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22-Apr-2013
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27-Feb-2022
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Post
#1125875
Topic
1997 Star Wars Special Edition 35mm Project (a WIP)
Time

I’m not trying to cast doubt on your expertise here, and I’ll agree that it’s important to scan 35mm at 4k+ for full detail retrieval due to anti-aliasing and the like, but if DP Steve Yedlin can’t get fresh 6k scanned 35mm filmstock to resolve more than a 3k Alexa in a controlled environment, there is no way a release print suffering several generations of degradation is going to outdo that (especially when created via older processes).

Of course these are generalities and the resolving capability of film isn’t a very linear process (it isn’t with digital cameras either).

This is also a good read as well: http://www.motionfx.gr/files/35mm_resolution_english.pdf

EDIT Yes I can see what you mean about the ribbing. That being said, it’s important to remember that just because you need to scan at high resolutions for details to become visible doesn’t mean those details “exist” at that resolution/couldn’t be adequately resolved at a lower resolution (the reason why probably has to do with Nyquist–Shannon).

Post
#1125869
Topic
1997 Star Wars Special Edition 35mm Project (a WIP)
Time

poita said:

3500 lines aren’t enough? 😉

The final scans will be in ACES colourspace.

Nice; hopefully we can get a P3 gamut version produced.

Haha I was referring to how the apparent resolution of release prints is rather low, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising given that 35mm negative struggles to resolve as well as a Arri 3K camera. Even moreso the case for older theatrical prints; I’d imagine newer print making processes introduce less degradation vs older methods.

For those who’d like to go down the rabbit hole, the director of photography for The Last Jedi made a very interesting video lecture about how different different cameras and formats influence the apparent resolution of an image… basically arguing that the focus on pixel count is misguided; his comparison showing that a 11k scanned 70MM Imax negative struggles to resolve as clear as a 4k master from an Arri Alexa 65 is rather sobering.

http://yedlin.net/ResDemo/

poita said:
it should resolve well above 2K.

I dunno about that; if a 6k scanned 35mm negative has trouble resolving as well as the Arri 3k camera, and take prob 20% off that figure for generational loss (in reality I think it’d be a lot more), you’re looking at about 2.4k.

Here’s some further reading on the matter that’s rather interesting;: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?59036-Resolution-of-35mm-film-and-70mm-IMAX-film

Post
#1123543
Topic
Help Wanted: Assistance w/bit-perfect LD audio rips of "Star Trek TMP: Special Longer Version" & "Koyaanisqatsi"...
Time

I’ve the discs but no equipment to read them with; anyone here have the ability to do a bit-perfect rip of the PCM tracks if I send 'em the discs?

Important to note that the Koyaanisqatsi track is a very different mix from any other release, and that the TMP track is the only digital version of the Special Longer Version’s soundtrack.

Post
#995555
Topic
Ideas Wanted: for my 'Legend: Expanded Goldsmith Edition (HD)' cut...
Time

Does anyone have some ideas vis-a-vis changing the opening monologue by darkness? In it’s current state, not only is it redundant due to being repeated later in the film, but also incorrect due to darkness saying “Tonight, the sun sets forever”. I was thinking about inserting dialog from the AC opening so as to change it up a little and could use some ideas.

Post
#991227
Topic
Info: Star Trek HD Caps
Time

I mean, I don’t know if I’d say they are better than the blu-rays; they just have different weaknesses. Admittedly I’ve only seen the TMP capture, but compared to the Blu-Ray, while the color timing is more in keeping with previous sources, and there is much more shadow detail, it is incredibly dirty with poor grain management and a TON of compression artifacts.

When I was working on my TMP fan edit, I was trying to combine the shadow detail and highlights from the broadcast, with a color corrected version of the blu-ray. Combined with a nice layer of grain over the final composite, it yielded the best qualities of both sources. Unfortunately, doing this for the whole movie would be way too time consuming because you need to transform the geometry of one print to match the other, which can change even in the same shot!

One reason I gave up and decided just to wait for a new transfer or a 4k Blu-ray ; )

Post
#991054
Topic
Ideas Wanted: for my 'Legend: Expanded Goldsmith Edition (HD)' cut...
Time

Doesn’t seem to be many fans of Legend here, eh? ; )

https://youtu.be/V3WJDy7sJRY <- Another update for the dinner scene. Now incorporates a made-from-scratch sound mix. Was mixed in 5.1, so, assuming I can get some surround monitoring equipment, this edit should be in surround to match the footage/soundmix that won’t be edited.

How does the sound fit the scene? Does it flow with the rest of the film?

Also, am inquiring with mastering engineers to see if the two “bootleg” cues (the Frypan Fight, and Hall of Columns) can be restored and remastered to sound at least somewhat comparable to the existing score.

