SpacemanDoug

narth said:

CannonShy said:

Hey - long time lurker.

I’ve just gone through the local copies I have of Buffy - I was interested in Buffy back in the day, so I acquired various scene releases of the US broadcasts (#buffy-unlimited on EFNet), some of these were C-band satellite feed captures of the masters as they were fed to TV stations. I got busy with other stuff during the later seasons, and I made the mistake of lending my only copy of some of the material to someone who was more than a little flake-y. Lesson learned, but as a result: there are some pretty big holes.

I’ve compiled the following spreadsheet of openings over the past few days (csv format): https://pastebin.com/sKi7TGbt

Regarding the data in the sheet: Where I’m less than 100% sure I’ve put a “?” in the “Intro” column. The material I’ve checked to draw the conclusion is in the “Notes” column. I use the term “Cold open” to describe no opening - it’s not technically the right term - but you get the idea. “US Master” refers to a scene release that ripped the C-band TV station upload and includes master header, these would be the same as the station subsequently aired, so the relationship between the master and the broadcast should be 100%.

Key things:

• The PAL DVDs are not necessarily 100% reliable at determining how an episode opened. For example: S01E06 “The Pack” has a cold open on the DVDs - but I have a copy of the original US broadcast which has the boiler plate “In every generation…” at the start.
• Double episodes that were broadcast on a single night may be tricky: i.e. S06E01-S06E02 and S06E21-S06E22 skip the “previously on…” on the second episode - but streaming includes it. S01E01-S01E02 were broadcast on a single night, and I’m not clear if they had a “In every generation” intro on S01E02, but the US DVD includes it.
• “Last week on…” vs “Previously on…” on S02E10 Streaming says one thing - but the original UK broadcast says something different
• S06E01 “US master” also has a different ‘previously on…’ to streaming - with an entire series recap similar to the one on S05E22
• S01E01 had some WB specific intro bits that might be worth preserving - copy available here (is it canon?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvDbvHsqiOc
• I haven’t gone frame-by-frame comparing the “previously on…” between Streaming, broadcast and DVD, so it’s possible there are further differences, but I’ve called out where they are obvious to me.
• Later seasons seemed to have a “previously on…” for every episode - the last episode with no recap (excluding part two of double episodes) was S05E16, 50 episodes before the end of the series.

The WB specific bumper “Tonight’s WB presentation is intended for our adult and teen viewers, and is not recommended for younger viewers.” is kinda fun and it would throw it into the ring consideration for inclusion.

Would welcome feedback - it’s very possible I’m wrong in places. I may make some edits over the next few days - I’m trying to review the PAL DVDs, but it’s slow going.

The original OP is no longer working on this project, so I’ve taken over. That’s awesome to hear that you’ve put alot of research into it and if you’d like to help out, I’d love to get a PM from you!

Yep, I decided if one person is already doing it, unless you have better sources it’s pointless to do them simultaneously

But I will say for the season 6 premiere, that one aired as a two hour episode and part 1 has a lot of small bits cut from it in the two part version

The streaming version does have a “previously on” segment but it’s shortened compared to the original version

The US DVD at least has that episode in its original format despite editing out that segment

As for the season 6 finale, it likely just aired as two episodes back to back because it’s presented that way on the US DVDs

SpacemanDoug said:

Moiisty said:

SpacemanDoug said:

SpacemanDoug said:

the Paramount+ versions are mostly intact afaik content wise, bizarrely though the “welcome to Jackass” segment in the first episode is replaced with the one in the second episode (which results in a repeat intro whenever you watch the second episode) and the entire Willy Wonka parody from the same episode is cut out as well, not sure if anything else is edited out of the series but I wouldn’t be surprised, and pretty much all of the music is changed as well

if I was given rips of the Paramount+ versions then I could do some restoration work here and there considering the quality of them is much better than the TV rips

I was DEAD wrong about this, it turns out the edits vary wildly from episode to episode

some episodes just need music restored and others need entire stunts restored (I’ve also encountered a couple episodes where all music was intact but a couple of pranks or stunts were still missing), it seems MTV several years ago censored various episodes by removing “dangerous” stunts and to pad out the runtime replaced them with a repeated stunt from either a previous or future episode (in one instance I saw a stunt repeated twice) and Paramount+ used whatever masters were available, even if a few of the episodes ended up being full on butchered in the process

