color correction
	.

Slipstream JP laserdisc original		Slipstream JP laserdisc color correction

Even though there isn’t much crushed or blown areas in either capture . .

UK: original . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . crushed highlighted . . . . . . . . . . . . . blown highlighted

JP: original . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . crushed highlighted . . . . . . . . . . . . . blown highlighted

. . the JP blue channel's contrast has been messed up (the reason for it’s “orange tint”):

JP – orig / Red / Green / Blue . . . . . . UK – orig / Red / Green / Blue

Once that channel is fixed, the colors of the two versions can be made the same for a seamless overlap (but not easy one – UK needed a tiny rotate to better line up with JP, and there may be some warp with which to contend) of the two sources for covering, or mostly covering, the burned-in JP subtitles. For now, I get this:

Referring to dvdmike's excellent trailer would be a big help for true color matching.

Don’t stop donations this early. It always helps to allow an extra 5% or 10% for contingencies. Don’t to play it too tight. Things always come up – crashed or early-defective drives and other hardware problems & wear for replacement, new hardware/software for special problems, and more. Did anyone factor in poita's (and team?) utilities (electricity, air-conditioning, supplies for his machines, coffee) also needed to accomplish this feat? 😃 It all costs to get it done.

In past, I’ve scanned parts of over-size material and manually “stitched” them together in a paint program (some cameras include stitching software – don’t know how accurate they are). Be sure to include a color chart on your scans for confirmation and for color correction (if needed). The same is definitely recommended when using a camera or cell phone.

BTW, how many pages are devoted to 2001:ASO in The Stanley Kubrick Archives book? Do you have The Making Of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey? Does TMOSK2001ASO have all of TSKA and more (or is anything unique in TSKA)?

SleepyBear said:
… both the first DVD release and the 2004 DVD releases are much like the original versions.

DVD	Blu-ray

Definitely check out Trek Core's sequential screenshots of episodes for both versions. If you can find any non-faded film (probably not; beware “restored” clips), and/or on-the-set color photos, those may be the best reference for a restoration.

Video Collector said:
When rewatching some select episodes (on Blu) recently, I was disappointed to see noticeable DNR in every episode. … I remember seeing a screenshot comparison between the season 1 Blu-ray and HD-DVD, which revealed slightly more DNR in the Blu-ray, but I can’t find it now.

A quick search and I couldn’t find such a comparison (definitely post a link if you come across it again). Could the different encoding, from HD-DVD's AVC MPEG-4 to Blu-ray's VC-1, have been a factor? I once noticed a hi-def screenshot (early HD-DVD days) that looked startlingly grainy and paint-program experimented with various procedures to tone it down. Maybe they did the same.

Definitely help! THX 1138 is arguably George Lucas’ best film and it has a kicked-around history that seeks to hide it’s superior origins. What follows is my personal theory of the film’s release history. But don’t worry, I’m good – just ask Dr. Watson:

George Lucas		v.1 1970		v.1.WB 1971		v.1 1978		v.2 1983		v.3 2004		v.4 2010

version 1 - 1970 (88m?)
the Lucas original & finished cut of THX 1138
(un-released when it was taken away from him by Warner)

version 1.WB - 1971 (86m?)
the Warner Bros.’ re-edit
(released to theaters - a flop)
(cuts; sequence re-ordering?)

version 1 - 1978 (88m?)
back to Lucas’ original & finished cut
(released to theaters & TV broadcasts [16mm] under Lucas’ terms after Star Wars success - a flop)

version 2 - 1983 (86m)
Lucas’ next edit
(re-edited for TV broadcasts & home video [LD, Beta, VHS, CED] - builds to cult status)
(less some SEN shots; sequence re-ordering?)

version 3 - 2004 (88m)
Lucas’ next edit
(added Computer Graphics & re-coloring, sequence re-ordering, and out-takes for TV broadcasts & home video [DVD] - cult status)

version 4 - 2010 (88m)
Lucas’ next edit
(added tweaks of coloring, etc., for TV broadcasts & home video [Blu-ray] - cult status)

.

BTW, if someone known-here can accept my U.S. mailed donation, to forward with his own donation, PM me for mailing arrangements. (I don’t PayPal.) [Thanks.]

DrDre said:

Here’s a set of the regraded shots:
[pictures]

	Impressive, young apprenticed! You’ve made the Star Wars Blu-ray watchable … at last!

thxita said:

SilverWook said:

Maybe we can trick Robert Duvall into reading the lines over the phone? 😉

Dek Rollins said:

He really would be from the future. 😉

Oh I LOVE that! Ahah

So what are we waiting for? Get TV’s Frink to work up the Robert Duvall voice, from Duvall's long list of TV & movie speaking parts, for THX 1138 (like he’s doing for Star Wars re-edits)!

	Go Frink go! Go Frink go!

thxita said:
Because you would miss the voice-over intro that introduces the story, which is the whole point of that cut ahah

	“Devo scappare. Devo scappare. Non so cosa troverò là fuori, ma devo scappare.”
"I have to escape. I … wait, what was the rest of that again? Speak slower!"

Well, do I get the job?