Post
#988607
Topic
Ideas Wanted: for my 'Legend: Expanded Goldsmith Edition (HD)' cut...
Time

Received the EC Blu-Ray the other day. The footage seems to be cleaner than the DC footage, and definitely has much more in the way of shadow detail. Unfortunately, it also has a rather large teal tint through the whole thing, as well as several instances of clipped highlights. As such, I’m overlaying the EC footage on my edit with the intention to remove the teal tint, though I will retain the DC footage for a shot if:
-The shot is too short in the EC
-The EC has crushed blacks and/or clipped highlights.

One nice thing about the EC is that the music is mixed very low in the center channel, which will make harvesting dialog and sfx for the scenes where Goldsmith’s score is to be added much easier.

Will hopefully be able to get some work done on this after finals!

Post
#987307
Topic
Help Wanted: '2001: A Space Odyssey' - 35mm Preservation (original 1968 prints obtained) (* unfinished project *)
Time

Hmm. I’m probably going to see it again in 70MM within the next year, so I’ll be sure to make careful note of that scene, though off the top of my head, I don’t recall the station scenes as being that white, or with that high a gamma. That being said, comparison is difficult because film has a somewhat wider colorspace than rec709 media, and the “white point” is dependent on a few factors like the screen material and the quality of the light source.

Post
#987055
Topic
Raiders of the Lost Ark HDTV 35mm LPP regrade
Time

DrDre said:

Wazzles said:

Turisu said:
Conversely, the lamp that Indy and Marion are tied to in the opening of the ark sequence was digitally illuminated in the BD whereas it should be off. Not sure whether the WOWOW has the lamp on or off.

Can I see some screenshots of this?

Also, how’s the matching tool do for the bar scene?

Here’s an example for the bar scene.

35mm LPP:

WOWOW:

WOWOW matched to 35mm LPP:

If you load the images in to photoshop, and sample sections of her jacket and their skin tones, you’ll see that the sampled pixels are more saturated. This is also confirmed by my eyes when I load the images in to Resolve and view them on my rec709 monitor.

Post
#986934
Topic
Raiders of the Lost Ark HDTV 35mm LPP regrade
Time

Per the crushed blacks; the release print is several generations away from the color-timed negatives, and will have more degeneration in these sensitive areas (more blown highlights, crushed blacks).

The saturation problem is relative to the print screenshots you’re posting; you’re increasing the contrast to match the print, but you’re not lowering the saturation to match, which, relative to the print picture you’re posting, results in a over saturated image. As such, the algorithm is simply not accounting for this.

Post
#986291
Topic
Ideas Wanted: for my 'Legend: Expanded Goldsmith Edition (HD)' cut...
Time

Think I’ve arrived at a first draft for the video editing; currently clocks in at 116.3 minutes. Not much longer than the DC, but I’ve been able to get most of the important missing material from the AC in to the DC in a way I consider tasteful and unobtrusive.

I’m still waiting for my EC Blu-Ray to arrive so there might be a little more material to put in. I’ve also set up mockups for most of the scenes where Goldsmiths score is to be restored (Freeze, Jack’s “Forgive Me”, Frypan Fight, Following the Goblins/Swamp, Oona following Lilly, Restoring Alicorn), and made sure my edits to scenes with Goldsmiths intact score don’t interfere.

I’ve also tackled a portion of the final battle that has always bothered me vis-a-vis continuity, namely, when Jack shoots an arrow at darkness, causing a large blow, then the next shot is darkness somewhat motionless while the Unicorn runs in to the fire pit… then in the following couple shots, no arrows in darkness’ neck! I think my solution still keeps the energy of the scene while also making a bit more sense. Will upload it when I get time to render.

Post
#985851
Topic
[Guide] From Blu-Ray to your Non-Linear Editor
Time

Just a quick guide on the best way to get from a VC1 or AVC Blu-Ray to your preferred non-linear editor. I’ll assume you have copied the needed M2TS files from your disc to your drives.

-First thing to do is use EAC3TO to demux the m2ts file in to the elementary streams (such as x.vc1, y.dtsma, etc).

-Second is to use EAC3TO to convert the DTSMA file or TrueHD file to a single Flac file (for example, if your audio is six channel, so should the flac file).

-Third is to use AVANTI (FFMPEG/AVISYNTH GUI) to create a MOV that will contain the converted video and audio. You’re going to be converting the video to DnxHD 175 422 10 bit. This is a standard format used in production, is much more flexible than consumer formats, and is readily accepted by Adobe, Nuke, Avid, FCP etc. The format is also rather close to lossless to it will have the least amount of degeneration.