I’m having to do more work than I thought I’d have to initially but surprisingly, this is still less work than if I was working off of the DVD versions, at least in a lot of instances the episodes were returned to their original format somewhat and I don’t have to search every single file for a single stunt in most instances

I did find a few months ago a fanedit called Turd edition or smth but how would it differ to yours

Not sure cause I’m using at least four different sources to do this with

They also appear to use a PAL framerate because they converted everything to 576p which isn’t in their native NTSC, resolution, they also claim to have de-noised and deinterlaced the picture which I chose not to do

Also I’ve noticed that a couple of the sketches that required upscaling from TV sources are present on the Paramount+ masters

ok so I managed to get ahold of the Turd collection and it’s actually not as faithful as he made it out to be and I’ll state why

1. all of the “coming up next” segments that happened before commercial breaks are still missing along with the bumpers that were used for fade ins coming off of commercial breaks
2. the first season had a different “WARNING” variant compared to the one used for seasons 2 and 3 and he used the seasons 2 and 3 variant for the season 1 episodes, I restored the original in my versions

in my versions I’m restoring all of this

Moiisty said:

SpacemanDoug said:

SpacemanDoug said:

the Paramount+ versions are mostly intact afaik content wise, bizarrely though the “welcome to Jackass” segment in the first episode is replaced with the one in the second episode (which results in a repeat intro whenever you watch the second episode) and the entire Willy Wonka parody from the same episode is cut out as well, not sure if anything else is edited out of the series but I wouldn’t be surprised, and pretty much all of the music is changed as well

if I was given rips of the Paramount+ versions then I could do some restoration work here and there considering the quality of them is much better than the TV rips

I was DEAD wrong about this, it turns out the edits vary wildly from episode to episode

some episodes just need music restored and others need entire stunts restored (I’ve also encountered a couple episodes where all music was intact but a couple of pranks or stunts were still missing), it seems MTV several years ago censored various episodes by removing “dangerous” stunts and to pad out the runtime replaced them with a repeated stunt from either a previous or future episode (in one instance I saw a stunt repeated twice) and Paramount+ used whatever masters were available, even if a few of the episodes ended up being full on butchered in the process

I’m having to do more work than I thought I’d have to initially but surprisingly, this is still less work than if I was working off of the DVD versions, at least in a lot of instances the episodes were returned to their original format somewhat and I don’t have to search every single file for a single stunt in most instances

I did find a few months ago a fanedit called Turd edition or smth but how would it differ to yours

Not sure cause I’m using at least four different sources to do this with

They also appear to use a PAL framerate because they converted everything to 576p which isn’t in their native NTSC resolution, along with them claiming to denoise and deinterlace the episodes which I chose to not do, leaving it as is

Also I’ve noticed that a couple of the sketches that required upscaling from TV sources are present on the Paramount+ masters and moments that were incomplete on the DVD releases are complete on Paramount+, so not as much work is needed

it seems they’re not releasing anymore episodes which is a bummer

either they gave up or they’re holding out until all of the episodes can be cleared

SpacemanDoug said:

the Paramount+ versions are mostly intact afaik content wise, bizarrely though the “welcome to Jackass” segment in the first episode is replaced with the one in the second episode (which results in a repeat intro whenever you watch the second episode) and the entire Willy Wonka parody from the same episode is cut out as well, not sure if anything else is edited out of the series but I wouldn’t be surprised, and pretty much all of the music is changed as well

if I was given rips of the Paramount+ versions then I could do some restoration work here and there considering the quality of them is much better than the TV rips

I was DEAD wrong about this, it turns out the edits vary wildly from episode to episode

some episodes just need music restored and others need entire stunts restored (I’ve also encountered a couple episodes where all music was intact but a couple of pranks or stunts were still missing), it seems MTV several years ago censored various episodes by removing “dangerous” stunts and to pad out the runtime replaced them with a repeated stunt from either a previous or future episode (in one instance I saw a stunt repeated twice) and Paramount+ used whatever masters were available, even if a few of the episodes ended up being full on butchered in the process

I’m having to do more work than I thought I’d have to initially but surprisingly, this is still less work than if I was working off of the DVD versions, at least in a lot of instances the episodes were returned to their original format somewhat and I don’t have to search every single file for a single stunt in most instances

Pauln6 said:

I bought the latest boxed set which has a 4k version of the SLV but I have neither a 4k TV nor a 4k player.

What are the odds of getting a version downgraded to HD?

I can’t testify to improved quality because I can’t view it doh.

The 4K version is actually preferable because it also fixes the infamously incomplete effects shot

SpookyDollhouse said:

The Italian Dynit Blu looks the best (best encode) but doesn’t have English subtitles and only the remixed audio. I recommend grabbing that and remuxing with the 2.0 Laserdisc track which has been synced already. If you don’t want to bother with any of that grab the Bandai Visual Blu or import the Japanese equivalent, I’m fairly certain they’re the same exact discs. Still looks pretty great and has the 2.0 track (though it’s been neutered quite a bit).

I actually forgot to mention initially, the BV disk aside from the overscan issue also has dub titles rather than proper translation subs

I fixed the post though

The “best” is the US 2009 BD even though it’s slightly windowboxed for overscan, it doesn’t have the DNR issues though and has the original Japanese stereo mix (however it also has dub titles rather than proper translation subs)

The re-releases from FUNmation use the same master iirc but exclude the original mix, which is significant because the remix has many changes

TheBoogeyman1023 said:

Actually all that edge enhancement was from my own misuse of the AI upscaler. The DVD is still the best source of the missing footage. All of the HDTV rips I have access to, are so compressed that they’re lesser quality than the DVD.

As for the shot you’re referring to from the S1 finale, it will still be the replacement angle from the blu ray. I can’t get the upscaler to achieve anything remotely close to acceptable in terms of quality for that original angle. Nothing is missing from the episode. It’s just not the exact same camera angle. For some reason the blu ray episode decided to use a different angle of the same shot/action.

I didn’t realize the EE was caused from the upscaling, interesting how the DVD was better

Admittedly that one alternate shot is mostly due to my OCD trying to be as faithful to the original as possible, even if it does mean sacrificing quality a little bit

I did manage to acquire the uncut season 4 and 5 finales in 1080p however

TheBoogeyman1023 said:

Couple people PM’d me for this recently. I haven’t responded yet because I’m actually in the process of working on a Version 2. I don’t have an estimate of when I’ll be finished, I’ll update the first post when I have links ready.

Few things of note…

VIDEO:

• I’m redoing all of the AI upscales across the board. (Version 1 was my first time using the software and I made a lot of rookie mistakes.)
• Removing the 6 seconds of black I added to the start of all 3 episodes. This was done for delay purposes when I was casting to my TV, but I’d rather have the timing be 100% accurate.

AUDIO:

• I’m using a much better method for creating the 5.1 sound mixes.
• S1 Finale: Adding back the whooshing sound that was absent on the DVD, but present on the HDTV broadcast for the Season 1 Finale.
• S3 Finale: I’ll be doing some sound design work to the sequences that I don’t have a 5.1 source for. Mainly Jack driving to the funeral parlor. I thought those parts really stood out like a sore thumb on Version 1.

Can you also fix that one shot in the season 1 finale you left off from the DVD around halfway? (I remember you said you left it off to keep the quality consistent)

It was an alternate shot in the uncut version

Also this isn’t necessary, but the HDTV broadcast is marginally better quality than the DVD footage only because the DVD has ugly EE not in the TV capture so it should be replaced just as a bit of a suggestion

SpookyDollhouse said:

The remastered Blu-ray suffers from bad SDR conversion with areas of near nuclear blue and teal. The UHD disc is a better point of reference and far more accurate. The DVD is probably wrong like many are.

As someone who saw it in 70mm I can confirm the 4K matches

I actually did see an unrestored 1968 70mm print and the 4K matches its look

AdmiralWasabi10191 said:

Here’s an official link. Search for Special Longer Cut.
https://www.startrek.com/news/fully-restored-directors-edition-of-star-trek-the-motion-picture-arrives-on-4k-ultra-hd
This project is officially over, since it’s being officially released via 4K disc, as GuitarClef stated.

Right down to the audio being DD 2.0 on the 4K disk, meaning it’s the original stereo mix they utilized for that version

They even digitally recreated the transition subs unlike the older 4K disk which just used generic white subs

Ronster said:

SpacemanDoug said:

Is the Criterion version not an authentic US cut?

Yes this was the western market international version.