For the video section, you’ll want to put DnxHD as the codec, 175000 as the bit-rate* . For audio, choose PCM as the codec, match the frequency and channels to source match your source (if 5.1 use 6 channel, if 48khz use 48000).

After specifying the settings in AVANTI, be sure to put this line: -pix_fmt yuv422p10 in to the “user video options” box, and then put -acodec pcm_s24le in the user audio options (if your Blu-Ray had 16 bit audio, ignore this instruction). The resultant file will be about 150GB for a 2 hour film, so make sure you’ve plenty of storage.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DNxHD_codec_resolutions <- This is the list of acceptable formats for DnxHD. If your videos resolution, framerate, colorspace, etc isn’t in line with those, make sure you change the settings to specify the proper resolution and framerate. Also make sure that the bit-rate your using matches the format you’re aiming for (for example, do not set the bitrate for 115 if you’re trying to do 10-bit 1080p format).

-4th step is to start encoding. It took over an hour to convert a 2 hour film, so be patient. At the end, you should have a huge .mov file.

-5th, and finally, is to throw the file in to your NLE and take a look. AV sync should be perfect, colors the same, and audio channels should be what they were in the flac. In Avid there is a menu option that allows you to “get info” on the media in question. Check and make sure that the frame rate, video resolution, video bit depth, audio sampling frequency, and audio bit depth are what they should be.

Post
#984134
Topic
Ideas Wanted: for my 'Legend: Expanded Goldsmith Edition (HD)' cut...
Time

This edit has three goals overall:

-Add to the Director’s Cut, when appropriate, footage that was not included from the American & European theatrical releases. All footage will be sourced from available Blu-Rays.
-Replace as much footage from the DC as possible from the Euro release, as the picture quality is higher.
-And most importantly, place Jerry’s beautiful score in its proper place. This includes removing cues and excerpts thereof that are improperly placed.

The last goal will obviously be the hardest part to do, as, for some scenes, the sound-mix will have to be remade from scratch using isolated vocals and sourced sound fx. Thankfully the TD score was mixed so low on the US release…

Video editing and color correction will be the easy parts as I have a 14 core Xeon workstation w/64gb ram and a Rec709 spec plasma monitor.

I’m going to need assistance in three key areas:

-Sourcing quality sound fx when needed.
-Cleaning up the AC footage due to rampant noise/grain and edge enhancement haloing in the master.
-Some continuity and editing choices.

Here is a first draft of a reinserting Goldsmith’s original cue for a scene that benefits from it tremendously vs the hack-job in the current sound-mix: https://youtu.be/UA3_LhZzhRo

Eager to hear suggestions, advice (especially vis-a-vis de-haloing), and thoughts!

Post
#734195
Topic
DTS audio preservation .... UPDATE 07 May 2015 ... Work In Progress
Time

http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/manuals/DTSPOSTPROD.pdf

Has this document been examined? 

You might try the Film Tech forum as those folks are the ones who'd know the technical details. I dug up this old post from there which might provide some insight on the levels: 

"Our recordings have always matched the master mix. The 3dB difference on **OLD** DTS unit refers to the playback level from the player. Remember when the spec was to set the DTS output for 85dB SPL on screen channels, 82dB SPL on the surrounds, and 88dB SPL on the sub?

Now, the spec is to set the sub for 10dB in-band gain as compared to the center channel. It is best to use a RTA for this adjustment. If you do not have a RTA, you will be in the ballpark by setting DTS sub output at 91dB SPL."

Also: from what I've read the LFE is mixed WITH the 20-80hz information present in the surrounds instead of being JUST LFE information... this is the reason why many folks thought DTS sounded more bass-rich in the cinema vs SR-D; low frequency informations present in surrounds + the mixed in LFE channel would be routed to the cinema's sub which could actually reproduce those signals accurately vs the surround speakers. SR-D's system had no bass management system so the bass in the surround channels weren't rendered as well due to surround speakers having smaller drivers.

Post
#734153
Topic
RELEASED: &quot;Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Special Longer Version)&quot;
Time

FanFiltration said:

I wish I could do a HD version with the corrections included. 

I just don't know anything about the newer ripping methods, video codecs, and how they work with Windows 7.  My SLV version was done on an old Windows XP computer.

FF

 

If you want I can provide you with the assets I'm using; I have all the non-theatrical SD footage ripped, de-interlaced, upscaled, and denoised in 422 ProRes (I still need to remove all the dirt from the footage); In addition to your analog track I'm in the process of securing a bit-perfect rip of another SLV LD that had a PCM track (it was a Japanese disc); and I have the HDTV broadcast, Blu-Ray, and both trailers (which contain some extra shots, such as the "smirk" from Chapel) in 175X DNxHD.

This should be enough to reconstruct your edit using any popular NLE software, as well as the latest Davinci Resolve which has some editing functionality.