What’s the difference between the US and Criterion US cut?

captainsolo said:

I’ve traveled down this research path for a little while now and as far as I can tell it essentially boils down to this:

The original video masters existed in a variety of masters tweaked and untweaked starting with the initial VHS and LD releases here in the US from 16mm sources. In Japan they got the big Log boxsets that added PCM mono but appear to be ports of the same USA LD masters otherwise and they all have apparently Season 3 opening credits. Some claim the Japanese LDs have spiffed up transfers and other say the opposite. In my experience most Japanese LDs do port US picture masters.

For the first DVDs of the two episodes per disc they went back to the existing masters and brought them into the digital realm-and also upmixed the original mono to 5.1. They also have 2.0 tracks but sadly these are not mono but Dolby surround versions of the 5.1 upmix. I thought I would have to track these down for a mostly untouched TOS but apparently the main plastic shell 2004 DVD set reused these disc masters with better bitrate and encoding-representing the final release of the 16mm sourced video editions that closely resembled the original broadcast appearance-albeit without the original mono.

When the remastered versions arrived on DVD and then HDDVD they lacked original audio and effects but were the first time we saw what the new scans and cleanups looked like. Finally the BDs arrived and added the original effects plus lossy mono but more clearly showed these were indeed 2006 era transfers riddled with DNR. That said they look very good and more like film-but they do look different to the earlier appearance and how the broadcast would have looked. The audio remix appears to have been done again with new effects and nowt like the original 5.1 on first dvds which merely spread around the mono.

The monos seem for the most part intact but you do notice some new effects here and there and some episodes have the new theme rerecording downmixed in mono for some reason. It is the first time since the final VHS run any form of mono is on a TOS release but infuriating they couldn’t just give us proper lossless mono and no DNR to make a definitive TOS BD release.
They really need to do it again and finally do it right.

I’ve often thought about getting the Japanese LD boxes but they are very expensive and I don’t know if the mono quality is worthwhile enough to justify the purchase. One could get the entire run on VHS on the 1994 blue spine ediiton for hifi mono but still the japanese pcm would be best overall. Has anyone been able to make a definitive list of all Blu-ray mono differences?

I heard somewhat of a rumor that the second half of the first season with their mono tracks were just downmixed remix tracks, but I haven’t heard anything to prove this

Is the Criterion version not an authentic US cut?

As Indy is shooting the swordsman, Greedo suddenly appears and shoots first

PsyKovic said:

SpacemanDoug said:

someone shared their own scan of the original 1973 cut on myspleen yesterday, though unfortunately it’s only 480p

why on 480p? It is sourced from lower quality materials?

Someone gave a theory that it was a telcine transfer created before HD home video was a thing but I’m still skeptical

someone shared their own scan of the original 1973 cut on myspleen yesterday, though unfortunately it’s only 480p

SpacemanDoug said:

If you wanna know exactly what I’m up against, I’ll sum up the work done to the first episode alone

It required 9 different songs be restored and 3 instances of missing footage restored

Paramount/MTV truly did not give two shits about the episodes on their service

It’s fortunate the quality of the Paramount+ versions are better than the captures

If you wanna know exactly what I’m up against, I’ll sum up the work done to the first episode alone

It required 9 different songs be restored and 3 instances of missing footage restored

Paramount/MTV truly did not give two shits about the episodes on their service

Ruppi007 said:

would like to help you with this project if you want? =)

What would you provide?

Just out of curiosity

stwd4nder2 said:

Didn’t even realize the show was on Paramount+. Would be very interested in a ‘definitive’ release of this.

Unfortunately idk how to rip from there

It’s actually quite clear, similar to Beavis and Butthead, they straight up just used the original MTV masters because of various “flaws” in the quality and such, even at times I can hear the original song buried under the new song

This show, despite being a huge pop culture icon, has not been treated very well over the years.

The DVD releases were heavily edited with music being changed everywhere and entire sketches being gone, each of the three volumes moreso resembling a “best of Jackass the TV show” compilation set.

Fortunately with Paramount+, the entire show was restored to its original TV format and is currently the best official way to watch the show. Surprisingly a lot of folks seemed to have overlooked this fact.

Unfortunately it’s not anywhere near perfect either, as pretty much every single music piece has been changed, the first episode not only uses the incorrect “Welcome to Jackass” intro, but is also missing the Willy Wonka parody montage. I haven’t gone through the entire series enough to determine if anything else is missing in that regard, but my guess is the music changing doesn’t improve at all.

I already have old TV rips of the show and if I were to be provided with rips from Paramount+ I could restore the show to its original form.

If interested, please let me know